CAIS Public Lecture Series | Remembering the 1931-1933 Kazakh Famine: Memory and Representation

This talk examines the evolving memory of the Kazakh famine of 1931–1933, one of the most devastating yet under-researched episodes of mass starvation in the 20th century. While the famine led to the death and displacement of over a million people, its public commemoration in Kazakhstan remained limited for decades due to Soviet censorship and archival suppression. Drawing on archival research, generational accounts, and recent historiography, this presentation explores how the famine has been remembered and forgotten across generations, spaces, and narratives. It traces the shifts from denial and marginalization to recent efforts at public recognition, including memorial projects, educational reforms, and state-led rehabilitation initiatives. The talk also places the Kazakh case in comparative perspective, asking what the politics of remembering famine reveals about post-colonial identity, historical justice, and the contested boundaries of famine discourse in the Global South.

Speaker:

Berikbol Dukeyev is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Nazarbayev University. His research focuses on memory politics, vernacular politics, and micropolitics in Central Asia, with a particular emphasis on the 1931–1933 Kazakh famine. He has published in the Journal of Genocide Research, Globalizations, Nationalities Papers, Central Asian Survey, and Problems of Post-Communism, among other journals. Berikbol holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from the Australian National University. His current work explores how the famine is remembered and contested in the context of the Global South