Almaty, Kazakhstan

It has been thirteen years since I last visited Central Asia. This region, and the world as a whole, have changed markedly during that time. 

Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan (2.5 million people) and the commercial and cultural capital of the country. Some things have certainly changed since my last visit in 2001. Although the city's infrastructure has developed greatly, including new highways, interchanges, bus lines, and a new underground metro, the volume of traffic is greater than ever. New skyscrapers, many with eastern flourishes, dot the horizon. Some things remain the same. Almaty remains a deeply green and lush city with beautiful parks and fountains. The Tienshan mountains add a stunning visual backdrop to the city. 

Orthodox church in Panfilov Park in central Almaty. Built circa 1904.

During my last visit, Kazakhstan was just emerging from the chaotic 1990s, coming to terms with an independence it did not seek. Unlike many other former Soviet nations, Kazakhstan did not seek independence from the USSR until the USSR had ceased to exist and no option but independence remained. Unlike most of the other newly independent states, Kazakhstan at independence had approximately equal numbers of ethnic Kazakhs and ethnic Russians, with Ukrainian, Russian-German, and other minorities leaving the Kazakhs as the minority in their own country. Sizable Slavic, Russian-German, and other emigration in the 1990s has left the Kazakhs as a majority, although Slavs still constitute nearly 30% of the population. Although the Kazakh language is prominent and official, Russian remains the dominant language in Almaty. 

Orthodox Church with Tian Shan Mountains in the background

Kazakhstan is an interesting window into the issues of identity that remain so very important in this region of the world. The expansion of Russian power to the south and east from the sixteenth century drew in hundreds of ethnic groups, large and small. In many areas, especially in Central Asia, ethnic identities developed quite late and often remained overlapping and interwoven with other religious and social identities. The movement of people during the Soviet era, intermarriage across ethnic groups, and the development of a "Soviet" identity for some made the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 extraordinarily complicated. The unraveling of the Soviet Union, which itself built on the 300-year-old legacy of the Russian Empire, left many people in very awkward places. I've met more than a few people in this region who really aren't quite sure who they are in terms of ethnicity. 

Soviet war monument in Almaty

In the past year, these issues of identity have taken on new weight and meaning, with immense human cost and geopolitical significance. Although the neat maps of Ukraine that show "Russian-speaking" and "Ukrainian-speaking" regions are helpful, they mask much deeper historical issues and torn identities. I see similar things here in Kazakhstan, where several Slavic people I've spoken to do not even know where their family came from. They are citizens of this Kazakh land and soil, feel no particular affinity for the Russia or Ukraine of their ancestors, and find themselves a minority in their land. Reactions to this reality vary. One man insists that he and his family have cast their lot with Kazakhstan, have learned the Kazakh language, and feel great affection for the ethnic Kazakh brethren. Another states that while he was born here and his family is here, he has little sense of belonging in what seems an increasingly "foreign" land (although he is quick to note that Russia seems just as foreign). 

"New" Almaty

It is always helpful to be reminded that lines on maps are very human constructs (and for that matter, fairly recent human constructs). As with most things human, they are not neat and tidy, but rather messy and broken. 

The beauty of the TianShan Mountains near Almaty