Memory as Resistance: Kamila Smagulova on the Jeltoksan Uprising

⚠️ Content Warning: This episode includes descriptions of violent repression and historical trauma. In this powerful episode of Yurt Jurt, host Diana Kudaibergen speaks with Kamila Smagulova, researcher, civil society activist, and PhD candidate in history at Leiden University, about the Jeltoksan uprising of December 1986. Kamila draws on her historical research and personal passion to explore how this protest echoes the broader history of suppressed dissent in Kazakhstan, particularly the roles of young people, and young women in particular, and how they were treated. Throughout the episode, Kamila also performs three songs, bringing her scholarly and artistic voices together in a moving tribute to memory, resistance, and identity. As a historian, Kamila reflects on how the state’s refusal to fully acknowledge these events has shaped collective memory. She situates Jeltoksan not just as a political protest but as a lasting symbol of the struggle for recognition, civic agency, and historical justice in Kazakhstan.