‘Two parts – one whole’? Kazakh–Kyrgyz relations in the making of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, 1917–24

This article argues that the Kazakh–Kyrgyz relationship in many ways shaped the emergence of Soviet Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz elites were willing to collaborate with Kazakhs while simultaneously trying not to be marginalized by them. Kazakh elites in the Turkestan ASSR’s government supported the first Kyrgyz nationalist project, the Kara-Kyrgyz Mountain Oblast (KKMO), in 1922. However, the division of Turkestan during the Central Asian national–territorial delimitation in 1924 and the increased linkage between national identity and political and cultural rights deprived the Kazakh–Kyrgyz regions of their socio-economic unity. Consequently, Kyrgyz leaders, to get their fair share of the disintegrating Central Asian economy as a separate group, had to contrast themselves to their Kazakh allies. The case of Soviet Kyrgyzstan shows that the intertwined relationship among Central Asian elites provides a more nuanced and complicated story of the formation of Soviet national republics in the region. Particularly, Central Asia’s settled/nomadic dichotomy and the inter-elite relationship within each population have been more influential than scholars have acknowledged.