Featuring first-time translations of numerous examples of modern Kazakh literature for publication in the USA, this anthology provides excellent examples of literary life in both Soviet and post-Soviet Kazakhstan, and introduces readers to the rich literary traditions of the region. The materials introduce the rich literary heritage of Kazakhstan, which is a part of the unique prose and poetry traditions of the Central Asia steppes and Eurasia. The selected readings will enhance the understanding of unique nomadic culture and Central Asian universe of the great Eurasia Steppe, which, in the words of British Chancellor George Curzon, has "charms for the historian, the archeologist, the man of science ...." The Stories of the Great Steppe was designed as an a supplementary reader and textbook for students and general public studying 20th century Eastern European, Russian, and Central Asian literature, culture, and intellectual history. It can be used in courses on Slavic literature, Russian and Soviet literature, Russian cultural history, World History, and the History of World Civilizations. Dr. Rafis Abazov is an adjunct professor at Columbia University (New York, USA) and a visiting professor at Al Farabi Kazakh National University (Almaty, Kazakhstan). He has written six books, including The Culture and Customs of the Central Asian Republics (2007), Green Desert: The Life and Poetry of Olzhas Suleimenov (2011), and The Stories of the Great Steppe (2013). His research interests and publications focus on cultural globalization and the intellectual history of Central Eurasia and Russia, as well as public policy, governance, and contemporary cultural, intellectual and political trends in the region.

An anthology of Kazakh poetry from the 20th and 21st centuries.

An anthology of Kazakh prose from the 20th and 21st centuries.

This book is about the history of Kazakh literature place of the poetry of the period of independence. The changes brought by the independence, chain of historical consistency in spiritual world introduced new feature to domestic spirituality. Concepts of independence, liberty, freedom, country having been raised in the history of Kazakh literature early and often have reached new level and acquired new feature. Year in, year out dream of freedom, social movements on the way to get it, historical events and milestone endeavors influenced creative wave directly. After gaining independence domestic literature did not lose its old course and Soviet style immediately, but in the following decades it showed leap forward and reached new heights. ТҮЙІНДЕМЕ Қазақ әдебиеті тарихында тәуелсіздік кезеңіндегі поэзияның алатын орны айрықша. Тәуелсіздік әкелген өзгерістер, рухани әлемдегі желісі үзілмеген тарихи сабақтастық отандық руханиятқа соны сипат алып келді. Қазақ әдебиетінің арғы-бергі тарихындағы үздіксіз көтерілген тәуелсіздік, азаттық, еркіндік, елдік ұғымдары жаңа деңгейге көтеріліп, жаңа сипатқа ие болды. Ұзақ жылдар бойындағы азаттықты аңсау, оған қол жеткізудің жолындағы қоғамдық қозғалыстар, тарихи уақиғалар мен дәуірлік бетбұрыстар шығармашылық толқынға тікелей әсер етті. Ал егемендікке қол жеткізгеннен кейінгі отандық әдебиет алғашқы кезеңде ескі сарқыншақ пен советтік сарыннан айырыла қоймағанымен, кейінгі онжылдықтарда тың серпіліс көрсетіп, жаңа биікке шықты. Publisher: IPRJB peer reviewed journals and books publishers ISBN: 978-9914-9663-0-5 Authors: Dr.Assel R. Auzhanova. Pages: 202.

*Shortlisted for the 2018 Book Award in Social Sciences of the Central Eurasian Studies Society* Rewriting the Nation in Modern Kazakh Literature is a book about cultural transformations and trajectories of national imagination in modern Kazakhstan. The book is a much-needed critical introduction and a comprehensive survey of the Kazakh literary production and cultural discourses on the nation in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. In the absence of viable and open forums for discussion and in the turbulent moments of postcolonial and cultural transformation under the Soviets, the Kazakh writers and intellectuals widely engaged with the national identity, heritage and genealogy construction in literature. This active process of national canon construction and its constant re-writing throughout the twentieth century will inform the readers of the complex processes of cultural transformations in forms, genres and texts as well as demonstrating the genealogical development of the national narrative. The main focus of this book is on the cultural production of the nation. The focus is on the narratives of historical continuities produced in the literature and cultural discontinuities and inter-elite competition which inform such production. The development of Kazakh literary production is an extremely interesting yet underrepresented field of study. Since the late nineteenth century it saw a rapid transformation from the traditional oral to print literature. This brought an unprecedented shift in genres and texts production as well as a rapid growth of the ‘writing’ class – urban colonial and first generations of Soviet intelligentsia. Kazakh literary production became the flagman of republic’s rapid cultural modernization and prior to the World War II local publishing industry produced up to 6 million print copies a year. By the 1960s and 1970s – the golden era of Kazakh literature, the most read literary journal Juldyz sold 50,000 copies all over the country. Literature became the mass provider of knowledge about the past, the present and of the future of the country. Because “Kazakh readers were hungry to find out about their pre-Soviet past and its national glory” national writers competed in genres, styles and ways to write out the nation in prose, poems, essays and historical novels.

The Hungry Steppe examines one of the most heinous crimes of the Stalinist regime: the Kazakh famine of 1930–33. More than 1.5 million people, a quarter of Kazakhstan's population, perished. Yet the story of this famine has remained mostly hidden from view. Sarah Cameron reveals this brutal story and its devastating consequences for Kazakh society. Through extremely violent means, the Kazakh famine created Soviet Kazakhstan, a stable territory with clear boundaries that was an integral part of the Soviet economy; and it forged a new Kazakh national identity. But ultimately, Cameron finds, neither Kazakhstan nor Kazakhs themselves integrated into Soviet society the way Moscow intended. The experience of the famine scarred the republic and shaped its transformation into an independent nation in 1991. Cameron examines the Kazakh famine to overturn several assumptions about violence, modernization, and nation-making under Stalin, highlighting the creation of a new Kazakh national identity and how environmental factors shaped Soviet development. Ultimately, The Hungry Steppe depicts the Soviet regime and its disastrous policies in a new and unusual light.