The Asharshylyq: How Soviet Collectivization Erased a Nomadic Way of Life and Millions of Lives

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Between 1930 and 1933, the Kazakh famine claimed up to 2.3 million lives, wiping out nearly 40 percent of the ethnic Kazakh population. This man-made catastrophe, driven by forced collectivization and the destruction of nomadic pastoralism, remains a defining, yet historically suppressed, tragedy of the Stalinist era in Central Asia.

The Kazakh famine, or Asharshylyq, was a direct consequence of Soviet policies under First Secretary Filipp Goloshchyokin. Aiming to transform the traditional nomadic society, the state seized livestock, disrupted seasonal migrations, and forced communities into collective farms ill-suited for the steppe. By 1930, the state had begun aggressive grain and livestock requisitions, confiscating over one million tons of grain and one-third of the republic's livestock to feed urban centers in Moscow and Leningrad.

The human cost was catastrophic. As the famine intensified, thousands of Kazakhs attempted to flee to China or neighboring regions, only to be met with border guards, repression, or death from hunger and disease. Those who remained faced blacklisting—a policy that prohibited trade in entire districts, effectively entrapping starving populations. Survivors reported scenes of unimaginable horror, with corpses lining roadsides and desperate families resorting to cannibalism to survive. By 1933, the Kazakh population had plummeted, and they were reduced to a minority in their own homeland.

Scholarly debate persists regarding the nature of the famine. While some historians view it as a tragic miscalculation resulting from Stalin’s rapid industrialization, others, such as Sarah Cameron, argue it fits an expanded definition of genocide. They contend that Soviet authorities knowingly targeted the nomadic way of life, instrumentalizing starvation to punish resistance. Public discussion of these events was suppressed until the late 1980s, but since Kazakhstan’s 1991 independence, the nation has increasingly commemorated the tragedy, marking May 31 as a day of remembrance for the millions lost.

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