For which Nazarbayev asked forgiveness
Nursultan Nazarbayev recalled the failed attempt of Russian Kazakhs to gain autonomy in 1999.
The great leader of the Kazakh people, Nursultan Nazarbayev, decided to communicate with this very people. His interview film is about to be released, where Nazarbayev communicates with a Russian journalist and asks forgiveness from fellow citizens (for which we will soon find out). But, interestingly, another creator of sovereign Kazakhstan is the “Pugachev revolt” of 1999, which allegedly had to tear away from the countries the Cossack lands that had been cut to it once in 1936 when renaming from Russian autonomy to a union republic the Cossack lands and create there a “republic of the Russian land”.
Riot for the sake of the “Russian land”
Many have already forgotten about this story today, but in vain, because it very accurately depicts the true essence of this most sovereign Kazakhstan. Which, by the way, at the time of its exit from the USSR was the only republic where the “titular nation” constituted a minority (39.7%). Moreover, according to the last census of 1987, there were 37.8% of Russians, all others (including, in fact, also Russian Ukrainians and Belarusians) – 22.5%. Of the 19 Kazakhstani regions, Kazakhs were in most cases in six, and in the then city of Alma-Ata (which was once the Russian city of Verny), their table was generally 22%.
Is it any wonder that in the republic, which did not hold any referendum on secession, but, on the contrary, voted in the last “Soviet” referendum by more than 9/10 votes for the preservation of the USSR, the Russian population of the northern “Cossack” ideas of turning the Soviet republic into a “national state” Kazakhs “were accepted with a creak. The creation of Russian autonomy and giving the Russian language the status of a” second state “was demanded by a rally in Russia of Ust-Kamenogorsk in 1994, and the Cossack circle in Kokchetav in 1997. In response, Nazarbayev merged the East Kazakhstan region ( 27% of Kazakhs) from Semipalatinsk (51.9% of Kazakhs), Karaganda region (17.2% of Kazakhs) from Dzhezkazgan (46.1% of Kazakhs), making the ethnic composition “as necessary”, and abolishing the Russians of the Kokchetav and Turgai regions altogether.
It was then that there were caring people who wanted to support and help. In the fall of 1999, 15 romantic activists went to Ust-Kamenogorsk to help the Cossacks, whose leaders Victor Kazimirchuk (Pugachev), who previously fought in Yugoslavia and Transnistria. Of course, they were not going to overthrow anyone (and they could not), they also did not think about the separation of the “Cossack territories” from Kazakhstan. The goal was the same – the creation of an autonomous republic “Russian land” – an analogue of what the Kazakh ASSR was as part of the RSFSR. Autonomy was to be proclaimed by the deputies of the local parliament (maslikhat), and Kazimirchuk and his comrades went to support them – morally, and if necessary, then physically.
The Kazakh special services, of course, were aware, and the “Pugachev revolt” was suppressed before it even started. All 22 “conspirators” (including 12 citizens of Russia) were tied up, seized from them handwritten leaflets, one (!) Grenade, 270 cartridges, 14 Molotov cocktails, 5 clubs and one (!) Hunting rifle, which was legally available from the guard of the room. They tried in a quiet way – right in the prison, without the admission of “extra” journalists. Officially – for the attempted coup in Ust-Kamenogorsk and the creation of a state (not an autonomous region!) “Russian land”, as well as for allegedly preparing “terrorist acts to physically destroy a representative of state power and administration.” This is with one gun and five clubs!
Nevertheless, the version about “Russian terrorists” was picked up by the Kazakh media and inflated to the extent of almost preparing a coup d’etat. The verdict was harsh: Kazimirchuk (Pugachev) received 19 years of imprisonment, his associates – 12-17 years. At the same time, for some reason, everyone’s property was completely confiscated. However, later Nazarbayev took pity and reduced the terms – Kazimirchuk was released in September 2006 after serving 7 years in the terrible conditions of the Kazakh camps. Then in 2014-2015 he fought in the Donbass with Bandera and died on June 16, 2019 – which is symbolic, on the holiday of the Holy Life-giving Trinity.
So what
The Russian authorities then, of course, disowned the “conspirators”, calling Kazimirchuk “slightly insane.” The time was like that. But even now there is a cool reaction to statements that are completely consistent with the historical truth. Vyacheslav Nikonov and Evgeniya Fedorova about the statehood “donated to Kazakhstan by Russia” and almost a third of its current territory. It is clear that this is politics, and Kazakhstan is kind of like “our ally” (although one that has “friends” is sometimes safer to have enemies). Some insights come from our politicians only in connection with another outbreak of Russophobia there, when the authorities (as in the case of the “Pugachev revolt 2.0”) are trying to play on nationalism in order to distract the population from internal problems.
So far, I must say, they succeed. Since 1999, there have been no more high-profile scandals similar to the “Pugachev riot” in East Kazakhstan. The Russians never received autonomy, and the Russian language received the status of a “second state”. And the percentage of the Russian population in present-day Kazakhstan, as a result of purposeful squeezing out and for reduction, has decreased to 18.4%. And all this is also a direct consequence of our foreign policy approach to Russian-Kazakh relations.
By the way, about Nazarbayev’s forgiveness. So far, it is not really clear what the great leader was apologizing for. We wrote earlier about what he said in a little more detail. And soon the full version of the film, cited in the material, will be released. Then we’ll find out even more.