• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington

Open Search Menu

Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

Robert F. Byrnes
Russian and East European Institute

  • Home
  • About
    • Director's message
    • Affiliate Faculty
    • Visiting Faculty and Scholars
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • Regions of Study
    • About Bloomington
  • Undergraduate
    • REEI Minor & Language Certificate
    • REEI Area Studies Certificate
    • 4+1 Pathways
    • Polish Studies Minor
    • Courses
    • Advising
    • IU Funding Opportunities
    • Funding Opportunities
    • External Funding
    • Summer Language Study at IU
    • Study Abroad
    • Student Experience
    • Career Preparation
  • Graduate
    • Degrees
    • 4+1 Pathways
    • Courses
    • Academic Opportunities
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Summer Language Study
    • Study Abroad
    • Student Experience
    • Essays & Dissertations
    • Career Preparation
    • How to Apply
  • Outreach & Resources
    • RUSSIA'S ATTACK ON UKRAINE: RESOURCES
    • Pre K and K-12 Education
    • Resource Library
    • IU Library Research Guides for Russian and East European Studies
    • Russian Studies Workshop
    • Other Resources at IU
  • Alumni & Giving
    • Giving Opportunities
    • Get Involved
  • News & Events
    • Institute News
    • Calendar of Events
    • Language Conversation Hours
    • Past Events
    • REEIfication Newsletter
    • Subscribe to REEI Listserv / Submit an Event for Listing
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Institute News
  • Calendar of Events
  • Language Conversation Hours
  • Past Events
  • REEIfication Newsletter
    • Newsletter Archive
      • Fall 2021
      • Spring 2021
      • Fall 2020
      • Spring 2020
  • Subscribe to REEI Listserv / Submit an Event for Listing
  • Home
  • News & Events
  • REEIfication Newsletter
  • Newsletter Archive
  • Fall 2017 Newsletter
  • Dr. Ablet Kamalov Comes to IU

Dr. Ablet Kamalov Comes to IU

By: Austin Wilson

Monday, September 18, 2017

On September 7th, the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and the Pan-Asia Institute hosted a lecture by Dr. Ablet Kamalov of Turan University, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Dr. Kamalov has taught throughout Eurasia and America and has won two national prizes in Kazakhstan for his contribution to the sciences and is currently a CEUS visiting scholar. In his lecture, Dr. Kamalov showed the intersection between scopes of the Inner Asian Uralic National Resource Center, the Pan-Asia Institute, and the Russian and East European Institute, and how broad and specific area studies in conjunction with post-Communist and post-Soviet framings can reveal significant and novel historical truths.

Dr. Kamalov’s topic was on the waves of interethnic violence in then-Russian Central Asia in 1916 and 1918. The Revolt of 1916 was triggered by the Tsarist authorities proclaiming the beginning of conscription in the region to supply manpower to the war effort against Germany. In 1918, 40% of the Taranchi population, the Uighurs of Semirechye oblast’, were either killed by Bolsheviks, or fled to China. The popular historiography of the 1918 event attribute the violence to Red Terror, or as the defeat of counter-revolutionaries. Dr. Kamalov preceded to deconstruct these arguments. Explaining the massacres as a part of the “Red Terror” simply essentializes the violence as inevitable. The argument that the violence was perpetrated as a part of the war against the whites only stands on the promise of land by the White government led by Admiral Kolchak to Taranchis who took up arms against the Bolsheviks.

To reframe the events in 1916 and 1918, Dr. Kamalov describes three approaches he utilized. The archival records “speak Bolshevik,” a phrase he borrows from Stephen Kotkin, meaning that to make proper use of archival records, one has to understand the centrality of the Bolshevik discourse captured in record-keeping to best understand them. From this, he deconstructed the Soviet narrative, to better understand when the historical discourse changes, and supplemented this with local narratives, Taranchi folk songs from the period that were recorded in the 1930s. With further historical research, he found that the root of the violence dates back to the 1880s, thirty years before. There were contradictions in land allotment to the Taranchis, Cossacks, and Russian colonists that often erupted in violence. The revolt and massacres of 1916 and 1918 were triggered by political upheaval, but the source was long-simmering land conflict. This is how the Taranchi Massacre came to be fought on one side Taranchis and Cossacks, long local competitors over land and against recently-arrived, impoverished Russian colonists committing indiscriminate violence against both. Like the Taranchis themselves, “Taranchi” means “newcomer” in Kazakh, the dispute was founded on who controlled the land in the region, and who did not.

Dr. Kamalov’s lecture was insightful, and showed what careful examination of sources can reveal about history and the utility of intertextual and multimodal media analysis for historical research. It was also a model for approaches to interregional studies and the opportunities for crossing traditional area studies borders.

Austin Wilson is studying in the REEI M.A. program

  • Faculty + Staff Intranet

Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute social media channels

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Additional links and resources

Indiana UniversityHamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

Indiana University

Copyright © 2023 The Trustees of Indiana University

Accessibility | Privacy Notice

Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

  • About
    • Director's message
    • Affiliate Faculty
    • Visiting Faculty and Scholars
    • Staff
    • Graduate Students
    • Regions of Study
    • About Bloomington
  • Undergraduate
    • REEI Minor & Language Certificate
    • REEI Area Studies Certificate
    • 4+1 Pathways
    • Polish Studies Minor
    • Courses
    • Advising
    • IU Funding Opportunities
    • Funding Opportunities
    • External Funding
    • Summer Language Study at IU
    • Study Abroad
    • Student Experience
    • Career Preparation
      • Career Advising
  • Graduate
    • Degrees
    • 4+1 Pathways
    • Courses
    • Academic Opportunities
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Summer Language Study
    • Study Abroad
    • Student Experience
    • Essays & Dissertations
    • Career Preparation
      • Career Resources
      • Job Placements
      • Internships
    • How to Apply
      • FAQs
  • Outreach & Resources
    • RUSSIA'S ATTACK ON UKRAINE: RESOURCES
    • Pre K and K-12 Education
    • Resource Library
    • IU Library Research Guides for Russian and East European Studies
    • Russian Studies Workshop
    • Other Resources at IU
  • Alumni & Giving
    • Giving Opportunities
    • Get Involved
  • News & Events
    • Institute News
    • Calendar of Events
    • Language Conversation Hours
    • Past Events
    • REEIfication Newsletter
      • Newsletter Archive
        • Fall 2021
          • Director's Message
        • Spring 2021
        • Fall 2020
        • Spring 2020
    • Subscribe to REEI Listserv / Submit an Event for Listing
  • Contact