Political Elites of Kazakhstan and the Crisis of 2022

Abstract

The qualitative state of the political elites of any country is manifested at the moment of aggravation of the crisis, namely, how successfully they cope with such challenges and threats. With what losses or gains the elites come out of the crisis zone, one can evaluate their professional readiness and ability to solve complex political and economic problems. The history of the political crisis in Kazakhstan in January 2022 demonstrates the above features of local pro-government groupsclearly. This crisis began as a socio-economic one, but was largely due to a political split within the ruling elite groups themselves. Therefore, it quickly developed into open military-political clashes, during which violence became one of the most common means of solving accumulated problems.
The events acquired a rapid character - they began and ended in a very short period of time, which gave rise to many explanations of what happened (from a spontaneous popular uprising to an insidious conspiracy of the elites). The political science of this kind of history provides the richest empirical material for the refinement and further development of its theoretical base. In this paper, the author analyzes the qualitative state of the Kazakh political elite in the context of the political crisis that occurred in January 2022.