Friday, June 30, 2017

Руслан Бальбек презентовал в Саках справочник по крымской топонимике

KIANews

29 июня в Саках состоялась презентация справочника депутата Госдумы РФ Руслана Бальбека под названием «Исторические названия населенных пунктов Крыма», сообщает пресс-служба администрации города Саки. 

В своем вступительном слове Бальбек поблагодарил организаторов и гостей к крымской топонимике. 

«Спасибо всем за проявленный интерес. Хочу, чтоб мы все были союзниками, единомышленниками — и постарались увидеть в каждом населенном пункте ту глубокую историю, которая неразрывно связывает всех нас. Все, кто живет на полуострове, — это одна большая дружная семья. Ни этническое, ни конфессиональное разнообразие не должно вызывать никаких противоречий. Мы уберем попытки политизации любых самых спорных, запутанных вопросов истории — и сумеем понять, что то, как мы живем, зависит только от нас. Если мы будем понимать, что мы все живем в одном доме, или, уже применительно к Крыму, на одном корабле, от нас всех зависит микроклимат в Крыму, то все попытки извне поссорить нас — потерпят крах. Мы – одна семья, а в любой семье микроклимат задают все ее члены», — заявил Бальбек. 


Руслан Бальбек сообщил, что планирует продолжить работу в разных направлениях ономастики, при этом и далее опираясь исключительно на науку. 

По окончанию мероприятия Руслан Бальбек подписал всем желающим экземпляр справочника «Исторические названия населенных пунктов Крыма». 

СПРАВКА. Ономастика — раздел языкознания, изучающий любые собственные имена, историю их возникновения и трансформации в результате длительного употребления в языке-источнике или в связи с заимствованием из других языков. В более узком значении ономастика — это собственные имена различных типов, совокупность ономастических слов, — ономастическая (онимическая) лексика. 

Топонимика — аздел ономастики, изучающий географические названия (топонимы), их происхождение, смысловое значение, развитие, современное состояние, написание и произношение.

Источник: https://kianews24.ru/news/ruslan-balbek-prezentoval-v-sakakh-sp/

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Renaming Haryana village after Trump is a "fraud event"

SURYAA

Gurugram, June 27 (SURYAA) Banners with the photograph of Donald Trump have been brought down in a Haryana village days after it was "renamed" after the US President, with a senior official declaring the renaming as a "fraud event" and illegal.



Marora village, some 46 km from here, was on Friday dedicated to Trump, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US trip. 

The renaming was carried out by NGO Sulabh, which said the village will be known as "Trump Sulabh Village".

Authorities removed the signage boards and banners with Trump photographs installed in Marora village.

On June 23, NGO Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak had also launched various projects for all-round development of Marora panchayat in Haryana's Mewat region.

"It was all fictitious and a fraud event by the organisers aimed at collecting money across the country and abroad," M.R. Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Mewat, told IANS.

"Organisers neither took any permission from local authorities, or the Haryana and union government, nor have they applied for changing the name of the village. It was all illegal," Sharma said.

"Village Marora has been already declared open defection free (ODF) by the state government. We have ordered for removal of all signage boards and banners claiming 'Trump Sulabh Village' and are taking appropriate action," Sharma added.

Monika Jain, vice president of Sulabh international told IANS that they have removed all signages.

"We were called by the district administration, after the meeting with DC M.R. Sharma. We have removed all signage boards and banners of Trump village," Jain told IANS.

"We will continue to build toilets," she said. 

Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak told IANS, "We have not raised funds from the public. A few big companies are supporting us to build public conveniences. Marora was not declared ODF at the time of selecting it for ODF."

Marora village is home to nearly 1,800 people, mostly Meos (Muslims). Sulabh claimed that it has 160 houses, while only 20 have toilets.

Pathak, during a programme in Washington a few days ago, had announced that he will name an Indian village after Trump, as part of his efforts to strengthen bilateral relations.

Atelier « Toponymie et géographie historique de l’Anatolie »

UCL



27 juin 2017
14h - 18h
Louvain-la-Neuve
Salle du Conseil ISP - Place Cardinal Mercier 10

Monday, June 26, 2017

Election to the ICOS Board of Directors (2017-2020)

(from the Newsletter of ICOS)

The next Board of Directors will be elected by the General Assembly during the 26th ICOS Congress in Debrecen (27 August - 1 September 2017). Members who wish to stand for election need to be supported by two other ICOS members and the candidacy must be submitted to the secretary of ICOS by 30 June 2017 using the form that was sent together with this Newsletter.



