Originally published on Global Voices

Screenshot from the video “Информационное видео “Латинский алфавит – требование современного мира”” from the КГУ Шахтинская ЦБС YouTube channel. Fair use.

The Kazakh government promotes the Kazakh language through strategic initiatives, such as mandatory Kazakh language testing for civil servants, while its use by the general population is gaining momentum across various sectors. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kazakhstan has sought to reshape its language policy.

The 2023–2029 Language Policy Concept aims to expand the use of Kazakh across science, IT, media, and governance, including the transition from the Cyrillic script to the Latin alphabet. Recently, 13 projects in media and information services were launched to establish modern approaches and address the challenges facing the Kazakh language.

According to the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Aida Balaeva, Kazakh-language media consumption is now dominant, with “80 percent of the audience consuming media content in Kazakh.” Although independent statistics cannot confirm this figure, it does reflect an upward trend.

The inclusion of the Kazakh language in Hollywood dubbing, one of just 30 languages, signals growing international recognition, driven by rising domestic demand. Besides, social media, bloggers, and the integration of the Kazakh language in various apps and video games make the language more accessible for the younger generation.

This has not always been the case, however. These changes have unfolded as a slow trend, according to Rustam Burnashev, Associate Professor at the Faculty for Global Politics at the German-Kazakh University in Almaty.

In an interview with Global Voices, Burnashev recalled: “Kazakh, as a language of education, has been overlooked since the dominance of Russian during the Soviet period. Nowadays, it is the civic symbol of the country.”

Figures show that the number of enrollments into Kazakh schools rose from 32.4 percent in 1991 to 66 percent in 2019. This may indicate that knowledge of Russian and its use are declining among the youth. Russian proficiency is regionally concentrated, mostly in the north and central parts, which house large populations of ethnic Russians.

Demographics and the use of the Kazakh language

The widespread use of Russian as a lingua franca is rooted in Kazakhstan’s Soviet legacy, during which many ethnic minorities were deported to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, forcing Kazakh to private life and rural entities.

These resettlements often led to the formation of multiethnic communities, where Russian emerged as the practical medium of communication.

Here is a YouTube video about the aftermath of the Russification of Kazakhstan.

Now, 34 years after the country gained independence, much has changed. Many non-Kazakhs left, new people migrated to Kazakhstan, and many more have been born during Kazakhstan’s independent era.

During the first years of Kazakhstan’s independence, the question remained how to form a Kazakh titular nation, where ethnic Kazakhs comprised less than half of the population. Today, this number is over 70 percent.

On the one hand, repatriated Kazakhs are accelerating linguistic shifts in both rural and urban areas. Since 1991, Kazakhstan’s “Oralman” (Returnee) repatriation program has brought around one million ethnic Kazakhs, many of whom do not speak Russian, back to Kazakhstan.

On the other hand, the number of ethnic Russians has been decreasing since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many of those who chose to stay see the Kazakh language as a means of empowerment.

“Nowadays, there are groups of ethnic Russians that started learning Kazakh to set a staple: We belong to Kazakhstan, not to our imperialistic neighbor up north,” explained Beate Eschment, Researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin, Germany, in an interview with Global Voices.

From Soviet legacy to national strategy

In 1989, the law on languages ​​in the Kazakh SSR gave Kazakh the title of official language, while Russian remained as the language of inter-ethnic communication. Two years later, Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union. In 1995, the constitution gave the Kazakh language the title of state language and granted Russian official status. Since then, several initiatives have followed.

The National Program for the Development and Functioning of Languages for 2011–2019 aimed to boost fluency in Kazakh, Russian, and English, with ambitious goals of increasing it by as much as 90 percent for the Kazakh and Russian languages. While official reports see the initiative as a success, independent assessments remain skeptical, given that, as of 2019, only 67.9 percent of the population were ethnic Kazakhs.

Nonetheless, the program helped reposition the Kazakh language in society. Kazakh educational institutions gained popularity, and Kazakh-language entertainment began to flourish. Rather than diminishing the penetration of the Russian language, the result appears to be a side-by-side development, with growing emphasis on Kazakh in almost all spheres of society.

The first and former president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, promoted the idea of “unity through diversity,” which was successful in interethnic relations.

