The Steppe Region as the “Other Russia” in the Thought of the Kazakh Intelligentsia of the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Research article

Abstract

This article examines the intellectual construction of the Steppe Region through the writings of prominent Kazakh intellectuals – scholars, political activists, educators, and publicists – as well as through the discourse of the Russian-educated elite in the region. Employing an interdisciplinary framework that incorporates methodologies from new cultural-intellectual history and new biographical history, the study reveals how Kazakh conceptualizations of the Steppe evolved into a complex, multidimensional mental construct. This construct reflected the interplay of competing discourses from various communities, including imperial authorities at both central and regional levels. Building upon historiographical traditions from the second half of the 20th to the early 21st century, the article demonstrates that the identity of the Kazakh intelligentsia – descendants of the titled steppe aristocracy who became enmeshed in imperial “population politicsˮ – underwent a profound transformation. Initially shaped by Russian political structures, educational institutions, and intercultural exchange, this elite developed a dual identity that positioned the Steppe as an organic extension of Russia, albeit a distinct one – a space where sedentary Russian and nomadic Kazakh cultures intersected. However, by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, traumatic experiences of bureaucratic discrimination and land dispossession prompted a shift toward a hybrid identity. This new self-perception led Kazakh intellectuals to reimagine the Steppe as “the other Russiaˮ – a nostalgic vision of a “lost homelandˮ or “paradise lost.ˮThe article argues that this reconceptualization was accompanied by the development of passive resistance strategies. Kazakh intellectuals increasingly advocated for national unity and subtle forms of defiance, such as the rejection of state-imposed social norms and administrative conventions. The political radicalization following the 1905–1907 Revolution further accelerated this process, as Kazakh intellectuals engaged more closely with Russian political exiles and separatist thinkers. These interactions infused the image of the Steppe with explicitly anti-imperial meaning, transforming it from a peripheral colonial space into a potential site of national revival. By analyzing personal correspondence, publicistic writings, and institutional records, the study illuminates how Kazakh intellectuals navigated their position between imperial integration and national self-assertion. Their evolving discourse not only reflected broader trends in anti-colonial thought but also laid the ideological groundwork for later nationalist movements. The article thus contributes to ongoing debates about empire, identity formation, and decolonization in Central Asia, offering new insights into the complex interplay between intellectual history and political resistance in the late Tsarist period.