The main responsibilities of the Board members are as follows:

The President is a member of the Executive Committee of ICOS and chairs meetings of the ICOS Board of Directors as well as the ICOS General Assembly. The President also liaises with the Editor-in-Chief of Onoma and with the organiser of the World Congress. Importantly, the President takes the lead in initiatives to advance the aims of ICOS, as set out in Article 3 of the Statutes.

There are two Vice-Presidents. The Vice-Presidents are members of the Executive Committee of ICOS, and one may stand in for the President as required. The Treasurer is a member of the Executive Committee of ICOS and takes care of the financial affairs of ICOS. This includes registering money paid into one of the three Swedish bank accounts belonging to ICOS (mostly from members paying by bank transfer, credit card or cash), and money going out (paying bills for printing costs, bank costs, services etc.).

The Treasurer also keeps an up-to-date list of members (asking people to pay, registering their payments, sending receipts), takes care of accounting and prepares annual financial reports to present to the ICOS Board as well as reports presented to the General Assembly.

The Secretary is a member of the Executive Committee of ICOS and performs an administrative role. In collaboration with the Treasurer, the Secretary keeps an up-to-date list of members and circulates information to members by e-mail. The Secretary also compiles and distributes a Newsletter on average once a year (this is made trilingual with the help of other ICOS members if necessary) and works closely with the Assistant Secretary and Webmaster to keep the ICOS website and social media presence updated, while also dealing with the list of members’ interests. At meetings, the Secretary takes the minutes and distributes these to the other Board members. From time to time, the Secretary may need to put official documents in writing and respond to information requests submitted via the website. The Secretary works closely with the President to organise and co-ordinate Board meetings.

The Assistant Secretary and Webmaster is a member of the Executive Committee of ICOS and is responsible for maintaining the ICOS website and social media presence, while also assisting the Secretary when necessary.

There are six Non-Executive Members of the ICOS Board, who participate in Board meetings and occasional e-mail discussions in order to advance the aims of ICOS. Some may carry out specific projects or initiatives. The heads of the Terminology Group and Bibliographical Database Group need to be members of the Board, so Non-Executive Members may consider taking on one of these roles. From 2014 onwards, one of the NonExecutive positions is reserved for a Postgraduate Representative, who will provide a student’s perspective on the activities of ICOS. This does not preclude students from standing for any other position on the Board.

Postdoctoral position in Natural Language processing for the Digital Humanities

University of Copenhagen

The Department of Nordic Research, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark, invites applications for a 2-year postdoctoral position in Natural Language Processing for the Digital Humanities to be filled by 1 November 2017 or as soon as possible thereafter.  
 
The Department of Nordic Research, with a total number of staff approximating 100, comprises four sections: the Arnamagnæan Institute, the Section for Danish Dialectology, the Section for Onomastics, and the Centre for Language Technology (CST). The department specialises in the fields of Early Scandinavian language and literature, manuscript studies, Danish dialectology and socio-linguistics, onomastics, runology, language technology and computational linguistics.  


 
The successful candidate will be attached to CST and will work for the cross-departmental and interdisciplinary research project Skrift og tekst i tid og rum (Script and text in time and space) funded by the Velux Foundations (see http://nfi.ku.dk/forskning/forskningsprojekter/skrift-og-tekst-i-tid-og-rum). CST conducts research in different areas of interest for language technology, such as natural language processing, language technology resources and the infrastructure around them, machine learning, and multimodal communication (see http://cst.ku.dk/english/forskning/). The Centre wants to strengthen its position in the area of Digital Humanities. It has a strong international profile, at the same time as pursuing the development of language technology methods and resources for the Danish language. The Centre has considerable experience managing international research projects, frequently attracts visiting researchers and has organised major conferences in the field. Together with the Department of Computer Science of the University of Copenhagen, it offers an international MSc programme in IT and Cognition.  
 