“Nazarbayev had to rebuild the Kazakh nation from scratch. He couldn’t tell all the minorities: “Go back home, we don’t want you here.” Looking at inter-ethnic tensions in Tajikistan [at that time], it would have been a very risky maneuver,” explains Olivier Ferrando, Research Professor at the Human Rights Institute of Lyon Catholic University in France, in an interview with Global Voices.

“Under the current president, [Kassym-Jomart] Tokayev, especially the rhetoric has changed. What is striking, however, is his shift of focus from a diverse nation to an inclusive one,” elaborates Olivier Ferrando.

Nowadays, the Kazakh language is viewed as a necessary means for all citizens to participate in political, social, and economic life.

Civil society and linguistic tensions

The changes in Kazakhstan’s language landscape are unfolding together with public scandals, court cases, and tensions in society. One example of it is the case of Yermek Taichibekov, a blogger who was imprisoned for labeling Kazakhstan’s language policy as “Russophobic” in 2021. Another case involves Temirlan Yensebek, the founder of the satirical news site Qaznews24, who was charged with inciting interethnic discord for sharing an offensive rap song about the Russian minority in Kazakhstan.

There are two opposing camps in this debate. One side is advocating for decolonization and aggressively promoting national identity and linguistic sovereignty. The second is warning against what they perceive as growing anti-Russian sentiment in Kazakhstan.

Here is a YouTube video about the current state of the Russian and Kazakh languages.

Activists on both sides of the spectrum are increasingly in conflict with each other, each advancing their agendas through the lens of ethnic identity. This is expected given that language has never been a neutral medium. It is both shaped by politics and a tool that shapes the political order itself.

The rise of Kazakh as a national language is not simply the outcome of state enforcement. “It is not only to be considered an aversion of the ‘russkij mir’ (Russian world)-ideology, but much more of an intrinsic motivation of self-preservation,” says Beate Eschment.

Given the Kremlin’s increasingly aggressive and hostile rhetoric toward Kazakhstan since the start of the war in Ukraine, it is unlikely that Russia is content with the current linguistic and social discourses in Kazakh society.

The Kazakh government is balancing a fine line between linguistic sovereignty, the dominant position of the Russian language, and an erratic and unpredictable neighbor. Under these circumstances, the fate and flourishing of the Kazakh language falls on the shoulders of people in Kazakhstan, who will be a driving factor and ensure state policies take shape.

Originally published on Global Voices

A copy of the German-language newspaper Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung in the printing press. Screenshot from the video “Die Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (DAZ)” from daz.asia‘s YouTube channel. Fair use.

The upcoming 60th anniversary of Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (DAZ), the only German-language newspaper in Central Asia, is a major milestone for the local German community. Since its establishment in 1966, DAZ has been the voice of the German community in the region, especially in Kazakhstan, where it is based.

Since its very beginning, but increasingly since the mass exodus of ethnic Germans in the 1990s, the newspaper has been committed to preserving and disseminating German culture and language in Central Asia. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, nearly 800,000 ethnic Germans have left the country. Nowadays around 200,000 people with German roots live in Kazakhstan.

From ideological indoctrination to bridging two nations

Initially, the DAZ was founded with the aim of Marxist–Leninist indoctrination of Germans. Today it represents an important bridging element between Germany and Kazakhstan with a circulation of 1,000 issues per week.

The materials are published in Russian, German, and sometimes in Kazakh, and cover a wide range of issues, including political, economic, and social developments in Kazakhstan, Germany, and the wider post-Soviet space.

While originally being a mainly print media outlet, it has evolved into a multimedia platform actively sharing its activities on Instagram and Facebook among other social media services.

By publishing every week both in German and Russian, the DAZ picks up recent news and trends relevant not only to a German-speaking audience interested in Kazakhstan but also to a wider audience.

Stories focusing on history, culture, and lifestyle are the most frequent and popular topics. An example of this is stories of successful Kazakhstanis of German origin. By introducing people with a German–Kazakh background, the DAZ highlights the successful path many people took. A good example of this is the interview with Olga Gauks, who recently got elected to the Berlin House of Representatives as the first representative from Kazakhstan.

