Kazakhs in the Saratov region

Kazakhs began to settle in the Saratov Trans-Volga region from the end of the 18th century, on lands that were empty after the exodus of the Volga Kalmyks to Dzungaria in 1771. The Kazakhs who migrated to the territory of modern Saratov Oblast belonged to the Bukeev Horde , which in 1801, the emperor Paul I granted land in the Volga region.

The census of 1926 recorded 4,876 Kazakhs in the Saratov province and 1,351 in the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Volga Germans (most of which were located in the territory of modern Saratov region). During the famine in Kazakhstan 1932-1933. the number of Kazakhs in the territory of modern Saratov region increased by about 5 times primarily due to the influx of immigrants from the starving regions of Western Kazakhstan . So the 1937 census recorded 19,663 Kazakhs in the Saratov region and 6,268 in the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Natural population growth and ongoing (but already much smaller) migration led to a further increase in the number of Kazakhs, so according to the 1939 census, there were already 23,436 Kazakhs in the Saratov Region, and 8,988 in the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

With the outbreak of World War II, all Germans from the region were evicted , the Volga Germans Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was liquidated, and the Saratov Region acquired modern borders. From the center of the European part of Russia (in particular, the Moscow Region), the Kazakhs who had previously settled there were resettled to the areas from which the Germans were evicted. In addition, over 30 thousand Kazakhs were sent to work in the Saratov region as part of the so-called. labor army .

The first post-war census of 1959 recorded 44 thousand Kazakhs, of whom 97.2% indicated Kazakh as their native language. By 1979, the number of Kazakhs reached 63 345 people, and by 1989 - 73 428 people ^[2] .

* ^{_{- summarized data on the Saratov province / region and the Volga Germans Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic; the latter subsequently became part of the Saratov region not entirely, therefore this amount is somewhat overstated.}}

Already the first All-Russian population census of 2002 showed that the Kazakhs became the second largest nationality of the Saratov region - 78,320 people. (2.94% of the population) ^[3] , of which only 55 thousand people speak Kazakh ^[4] , the lowest degree of Kazakh language proficiency among the younger generation ^[5] . A survey conducted among Kazakhs in the Saratov region showed that only 11% of respondents said that they speak the Kazakh language best, 15% said that they speak Kazakh and Russian equally well, and 74% said that they speak Russian best. ^[6] .

A survey of visitors to the Kazakhs of the Saratov Region website showed that when asked about the degree of Kazakh language proficiency, 11% answered that they knew Kazakh, 20% said they knew “half”, 41% said they understood but didn’t speak, 26% didn’t know Kazakh language ^[7] .

Now, representatives of the following Kazakh families live mainly in the Saratov region: Karakesek , Zhappas, Baybakty, Berish, Sherkesh, Tana, Tama, Kerderi, Kyzyl-Kurt, Tyulengut, etc. But tribal consciousness is currently weakly expressed among the Saratov Kazakhs ^[2] .

Among the Kazakhs, the rural population prevails - 79%, therefore, both in the areas of traditional settlement and in the region as a whole, the share of Kazakhs in the rural population is about 10 times higher than in the urban: Kazakhs make up 0.85% of the urban population of the region and 8, 7% rural ^[4] .

Kazakhs in the Saratov region are settled mainly in its Trans-Volga part. The largest Kazakh population is in Aleksandrovo-Gaysky (where Kazakhs make up the vast majority of the population 52% ^[8] ), Ozinsky (28% ^[9] ), Novouzensky (25.2% ^[10] ), Perelyubsky (10.2% ^{[11 ]} ), Dergachevsky (20.8% ^[12] ), St. Petersburg (9.6% ^[13] , according to other sources 20.5% ^[14] ), Krasnokutsky (13.0% ^[15] ), Ershovsky (9 % ^[16] ), Fedorovsky (10.6% ^[17] ), Krasnopartizansky (9.9% ^[18] ), Marx (almost 5 thousand people, 7% of the population ^[19] ), Engels (2.0 % ^[20] ), Rivne (18.5% ^[21] ) districts ^[22] .

Since 1998, a Kazakh national school has been operating in the Aleksandrov-Gai district center, and Kazakh is taught in five schools of the Aleksandrov-Gaysky and Novouzensky districts ^[24] .

The schools of the Aleksandrovo-Gaysky, Novouzensky, Engelsky municipal districts of the region are supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, periodically updating the methodological literature and textbooks, dictionaries and fiction in the Kazakh language ^[25] .

In a number of areas where Kazakhs live compactly, mosques were built from the 1990s ^{[6] [26]} . Earlier, the imams in mosques located in Kazakh villages were usually Tatars, but currently there are six Kazakh imams in the Saratov region. In Islamic universities in Russia and abroad, several young Saratov Kazakhs are studying. The head of the press service of the Spiritual Administration of the Volga Muslims A. Sh. Makhmetov is a Kazakh by nationality ^[24] .

Since 2013, the Dostar Sports Youth Center has been operating, which in 2016 was transformed into the Dostar Sports and Kazakh Culture Development Fund ^[27] .

A number of national-cultural Kazakh organizations were created in the region. So, as of September 1, 2009, the public organization “Saratov Local Kazakh National Cultural Autonomy”, as well as the Regional National Cultural Autonomy of the Kazakhs of the Saratov Region ^[28] , the local Kazakh national and cultural autonomy of the Rivne District of the Saratov Region, and the local Kazakh national and cultural organization operated in the region. autonomy of the Krasnokutsky district of the Saratov region ^[29] . In June 2011, it was decided to open the national cultural autonomy of the Kazakhs of the Aleksandrovo-Gaysky district ^{[30] [31]} . On the territory of the region there is also the Saratov regional public organization “Association of Volga Kazakhs” ^{[32] [33]} , in 2000 the public organization “Kazakh League of the Volga Region” was established ^[34] . In Saratov, the youth Kazakh organization Asar operates ^[35] .

There is (since 1997) the Saratov regional center of Kazakh culture "Kazakhstan" ^[36] . There are regional centers of Kazakh culture: the Ozinsky center of Kazakh culture “Dostar” (since 2002) ^{[37] [38]} , the Kazakh cultural center “Dostyk” in the Aleksandrovo-Gaysky district ^[39] , the national cultural center of the Krasnokutsky district “Arman” ^{[ 40]} , the Novouzensky Kazakh cultural center “Saule” ^[41] .

Over the past years, the official representative office of the West Kazakhstan region has been successfully operating in the Saratov region . This allows you to strengthen the economic and intercultural component in the work to maintain the connection of Kazakhs with their ethnic homeland ^[25] .

The leaders of Kazakh national organizations are actively involved in the public life of the region. The chairman of the center of Kazakh culture "Kazakhstan" E. T. Dzhunelbaev was a member of the Public Chamber of the Saratov region of the first convocation.

The President of the Volga Kazakhs Association V. A. Tashpekov is a member of the Public Chamber of the Saratov Region of the second and third convocations since February 2011. He is a member of the Council of the Public Chamber ^{[42] [43]} .

• Kazakhs in Russia