Localization of the Tradition of Installing Commemorative Steles among the Kazakh Population of the Omsk Region

Abstract

The article discusses the results of the study of the tradition of installing commemorative steles by the Kazakhs in the Omsk Region. The aim of the work was to study the localization features of these monuments. To date, we have identified, localized, and investigated 71 similar objects in the region. It was found out that this tradition originated in the Tavrichesky District of the Omsk Region at the beginning of the 21st century. In the future, it went beyond its borders and began to spread to the territory of the region in the places of traditional residence of the Kazakh population. Two levels of localization of monuments are considered: administrative-territorial and object-oriented. From the point of view of the administrative-territorial, the number of monuments by districts of the region is analyzed. It was found out that today in the Sherbakulsky, Tavrichesky, Azov Districts, monuments are available in nearly all locations where villages were previously located. Seven to eight monuments were identified in Odessa, Moskalensky and Isilkul Districts. The focus of the emergence and the direction of the spread of the tradition is well fixed —from the territory of the Tavrichesky District to the northwest. The southernmost districts of the Omsk Region were almost not covered by this trend. Isolated objects have been identified in Pavlogradsky and Novovarshavsky Districts. The expedition works conducted in 2021 allowed to identify the first monument in the Russian-Polyansky District — the stele was installed at the site of the disappeared village of Samurza. To date, we are not aware of the presence of such objects in the Cherlak and Poltava Districts, where the Kazakh population has been living for a long time and has been rather numerous. The analysis of monuments at the object-oriented level was carried out. It was found out that more than a half of them were installed in the locations of the disappeared Kazakh villages. The third part is located near cemeteries. A small number are located in active settlements and almost all of them are dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the participants of the Great Patriotic War.