Čokan Valichanov, l’identità nazionale kazaka e la colonizzazione russa
abstract
Čokan Čingisovič Valichanov (1835-1865) has been one of the most significant personalities in Kazakh culture of 19th century. This article aims to examine three items of his intellectual production that highly, although subtly, influenced the self-identification of contemporary Kazakhstan after its independence from Soviet Union: the ambiguous relationship with Russian world, the admiration toward the West, the interpretation of Islam as a cultural element of the steppe rather then the key religious system of Kazakh people. As a result, Valichanov appears not only as a great polymath of the past, but as a constant ideological reference for today’s Kazakhstan.
Keywords: Orientalism • Kazakhstan • Valichanov • Russian Empire