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- Convenors:
-
Nargis Kassenova
(Harvard University)
George Krol (U.S. Naval War College)
Paul Goble
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- Theme:
- HIS
- Location:
- Conference Room 505
- Sessions:
- Saturday 12 October, -
Time zone: America/New_York
Long Abstract:
The panel will introduce the output of the first stage of the digital book/project focusing on key events in the USSR and successor states covering the period 1985-1995, which is creating a user friendly, publicly accessible and expandable multi-media internet archive. Large amounts of material from these years have become available on the internet, with video and audio accounts extant in peoples' private collections still available to be digitalized. Social media, and the early internet "bulletin boards" provide as yet un-mined resources for popular reactions to the events they were living through. Internet-based efforts to reach the population that lived through these events will create the public history component of the archive. To date there is no systematic way to access video, audio and individual accounts of these key events nor is there a straightforward path for those interested in publicly discussing them.
Featuring English language and Russian language materials (with some translation capability as applicable), it is intended to serve as source of materials for researchers, students and an interested general public.
We are organizing the panel around the theme of "the excessive use of force" as a trigger for creating greater (and cross-republic) nationalist protest and further deterioration of central control. It will be composed of presentations on the December ("Zheltoksan") events in Alma-Ata, KazSSR (1986), Ferghana "riots" (1989) the "Black January" in Baku, Azerbaijan (1990), and the "January Events" in Lithuania (1991).
Primary Authors and the student contributors working with them:
Nargis Kassenova, Senior Fellow, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University ("Zheltoksan") with Michael Downs
Ulugbek Khasanov, Professor, UWED, (Fergana Events), with Mason Jacobs
Matthew Zierler, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Honors College, MSU (Black January), with Sofia Cuppal
Martha Brill Olcott, Professor, James Madison College, Michigan State University, (January Events) , with Bridie McBride.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Saturday 12 October, 2019, -Paper long abstract:
As one of the main causes of all these bloody pogroms and clashes in Uzbekistan in 1989 was lack of arable land. The second reason was perceived as the total poverty that prevailed in this region already in the 80's and the third was the feeling of "disadvantage" on the part of "outsiders" who (Meskheti Turks), in contrast to them, "lived well". However, it should be noted that the roots of the conflict are much more complex. As the reasons for its genesis, was the growth of the population, and the so-called "cotton case", and the overall growth of regional nationalism, based on the weakness of the Soviet Union, which just barely emerged from the Afghan War. The hidden impetus for the emergence of interethnic strife was the wrong policy of the Soviet communist leaders, aimed at suppressing the national consciousness of the peoples of the Union republics. As soon as the Central government weakened, the hidden ethnic tensions in the country intensified, which led to inter-ethnic conflicts. During the mass clashes between Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks that took place in Fergana in May 1989, more than a hundred people were killed and about a thousand were wounded. The wave of pogroms that engulfed the city threatened to spread to the entire Fergana valley.