카자흐스탄의 지명 변화를 둘러싼 문제 연구

Abstract

Kazakhstan has implemented a change of Russian place names (toponyms) into Kazah after its independence in 1991. At that time, a large number of Russian speakers expressed their concerns and criticism, but Kazakh government adopted a law (Zakon "Ob adminictrativno- territorial'nom ustrojstve Respubliki Kazakhstan 1993) to justify replacing places of residence of the administrative areas. Thus from 1991 to 2005, 12 cities, 53 provinces(rajon), 7 city boroughs(rajon v gorode), 43 train stations, and 957 residences have been renamed, and also other 890 different physical-geographical objects and public names have been changed or created. Until now Kazakh nationalist-patriots argue that Kazakh names are placed on a restricted status when they still see the presence of Russian place names. For example, Petropavlovsk, Pavlodar, Semipalatinsk, and Ust'-Kamenogorsk survived during the massive renaming process in the 1990s. These cities are the symbol of the colonial period of the Soviet dictatorship to Kazakh people. The renaming policy temporarily ceased because the government was afraid of severe resistance and migration outflow of Russians in Kazakhstan. However, after the deadline for the moratorium of rename, Kazakhstan Parliament raised the issue of renaming Petropavlovsk, in order to reduce the use of Russian language and to exclude the Russian speakers. Although the majority of the Russian population in Petropavlovsk and some state legislators and city council (городский совет) opposed the renaming, but if a special law in which the opinions of inhabitants do not need be reflected in the renaming process, is adopted, the process will be inevitable. Now the status of Russian language in Kazakhstan is extremely complex. The concept of Kazakhization(Казахизация) has been publicized throughout the society. Furthermore, the claim of changing their writing system from Cyrillic to Latin came to the fore and thus it is more likely to be forced to comply with Kazakh language norms.