In search of a "new" Sovietology, new Post-Sovietology or Central Asian Studies…

Abstract

The Euro-American, Kazakh and Russian studies naturally raised and are still raising the question of the future Sovietology, Post-Sovietology and even Post-Post- Sovietology caused by the USSR collapse and understanding the need to rethink the theoretical and methodological foundations to study the New Independent States / CIS as a whole and in the Central Asian region, in particular. Sovietology could not adequately reflect the changed reality. The author demonstrates the consistency and inconsistency of sovietology concerning the question about Kazakhstan history, as colonization, russification, sovietization and etc. The socio-economic development of independent Kazakhstan evaluated by foreign researchers was taken as an example in order to show traits of Sovietology inherited earlier. Guided by the inequality of the world order and sovietology experience, the objective and impartial theoretical and methodological basis to study CIS space is required. Otherwise, methodological inconsistency of Sovietology and PostSovietology in explanation and understanding of the political and socio-cultural processes in the territory of CIS will be a natural phenomenon. The "special way" of study, neoinstitutional approach, historical, comparative and pluralist approaches are offered on the basis of international scholars' analysis.