BACKGROUND: History is continually present in Kazakhstan’s political context. In the beginning of the post-Soviet era, Kazakhstan’s uncertainty regarding its ability to survive as an independent nation motivated a drive to forge strong ties with Russia and Eurasianism emerged as an appropriate ideological foundation for this effort. Proponents of Eurasianism saw the Russian empire, or the USSR, as the legitimate successor to the Mongol empire and its legacy of positive “symbiosis” between Slavic and Turkic peoples. Yet, while Turkic peoples have an important place in Eurasianist thinking, it remains a largely Russocentric ideology.

As time progressed, Kazakhstan’s political elite increasingly prioritized sovereignty and independence from Russia. While the country continued to maintain an externally friendly relationship with Russia, and even became a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Union, the political undercurrent moved in the opposite direction. Kazakhstan actively collaborated with the West, sent their brightest youth to Western universities, and planned a switch from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet. Kazakhstan’s desire to distance itself from Russia was also fueled by the actions of Russian politicians or quasi-politicians such as the late Eduard Limonov and Alexander Potkin (Belov).