Reimagining sovereignty: contemporary resemiotisation of Kazakh opposition leaders online in the shadow of Russian expansionism

This paper examines how contemporary social media users in Kazakhstan engage with early Soviet-era figures known as the Kazakh Intelligentsia, particularly in the context of the war in Ukraine. It explores how historical memory and nostalgic longing are reconstructed, contested and repurposed through the digital representation of Alash movement leaders of the 1920s. These figures are increasingly reimagined across various cultural forms, including sculptures, AI-generated animations and digital art. The study argues that the resemiotisation of Alash leaders functions as a spatiotemporal trope, allowing social media users to symbolically reclaim a chosen part of a mythologised sovereign past. Employing multimodal discourse analysis and digital ethnography, the research investigates how social media platforms serve as sites of ideological negotiation and cultural resistance. Drawing from decolonial theory, sociolinguistics and memory studies, this project contributes to discussions on de-russification and de-Sovietisation in Kazakhstan’s public space.