This article examines the history of Russian colonization in Kazakhstan, focusing on identity, resistance, and independence within Russia’s neo-imperial ambitions. It addresses the socio-political barriers in postcolonial Kazakhstan due to ties with Russia and explores how the Soviet migration policies shaped Kazakhstan’s demographic and political landscape. The study outlines the phases of Russian colonization, contrasting Russian narratives of a civilizing mission with Kazakh perspectives on exploitation and cultural erasure. Using postcolonial theory, it deconstructs these narratives and reveals power dynamics. Kazakh literature and poetry are analyzed as mediums of resistance, emphasizing the horse as a symbol of cultural identity. The article concludes by discussing the post-Soviet cultural transformations and the role of literature in nation-building, highlighting the importance of reclaiming cultural symbols and myths for understanding Kazakhstan’s colonial history and postcolonial transformation.

1. Abashin, S. (2014). Nations and Post-Colonialism in Central Asia: Twenty Years Later. Development In Central Asia and the Caucasus. https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755619351.ch-003
2. Abashin, S. (2020). Vereshchagin Without Colonialism: How Post-Soviet Russia Did Not Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Conquest of Central Asia. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, (161), 307-314.
3. Abduldabekova, Z. (2007). Kazakhstan and Russia: Historical ties and integration prospects. Karavan.
4. Amangalieva, G. M., Abdykarimvyna, A. N., & Nurzaynt, G. (2024). The problem of horses during the study of the culture of ancient horses in the Kazakh steppe. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Scientific Conference.
5. Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso.
6. Askarova, G. S., Aitbaeva, A. E., & Kurmambaeva, K. S. (2024). A horse and human fate in modern kazakh stories. Keruen, 83(2), 225-235
7. Batsaikhan, O., & Dabrowski, M. (2017). The Economic and Political Development of Central Asia. Palgrave Macmillan.
8. Bhabha, H. K. (2013). Nation and Narration. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203823064
9. Birke, L., & Brandt, K. (2009). Mutual corporeality: Gender and human/horse relationships. Women’s Studies International Forum, 32(3), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2009.05.015
10. Cummings, S. N. (2003). Eurasian bridge or murky waters between east and west? Ideas, identity and output in Kazakhstan’s foreign policy. Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 19(3), 139–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523270300660021
11. Dadabaev, T. (2020). Manipulating post-Soviet nostalgia: contrasting political narratives and public recollections in Central Asia. International Journal of Asian Studies, 18(1), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1479591420000443
12. Dave, B. (2004). The shrinking reach of the state: Language policy and implementation in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.’, in Jones Luong, P. (ed.) The Transformation of Central Asia (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press).
13. Duncan, P. J. S. (2002). Russian Messianism. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203442357
14. Edylovna, A. (2023). Horse cult in sak-kazak funeral style. PROCEEDINGS of the XVIII International Scientific Conference for students and young scholars “ǴYLYM JÁNE BILIM – 2023”.
15. Etkind, A. (2015). Warped Mourning: Stories of the Undead in the Land of the Unburied. Stanford University Press.
16. Gorshenina, S. (2021a). Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial to the Post-Soviet Era. Brill.
17. Gorshenina, S. (2021b). Orientalism, postcolonial and decolonial frames on Central Asia: Theoretical relevance and applicability. Bruno De Cordier, Adrien Fauve, Jeroen Van Den Bosch, European Handbook of Central Asian Studies: History, Politics & Societies, Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2021, 177-243.
18. Hobson, K. (2007). Political animals? On animals as subjects in an enlarged political geography. Political Geography, 26(3), 250–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.10.010
19. Inozemtsev, V. (2011). Archived 2011: “Blank Shot (Russian). Available online: http://www.profile.ru/politics/item/60637-kholostoi-vystrel-60637 (accessed on 2 June 2024).
20. Kassymbekova, B. (2017). Soviet Central Asia: The Politics of Cultural Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan.
21. Kipping, M., Wadhwani, R. D., & Bucheli, M. (2014). Analyzing and interpreting historical sources: A basic methodology. Organizations in time: History, theory, methods, 305-329. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646890.003.0013
22. Krickovic, A. (2014). Imperial nostalgia or prudent geopolitics? Russia’s efforts to reintegrate the post-Soviet space in geopolitical perspective. Post-Soviet Affairs, 30(6), 503–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2014.900975
23. Kudaibergenova, D. T. (2016a). The post-Soviet politics of memory: Postcolonialism and national narratives. Routledge.
24. Kudaibergenova, D. T. (2016b). The Use and Abuse of Postcolonial Discourses in Post-independent Kazakhstan. Europe-Asia Studies, 68(5), 917–935. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2016.1194967
25. Kudaibergenova, D. T. (2017). Rewriting the Nation in Modern Kazakh Literature: Elites and Narratives. Lexington Books.
26. Kudaibergenova, D. T. (2018). The Symbolic and Political Construction of the Nation: Kazakhstani Nation-Building from the Soviet Collapse to the 2010s. Palgrave Macmillan.
