Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the image of Samarkand, a Soviet Silk Road city, that was projected internationally as a part of Soviet cultural diplomacy in the 1930s and in the 1960s.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the image of Samarkand, a Soviet Silk Road city, that was projected internationally as a part of Soviet cultural diplomacy in the 1930s and in the 1960s. In the 1930s, Samarkand was portrayed as an exotic destination of a romanticized adventure in the European imagination informed by the popularized notion of the silk road. The Soviet state, on the other hand, sought ways to use Samarkand’s international reputation to showcase Soviet socialist construction and Soviet-style modernization in the 1930s. The disparities among the European travelers’ romanticized expectation, Soviet propaganda image of Central Asia, and the reality on the ground contributed to disseminating less-than-flattering image of the Soviet state and socialist Central Asia. Samarkand reappeared in Soviet cultural diplomacy in the 1960s when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched the Project on the Study of Civilizations of Central Asia to complement the East-West Major Project of the 1950s. East-West Major Project and the Project on the Study of Civilizations of Central Asia not only contributed to the emergence of the silk road as a diplomatic symbol and discourse but also transformed Samarkand as an internationalist Soviet ‘silk road’ city. This paper discusses how the Soviet state used the opportunity provided by the UNESCO’s Project on the Study of Civilizations of Central Asia and the 2500th anniversary of the establishment of Samarkand celebrated in 1970 to project an image of Soviet-Asian connectivity and recreated Soviet Central Asia’s ‘Silk Road’ past.

Paper short abstract:

The Central Asian “basmachestvo” was at once an anti-colonial Turkestani resistance, a nascent national movement of the Moslem Turkic peoples of the former Russian Empire, and a critical military and ideological challenge to the goals of the rapidly consolidating Bolshevik regime centered in Moscow.

Paper long abstract:

The Central Asian “basmachestvo,” as coined by the Bolsheviks, was at once an anti-colonial Turkestani resistance, a nascent national movement of the predominantly Moslem Turkic peoples of the former Russian Empire, and a critical military and ideological challenge to the aspirations of the rapidly consolidating Bolshevik regime centered in Moscow. Typically examined as a sideshow of the Russian Civil War, this paper connects Central Asian resistance to the broader Bashkir and Tatar opposition in the South Urals to visualize a second overlapping civil war in the former Russian Empire. Because it occurred along the civilizational seams of Central Eurasia, and amidst the enormous events of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, its significance has been overshadowed. This paper re-conceptualizes the armed resistance of emerging (predominantly) Turkic nations to Bolshevik rule from several perspectives. One of these is spatial, as reflected in the eventual delineation of Soviet military districts. A full military analysis must not discuss Central Asia in isolation but should consider the resistance in the context of a larger culturally interconnected theater that includes concurrent and strategically related warfare across the Kazakh steppe and the Middle Volga and South Urals regions during the Russian Civil War. This paper includes review of the political trends connecting Central Asian resistance to that of the Tatar and Bashkir populations of the Middle Volga and South Urals.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the great women of Kazakhstan commemorated on the streets of Almaty. The study suggests that the process of the de-Sovietisation of sheroes has not begun, since the commemoration practices continue to exclude those repressed during Soviet repression period.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the great women of Kazakhstan commemorated in the public space during the Soviet period and independent Kazakhstan, given a special attention to the analysis of the streets of Almaty (urbanonyms). The study suggests that the process of the de-Sovietisation of Kazakhstani role models and sheroes has not begun, since the glorification processes continue to exclude those repressed during Soviet repression period.

Those women found as victims of repressions (mostly members of the families of “enemies of the people”) were not visible, forgotten or forbidden during Soviet times are still not commemorated and are not found in the public space.

Now there are 49 streets named after women in Almaty, 19 of them were named in the Soviet period. Among them 11 are Soviet heroes of the WWII and first female cosmonaut. The remaining 8 streets are female symbols of Soviet Kazakhstan.

Other 30 streets were named since gaining independence in 1991. But new names turned to preserve the soviet legacy by using the familiar female Kazakh Soviet symbols that have an “appropriate background”. Most of these names were present in Soviet social-cultural and public space (directories, poetry, postcards, stamps, TV, cinema, etc).

Among all 49 streets named after female personalities there is only one exception – Anna Nikolskaya, who was a repressed prisoner in Karlag.

The article is aimed at starting a discussion on de-Sovietization of women's history of Kazakhstan. In order to make a transition from one narrative to another the study suggests using social media, offline and online lectures and exhibitions to recover and represent forgotten repressed female figures of Kazakhstan.

Paper long abstract:

The Russian colonial history always differed from the European colonial history. In the late 19th century, the Russian empire conquered or “annexed” the large portion of Central Asia. “The Great Game”, by which term this historical period became known, was between the world powers such as Russia, the Great Britain and France. The Russian colonial politics in regards to Central Asia was never simple. In post-Soviet Central Asia, there is still tradition to write national history from the viewpoint of seeing one’s neighboring countries as enemies or colonizers. This tradition was created during the reign of the first Governor-General of the Russian Turkestan, Konstantin von Kaufman in order to rule in Turkestan with ease. The local people were named “tuzemtsy” and their voice was never taken into account. Even today in the Russian language secondary literature, the history of the Russian conquest of Central Asia is referred to as “annexation”! The present paper will analyze the archival materials, manuscripts, scholarly works of the Russian and local researchers. I will use the subaltern and postcolonial methodologies. Based on these methods and materials, the picture of the Russian colonizers as viewed by the local historians will be depicted.