Claiming Ancestral Homelandsː Mongolian Kazakh migration in Inner Asia by Anna Genina A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in The University of Michigan 2015 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Alaina Lemon, chair Professor Gillian Feeley-Harnik Professor Douglas Northrop Professor Andrew Shryock Anna Genina © 2015 All rights reserved I dedicate this work to my mom: Мамочка, спасибо тебе за все что ты мне дала, и особенно за твое упрямство. ii Acknowledgements This dissertation has been over a decade in the making. It would not have been possible without the assistance and support of family, friends, research participants, mentors, and colleagues in the US, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. I am grateful to Alaina Lemon for being an ever patient and supportive advisor and mentor. I thank her for her continued guidance and her ever-present sense of humor. Gillian Feeley-Harnik read multiple drafts of this dissertation and I am most grateful for her passion, her enthusiasm, her generous spirit, and her ability to put into beautiful words the arguments I did not know were there. I thank Doug Northrop for his unwavering support, for his thoughtful and careful reading and feedback, and for inspiring me to be a better teacher. I thank Andrew Shryock for our conversations that helped to me hone my arguments and for teaching me how to be a good reader. I am grateful to all the people at the University of Michigan who taught me how to be a good student, scholar, colleague, and teacher: Bruce Mannheim, Judy Irvine, John Mitani, Holly Peters-Golden, and Katherine Verdery. I thank David Akin and Tom Trautmann at the CSSH for showing me what it takes to create a piece of writing and the necessary collaboration of many people it takes. iii Thank you to all the Ethnolab participants who took their time to read many initial drafts of the dissertation chapters and provided feedback that helped me to formulate my arguments and hone my writing. To my friends at the University of Michigan who supported me emotionally, made me coffee, fed me, read my drafts, helped at every stage of writing, and without whose help it would have never been possible: Jessica Robbins, Sumi Cho, Susanne Unger, Purvi Mehta, Bridget Guarasci, Christina P. Davis, Keri Allen, Jessica Rolston- Smith, Jennifer Tucker, Kate Graber, and Henrike Florusbosch. I am especially grateful to my friends and roommates with whom I shared a home and many a sleepless night, and who were always there to laugh or cry with: Sherina Feliciano-Santos, Kirstin Swagman, and Claire Insel. I am grateful to Xochitl Ruiz for always being there, in the most difficult and the happiest times of my life: I love you, don’t ever change! To Sara Feldman and Talia Gangoo: a friend in need is a friend indeed! Thank you for everything. Thank you also to Joseph Norman for his warm support and for staying up all night to fix my computer I am thankful to Laurie Marx for always being there to provide needed advice, help, and an occasional kick in the butt. Thank you to Lester Monts for quickly becoming a warm and supportive friend and for a gift of food that kept me and Xochitl well nourished through the dead of winter. I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone in Kazakhstan, without whom none of this research would have been possible. Thank you to my research consultant, iv Khulakhaskha Serkesh Tolebaiuly Seiitting Zhaughashary (Zhake) for his gracious spirit, kindness, his openness to new people and experiences, deep scholarly curiosity, and his endless energy and enthusiasm. I am grateful to Esengul Kapkyzy, Kairat Bodaukhan, Zardykhan Kinayatuly, Babakhumar Sinayatuly, Botagoz Uatkhan, Saghat Zaxankhyzy, Saghat-agha, Zhalilbek-agha, Bayan-apa, and other Mongolian Kazakhs who opened their homes to me and shared their stories and experiences. Сіздерге көп-көп рахмет! I thank the family of Omirzhan-agha and Nara-apke and their sister Zaghipa-apke for being wonderful hosts and friends, sharing their home with me, and for showing me that a loving family will endure anything together. In Shamalghan, I am grateful to the family of Kairat-agha and Raikhan-apke. Their home was always open and tea always ready for guests. They showed me the extent of true Kazakh hospitality and made me part of their family. In Uzynaghash, I thank the family of Svetlana, Galina and Pasha, for letting me crash in their house any time I needed and for sharing food, tea and conversations long into the night. I am grateful to Dedushka Kolya, the kindest man I have ever met with a heart of a child and wisdom of an elder. I am sorry that you never got to come to the US for my wedding: Пусть земля вам будет пухом. Thank you to my friends Olya and Asem: девочки, без вас было бы так тяжело! In Bayan Ulgii, Mongolia, I thank the family of Meiram-agha and Bijan-apa for being generous hosts and patient guides. I am thankful to Zoya-apa for helping me with every aspect of fieldwork in Ulgii, traveling with me to outlying pastures, introducing me to people, and helping to conduct interviews and navigate everyday social interactions. I v am grateful to all the people in Ulgii who helped me with my research, talked to me about their lives, offered me kumis, and shared tea and food with me in their homes. I especially thank Zukhai Sharbakynuly, Shynai Rakhmetuly, Uzben Kurmanbaiuly, and Omirbek Maghauiiauly for sharing their writing and scholarship with me. Finally I am eternally grateful for my family who have made everything up to now possible. Thank you to my grandparents in Kiev, Ukraine, my grandpa Yuri and my grandma Lida. Grandpa, thank you for being kind, patient, remaining always passionately committed to your ideals, and for teaching me to read when I was three. Thank you to my family in the US: my great-aunt Masha who always stayed with us, even when we were separated for 15 years by an Iron Curtain, and for supporting me with anything I ever needed throughout my life. To my babushka Katya: Бабушка, если я перечислю всё за что я тебе благодарна то и места на странице не останется: Спасибо! I am also grateful to my cats, black one and stripy one, as well as Jorgito and Lola, for giving me warmth, love, and lots of laughs. To my mom and dad and my brother Boris: Дом - это там, где тебя поймут, там, где надеются и ждут. Finally, I would like to say thank you to the Soviet government for teaching me to never trust authority. vi Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix Abstract ................................................................................................................................x Chapter One: Introduction: Altai, Mongolia, Kazakhstan ...................................................1 Oskemen/Ust’-Kamenogorsk: at the borders of four countries ...................................... 1 Homeland ........................................................................................................................ 8 Rootedness as Movement / Movement as Rootedness ................................................. 83 Altai: “the golden cradle” ............................................................................................. 17 Altai as Russian Shambhala .......................................................................................... 24 Eurasianism, ethnoterrritoriality, and the Kazakhstani Snow Leopard ........................ 25 Claiming Culture ........................................................................................................... 27 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 33 Chapter Breakdown ...................................................................................................... 37 Chapter Two: The Beginning of the Great Migration .......................................................39 "The flight of all the people raises a cloud of dust stronger than the winter snowstorm." ...................................................................................................................................... 40 ‘Chicken is not a bird and Mongolia is not abroad.' ..................................................... 46 “It is better to be a common person in your homeland than to be a sultan in a foreign country." ........................................................................................................................ 51 Labor Practices and Mobility in Kazakhstan ................................................................ 58 Conclusion: Mobility and Immobility in Mongolia and Kazakhstan ........................... 63 Chapter Three: “Black Russians" and "Pure Kazakhs": Kazakhstan as a Soviet "Laboratory of Nations" .....................................................................................................66 Vernyi/Alma-ata/Almaty: "City of Prophetic Dreams" ................................................ 68 Aport: "The Patriotic Apple" ........................................................................................ 73 "If You Want to Become Russian, First Become a Kazakh."