The Place of Memory in Understanding Urban Change in Central Asia: The Cities of Bishkek and Ferghana

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between memory and place in understandings of urban change in Central Asia. Drawing on narratives of long-term residents of two Central Asian cities we investigate the ways in which positive memories of the Soviet past emerge when people speak about the urban environment of today. We explore why such fondness for the Soviet past has emerged, what elements of the past are most cherished, and which urban communities remember these elements. We ask what these forms of memory reveal about what has been lost and what this tells us about the present anxieties of urban residents.

Notes

¹ The research project is an international collaborative venture funded by the Leverhulme Trust (Ref: F/00 179/AK). The project focuses upon the cities of Bishkek and Karakol in Kyrgyzstan, and Tashkent and Ferghana in Uzbekistan.

² Extensive qualitative research conducted in Kyrgyzstan over the period 1992–2003 showed that in the first decade following the end of the Soviet Union, positive recollections of the recent Soviet past were very rare (Kosmarskaya 2006).

³ By long-term residents we mean people who lived in the particular city during the period of the Soviet Union and who are still resident there today. They are thus the part of the present day urban population most likely to have clear recollections of the city as it was in the past.

⁴ Our study reinforces the relevance of locality when understanding nostalgia and forms of memorising in the post-Soviet space. This theme is explored by Boele in his article on how the Brezhnev era is remembered in the city of Novorossiisk (Boele 2011).

⁵ See also the special issue of Neprikosnovennyi zapas (Oushakine 2011) which is devoted to the presence and significance of remnants of the Soviet past in the contemporary urban environment of the post-Soviet space, and the special issue of Nationalities Papers (Diener & Hagen 2013), which explores the interaction of local, national and regional/global influences and those of the past in the context of the contemporary cultural politics shaping the post-socialist city.

⁶ See for example Bell (1999, p. 187). A ‘view from below’ has been reflected to an extent in a limited number of studies carried out within the post-socialist region. The study by Danzer (2009) of ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan explores how changes in the built environment have an impact upon their perceptions of the state nationalisation process, and in turn how these perceptions interact with their ethnic identities. Darieva (2011) prioritises analysis of the changing landscape of Baku's public spaces with insights from interviews with residents of Baku to ‘explore the urban public place as an intersection of political, material and social relations’ (Darieva 2011, p. 156). Richardson (2005) investigates how members of the ‘My Odessa’ club conceive Odessa and how the history of the city is experienced by ‘walking through place’ where the present day Odessa is seen as less authentic than that of the past, and where exclusionary narratives exist to say who is and who is not ‘Odessan’. Grant (2010), although with less of a focus on the relationship between memory and place, explores understandings of Baku as a cosmopolitan city amongst residents of the city who lived there during the 1960s and 1970s and, importantly, asks what this tells us about ‘shifting cultural politics’ in Baku, Azerbaijan and the wider Caucasus today (Grant 2010, p. 211).

⁷ See Kusenbach (2003) for a discussion of the method of go-along walks, and Beazley (2000) for a discussion of the method of mental mapping.

⁸ Karakol, one of the four cities focussed upon in the project, is a small city of approximately 65,000 people, located in the north east of the country, 320 km from Bishkek.

⁹ Analysis of this material lies beyond the scope of this article, however, it should be noted that we are speaking here of everyday people. Certain sectors of the population do not demonstrate such indifference, for example Russian activists in Slavic organisations, journalists and scholars, who have been shown to strongly disagree with renaming, and other processes of resymbolisation, taking place across Central Asia. See for example Abdullaev (2006, pp. 28–31), Alekseenko (2008, pp. 11–12) and Romanov (2011).

¹⁰ A ‘lieu de mémoire’ is ‘any significant entity, whether material or non-material in nature, which by dint of human will or the work of time has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community (in this case, the French community)’ (Nora & Kritzman 1996). In other words, sites of memory are ‘where (cultural) memory crystallizes and secretes itself’ (Nora 1989, p. 7). These include places such as archives, museums, cathedrals, palaces, cemeteries and memorials; concepts and practices such as commemorations, generations, mottos and all rituals; objects such as inherited property, commemorative monuments, manuals, emblems, basic texts and symbols.

¹¹ Jenks (2008) introduced the term ‘grass-root’ sites of memory in relation to her research on ‘Little Tokyo’ in Los Angeles.

¹² When we cite interview data in the text, each extract is followed by the gender, ethnicity, year of birth, educational status and profession of the respondents at the time of interviewing—this reflects socio-demographic data collected during the course of the field research.

¹³ Data relating to the national composition of the city population for January 2007, received in 2008 from the local statistical committee.

¹⁴ This is a reference to the Khanate of Kokand, a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709 to 1876, and spanned the territories of modern day Kyrgyzstan, eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and south-eastern Kazakhstan.

¹⁵ Interview with Respondent 1, female, Uzbek, 1960, higher education, NGO activist, 1 April 2009, Ferghana. This memory of internationalism may be compared to Grant's findings in Baku, where residents who lived in the city in the 1970s today remember a cosmopolitan environment, where within the specific context of the time nationality did not matter (Grant 2010, p. 128). Grant explores further the limits of this cosmopolitanism, and the differences between cosmopolitanism and internationalism.

¹⁶ The gastronom was a general grocery store that existed in the Soviet period, which in particular provided food products, many of which were in short supply (defitsit). However, the social and emotional meaning of the gastronom went far beyond this, which we will explore below. The building was built at the end of the nineteenth century as a one storey private house in the very centre of the small city. It was a printing house until 1936, and then became a large grocery store. The gastronom was demolished in 1998 to make way for a new square where the statue of Al'-Fargoni now stands (see below).

