The Steppe on Screen: Representing Kazakhstan in Soviet Documentary Film

The article examines the representation of Kazakhstan in Soviet documentary newsreels from the late 1920s to the 1980s. Based on an analysis of thematic films and archival catalog cards of the newsreel Soviet Kazakhstan, the study demonstrates that stable visual-textual formulas performed a dual function: they documented the processes of modernization and normalized the ways in which it was experienced. The research combines content analysis of documentary footage with imagological and profession-studies approaches. As a result, the article reveals the multi-layered evolution of Kazakhstan’s image and shows how the republic was inscribed into the broader “imagined space” of the USSR.