The National Policy and Interethnic Relations in Kazakhstan in the Post-Stalin Period (1953-1964)

Abstract

The article is devoted to some changes in the Soviet national policy, which took place in the first decade after Stalin’s death. For this purpose, the author shows attempts of the Soviet Union leaders to find new approaches to solving urgent problems in the field of national relations taking into account the experience of Kazakhstan. These approaches were usually focused on the practice of consensus with the title elites of a number of the Union Republics (Ukraine and Uzbekistan), which received preferences and territorial increments at the expense of the neighboring RSFSR and Kazakhstan. As a result, the virgin epic in Kazakhstan led to the predominance of the Slavic ethnic component that created possibilities of national statehood elimination in the context of Khrushchev’s policy to erase borders between Republics. Due to the rigid conflict between Khrushchev and Kazakh leaders there were no more imminent threats against the territorial integrity of the Republic. Hence, the Union leaders felt the necessity to have an unspoken consensus to abide with the Union Republics under the rules of which they should respect their territorial integrity.