Political Parties of Kazakhstan

Evolution of political parties of Kazakhstan has its roots at the beginning of the 20th century. At that period Kazakhstan was a part of Russian Empire. The increased Russian influence and colonization policy in Kazakhstan conduced to the creation of the first political party of Kazakhstan, Alash Orda in 1917. This party was formed by the Kazakh aristocracy against the Tsarist regime. The main goals of the party were “political self-determination, , the defense of Kazakh land from further Russian invasion, the creation of new land regulation, the formation and maintenance of Kazakh written language and the promotion of educational programs.” Alash Orda was the first manifestation of the national political consciousness of the Kazakh people.

Being a part of the Soviet Empire, Kazakhstan could not avoid the omnipresence of the Communist party.   The Bolsheviks tried to suppress nationally oriented movement and in 1928 Alash Orda lost its ruling positions to the Communists.

For seventy years Kazakhstan was under the control of the Communist party. Economic, cultural, and social life of the country was subordinated to the unlimited power of the party. All other political parties and movements were prohibited.   People with different views were imprisoned or even exterminated as it had happened during the Stalinist purges in the 1920s and 1930s. Many brilliant Kazakh scholars and representatives of the Kazakh intelligentsia were declared as “enemies” and killed.  

The adventure of Gorbachev to power in 1995 put an end to the monopoly of the Communist party. His unsuccessful political and economic reforms spurred the disintegration of the Soviet Union as well as Communist party, which already suffered from corruption, inefficiency, and conservatism.

The fall of the Soviet Union and the loose of the leading role of the Communist party in Kazakhstan led to the emergence of different informal movements and political...