The project  
Skrift og text i tid og rum positions itself in the area of Digital Humanities. The goal of the project is to study medieval texts produced in Denmark in Danish and Latin from the point of view of handwriting development, as well as dating and localization of the manuscripts. The project is cross-disciplinary and combines qualitative and quantitative approaches from philology, history, and language technology. The project will:  
 
• provide dynamic and interactive digital editions of diplomas, that is, historical documents with judicial contents  
• perform systematic research into the script and language of the diplomas  
• survey the enterprise of diplomatics in a convent in medieval Denmark and the persons and places involved  
• develop an open source system for research, publication, and dissemination of handwritten texts in digital and printed format  
• develop tools for automatic linguistic analysis of texts as well as automatic dating, localizing, and identifying scribal schools based on machine-learning techniques  
 
Job content  
The successful candidate will engage in cutting-edge research in the area of Digital Humanities. In particular, the candidate will contribute to the development of language technology tools for the lemmatization and morphosyntactic analysis of medieval texts from Denmark, both in Danish and Latin. Furthermore s/he will engage in the application of machine learning to the task of automatic dating and localization of the same texts using existing linguistic annotations as well as visual features. The candidate will work in close collaboration not only with computational linguists from CST, but also with experts in manuscript studies and philology (including digital philology).  
 
Qualification requirements  
In order to be considered for the position applicants must have research qualifications at least corresponding to what can be achieved as part of a successfully completed PhD within a relevant field, including international publications in relevant research areas.  
We expect candidates to have programming experience, as well as a strong background in machine learning applied to the area of Natural Language Processing. Knowledge of one or more of the following areas will be considered an asset:  
 
• Digital image processing  
• Digital Humanities  
• Previous work with texts in older languages (especially Nordic languages and Latin)  
 
Furthermore, emphasis will be placed on the following:  
 
• Research qualifications, which will be assessed in relation to the period of active research, the degree of originality, and academic output  
• The applicant’s scientific record, academic breadth and depth, rigour thoroughness and accuracy, as well as academic relevance in relation to the job description  
• Documented administrative qualifications, if any  
• Participation in networks – national and international  
• Good interpersonal skills  
• Good skills in English, written and spoken  
 
For further details about the qualification requirements for postdocs, please refer to the job structure for academic staff: http://ufm.dk/en/legislation/prevailing-laws-and-regulations/education 
 
For further information about the position, please contact Head of the Department Bolette Pedersen (bspedersen@hum.ku.dk)
 
Application  
Applications must be submitted online in Adobe PDF or Word format.  
ZIP-files cannot be uploaded.  
 
Please click on the “Apply now
 
The application must be written in English and include the following enclosures:  
 
• Application letter/cover letter.  
• Curriculum vitae (with applicant’s e-mail address & telephone number).  
• Documentation of qualifications (examination certificates/PhD diploma, etc.).  
• Complete and numbered list of publications. The enclosed publications must be marked with *.  
• A short description of the applicant’s previous research and how it is relevant to the project.  
• Publications. Applicants may choose a maximum of three publications for assessment. Publication dates must be clearly marked on the publication list. The publications selected must be uploaded as attachments and listed from 1 to 3.  
 
Should any material submitted consist of work with named co-authors, or work that is otherwise the result of collective academic endeavours, the extent of the applicant’s contribution to the work must be clearly stipulated. The Faculty may ask for a signed statement from the co-authors stipulating the extent and nature of each individual’s contribution.  
 
Only material in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English, German and French can be expected to be assessed.  
 
All material will be shredded at the end of the appointment procedure.  
  
Appointment procedure  
After the application deadline, the Head of Department selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the Appointment Committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been accepted for assessment. The Dean subsequently appoints an expert assessment committee tasked with carrying out an assessment of the selected applicants for the specific post. Selected applicants are notified of the composition of the committee. Applicants are ultimately offered the opportunity of commenting on the part of the assessment relating to themselves before the appointment is finalized.  
 
Applicants will be continuously informed about the progress of the procedure by e-mail.  
 
Further information about the application procedure is available from Rikke Dall, academic officer, HR South and City Campus, e-mail: jobs-vip-nfi@hum.ku.dk 
 
Salary and conditions of employment  
Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). The salary range starts at DKK 32,000 (EUR 3,667) + a 17,1 % contribution to the pension scheme. It is possible to negotiate salary supplements on an annual basis.  
 
The Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) have further agreed on a protocol that makes it possible for international researchers employed by the University to achieve a pension exemption, whereby the pension contribution will be paid out as salary. For more information about the different pension schemes, please see http://ism.ku.dk/onarrival/pension/ 
 
A special tax scheme is offered to researchers recruited abroad, http://ism.ku.dk/onarrival/  
 
If you consider applying from abroad, you may find useful information on how it is to work in Denmark and at UCPH.  
 
 
UCPH wishes to encourage everyone interested in this post to apply, regardless of personal background.  
 
The closing date for applications is 23.59 CEST, 1. september 2017.  
 
Applications or supplementary material received thereafter will not be considered.  

Ivory Coast baby names

NamSor



Some popular baby names of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) :
FemaleMale
MARIAMMAMADOU
FATOUMATAADAMA
SALIMATAMOUSSA
AWASOULEYMANE
FANTAABDOULAYE
MARIAMEDAOUDA
AMINATAKOUASSI
AHOUBRAHIMA
AYAKOFFI
AKISSIYACOUBA
AFFOUEKOUAME
AMOINSIAKA
ADJOUAKOUADIO
DJENEBAYAO
AMENANYAYA
KARIDJABAKARY
NAMINATAKOUAKOU
MAIMOUNASEYDOU
SITADRISSA
MINATAKONAN
The statistical distribution of given names varies across regions, for example in Poro region popular baby names include SEYDOU, LACINA, BAKARY (male) and MINATA, SITA (female). In Kabadougou region, other names are popular such as : SIAKA, LANCINE (male) and NAMINATA, MASSANDJE (female). In Tchogolo region, OUATTARA is a popular gender-less name (yes, same as former President name Alassane OUATTARA). As for the La Mé region, popular male baby names include: YAPO, YAPI, SEKA, ASSI, N’CHO, KOUASSI, ATSE. Popular female baby names of the La Mé region include: APO, APIE, SOPIE, KOUSSO, CHIA, CHO.

About Ivory Coast administrative subdivision

We struggled a bit to find an up-to-date mapping of Ivory Coast administrative divisions (district, region, department) – so this is the Excel file we’ve used. Nice to see that Diaspora is considered a top district/region/department, not sure if that’s official or not.
At NamSor, they are working hard to build a great API for gender studies that works for Africa too. If you would like to collaborate on innovative #Gender and #BigData research, there is currently a 100,000$ prize and they’d be happy to team up with social scientists or quantitative gender researchers. Also, they are also open to academic collaboration on African Diaspora matters – feel free to reach out.

Les prénoms ivoiriens – reflets de la Côte d’Ivoire et de ses régions

Onomastique hypotheses

La distribution statistique des prénoms varie suivant les régions, par exemple dans la région Poro, les noms masculins populaires incluent SEYDOU, LACINA, BAKARY tandis que MINATA, SITA sont des prénoms donnés aux filles.  Kabadougou : SIAKA, LANCINE (masculins) and NAMINATA, MASSANDJE (féminins). Dans la région Tchogolo, OUATTARA est un nom populaire non genré (oui, comme le nom de l’ancien président Alassane OUATTARA). Et dans la région La Mé, se trouvent des noms masculins comme : YAPO, YAPI, SEKA, ASSI, N’CHO, KOUASSI, ATSE – tandis que APO, APIE, SOPIE, KOUSSO, CHIA, CHO sont des noms féminins populaires.

Nous (NamSor) avons eu un peu de mal à trouver une table à jour des subdivisions administratives en Côte d’Ivoire (régions, départements avec et sans accentuation) – donc voici le fichier Excel que nous (NamSor) avons utilisés. Ravis de voir que la Diaspora ivoirienne est considérée comme une région à part entière (mais est-ce réellement officiel?).

Проект "Народная топонимия Мурманска" объединит современность и прошлое

Комсомольская правда

Мурманчане собирают словарь народных названий в столице Заполярья

И вспоминают, где находится Мордобойка, а где Шанхай
Не каждый мурманчанин, даже если он живет в облцентре с рождения, с ходу скажет, где находится Драмсарай, Пентагон, Бродвей или Шанхай. Все это народные названия исхоженных мест: сквера возле драмтеатра, здания на пр. Кольский,1, проспекта Ленина и района за Ленинским рынком.
В краеведческом сообществе в "ВКонтакте" "Мурманск: что есть и что будет?" предлагают вспомнить и другие "клички" для мест. В проекте "Народная топонимия Мурманска" будут собираться не только названия, но и истории. Ведь интересно не только знать, что Шанхаем конкретный район стали называть из-за живущих там китайцев, но и чем запомнилась их жизнь.
Сейчас мурманчане вспомнили уже порядка трех десятков народных топонимов. Автор проекта Кирилл Бобров надеется, что в итоге получится настоящий словарь, который будет интересен не только жителям столицы Заполярья.

