Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

36 Comments

  1. Dear Megan,
    Hope it’s alright to refer as ‘dear’, I’m Kazakhstan citizen as well, though not from Almaty and its amazing you know so much about this city, Ive never been there, so to me as Kazakhstani its very useful article as well:D
    I just wanted to confirm the case about genocide: as someone, who did research on these years – 1920s-1930s and studies history, even though it didn’t initially start as genocide, just as you mentioned with Goloshchekin coming to Kazakh ASR and taking over, situation changed drastically and led to multiple deaths and moreover exodus of many Kazakhs to China, from where a lot of them once again died, trying to travel to India and ship to Turkey.
    It’s a ridiculous argument that it can’t be counted as genocide simply because Russians and Ukrainians died as well (Well, Ukrainians at least speak about it openly, different from our president;)). There are a lot of documentations about Goloshchekin writing to Stalin about “disgusting” Kazakh people or other witnesses mentioning how he hated Kazakh people. So poor and unqualified Soviet management, which conquered Kazakhs after Russian Empire fall (we did fought back those years), with Goloshchekin’s and other communists bureaucrats’ despise towards Kazakh people led to this genocide.
    And lastly, I believe Gordey is a Russian name and he therefore is Russian from Kazakhstan. He is definitely Kazakhstani, but I do not think he can actually know the entire situation, sympathize with Kazakh people and speak up about whether it was a genocide or no.
    My mother still remembers that my grandpa would never speak about his young sibling, who was kidnapped during the genocide (ofc he was eaten), both my grandpa and grandma from my mom’s side were left orphans after the famine, they didn’t remember much about their families, therefore a lot of tangible and intangible legacy of Kazakh nation are lost forever for me. So don’t even worry about “swinging this word around” as it was a genocide and it harmed a lot of families, including mine.
    The only reason Kazakhs are not talking about it as openly as Ukrainians because we still depend on Russia too much, and our and their presidents are the best buds;)
    I think I stretched it too much! Hope it’s fine and it was useful!:)

    1. Thanks so much for your message! I don’t have tons of time to write right now (I am actually in Astana and leaving tomorrow!) but your message means a lot to me. Oddly enough, I just did a podcast about the genocide. I don’t have a better link than this- but it is on here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-fangirl-podcast/id1271232863?mt=2 I am no historian, but we did the actual podcast at the Genocide memorial in Almaty, so it was pretty powerful to talk about it there. I actually am hoping that more people recognize this piece of history because it is quite traumatic and deserves attention. And in NO WAY should it be downplayed at all.

      Thanks again for your comment (I emailed you this and wrote a bit more that I didn’t care to make public haha).

  2. Citizen of Almaty here. I’d like to clear out some things.
    First is WiFi, it doesn’t get worse, Kazakhstan providers just block Facebook, YouTube and other potentially “risky” sites when “the one who can’t be named” oppositioner launches a stream. The problem however can be easily dealt with by using VPN.
    Second is city center. I would say that it is an area spreading from 28 panfilov guardsmen park to Abay opera house and The old square. Even more so that the Panfilov street is now pedestrian.
    And the 3rd is genocide, please just stop swinging around with this word. Yes there was a great famine that killed a lot of Kazakhs, Ukrainians etc. What people forget about is that the famine also had great effect on Russia, espessialy on territory where peasants were the majority, like Don or Kuban. It was a poorly planed attempt to collectivise the country that resulted in millions of deaths all across the Soviet Union. And it was not a single famine that caused the Kazakhs to be a minority in their country. First it was the agricultural reforms of Stolypin that taken place in the beginning of 20th century. Then it was the famine. And finally deportation of political prisoners to Kazakstan.
    Thanks for writing about Almaty. I’m really happy to see all the attention we are getting in the past few years.
    P.s. I’m sorry for all the possible mistakes, and would appreciate if you point me at them.

    1. Hi Gordey! Thanks for your message! I broke things down into diff bullets below regarding what your comment said:

      1) I am definitely aware of the reasons behind reduced wifi speeds and blocked sites here (I am here right now and can’t even get onto Facebook). But, I am not going to actively put the reason out there because I don’t want to lose my right to be here :) It sucks. I can’t even get a VPN to work here because speeds are so slow during these hours. I just deal with it.
      2) A city center for most people is defined as where most sites exist and all within a short distance. While you may know the true city center here in Almaty, a foreigner would not. And the sites we want to see are pretty spread out. That is why I said ‘really’. :)
      3) Genocide is defined as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group”. Given that the collectivization did this ultimately and that it was known for multiple years that it was causing mass deaths to a certain ethnic group, I stand firm in calling it a genocide (just as the Rohingya one is now, etc). I actually did a podcast about this today. I don’t think it is throwing words around incorrectly since it is defined as that and has been identified as that by most researchers.

      I really appreciate your comments! I love it here and am back here now because of that very reason! I really hope to see more tourists here loving the city just as much as I do. Have a great week!