Guest
’During a dinner conversation with leading Kazakh historian Mambet Koigeliev, the topic turned to Russian imperialism and colonization and its consequences for Kazakh nomads. I was generally quite critical of the Russians, but not so my host. He surprised me when he commented that the Kazakh people suffered mightily under Russian rule, but he also said, “What we took from Russians only made us stronger as a nation. We survived. Kazakhs have their own country now. Where are your Indians?“ I felt completely foolish’ — Steven Sabol, author of ’The Touch of Civilization: Comparing American and Russian Internal Colonization’. (Illustration inspired by the 1989 Nevada-Semipalatinsk anti-nuclear movement’s logo)