Here is an Instagram post with the interview with Olga Gauks.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DEUTSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG (DAZ) (@daz_asia)

Furthermore, DAZ creates a communication forum for both sides, by sharing recent events and sharing contacts. As an example, the visit of the German chancellor Olaf Scholz to Astana in September 2024 generated prosperous opportunities in terms of future mutual projects in energy infrastructure and education. While mainstream media reported on the visit in more general terms, the DAZ emphasized particular measures interesting to the German-Kazakh community.

Additionally, DAZ is a resource for those interested in businesses, education, and tourism in Central Asia and Germany. Foreigners interested in studying or working in Kazakhstan and/or Germany can benefit from such coverage and learn about educational and employment opportunities. It is noteworthy that Kazakhstan and Germany are boosting cooperation in higher and vocational education and DAZ provides coverage on these developments.

More than just a newspaper

In the interview with Global Voices, Robert Gerlitz, who has been the Director of the DAZ since 2018, noted: “Technically, DAZ is a subsidiary of the Social Foundation ‘Association of Germans of Kazakhstan “Wiedergeburt” (Rebirth).’ These two structures are inextricably linked.”

DAZ publishes not only the newspaper but also almost all the information related to the self-organization of Germans in Kazakhstan on other platforms.

Together with the Association of Germans of Kazakhstan “Wiedergeburt,” which was founded in 1989, DAZ is committed to preserving and promoting the national identity of the Germans in the former Soviet republics.

Self-organization is one of the consolidating factors of ethnic development of the German population in Kazakhstan. Since 1995, the Association of Germans of Kazakhstan has been actively involved in the activities of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, helping to build and promote inter-ethnic and inter-confessional harmony in Kazakhstan, which DAZ also promotes.

Gerlitz explained further about the newspaper's perspective.

As long as “Wiedergeburt” exists, the information needs of the German ethnic group will continue to be met by the printed and electronic versions of the newspaper. The DAZ will therefore live on. In the age of digitalization, electronic communication will become more and more important, and we will expand our websites and social media accounts.

History of Germans in Kazakhstan

The story of how the Germans came to Kazakhstan is characterized by suffering and forced deportation, but also by opportunity and hope. A manifesto issued by the Russian Tsarina Catherine II in 1763 attracted thousands of Germans to Russia, where they were allowed to cultivate vast tracts of land. The rush was great, and the colonialists settled in the Volga region in particular.

In 1941, Joseph Stalin deported the German minority, branded as spies, to Siberia and Kazakhstan, where they were initially not allowed to move freely.

Here is a YouTube video about Germans in Kazakhstan.

Ethnic Germans have played a significant role in shaping many areas of Kazakh culture and Kazakhstan as a scientific location. One particular example is the now-deceased writer and translator Herold Belger, for whom the DAZ organized several projects and events in honor of his 90th anniversary.

Belger was an extraordinary person who built the pillars of a bridge between the two cultural areas through his 45 books, numerous reviews, and prose in German and Kazakh. The Kazakh postal service recently honored him with a stamp.

Names such as Vladimir Baumeister and Ivan Sauer have long been included in the canon of the country's most influential personalities. Baumeister was a surgeon and deputy of the Supreme Council of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Sauer is a businessman in agriculture and manufacturer of one of the most popular dairy product companies in Kazakhstan called “Agrofirma Rodina.”

Challenges and prospects

Lawmakers in Kazakhstan proposed a law in mid-February to introduce a law on “foreign agents” based on the Russian model. The left-wing opposition People's Party of Kazakhstan claimed that the law would protect Kazakhstan's sovereignty, to which neither the ruling party nor the government has officially responded.

At present, therefore, one can only speculate about the details, but such a law has already been introduced in other former Soviet republics, such as Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. This law has hit civil society and the media landscape in Georgia hard and there are concerns that such a law could have a similar impact in Kazakhstan.

DAZ is currently funded by the Kazakh Ministry of Information, the (German) Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), and the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI), i.e. to a large extent by the German government funding.

But Gertliz is not worried.

The [potential] introduction of the Foreign Agents Act does not cause us any particular concern, as our parent organization, the “Wiedergeburt” foundation, has already been on the list of organizations receiving financial support from abroad since 2024.

Since the DAZ is free of charge, it is dependent on funding and advertising. Looking at the challenges most traditional media outlets face, such as a declining readership, the future of the DAZ also depends on its further adaptability to the needs of the modern news audience.