Perceptions of National Identity in Kazakhstan: Research Proposal

Introduction
Kazakhstan is among the states that suffered the most from the Soviet identity, its political, and economic structures. (What do you mean here by suffering from the Soviet identity? How one can suffer from certain identity? Do you mean from Soviet policies? It requires reformulation. What is suffering? Is it the economy, policies or something else? Not clear. Also, such claims must be supported by evidence or source.)
However, three decades later, after the Soviet Union’s fall, Kazakhstan, a country with the most diverse demographic composition, is still experiencing an identity crisis. Research suggests that Kazakhstan started building its national identity after the fall of the Soviet Union. According to Cohen (2008), the Soviet Union collapse accelerated Kazakhstan’s multi-ethnic self-identification process. However, why are the Kazakh rising ethnic identity and religiosity colliding with the civic-informed nationhood in the state three decades later?

(Not logical. First, you start with a nation-building project. Then you write about the acceleration of multi-ethnic ethnicities, and then you try to problematize by saying why they are rising three decades later. What is that you consider being a puzzle or a problem here? Why is Kazakh rising despite what? Why Kazakh identity is not settled despite three decades of nation-building? It needs to be reformulated. What are the problems that are still unresolved? Perhaps there are ethnic problems in Kazakhstan? Is it on the rise? Why is the nation-building project failing and becoming more ethnic than civic? Or maybe, on the contrary, Kazakhstan is the only country where there are minimal ethnic problems. Whatever is the case there, it must be supported by evidence. Please change the puzzle.)
Understanding this puzzle requires a critical evaluation of the current people’s perception of Kazakhstan’s national identity. Further, evaluating how the Kazakh population understands the different components of civic national identity would also provide essential insights into this puzzle. This paper presents a proposal of research to evaluate the perception of national identity in Kazakhstan among the Kazakh population.

(In general, it’s better to completely rewrite the introduction part)

Research Questions
The questions that will be addressed in this research include:
How do people perceive national identity in modern Kazakhstan?
What are the components of civic national identity according to the population?