ABSTRACT
Kazakhstan has undergone dramatic changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Suddenly and without a broad-scale, pre-existing nationalist drive for independence, Kazakhstan found itself an independent state, which meant that, in some sense, national symbols and a national consciousness had to be invented in order to consolidate and legitimize the new state. This makes Kazakhstan a particularly productive site to observe the negotiations of a new national identity. This chapter will examine how, in the midst of broad socio-political changes, various actors and institutions have negotiated the meaning of Kazakh identity and the relation of language to that identity. The legacy of Soviet oppression has left a sense of ethnic Kazakh identity as marginalized and threatened. These discourses are then available for use to frame and justify policies aimed at promoting ethnic Kazakhs and the Kazakh language, and a celebratory attitude around the revitalization of Kazakh ethnic symbols and consciousness. But, as previous chapters have established, the meaning and benefits of revival are not necessarily so clear-cut.
