158 Tanja Penter
role in post-Soviet nation-building processes in Kazakhstan after the end
of the Soviet Union. However, Kazakhstan’s politics of history and culture
of remembrance also differed markedly from those in Ukraine: while in
post-Soviet Ukraine, the commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor,
the great famine of 1932–1933 under Stalin, took on a central significance,
the considerable number of hunger victims in Kazakhstan (more than a third
of the total population) was for a long time only marginally acknowledged
in Kazakhstan’s culture of remembrance, because peace within Kazakhstan’s
multiethnic society should be preserved and relations with its powerful
neighbor Russia should not be affected. 89 It can thus be concluded that in the
Republic of Kazakhstan, primarily, the victims of the Semipalatinsk nuclear
test site played an important role in the post-Soviet culture of remembrance.
Victims Competing for Political Acknowledgment
and Welfare Resources
The end of the Soviet Union was accompanied by a new attention for the
numerous victims of the past. In addition to the environmental victims, there
were other groups of victims whose rights and privileges of care now found
their way into the legislation of the successor states of the Soviet Union.
Among them were victims of political repression, especially the numerous
victims of the Stalin era. On October 18, 1991, President Yeltsin signed into
force a law in Russia on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression,
which provided for all those affected to be given back their civil rights and
for material losses to be compensated as far as state resources allowed. 90 This
concerned, as the text of the law stated, “millions of people who were victims
of the despotism of a totalitarian state during the period of Soviet power and
were subjected to repression because of their political and religious beliefs or
because of their social, national, and other characteristics.” 91
Similar laws had been adopted a few months earlier in Ukraine 92 and
Belarus, 93 while such a law was not adopted in Kazakhstan 94 until 1993. The
implementation of these laws varied widely in various post-Soviet states,
depending on political priorities and budgetary situations. Unlike the environmental victims, however, many victims of political repression had already
undergone initial phases of rehabilitation during the Soviet period following
Stalin’s death, during the so-called thaw period under Khrushchev, and later
in the outgoing Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.
Victims of National Socialist crimes in World War II now also became the
focus of public attention, which was related to German reparation programs.
At the beginning of the 1990s, state reconciliation foundations had been set
up in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, which, with the help of German funds,
were to organize payment programs for victims of Nazi crimes.
While the individual Nazi victims were paid comparatively small sums
of money under the disbursement program in the 1990s, the amounts paid
out under the compensation program for former forced laborers in the early
role in post-Soviet nation-building processes in Kazakhstan after the end
of the Soviet Union. However, Kazakhstan’s politics of history and culture
of remembrance also differed markedly from those in Ukraine: while in
post-Soviet Ukraine, the commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor,
the great famine of 1932–1933 under Stalin, took on a central significance,
the considerable number of hunger victims in Kazakhstan (more than a third
of the total population) was for a long time only marginally acknowledged
in Kazakhstan’s culture of remembrance, because peace within Kazakhstan’s
multiethnic society should be preserved and relations with its powerful
neighbor Russia should not be affected. 89 It can thus be concluded that in the
Republic of Kazakhstan, primarily, the victims of the Semipalatinsk nuclear
test site played an important role in the post-Soviet culture of remembrance.
Victims Competing for Political Acknowledgment
and Welfare Resources
The end of the Soviet Union was accompanied by a new attention for the
numerous victims of the past. In addition to the environmental victims, there
were other groups of victims whose rights and privileges of care now found
their way into the legislation of the successor states of the Soviet Union.
Among them were victims of political repression, especially the numerous
victims of the Stalin era. On October 18, 1991, President Yeltsin signed into
force a law in Russia on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression,
which provided for all those affected to be given back their civil rights and
for material losses to be compensated as far as state resources allowed. 90 This
concerned, as the text of the law stated, “millions of people who were victims
of the despotism of a totalitarian state during the period of Soviet power and
were subjected to repression because of their political and religious beliefs or
because of their social, national, and other characteristics.” 91
Similar laws had been adopted a few months earlier in Ukraine 92 and
Belarus, 93 while such a law was not adopted in Kazakhstan 94 until 1993. The
implementation of these laws varied widely in various post-Soviet states,
depending on political priorities and budgetary situations. Unlike the environmental victims, however, many victims of political repression had already
undergone initial phases of rehabilitation during the Soviet period following
Stalin’s death, during the so-called thaw period under Khrushchev, and later
in the outgoing Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.
Victims of National Socialist crimes in World War II now also became the
focus of public attention, which was related to German reparation programs.
At the beginning of the 1990s, state reconciliation foundations had been set
up in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, which, with the help of German funds,
were to organize payment programs for victims of Nazi crimes.
While the individual Nazi victims were paid comparatively small sums
of money under the disbursement program in the 1990s, the amounts paid
out under the compensation program for former forced laborers in the early