27. Kurmambaeva, K. S. (2024). A horse and human fate in modern kazakh stories. Keruen, 83(2), 225-235.
28. Laitin, D. D. (1998). Identity in formation: The Russian-speaking populations in the near abroad. Cornell University Press.
29. Mälksoo, M. (2022). The Postcolonial Moment in Russia’s War Against Ukraine. Journal of Genocide Research, 25(3–4), 471–481. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2022.2074947
30. McCaffrey, G., Raffin-Bouchal, S., & Moules, N. J. (2012). Hermeneutics as Research Approach: A Reappraisal. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(3), 214–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691201100303
31. Morrison, A. (2013). Internal Colonization. Russia’s Imperial Experience by Alexander Etkind (review). Ab Imperio, 2013(3), 445–457. https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2013.0081
32. Myadar, O. (2011). Imaginary Nomads: Deconstructing the Representation of Mongolia as a Land of Nomads. Inner Asia, 13(2), 335–362. https://doi.org/10.1163/000000011799297654
33. Nurjaksina, M. K., & Shukumanova, B. S. (2022). The image of the horse in kazakh stories. Bulletin of Shokan Ualikhanov Kokshetau University Philological Series, (4), 52-60.)
34. Ó Beacháin, D., & Kevlihan, R. (2013). Threading a needle: Kazakhstan between civic and ethno‐nationalist state‐building. Nations and Nationalism, 19(2), 337–356. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12022
35. Obama. (2014). “President Obama: We Need ‘Russia to Move Back Those Troops’. Available online: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/president-obama-we-need-russia-to-move-back-those-troops/ (accessed on 2 June 2024).
36. Parkin, B. (2014). “Merkel Says Russia Risks Harm to Self With 19th-Century Ways. Available online: http:// www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-13/merkel-says-russia-risks-harm-to-self-with-19th-century-methods (accessed on 2 June 2024).
37. Podoler, G. (2024). An animal as a cultural landscape: the horse in Seoul, South Korea. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2024.2369812
38. Rakhimbekova, A. K. (2011). Study of the problems of colonization of Kazakhstan: New approaches. Almaty: Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.
39. Roche, C. (2020). Appropriating and Re-Appropriating the Arabian Horse for Equestrian Sport: The Complexities of Cultural Transfer. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 14(3), 320–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2020.1772356
40. Sahni, K. (1997). Crucifying the Orient: Russian orientalism and the colonization of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Bangkok: White Orchid Press
41. Said, E. W. (1977). Orientalism. The Georgia Review, 31(1), 162-206.
42. Slykhouse, S. (2018). National Identities in Soviet Historiography: The Rise of Nations under Stalin. Routledge.
43. Surucu, C. (2002a). Modernity, Nationalism, Resistance: Identity Politics in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Central Asian Survey, 21(4), 385–402. https://doi.org/10.1080/0263493032000053208
44. Surucu, C. (2002b). Modernity, State, and Identity in the Construction of Post-Soviet Kazakh Historiography. Nationalities Papers, 30(2), 217-236.
45. Szászdi, L. F. (2008). Russian Civil-military Relations and the Origins of the Second Chechen War. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
46. Teper, Y. (2015). Official Russian identity discourse in light of the annexation of Crimea: national or imperial? Post-Soviet Affairs, 32(4), 378–396. https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2015.1076959
47. Tlostanova, M. (2020). Postcolonial Theory and the Soviet Union. Duke University Press.
48. Tokşilikova, G., & Abdul rakhmanuly, A. (2023). The Image of the Horse in Kazakh Poetry. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, Ö12, 423–431. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1330513
49. Tolz, V. (2004). The search for a national identity in the Russia of Yeltsin and Putin. Restructuring Post-Communist Russia, 160–178. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511509995.010
50. Trenin, D. (2011). Post-imperium: a Eurasian story. Brookings Institution Press.
51. Umland, A. (2010). Aleksandr Dugin’s Transformation from a Lunatic Fringe Figure into a Mainstream Political Publicist, 1980–1998: A Case Study in the Rise of Late and Post-Soviet Russian Fascism. Journal of Eurasian Studies, 1(2), 144–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euras.2010.04.008
52. Uskenbaeva, R. M., & Zhanysbekova, E. T. (2023). The image of a horse in Kazakh mythology. Bulletin of the Karaganda university. Philology series, 112(4), 89-96.)
53. Zhakulayev, A. M., & Babashov, A. M. (2023). The image of Agybay batyr in the novel “Qahar” (Fury) by I. Yesenberlin. Bulletin of the Karaganda university Philology series, 110(2), 114-124.
54. Zhakulayev, A. M., & Takirov, S. U. (2022). Features of literary and historical discourse. Bulletin of the Karaganda University Philology Series, 105(1), 124–130. https://doi.org/10.31489/2022ph1/124-130
55. Zhakulayev, A., Takirov, S., & Khassenov, B. (2024). Literary text and historical discourse: A questionnaire study. International Journal of Innovative Research and Scientific Studies, 7(3), 1174–1181. https://doi.org/10.53894/ijirss.v7i3.3175