The de-Russification of surnames in Central Asia

From Kazakhstan to Tajikistan, procedures have been adopted throughout the region to change the spelling of surnames by eliminating the patronymic forms imposed during tsarist and Soviet domination, in order to recover Turkic or other ethnic roots. However, only a few personalities have taken this step, perceived by many as an unnecessary complication.

Astana (AsiaNews) - The campaign to ‘de-Russify’ names and above all surnames, freeing them from the endings in -ev(a), -ov(a) and the like, imposed by tsarist and Soviet domination, which erase the true roots of the families and people of the many Turkic, Tatar, Persian, Mongolian and other ethnic groups of these countries, continues in various ways throughout the Central Asian states. Many, however, oppose this restoration, having become accustomed to Russian-style denominations as ‘simpler and more modern’.

As early as 2020, the rector of Uzbekistan's University of Journalism and Mass Communications, Šerzod Tadžiddinovič Kudratkhodžaev, declared that ‘we cannot truly evolve until we become self-conscious and express our national pride’, changing his name to Šerzodkhon Todžiddinkhon ugli Kudratkhodža. According to the 1995 law ‘On the State Language’, people living in Uzbekistan, regardless of their nationality, have the right to write their name, patronymic and surname in accordance with national historical traditions.

The procedure is regulated by the government, which can base a name change on a court decision when the surname is ‘unacceptable by sound’, or ‘does not correspond to nationality’. Those who want to change their registry data must go to the municipal offices with a large package of documents, pay a state fee of between USD 25 and 50, and the request is processed within a month. Despite the rather simple procedures, there is actually not a great demand in Uzbekistan, limiting itself to a more ‘patriotic’ indication of the patronymic, which instead of the classic Russian -vič and -ovna is indicated with the more traditional Uzbek -ugli and -kizi, meaning ‘son’ and ‘daughter’.

Kazakhstan also has a 1996 presidential decree ‘On the spelling of surnames and patronymics of Kazakh nationality’, which corresponded to the ‘numerous requests of citizens’ to restore the traditions of the Kazakh people. Those who wish to do so have the right to change the spelling of their surnames, like the actor Bauyržan Mukhameduly from Almaty, who took his father's surname immediately after the end of the USSR, in order to ‘free himself as soon as possible from the rules imposed by the Soviet regime’. Russian surnames depended on the head of the family (Fëdor-Fëdorov), and the Soviets insisted on the ‘unification of nationalities and languages’, as the Kazakh journalist Gaziza Uzak, who herself changed her surname, points out. One is reminded of the World War II hero Bauyržan Momyšuly, whom the Soviets always called ‘Momyšev’, but he refused to change his surname.

In Kyrgyzstan, the return to linguistic roots took place more recently, when the speaker of parliament, Nurlanbek Šakiev, decided to change his surname back to Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu, proclaiming on Facebook that ‘I am the son of Turgunbek, I am the son of a Kyrgyz!’, stating that he had long dreamed of changing his surname. The procedure for changing one's surname in Kyrgyzstan is quite simple, all one has to do is go to the population service centre a couple of times and leave an application for a change of passport, with a certificate of surname change.

A similar situation can be found in the country of mixed Turanian-Persian roots of Tajikistan, where the rejection of Russian endings of surnames has been in vogue since 2007, when the president himself changed his name from Emomali Šaripovič Rakhmonov to the current Emomali Rakhmon. His example was immediately imitated by many state officials, although over time the process went in the opposite direction, so as not to complicate the issuing of documents and employment in Russia for labour migrants. A few years ago, the Prosecutor General of Dushanbe expressed his concern about the ‘return to Russian surnames’ among young people, which was banned in 2020 on the basis of a parliamentary decision for the ‘defence of national self-consciousness’, which often ends up depending on a couple of letters, between -on and -zoda.