Making the Golden Horde great Again: Historians as Memory Actors and Reinterpretation of the Historical Narratives in Independent Kazakhstan
Kurmanov B. Sabitov Z. Kudaibergenov R.
2025Cambridge University Press
Nationalities Papers
2025
This article investigates the transformation of the official historical narrative of the Golden Horde in Kazakhstan, tracing a significant shift from Nazarbayev to Tokayevs presidencies. The narrative of the Golden Horde became a strategic component of the second president, Tokayev, who announced the commemoration of 750 years of the Horde foundation in Kazakhstan and proclaimed that it laid the foundations for Kazakh statehood. The research explores the abrupt transformation of the official historical narrative and underscores the pivotal role of historians as memory actors. The study investigates the memory gamebetween two schools of historians in independent Kazakhstan, revealing the agency of a new generation of historians in reshaping the national historical narrative through historicizing strategies, thus engaging in memory politics. This contribution extends the literature on the mnemonic context in Kazakhstan and non-state memory actors in authoritarian settings, shedding light on the dynamics of historical representation and memory politics in evolving mnemonic landscapes.
Golden Horde , historians , historicizing strategies , Kazakhstan , memory politics
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University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kazakhstan
Astana International University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Research Institute for Jochi Ulus Studies, Astana, Kazakhstan
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan
University of Central Asia
Astana International University
Research Institute for Jochi Ulus Studies
L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University
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Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026