ABSTRACT

By profoundly altering the world map, the collapse of the Soviet sphere in 1991 implicitly highlighted the enduring significance of borders. Vast opportunities for research rapidly emerged in this region among an array of new states, new governments, historic homelands, old diasporas, new diasporas, and shifting patterns of social, economic, and cultural interaction. This chapter focuses on a group of Kazakhs living in the western reaches of Mongolia’s territory for multiple generations. Alongside ‘western Mongols’ practicing a similar form of pastoralism, they have stalwartly endured the challenges of harsh climate, the national bounding of the steppe, the rise of communism, collectivization, and the decline of communism. Today, however, Mongolia’s Kazakhs stand at a crossroads.