Kazakhstan is a multinational country, and each nation has its own language, religion, and mentality. I live in a neighbourhood in Almaty with many Uighurs. They speak Uighur at home, but Russian in public places. And this is common for all regions of Kazakhstan. Many Kazakhs in all parts of the country, which from time immemorial included the lands from Altai to Alatau, now, busy with their careers and the improvement of their material well-being, begin to switch to Russian. In Soviet times, Russian was spoken by scientists, artists, their children, and the political and cultural elite. Perhaps this is some sort of a national hangup, I do not know. As a result, the Kazakh language has found itself in grave danger. According to official data, seventy percent of Kazakhs now often switch to Russian in their everyday speech, despite the fact that they know Kazakh. Because almost all names of household appliances, electronics, programs for computers and smartphones are in Russian. If a car part breaks down, you need to know its Russian name to buy a replacement on the market, because Kazakh is either not available or not common enough.

On the other hand, many translations of world literature, scientific works, and good movies are available only in Russian. They are not translated. It turns out that if a person studies science and art for self-development, they can read or watch something about it only in Russian, so the Russian language begins to occupy their consciousness. If you go into a Meloman book store, you will see that seventy to eighty percent of the books sold there are in Russian, and they have a generous amount of printed copies. But there are very few books of fiction or scientific works in Kazakh, and their print runs are small.

Nevertheless, the use of the Kazakh language is gradually expanding. 

Do I see a solution? It is necessary to create a common literary environment for all writers, translating into Kazakh works written in Russian, Uyghur, and other languages of the peoples of Kazakhstan. This will also strengthen the connection between the people in a unitary state, provoke the emergence of common themes and different points of view, give the birth to new ideas, the development of Kazakh literature and culture, and will also mean respect for the Kazakh language. It will also make it possible to form a common readership for all writers of Kazakhstan. There will be a demand for different genres and themes, books for different ages, to satisfy varying reader’s interests; in turn, prose writers, poets and playwrights will be able to earn a living by their creative work. I believe that in parallel to this we should actively engage in translations of authors writing in Kazakh and other languages into Russian and English and publish them abroad. That is why I would like to express my gratitude to the founders of the Almaty Writers’ Residence and everyone who supports this project! I believe this is one of the first steps towards including Kazakh literature in the world literary process.