Alash (party)

Alash (Kazakh: Алаш партиясы, Alaş partiası) was a political party and liberation movement in the Russian Republic and Soviet Russia, and the ruling party of Alash Autonomy on the territory of present-day Kazakhstan and Russia. They advocated for equal treatment between Kazakhs and Russians and the cessation of Russian settlement on the Kazakh lands. It was notably the first modern organized political Kazakh and Kyrgyz elite group. The Alash party attempted to reinforce Kazakh identity rather than embracing Russian identities. Western secularism and ties to the Muslim world were the major dividing issues among the party intelligentsia and the Kazakh elites, through the Russian Civil War. Chairman of the party and president of the Alash Autonomy was Alikhan Bokeikhanov. Prior to the formation of Alash party, he and other notable members of the party were members of the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party, which they maintained some relations with. Alash party ceased to exist on 26 August 1920, after the Bolsheviks defeated the White Army that was occupying the territory of the Alash Autonomy, and formed the Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic.