Self-organization of the Kazakh diaspora group South Ural in 1989-2002 (on the materials of Chelyabinsk region)

The history of the Kazakhs residence in Russia is more than two centuries old. Most members of this diaspora live in regions that are located in the border zone of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan. This is the Urals and Western Siberia and the Volga region. In the historical and ethnographic literature a voluminous material about the resettlement, tribal composition, economy, material and non-material culture of Kazakhs was collected. Studies of the Kazakh ethnic group in the Southern Urals were conducted in Orenburg region. However, studies on this topic on the materials of the Chelyabinsk region was practically not carried out. The purpose of the article is to examine the socio-cultural appearance and activity of ethnic and cultural organizations of the Kazakhs of the South Urals on the materials of the Chelyabinsk region in 1989-2002. The empirical basis of the article is the archival documents of the United State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region (OGACO). The materials of electronic resources of the Kazakh diaspora and periodicals of the regions where the Kazakhs of the Chelyabinsk region predominantly reside. These are the newspapers Star (Agapovsky District), Kartalinskaya Nov (Kartalinsky District), Kizil Messenger (Kizilsky District), Village News (Bredy District), Steppe Zori (Chesme District). Analysis of the socio-cultural image allowed to reconstruct the ethno-linguistic and socio-demographic processes in the studied community. It is established that the main region of origin of the majority of representatives of the Kazakh diaspora group is the Chelyabinsk Region. The main centers of the resettlement of Kazakhs in rural areas have been identified. The peculiarities of the existing language situation, as well as the specifics of owning the native language, are studied. In the period under investigation, Kazakh ethno-cultural public organizations arose in the districts and cities of the Chelyabinsk region. Societies of Kazakh culture organized national holidays, established cultural contacts with the «historical homeland». The sociocultural image of the Kazakh diaspora group is stable. There were sharp fluctuations in the number of Kazakhs, in contrast to such a Central Asian diaspora as Tajiks. Age and sex composition has not undergone significant changes. The presence of compact places of residence in rural areas contributed to the fact that the functional role of the Kazakh language remained high. Public actions of societies of Kazakh culture allowed to involve new members in their activities. Thus, the symbolic construction of the ethnic community was carried out («Russian Kazakhs», «Kazakh Diaspora in Russia», etc.).

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