Mapping the Peoples of Kazakhstan

Stalin’s collectivization drive of 1930–33 caused a famine that killed approximately 1.6 million Kazakhs. Approximately two million forced settlers were deported to the republic from the Caucasus, the western borderlands, and the Korean far east from 1934 to 1944. Khrushchev’s “Virgin Lands” campaign brought another 300,000 Slavic settlers to the northwestern part of the republic in the mid-1950s. Another one million people, mostly Slavs, passed through the Karaganda Gulag camp complex. Many prisoners stayed after Khrushchev closed Karaganda in 1959, because they had nowhere else to go.

In the late 1950s Khrushchev allowed many forced settlers to return home. In the 1960s, persecution of Dungans and Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China pushed thousands of new involuntary migrants into the Kazakh republic.

Between the famine and the influx of forced settlers, by 1939 Kazakhs accounted for only 38% of the population of “their own” republic, while Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians made up 51%. Kazakhs did not become a majority of the population until the late 1980s.

Western scholars have had access to the population data for Soviet Kazakhstan for decades, but we have not looked at where the many peoples of Kazakhstan formed communities. This project explores the geographic dimensions of demographic change: were Kazakhs and Slavs predominant in different areas? where did national enclaves form, dissolve, and move? what was the relationship, if any, between geographical predominance and political power?

Soviet census data for 1926 to 1989 can be found at the  Institute of Demographics  attached to the Higher Economic School National Research University in Moscow.

Russian demographers have organized the data in helpful and unhelpful ways. There are downloadable tables that categorize the population by sex, age, urban and rural habitation, marital status, and nationality.  Great! 

HOWEVER, if you want to know about the population structure of a particular republic, you had better know the names of all of its oblasts (counties), because the table does not tell you which oblasts are in which republic. There are no data available below the oblast’ level.

Furthermore, while tables list the nationalities in a consistent order, the logic of that order is not clear. It is neither alphabetic, nor based on size, nor on region. You have to do a lot of poking around. The Soviets changed the names and borders of oblasts repeatedly through the surveyed period.

In 1959 the Kazakh SSR had a total population of 8,810,945. Of those, 3,768,503 were Russian, 701,542 were Ukrainian, 91,599 were Belarusian, and 2,704,119 were Kazakh. The Slavic population was a mix of voluntary and forced migrants. Despite the heavy hand of the Soviet state—with its labor camps, “special settlements,” and residence permit (прописка) requirements—population sorting on the basis of nationality did occur.

You can see statistics for each oblast by clicking on the map. Scroll all the way down to see a pie chart. Just under half of all Kazakhs were concentrated in the six southwestern oblasts, 1,418,694 people. Meanwhile three quarters of the Slavic population (3,356,708 out of 4,561,633 people) were concentrated in the seven northeast oblasts and Almaty City.

Ukrainians were notable in northwest Kostanai (21%) and Aktiubinsk/Aqtobe (17%), Russians made up more than 70% of the population in the eastern part of East Kazakhstan (then split into East and Semipalatinsk oblasts) and Almaty City, and Kazakhs were over 70% in QzylOrda and Atyrau/Gurev (which included today’s Mangystau/Mangishlak oblast).

While the Kazakhs and Slavs made up 82% of the total population, the remaining 18% included dozens of other nationalities. These were mostly forced migrants, of whom peoples from the North Caucasus are best known in the West. In 1944, as the Germans retreated from the USSR, Stalin accused the Chechens, Ingush, Kabardino-Balkar, and others of collaborating as nations with the Nazis. Even as the Red Army needed all available resources to capture Berlin, NKVD (political police) chief Lavrenty Beria diverted freight trains to transport hundreds of thousands of people and dump them in Kazakhstan. Many died on the journey. This brutal exile is one of the root causes of the Russo-Chechen wars of 1994–2007.

By 1959 North Caucasian exiles had started to return home, so the census did not capture the population at its height. The Chechens made up the largest community at 128,853 people, followed by the Ingush at 40,623. While Chechens lived in every oblast except Western Kazakhstan, which apparently had no North Caucasians at all, they were concentrated in the eastern oblasts. The Ingush formed distinct enclaves in Aqmola/Akmolinsk, Pavlodar, and Almaty City, while more than half of the Balkar population lived in Zhambyl and Almaty oblasts. The entire Karachey population lived in Zhambyl and South Kazakhstan.

Western travelers to Central Asia are often surprised to meet a robust Korean community. In 1937 Stalin, fearing that borderland nationalities would betray the USSR, forced the entire Korean population to move to collective farms in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Most Koreans ended up in Uzbekistan, and the 73,065 Koreans in Kazakhstan concentrated in nearby oblasts in the south. The other notable east Asian community are the Dungans, 76% of whom lived in Zhambyl oblast. The Dungans are ethnic Han Chinese who converted to Islam in earlier centuries. They began to migrate into Kazakh territory in the later 19 ^th  century, pushed by Qing Dynasty and Imperial Russian encroachment. There were also 2895 Han Chinese scattered across the republic.

Kazakhs speak a Turkic language, and have always shared their territories with other Turkic-speaking groups. These other Turkic communities were mostly descended from earlier, voluntary migrations, unlike the North Caucasian peoples. The two biggest Turkic communities, the Tatars and the Uzbeks, are neighbors and relatives of the Kazakhs. The 184,125 Tatars lived all over Kazakhstan, making up more than 2% of the population in Karaganda, North, Aqtobe, West, South, and Almaty City oblasts. The census did not distinguish between Volga Tatars and exiled Crimean Tatars. The 136,333 Uzbeks were much more concentrated in Zhambyl and South oblasts.

