This study is devoted to the analysis of socio-cultural transformations in Kazakhstan during the «Small October» period, the second wave of Soviet modernization in the 1920s and 1930s, in the context of historical anthropology. Special attention is paid to the interaction and conflict between the traditional Kazakh national identity and the modernization practices implemented by the Soviet state in all directions:1) forced collectivization, including the destruction of the traditional way of life and forced settlement; 2) repressions against the Bayan and traditional nobility (Bayan families, clergy, traditional leaders), which affected the traditional structure of Kazakh society; 3) forced industrialization; 4) korenization and the cultural revolution, which meant a break in cultural continuity, a violation of the identity mechanism passed down from generation to generation, as well as the imposition of a «new» identity - international, proletarian, Soviet. The purpose of the study is to analyze the impact of the «Small October» policy on the national identity of Kazakhs from the perspective of a historical and anthropological approach and the transformation of national identity in the face of a clash with the reality of socialist construction. The work is based on the theoretical framework of historical anthropology, including the concepts of power, body, trauma and identity, which allows us to identify the deep mechanisms of adaptation and resistance in the context of a radical socio-cultural change. The results of the study contribute to a deeper understanding of the processes of crisis and transformation of Kazakh identity in the context of Soviet modernization.