Oral memories: inter-generational remembrance of the 1931–1933 Kazakh famine
Dukeyev B. Kasymov S. Sarsembina K.
2025Routledge
Globalizations
2025#22Issue 61086 - 1103 pp.
This is the first study on inter-generational remembrance of the 1931–1933 Kazakh famine. Drawing on thousands of published sources and nearly a hundred in-person interviews with descendants of famine survivors, this article argues that the oral traditions inherent in nomadic Kazakh culture have allowed memories of the famine to become ingrained in everyday life. This research reveals that survivors transmitted memories of the famine to their descendants across four key narratives: kinship, coping strategies (and the place of food), spatial, and folklore narratives. The findings challenge previous Western research that suggests the Soviet regime successfully suppressed famine memories to the extent that they were rarely preserved within families. This research also contributes to global studies on the inter-generational transmission of famine remembrance in the context of nomadic and oral legacies.
Famine , Kazakh famine , memory , oral history , remembrance
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Department of Political Science and International Relations, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Qaharmandar Public Foundation, Astan, Kazakhstan
Project Office for the Full Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression, Astan, Kazakhstan
Branch of the Shoqan Ualikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology in Astana, Astana, Kazakhstan
Department of Political Science and International Relations
Qaharmandar Public Foundation
Project Office for the Full Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression
Branch of the Shoqan Ualikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology in Astana
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