(by Achille Rajola Pescarini, Wlast’, 29th December 2025)
The “Eurasian” nature of Kazakhstan, a country with a history linked to both the East and the West, is a common trope in academic, journalistic, and philosophical circles.
Rather than focusing on the “nature” of the country and its history, it could be worth looking instead at some of the most interesting contaminations which illustrate this East-West connection. This is the case of Freemasonry in Kazakhstan.
Whether you consider Kazakhstan as part of Soviet Central Asia (along with its closest neighbours, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) or of the wider geographical area of Central Asia (including Xinjiang, parts of Mongolia and Afghanistan), these regional borders cannot confine and define the country’s contemporary cultural identity. Indeed, Kazakhstan could also be considered as part of an even wider region: Eurasia.
This concept is not new. Kazakhstan is perhaps the country where the term “Eurasia” has been used most widely. The ubiquitous moniker is used for universities (Gumilev Eurasian National University – which refers to Lev Gumilev, one of the main proponents of so-called “Eurasianism”), conferences (Eurasian Media Forum), organizations (Eurasian Cultural Foundation), or financial institutions (Eurasian Bank).
The reason that this word is so closely associated with Kazakhstan and…
read more:
Whether you consider Kazakhstan as part of Soviet Central Asia (along with its closest neighbours, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) or of the wider geographical area of Central Asia (including Xinjiang, parts of Mongolia and Afghanistan), these regional borders cannot confine and define the country’s contemporary cultural identity. Indeed, Kazakhstan could also be considered as part of an even wider region: Eurasia.
This concept is not new. Kazakhstan is perhaps the country where the term “Eurasia” has been used most widely. The ubiquitous moniker is used for universities (Gumilev Eurasian National University – which refers to Lev Gumilev, one of the main proponents of so-called “Eurasianism”), conferences (Eurasian Media Forum), organizations (Eurasian Cultural Foundation), or financial institutions (Eurasian Bank).
The reason that this word is so closely associated with Kazakhstan and…
read more:
The reason that this word is so closely associated with Kazakhstan and…
read more:
