Description

Although the Soviet Union’s Gulag system is popularly mostly associated with Siberia, some of its major branches, like Karlag and Steplag, were situated and operating (1930-1959) in what is now Kazakhstan. In this talk, Aimar Ventsel and Bruno De Cordier will examine how present-day Kazakhstan tries to accommodate the Gulag episode and its societal legacies into its state-nation building and commemoration policies. The speakers will discuss the setup of Gulag commemoration sites at Malinovka (Aqmol), Dolinka and Spassk as well as para-governmental public awareness initiatives on the issue, and how commemoration policies aim at defining the role and position of the Kazakh self-group in a tragic historical episode that occurred on Kazakh ancestral land, largely affected non-Kazakh populations yet also had a deep impact on the societal and demographic texture of Kazakhstan.