Задумывались ли вы когда-нибудь, почему то или иное место, здание, памятник в вашем городе в народе называют именно так? Как возникают эти народные названия? Кто чаще всего их использует?

К этой теме прикреплена работа 2011 года учащейся гимназии №8 Гапоненко Оксаны, посвященая исследованию народных топонимов (урбанонимов) города Мурманска, истории их возникновения, статистики их использования в речи современных мурманчан.

Эта работа подтолкнула к идее нового проекта нашего сообщества: "Народная топонимия Мурманска".
Начнем с того, что Оксана уже отметила в своей работе ... однако с 2011 года многое поменялось - появились новые скверы, новые здания, новые дороги ... Попробуем у нас тут собрать народный разговорник Мурманчанина (который кстати вполне можно и реализовать со временем в печатном виде) ...

Со временем обязательно будет создана wiki-страница в которой попытаемся раскрыть смысл каждого топонима Мурманска ... главное, чтобы народные названия оставались в нашей памяти !!!


Sunday, June 25, 2017

Bids for the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences (2020)

from Newsletter of ICOS

The Institute of Polish Language of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Department of Polonistics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, 

together with the Institute of the Czech Language of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, 

and the Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, have expressed their interest in hosting the 27th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences in 2020. 



According to the official letter submitted by Prof. Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch on behalf of the organising team, the Congress would be held in Kraków in four working languages (English, French, German, and Russian). The event will focus on “Onomastics in Interaction with Other Sciences” and will create the opportunity to present the current state of onomastic research in West Slavonic countries. 

Besoin de suggestion pour Toponym’Elles

CDC Centre-Sud

APPEL À TOUTES ET TOUS — Besoin de suggestion pour Toponym’Elles


La Ville de Montréal a sollicité l’aide du Conseil des Montréalaises et du Conseil interculturel de Montréal afin d’augmenter le nombre de noms de Montréalaises marquantes pour la banque de toponymie féminine Toponym’Elles, lancée l’an dernier à l’occasion de la Journée internationale des femmes. Nous souhaitons particulièrement ajouter des noms de femmes issues de communautés racisées et autochtones, pour reconnaître la contribution de l’ensemble de la diversité montréalaise.
Pour ce faire, nous sollicitons votre aide. Chaque femme est nommée pour son apport au développement de Montréal, et ce, dans tous les domaines. Les noms suggérés doivent faire référence à une femme décédée. Pour toute suggestion, nous vous demandons également de nous faire parvenir une description biographique et quelquessources de référence afin que nous montions un dossier pour la femme suggérée.
La Ville de Montréal désire enrichir la toponymie montréalaise, afin qu’elle soit plus équitable et représentative de l’apport des femmes à l’histoire de la métropole. Sur les quelque 6 000 toponymes de la Ville, les hommes dominent présentement le panorama toponymique avec plus de 50 % des dénominations. Les femmes ne représentent pour le moment que 6 %. Le reste des toponymes est composé de noms de familles et d’appellations neutres.
Nous vous remercions à l’avance pour votre généreuse aide.
Cordialement,
Le Conseil des Montréalaises & Le Conseil interculturel de Montréal

Wie die alten Römer bis heute in Namen nachklingen

NZZamSonntag

Kampf der Sprachen: Wie die alten Römer bis heute in Namen nachklingen

Im St. Galler Rheintal kam es vor 1000 Jahren zum Sprachen-Clash zwischen dem Alemannischen und dem Romanischen. Ein Namenbuch dokumentiert die bis heute sichtbaren Folgen.
von Patrick Imhasly

Genau 12 727 Flur-, Gelände-, Gewässer-, Berg-, Haus-, Weiler-, Dorf-, Strassen- und Wegnamen umfasst das gigantische Werk. Das «Werdenberger Namenbuch» versammelt, erklärt und deutet alle Ortsbezeichnungen – heute noch gültige wie ausgestorbene – der Region Werdenberg im St. Galler Rheintal, ganz im Osten des Kantons an der Grenze zu Liechtenstein.
Seit einem halben Jahrhundert beschäftigt sich Hans Stricker, inzwischen emeritierter Professor für Vergleichende Romanische Sprachwissenschaft, mit der Namenforschung. In den letzten 16 Jahren haben er und seine Mitarbeiter 36 000 Stunden Arbeit in das Projekt «Werdenberger Namenbuch» gesteckt.

