Virgin and Fallow Lands Campaign in Kazakhstan: Socioeconomic and Political Aspects Revisited

Abstract

Introduction. The virgin and fallow lands campaign (1950s–1960s) resulted in most essential social changes that determined further trends of ethnocultural development in the Republic. The cultivation of virgin lands not only resolved utmost economic problems but also directly influenced Kazakhstan’s sociopolitical life. The Soviet period tended to turn a blind eye on major problematic aspects of the campaign, and the latter remained largely understudied. Goals. The article explores unclassified archival data to review the socioeconomic and political aspects of the virgin and fallow lands campaign in Kazakhstan, the reasons of crisis phenomena caused by ill-considered policies. Materials and methods. The work primarily investigates documents from the Russian State Archives of Economics, State Archive of the Russian Federation, Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The system approach constitutes a basis for generalizations and analyses of collected materials, while a combination of macro and micro perspectives makes it possible to identify general and specific features in the processes examined. Results. The article uses a wide range of sources, official documents, memoirs and letters to analyze socioeconomic and political aspects of the virgin and fallow lands cultivation. The former are supplemented with data on social problems, conflicts, and mass brawls on virgin lands. This clarifies that conflict-free status of arrangements during the virgin lands campaign was not that universal. Conclusions. Thus, the paper shows that the mass resettlement of human resources to virgin and fallow lands cultivation zones was often ill-advised and eventually led to an increase in social tensions in Kazakhstan.