The Uyghurs were pushed into Kazakhstan from their home in Xinjiang, China by war and Chinese communist persecution. 84% of the Uyghur community lived in Almaty oblast, which rises to 97% when you include the 7974 Uyghurs in Almaty City. An unexpected community was the Azerbaijanis, who came, probably involuntarily, from the south Caucasus. Most of the 38,241 Azerbaijanis lived in Almaty and South oblasts.

A sizable German population had farmed Kazakh lands since the 19 ^th  century. Their numbers were increased by exiles from the Stalin period. After the Russians, Kazakhs, and Ukrainians, the 529,070 Germans were the next largest nationality, making up 6.7% of the total population. They predominated in the northern oblasts.

Greeks also formed a significant community, something of a surprise. The 53,929 Greeks were exiles from Crimea, which had had a robust Greek population going back some 2,500 years. Just over half of the Greek population lived in South oblast. Zhambyl oblast also held a large community. There were almost equal numbers of Jews (27,495) and Poles (27,870). The largest Jewish community was in Almaty City. Poles, who were prisoners from the 1945 Soviet occupation of Poland, concentrated in northern Aqmola and the former camps of Karaganda.

In 1970 the total population of the Kazakh SSR was 13,008,726. Russians remained the largest group at 5,520,917 people. There were 4,234,166 Kazakhs, 933,461 Ukrainians, and 170,251 Belarusians. Kazakhs were moving eastward, slightly outnumbering the Russians in Almaty oblast, although not the Slavs overall. Almaty City remained 75% Slavic, but the Kazakh population grew from 8% to 12%. The population ratios edged a little closer as more Slavs moved west. For example, in 1959 Atyrau/Gurev oblast was 72% Kazakh to 22% Slav. In 1970 it was 62% Kazakh to 30% Slav. The Kazakh population overall was growing faster than the Slavic, 37% to 32%. The Belarusian population almost doubled. Belarusians already had significant communities in Aqmola, Karaganda, and Kostanai, but exploded in North oblast from 4,974 to 32,542.

The Soviet government divided and renamed several oblasts between 1959 and 1970, when Kazakhstan had 18 oblasts to today’s 15. Almaty oblast was split into Almaty and Taldy Kurgan; North was split into North and Kokchetau; Kostanai was split into Kostanai and Turgai; East remained split into East and Semipalatinsk. South oblast was re-named Chimkent, West oblast was re-named Uralsk, Aqtobe/Aktiubinsk oblast was re-named Tselinograd, and today’s Mangystau/Mangishlak was still part of Atyrau/Gurev oblast. I have added together the data to match today’s boundaries, but the matches are not exact. In addition to the above, the state took some territory from Tselinograd and Kostanai to build Turgai, and took some territory from Uzbekistan’s Syr Darya oblast and gave it to South/Chimkent after the census was taken.

The North Caucasian population dwindled to where there was no point in mapping them. The Chechens decreased from 128,853 to 34,540; the Ingush from 40,623 to 18,455. The Balkars and the Karachey spread much more widely around the republic, but there were only 3,761 of them left, combined. This suggests that the communities of 1959, in Zhambyl, South, and Almaty oblasts, had broken up.

The East Asian population showed the violent effects of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) next door. The Korean population grew 11%, but the Dungans exploded from 9,859 in 1959 to 17,021 in 1970. The Han Chinese population also grew, from 2,895 to 4,189. The Dungans remained concentrated in Zhambyl, where 75% of them lived.

Among the Turkic peoples, the Uyghurs were also victims of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In 1959 there were 59,253 Uyghurs in Kazakhstan. By 1970 that number doubled to 120,881, of whom 94% lived in Almaty oblast and Almaty City. The Tatars increased from 184,125 to 284,689. They made up more than 2% of the population in nine oblasts, and around 3% in Karaganda and South/Chimkent. Their close relatives the Bashkirs more than doubled, from 8,383 to 21,442. They clustered in Karaganda and the northern oblasts. The Uzbeks increased from 136,333 to 216,339, but unlike the Tatars they heavily concentrated in South/Chimkent, where they made up almost 14% of the population. The Azerbaijani population grew 50%, from 38,241 to 57,609, mostly in Almaty and South oblasts.

The Germans increased from 592,070 to 858,032, but stayed at 6.7% of the population overall. Their greatest concentrations remained in the northern oblasts, but they grew in Almaty and Zhambyl. The Greek population shrank slightly from 53,929 to 51,160. This suggests that, like the Crimean Tatars, Greeks were not allowed to return home to Crimea after Stalin’s death. Most Greeks still lived in South and Zhambyl oblasts, showing little movement. The Jewish population was static, but the Poles more than doubled from 27,870 to 61,445. The number of Poles living in Aqmola oblast was almost unchanged, but leaped from 2,433 to 29,813 in North oblast.

Despite the ending of mass forced migration after Stalin’s death in 1953, Kazakhstan still dealt with major demographic changes. Between 1959 and 1970 the Uyghur, Dungan, and Chinese populations increased by 70,000, mostly Uyghurs fleeing the Cultural Revolution. Because the Uyghurs were so concentrated in Almaty and the Dungans in Zhambyl, their arrival was very noticeable. The Polish population increased by 33,575 and the Belarusian population by 78,663, concentrated in North oblast. The total population of that oblast jumped from 456,249 in 1959 to 1,145,034 in 1970 (when the same area was split into North and Kokchetau oblasts). Meanwhile, the North Caucasian communities shriveled.