Relational Geographies of Place Attachment in Kazakhstan's Northern Borderland.

Keywords: Borders, Russia, Kazakhstan, Eurasia, Irredentism, Relational
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

With a long history of ethnic Russian habitation from the Tsarist through Soviet and independence eras, the northern oblasts of Kazakhstan are a zone of potential Russian irredentism. Calls for secession or annexation have, however, been limited thus presenting a ready case for research into evolving place attachments and place identities. Using survey and interview data gathered between 2017-2019, this paper compares the homeland ideals and civil society perceptions of ethnic Russians and Kazakhs residing in Kazakhstan’s northern borderland. While these data predate Kazakhstan’s civil upheaval of January 2022 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, they nevertheless provide insights into the mutability of place-attachments and their capacity to be both multi-sited and varying in scale. Analysis of these data also sheds light on the relational geographies of ethnic Russians outside the Russian Federation and the varied geopolitical and geo-economic roles of different Eurasian borderlands.