Red Yurts and the Sovietization of Kazakh Auls (1920-1932)

Abstract

This thesis investigates red yurts (qyzyl otau) as mobile institutions and projects of sovietization in the rural Kazakh aul during the 1920s. Amid korenizatsiya and developmentalist policies, Bolshevik urban-based activists reconceived metropolitan templates (agit-trains, workers clubs) to steppe realities, addressing nomads’ “cultural backwardness”. The core research questions of this study are: how flexibly did the Bolsheviks modify metropolitan models for peripheries, to what extent did red yurts transcend agitprop and operate as multifunctional outposts, and how effectively did publications distributed in red yurts connect urban planners to rural audiences? By relying on the archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Kazakh periodicals, this study traces red yurts’ evolution from the Civil War to collectivization. It reveals their hybrid roles as first aid stations, legal counsels, Zhenotdel emancipation against kalym, hygiene education, and often the sole state presence in remote auls. In addition, this study analyses publications used in the yurts, such as Ayel Tendigi and Rabotnitsa, and their flaws as agitprop materials. This thesis refines korenizatsiya boundaries, examines colonial lenses, and extends byt studies to Central Asia. Building on the works of Rebekah Ramsay and Alun Thomas, it highlights the pre-1928 “soft power” and local agency in the process of Sovietization.