Fragmented Narratives and Post-Soviet Remembrance in Yuri Serebryansky’s 'Altynshash'

• In Event: Narrative and Memory in Kazakh Literature

Abstract

Yuri Serebryansky’s novel Altynshash portrays the forced deportation of Poles to the Kazakh steppe under Soviet rule in the 1930s, starting with a storyline of a composite character, followed by various family stories of the deported Poles. Fragmentation operates on multiple levels—sentence, scene, and structure—mirroring the fractured nature of both individual and collective memory. Despite its disjointed form, the novel resists disunity; instead, it seeks to weave together the voices of those affected by deportation.

Author

• Aibarsha Kazhyakpar, Stanford U