Features of Kazakhstan's modernization process in the 1920s-1940s

The article discusses the features and factors of modernization of Kazakhstan in the 1920s-1940s. The Russian Empire (USSR) was a region of the second tier of modernization. Here, like in the world, economic, social, cultural and political modernization was extremely uneven and conquered regions gradually. Asian Russia, India, Bessarabia, the Caucasus, most of the Baltic provinces were peripheral territories with the modernization process of catching-up development. Each of them had its own specificity, speed and shape that require a special historical analysis. These regions include Kazakhstan. The historical phenomenon of Kazakhstan society, which transformed from a military-nomadic to an industrial society in a relatively small time, requires a special study. The purpose of the article is to attract the attention of researchers to the features of Kazakhstan modernization and try to explain them. First of all, it should be noted that the thesis of the absolute predominance of the nomadic lifestyle among the Kazakhs does not withstand scrutiny. In the early twentieth century about 90 % of the Kazakhs had permanent homes, one-third was engaged in farming. Moreover, the Kazakhs had a historical experience of settled existence interrupted by the Mongol invasion. Another positive factor in the modernization of Kazakhstan was the presence of the Russian and Tatar population in the cities, the influx of migrants in Kazakhstan industry in the 1920s-1930s. It is due to this factor that the process of Kazakhstan industrialization was irreversible and received a solid foundation. This process was intensified by the evacuation of industrial enterprises and scientific organizations in the Great Patriotic War in Kazakhstan. In 1941-1942, 220 factories and artisan shops with 50 thousand workers and engineering and technical personnel, more than 20 research institutions, 40 higher and secondary special education institutions were relocated to Kazakhstan from the European part of Russia. They were mainly located in Alma-Ata, Uralsk, Petropavlovsk, Shymkent, Semey, Karaganda, Aktobe, Kyzylorda. In 1941-1945, 460 plants, factories, mines and individual production facilities were built. Industrial production increased during the war years by 37 %. Modernization processes in the 1920s-1940s in Kazakhstan developed in the framework of the Soviet state-controlled models of industrialism, an alternative to the private Anglo-Saxon model. Compared with the European part of the USSR, in Kazakhstan modernization went along with the sedentarization of nomads, the influx of industrial workers, the presence of other nationalities (Russian) cities and evacuation of industrial enterprises, scientific and educational institutions in the area.

Keywords

Authors

References