Language learners in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, gathering in a park. A new club to learn Kazakh drew a great deal of interest. Photos: Hannah Wagner/dpa
Dozens of people are gathered on a rainy afternoon in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, to improve their command of their own language.
"Do you want to dance?" says teacher Alexei Skalosubov in Russian.
Then he asks the group, "And how do we say that in Kazakh now?"
Young and old, men and women sit in front of him. One elderly lady has brought her grandson with her.
Several people raise their hands.
"Sisdin bi bileginis kele me," answers one pupil correctly.Kazakhstan, which has a border with Russia to the north and China to the south-east, used to be part of the Soviet Union but became independent more than 30 years ago.
An oil-rich, multi-ethnic state, it is still home to many ethnic Russians, who live alongside Kazakhs.
Learning Kazakh was for many a form of protest after Russia invaded Ukraine.
But Moscow retains a major political, economic and linguistic influence on Kazakhstan. Not even half of the country's 19 million inhabitants speak Kazakh, according to official data, even though Kazakh is, alongside Russian, the country's main language, used in everyday life.
One in five people does not know the Turkic language at all, a fact that teacher Skalosubov is looking to change.
This aim towards greater linguistic autonomy won further impetus in Feb 2022, after the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, also a former Soviet republic.
"Russia's war in Ukraine has had a big impact on the mood here," says Skalosubov. "It has also raised many questions: What kind of people are we? What kind of future do we have? Could we also find ourselves in a situation like Ukraine at some point?"
Many decided to learn Kazakh as a kind of protest, he says.
Skalosubov set up his free language club, called "Batyl Bol", which means "Be brave", in April 2022.
The level of interest was enormous, he says. Several hundred people registered within the space of a few days.
His programme is now on offer in several Kazakh cities. Most of the attendees are Russian-speaking Kazakhs, but some foreigners come too, including Russians who fled the country to avoid being drafted into the army and now want to integrate into their new homeland.
Especially at the beginning of the war, people feared that in a surge of imperialism, Russia could also theoretically invade Kazakhstan, says political scientist Dimash Alshanov.
Skalosubov teaching Kazakh in Almaty, where fear of the Kremlin's war has driven many to start learning the language.
"Ethnic Kazakhs in particular are afraid," he said.
That fear has subsided somewhat, he adds, as Moscow has faltered in the war. Those military defeats in Ukraine show the Russian army is not equipped for another war, he says.
But even apart from the Ukraine war, many Kazakhs feel that it is high time to step away from the powerful influence of Russia – and that strengthening their national identity is long overdue.
It is absurd that so many years after independence, virtually every Kazakh still speaks Russian, but only some speak the actual national language, says Skalosubov.
"The Kazakh speakers usually know Russian, but the Russian speakers don't know Kazakh."
This "linguistic gap" has to be overcome so that Kazakh society can act as one, he says.The older participants on his course also recall instances of discrimination during the Soviet period, which partially serve to explain peoples' reluctance, which persists to this day, to speak Kazakh.
As a child, speaking Kazakh was frowned upon, says one 63-year-old woman. If someone spoke Kazakh on the bus or train, for example, other passengers would turn around and hiss angrily.
Situations like that were why her parents only ever spoke Russian, she says.
Now she is stuck with having to learn her own language, with great difficulty, she adds.
Meanwhile, after the lesson the language teacher Skalosubov serves up cake, biscuits and lemonade, the lighter part of the afternoon.
"Ethnically I am Russian, but politically I am Kazakh," Skalosubov says, before presenting the table of treats.
His pupils applaud. – dpa
