Kazakhization of Petropavlovsk to Petropavl ‘Satisfies No One,’ ‘Times of Central Asia’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 29 – Since 1991, Kazakhstan has restored Kazakh place names that the Soviets had replaced with Russian ones; but in other cases, Astana has retained the Russian name (ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Переименованные_населённые_пункты_Казахстана). In one place, it has tried a compromise; but that “satisfies no one,” The Times of Central Asia says.

            That involves a predominantly ethnic Russian city in the northern part of the country. Known as Petropavlovsk in both tsarist and Soviet times and still referred to that by many Russians, it is now to be called Petropavl, a Kazakhization of the Russian rather than a restoration of the Kazakh original (timesca.com/petropavl-a-city-of-two-tales/).

            The city has 220,000 residents, and ethnic Russians outnumber ethnic Kazakhs two to one, 60 percent to 30 percent respectively. The Russians are unhappy with the new name and still refer to the place by its older Russian ones. The Kazakhs are unhappy because they believe there is a Kazakh name – Qyzyljar – that should replace the Russian one.

            But there seems little chance that will happen any time soon. Fifteen years ago, local Kazakhs pressed for changing the name to Qyzyljar, an effort that provoked the largely quiescent ethnic Russian population to put up yellow ribbons on just about everything to show that they wanted the Russian or at least the Kazakhified Russian name to remain in place.

            Given how worried many have been about the possibility that Moscow wants to stir up secessionist trouble in Kazakhstan’s north, that is not the kind of conflict Astana wants to see emerge. And in recent years, this conflict has faded, with each ethnic community referring to the city as it wants rather than trying to impose its views on the other.

            Maintaining that balance, however, is not easy. Kazakh owners of a distillery have named their most popular vodka brand for the Kazakh name of the city; and the city’s water company has renamed itself Qyzyljar. It has put that name, alongside the Kazakhified Petropavl, on manhole covers (instagram.com/reel/DPdfVA5DWer/).

            For the time being, that is the new balance; but with the continuing outflow of ethnic Russians and the rising percentage of ethnic Kazakhs, that likely is the halfway house to a Kazakh name at some point in the future.