Astana Airport Named After Nazarbayev

Euroasianet

In an inevitable development, the government of Kazakhstan has decided to name the airport in the capital city in honor of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
As soon as Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev signed a decree to that effect on June 20, the state machine kicked into high gear hailing the decision.
The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Nurlan Nigmatulin, congratulated the people of Kazakhstan, suggesting this was an event that constituted nothing short of a cause for national celebration. Barely an hour had passed since the announcement was made official, before Nigmatulin was able to assert confidently that the renaming of Astana international airport had received massive support from the people.
Views were slightly more mixed on Facebook, the last outpost remaining to the more critical segment of the population in view of the state’s crushing of independent media.
Writing on her Facebook page, the editor for business newspaper Kursiv, Dinara Shumayeva, called the renaming of the airport a sign of the undying servility of Kazakhstan’s people. That observation seems to have since been deleted, however.
There has been chatter about this happening since the late 2000s, but the speculation had mounted against the backdrop of recent expansion works at the airport. A new terminal was completed in time for the opening of the EXPO-2017, taking the airport’s annual handling capacity up to 5 million people.
An airport fit for a king, one could say. 
Still, as Jonathan Aitken indicates in his astoundingly fawning 2009 biography “Nazarbayev and the Making of Kazakhstan,” the president may well have earned the dedication for his personal role in bring about the airport’s creation.
“[The airport] was built ahead of schedule when, with Nazarbayev’s encouragement, competition was introduced with the result that the number of asphalt plants in Akmola expanded from 3 to 18, within three months. These plants produced between 4,000 and 5,000 tons of asphalt per day in 1996-1997, which had been Akmola’s rate of asphalt output per month in the early 1990s. With airport contractors working 18 hours a day, the runways, built to accommodate the largest of the long-range Boeing Jumbos and stretched Airbuses, were completed at record speed,” Aitken gushed.
Kazakhstan’s state-owned and state-tolerated media — the only kinds of media allowed to operate freely — quickly sought to legitimize the airport-naming by citing international precedent.
Still, their point was slightly undermined by the fact that such dedications tend, as a rule, to be posthumous. There is John F. Kennedy International Airport (named one month after the US president’s assassination), Istanbul Atatürk Airport (named half a century after the Turkish leader’s passing), Charles de Gaulle Airport (four years), and then there is Chinggis Khaan International Airport in Ulaanbaatar, so dubbed in 2005 to mark the 800th anniversary of the founding of Mongolian State.
The question that inescapably arises is what function it is such exercises in flattery actually serve. In finding an answer, it is perhaps most useful to turn to the Soviet precedent, upon which the Nazarbayev cult of personality is most clearly modeled. A persuasive argument is advanced in Anita Pisch’s 2016 book “The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929–1953.”
“One of the major reasons that propaganda was needed to create the image of a powerful, infallible leader who could work miracles, was because neither Lenin nor Stalin (nor, in fact, the Bolshevik Party itself) could lay claim to power based on either traditional (i.e. monarchic succession) or rational–legal grounds,” Pisch writes in the opening chapter of the book.
As Pisch argues, the exercise of dedicating a cult to Lenin, after his death, was not so much about the individual personality as the collective, although this logic was distorted by the Stalinist interlude.
“Once Stalin consolidated his personal power, the propaganda mechanism of the [Communist] Party set about manufacturing a charismatic personality for Stalin that, over the three decades of his rule, gradually saw the transfer of all legitimacy to reside only in his persona. When Stalin died in 1953 … charisma was again transferred to the Party, and Stalin’s cult of personality was denounced,” Pisch wrote.
In this reading, the function of Nazarbayev’s cult of personality is intended not so much to elevate his status, which seems barely possible, so much as to preventatively consecrate the system that he will in time bequeath to a yet-unknown successor. If this interpretation is correct, then the hope among Astana’s elite may be to ensure a smooth political transition by providing symbolic assurances of continuity in the system.
It’s worth a try.