# Novy Uzen Riots (16–20 June 1989)

URL: https://allhistories.com/kazakhstan/timeline/1989-novy-uzen-riots
Location: Novy Uzen (Zhanaozen), Mangystau Region
Themes: Anti-nuclear movement, Civil society, Nuclear testing

On 16 June 1989 a clash between rival gangs at a discotheque set off four days of rioting in Novy Uzen, an oil town in western Kazakhstan with about 60,000 residents. An Interior Ministry spokesman said Kazakh youths attacked immigrants from the Caucasus, and the Wikipedia article on the town says the crowd, up to 7,000, targeted Armenian, Azerbaijani and Lezgin communities. Rioters protested food rationing, high prices and unemployment, and claimed outsiders in the oil industry earned higher wages than locals. Soviet reports gave 3 killed and 53 injured, seven cars burned and 14 state buildings ransacked. Hundreds were briefly evacuated, 57 people were detained and a curfew was imposed. It showed the strain that shortages, migration and unemployment placed on oil towns in the late Soviet period. The town, founded in 1964 after the oil field opened, was renamed Zhanaozen in 1993. A strike at the Ozenmunaigas field in 2011 later ended in deadly clashes on 16 December, with officials giving 15 dead and opposition sources claiming dozens. At this point in the timeline (1989), the Kazakh SSR, a republic of the USSR, was led by Gennady Kolbin, first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan (16 December 1986 – 22 June 1989), with Makhtay Sagdiyev, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (10 March 1989 – 22 February 1990), while Nursultan Nazarbayev, chairman of the Council of Ministers (22 March 1984 – 27 July 1989) headed the government.

## Why it matters
The Novy Uzen riots revealed ethnic and economic tension in the oil regions of Kazakhstan years before independence, and Zhanaozen remains a flashpoint for labour protest.

Ruler at the Time: [Gennady Kolbin](https://allhistories.com/kazakhstan/rulers/gennady-kolbin)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Zhanaozen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhanaozen)
- [The Christian Science Monitor — Ethnic Unrest Flares in Soviet South as Protesters Denounce Shortages (21 June 1989)](https://csmonitor.com/1989/0621/ouzen.html)