카자흐 인텔리겐치아의 형성과 민족 운동

A Study on the Formation of Qazaq Intelligentsia and National Movement

In general the Russian colonization was characterized by the seizure of the best Qazaq grazing lands, connected with the mass immigration of Russian peasants to Qazaqstan. The Russian bureaucratic system of rule aimed at the destruction of the traditional elites and social structure of Qazaq nomadic society, as well as the Russification of the Qazaqs with subsequent conversion to Christianity. At the same time Russian colonization favoured closer acquaintance of the Qazaq people with the Muslim and Russian(Western) cultures. Many Qazaq Researcher wrote about the influence of Muslim culture and the Russian(Western) influences which determined the social and cultural atmosphere of the Qazaq society of that time. Finding themselves between the influence of Muslim culture and the Russian(Western) influences, Qazaq intelligentsias were faced with the problems of national and cultural survival of the Qazaq people, i.e. the preservation of Qazaq culture and identity (Qazaqshylyq). Against a background of growing economic and social crisis in Qazaq nomadic society, and due to pressures generated by Russian assimilation policy and the Islamic Tatar influence, this problem took on vital importance. The beginning of the 20th century was a turning point in the history of the Qazaq people because, for the first time, segments of Qazaq society realized that it would be necessary to change the traditional nomadic way of life. Under the influence of Muslim culture and the Russian(Western) influences emerged two groups of Qazaq intelligentsia. In the early years of this century these groups were represented by the Islamic-oriented editors of the magazine ‘Aiqap’ and the Russian(Western)-oriented Qazaq intelligentsia and leaders of the Alash national movement, grouped round the newspaper ‘Qazaq’. The representatives of both these groups had received Russian education and did not doubt the backwardness of Qazaq nomadic society and the necessity to learn from European culture. They most actively discussed the problem of choice between the nomadic and sedentary ways of life, as well as possible ways and means by which the transition to sedentarization might be accomplished. Among other important issues Qazaq intelligentsia discussed the role of Islam in Qazaq nomadic society, the preservation of the Qazaq language and the development of Qazaq culture and literature. The analysis of Qazaq intelligentsia is of great interest, because it provides us with an idea of the general cultural atmosphere of Qazaq society in the transitional period of its history.