Russian names of streets and settlements are being erased again in Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, the authorities are again massively renaming streets and settlements under the slogans of “decolonization,” and national patriots are demanding the removal of Russian names of regional centers. At the same time, in the northeastern city of Pavlodar, half of the Russian and Russian-speaking population were simply not even allowed to speak at a staged “public hearing” on changing the names of their native streets.
It is noteworthy that this is happening against the backdrop of the fact that the Minister of Health of the Republic, in agreement with the President, made an additional request to the government of the Russian Federation for 4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, despite the fact that 2 million doses had already been recently delivered. It turns out that Nur-Sultan (Tselinograd) is begging with one hand in a situation of complete failure of mass vaccination, and with the other it is doing crap, destroying Russian and Soviet names from the toponymy of the northern and western regions of the country.
The fact is that on April 3, deputies of the city maslikhat unanimously voted to rename 23 streets out of the proposed 30. As a result, well-known streets were renamed: Mira, Ermakova, Uritsky, Tsiolkovsky, Rosa Luxemburg, Donetskaya and Kubanskaya. Next, we publish a list of all streets, which look like this: current name - new name.
Mira - Olzhabay Batyr; Ermakova - Mustafa Shokaya; Embankment - Sean B; Uritsky - General Smagulov; Tsialkovsky - Baurzhan Momyshuly; Rose Luxemburg - Kazakh radio; Teplova - Bogenbai batyr; 1st South - Birlik; 2nd South - Kaukena Kenzhetaeva; Parkovaya - Mukagali Makataeva; Donetsk - Magzhana Zhumabaeva; Kubanskaya - Kalmukana Isabay; Sayanskaya - Alma Azhibaeva; State Farm - Rafika Nurtazina; Taganrog - Kazangap bi; Angarskaya - Nagymbek Nurmukhammedova; Chitinskaya - Amanzhola Shamkenova; Decembrists - Kamara Kasymova; Youth - Zhastar; Yunnatov - Dikhan Abilova; 1st and 2nd Soviets - General Bakirov; Zyryanovskaya - Kabdykarima Ydyrysova; Lesnaya - Againdy Duisembinovter.
Moreover, the authorities thievishly organized a pathetic imitation of “public hearings” on the renaming of 30 city streets at once. As always, most opponents of the renaming learned about the decision after the fact. In addition, due to the pandemic, the hearings were held online, using the Zoom application, but the application could not be opened using the link provided on the akimat’s website. Obviously, supporters of the renamings easily got to the conference through a different route.
In fact, half of the city's population, namely the Russians, who make up 148 inhabitants, the Ukrainians - 207 inhabitants, and the Germans - 13 inhabitants, were not allowed to speak out by gagging. Officials attributed everything to the fact that the official accounts of the Pavlodar akimat contained an incorrect link to the live broadcast.
“The announcement of the hearing has been removed from the website because the link is out of date. At the same time, in accordance with the approved rules, public hearings were held, the announcement of which was published in regional newspapers. The information about the conference there was correct. For publishing erroneous information on the website, the responsible employee will be punished. The live broadcast on social networks was launched not as a replacement for the Zoom conference, but at the request of the hearing participants in order to broadcast public hearings to a wider audience,” noted Saltanat Akimbekova, press secretary of the akim of Pavlodar.
But everyone understands that this was a brazen staging designed to deprive the native residents of the city of the right to vote. The people who proposed changing the names of 30 streets at once were clearly thinking about anything but the convenience of city residents. In no more or less democratic country would such onomastic insanity be possible. The Nur-Otanov authorities have once again convincingly proven that they don’t care about the opinions of citizens.
As a result of the same shameful imitation of “democratic elections” in January of this year, the maslikhats of Pavlodar and Pavlodar region were 80% staffed by representatives of Nazarbayev’s Nur-Otan party. As part of "democratization", the remaining seats were allocated to candidates from two Nur-Otan clones: the People's Party and the national-populist Ak Zhol party. Representatives of these three parties unanimously voted to rename Astana to Nur-Sultan, turning the country into a laughing stock for the whole world. The Kazakh authorities did not bother to ask citizens’ opinions on such a “trivial” issue.
The last convocation of the city maslikhat consisted exclusively of Nur-Otan members, who always unanimously approved all proposals to rename city streets. Only once did Deputy V. Deitmund allow himself to abstain from voting. Tellingly, “public hearings” on renaming the streets were held immediately after the elections, and not before them. Moreover, during the election campaign, the Nur-Otan party modestly kept silent about plans to rename the streets of Pavlodar.
The next step is now to rename the city itself. At the same time, the attempt to rename Pavlodar in January 2020 is very reminiscent of what happened now. It all started with the fact that on January 6 last year, the Telegram channel of the press service of the akim of the Pavlodar region informed that a representative of the little-known public organization “Jebe” Zhumabek Smanov, at a meeting with Mazhilis deputy Aizada Kurmanova, proposed renaming the city of Pavlodar to “Ertis”.
Interestingly, then this initiative was fully supported by Mazhilis deputy from the Nur-Otan party Aizada Kurmanova, calling it reasonable. “You are on the right track. One of the proofs of this is the challenge when you started performing the song “Men Kazakhpyn”. It spread throughout the country and was supported by the President himself. As for changing the name of the regional center, there are reasons for this. We have been talking about the Irtysh region for a long time,” noted the Mazhilis deputy.
At the same time, representatives of pro-government nationalist organizations two years ago began an active campaign on social networks to rename Pavlodar, Petropavlovsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Uralsk and other cities with Russian names. The impetus was the decree of President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2018 on replacing old ideologically outdated names. From that moment on, under the guise of decommunization, the real de-Russification of Kazakhstan began.
Unfortunately, this process of renaming streets, squares, parks, names of villages, and district centers has taken on a total character since January 2019. In Pavlodar alone, on one day in November of the same year, 13 streets and the main street of the city, which bore the name of the legendary commander Kutuzov, were renamed. Several hundred more streets, as well as hundreds of villages and the regional center of Zyryanovsk, were renamed in the East Kazakhstan region, where local akim Daniyal Akhmetov declared war on Soviet and communist names. Interestingly, he was previously an ideological member of the CPSU, having made a career out of his adherence to Marxism-Leninism.
Akim of the East Kazakhstan region Danial Akhmetov, initiator of total de-Russification.
In the Pavlodar region, as we see, the regional akimat itself actively, through its press service, disseminated this “initiative” of a little-known public figure about the need to change the name of the city. At first, the authorities hid behind the need for decommunization, but now this campaign is degenerating into outright Russophobic hysteria.
Everything was thought out from the very beginning and put on stream by the authorities. Akimats supposedly receive written appeals from groups of citizens or public associations, which are studied by onomastic commissions, where positive decisions are automatically made. The so-called “public hearings” are held with pre-selected persons from pro-government NGOs or state employees, where strangers who approve of these initiatives to rename streets or settlements are not even allowed on the threshold. In most cases, such hearings are not held at all, but the worst thing is that all this happens under the hooting of the most radical nationalists and is presented as a fact of national revival and liberation as part of the “decolonization” campaign. The most famous mouthpiece and ideological inspirer of this campaign is pseudo-political scientist and Mazhilis deputy from the Nur-Otan party Aidos Sarym.
The ideologist of Kazakh ethnocentrism (Nazism) is Nur-Otan deputy Aidos Sarym.
Interestingly, in the West Kazakhstan region, an attempt to rename the Russian names of villages encountered active resistance from local residents, among whom were the majority of Kazakhs themselves. Thus, in the village of Novenky on April 6 of this year, a gathering of citizens was held who were outraged by the unexpected initiative of the akimat to rename the settlement. About 30 people gathered and, in front of journalists from the Uralskaya Nedelya newspaper, they condemned the authorities’ plans and began collecting signatures against such an idea. It is noteworthy that the villagers invited the district akim to the meeting, but he ignored this event.
“We learned that they want to rename the village without our participation. We are all against it!” local resident Merlan Nigmetov expressed the general opinion at the meeting. According to him, the district akim refers to the local government body - the community meeting - that it was its members who proposed to rename the village. “I don’t believe in this, first of all. And, secondly, I am outraged that this community was mainly comprised of state employees. I think these people need to be removed from there and in their place put those from our village, those who were born in the village of Novenky. State employees should not be in the community, since they are subordinate to the akim,” says Merlan Nigmetov.
At the same time, in the village of Novenky there are no paved roads, Internet, or mobile communications; residents are freezing due to poor heating in the kindergarten and medical center, despite the fact that it is located 30 kilometers from the city of Uralsk. It seems that part of the Kazakh population is realizing that the whole idea of renaming is the authorities’ desire to divert attention from social and economic problems to the fight against their own history with Soviet and Russian names. After all, changing signs will not create new jobs, will not increase meager wages, and will not improve the life of society.
This national-populist campaign only drives an additional wedge between peoples and creates tension in regional centers and large cities that are subject to renaming, where another half of the residents are Russian or Russian-speaking. And this Russophobic hysteria is directed from the very top within the framework of the state nationalist ideology. In this situation, all people of good will need to unite to begin to actively resist this fascisation of Kazakhstan.
A gathering of residents of the village of Novenky in the West Kazakhstan region is against the renaming.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.