“Much is Done, But to Make People Forget:” The Story of Jeltoqsan in Kazakhstani History Textbooks
Dukeyev B.
2025Cambridge University Press
Nationalities Papers
2025
The main objective of this article is to examine history textbooks as sites of discursive contestation regarding the treatment of the 1986 Jeltoqsan protests, a pivotal moment in post-independence Kazakhstani collective memory. This research analyzes the multilayered and inter-discursive domains of Jeltoqsan across the History of Kazakhstan textbooks published between 1992 and 2024. It focuses on four key contested themes between official narratives and those of protest mourners and sufferers: the portrayal of Dinmukhamed Qonaev, whose dismissal sparked the protests; the role of former President Nursultan Nazarbaev in handling the aftermath; the framing of Jeltoqsan as either an ordinary event or an uprising for significant political change; and ethnic or non-ethnic dimension of the protests. The findings reveal discursive competition and conflict in articulating the official and protestor narratives.
Collective memory , Kazakhstan , Memory politics , Textbooks
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
RSE Scientific Institute for the Study of Ulus of Jochi, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Astana, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University
RSE Scientific Institute for the Study of Ulus of Jochi
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026