¹⁷ Those who wished were allowed to move the remains of their relations to the new location of the cemetery.

¹⁸ Gubernator was the term for the general governor of the city in the Tsarist period.

¹⁹ Interview with Respondent 2, female, Russian, 1964, higher education, artist, 21 September 2008, Ferghana.

²⁰ Interview with Respondent 2, female, Russian, 1964, higher education, artist, 21 September 2008, Ferghana.

²¹ Interview with Respondent 3, female, Russian, 1978, higher education, housewife, 17 September 2008, Ferghana.

²² Payok (ration) is an older term for the late-Soviet word zakaz. Deficit food products/rations were distributed amongst privileged groups of the population, for example party members, veterans, workers in particular enterprises and institutes.

²³ Interview with Respondent 15, female, Russian, 1940, higher education, builder, 21 September 2008, Ferghana.

²⁴ Pingvin (Penguin) was one of the very few cafés which existed in Ferghana in the Soviet period.

²⁵ Shamsad and Danya were well known figures in the local cultural community in the Soviet period. They are no longer resident in Ferghana.

²⁶ Interview with Respondent 4, male, Uzbek, 1958, higher education, artist and Respondent 5, his brother, male, Uzbek, 1960, higher education, migrant worker, 16 September 2008, Ferghana.

²⁷ Interview with Respondent 16, female, Russian, 1946, higher education, philologist, poet, 3 April 2009, Ferghana.

²⁸ Used by people from Ferghana to describe and define long-term residents of the city, which may be compared to the term and usage of Frunzenets (see below).

²⁹ Interview with Respondent 6, male, Russian, 1948, higher education, musician/local historian, 24 September 2008, Ferghana.

³⁰ Interview with Respondent 6, male, Russian, 1948, higher education, musician/local historian, 24 September 2008, Ferghana.

³¹ Interview with Respondent 1, Uzbek, 1960, higher education, NGO activist, 1 April 2009, Ferghana.

³² Interview with Respondent 6, male, Russian, 1948, higher education, musician/local historian, 24 September 2008, Ferghana.

³³ Singular, masculine form of Fergantsy.

³⁴ Interview with Respondent 1, Uzbek, 1960, higher education, NGO activist, 1 April 2009, Ferghana.

³⁵ Interview with Respondent 1, female, Uzbek, 1960, higher education, NGO activist, 1 April 2009, Ferghana.

³⁶ Interview with Respondent 2, female, Russian, 1964, higher education, artist, 21 September 2008, Ferghana.

³⁷ A central methodological aim of the wider research project was not to focus upon or prioritise ethnicity as a marker of self-identification and perception, unless this was done so by respondents. We found that categories and boundaries in the four cities were being reworked along many different lines, for example urban/rural; Russian-speaking/non-Russian speaking; North–South (see below in relation to Bishkek); wealthy–poor. These boundaries often cut across those of ethnicity. See Flynn and Kosmarskaya (2012) for a discussion of this in the context of Bishkek.

³⁸ Regional committee of the local branch of the Communist Party.

³⁹ Interview with Respondent 6, male, Russian, 1948, higher education, musician/local historian, 24 September 2008, Ferghana.

⁴⁰ Interview with Respondent 3, female, 1978, Russian, higher education, housewife, 17 September 2008, Ferghana.

⁴¹ For a detailed discussion of the migration movements taking place to Bishkek both during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, see Flynn and Kosmarskaya (2012, pp. 455–59).

⁴² Figures taken from unpublished census materials gained from informants in Bishkek in 2008.

⁴³ This situation is explored in the contemporary period in Flynn and Kosmarskaya (2012). Schroeder (2010) shows in his study how, despite ethnic and other differences, Kyrgyz and Russian long-term inhabitants of Bishkek (in his case young people) moved to co-identify as urbans in opposition to newly arrived Kyrgyz migrants. It is important to note that although urban–rural differences in the Soviet period were notable, boundaries and identities are being re-worked and re-negotiated in the present due to the increasing presence of rural migrants in the city.

⁴⁴ According to expert estimates, after the last revolution of April 2010 there were approximately 50 new settlements with populations of about 150,000–300,000 (Orlova 2010, p. 1). The idea of ‘nakhalovka’—districts made up of slums, constructed on the outskirts of Soviet and post-Soviet cities—is not specific to Kyrgyzstan. What is specific is the mass nature of the phenomenon, its repetitive character, the inadequate state response, and the correlation of each new wave of seizures and subsequent illegal settlements with social upheaval and popular unrest in the country.

⁴⁵ See Flynn and Kosmarskaya (2012, pp. 459–64) for a detailed discussion of long-term residents' narratives related to the recent transformation of life in Bishkek. These narratives are characterised by a clear anti-migrant/anti-migration discourse structured around three themes: the north–south divide; new settlements/self-seizures of land; lack of culture (beskul'tur'ye). Similar findings were identified by Yessenova, in her research on rural–urban migration to Almaty, Kazakhstan (Yessenova 2005).

⁴⁶ Interview with Respondent 9, female, Korean, 1965, specialist technical education, service industry worker, 4 September 2008, Bishkek.

⁴⁷ Frequent claims were made that they ‘spit on stairs’, ‘drop rubbish’, ‘urinate in public places’ and ‘don't know how to use the lift’.

⁴⁸ He was forced to leave his post after the 2010 revolution when President Bakiev was overthrown and removed from the presidency.

⁴⁹ The interviewee showed us scanned pictures and old photographs on the computer.

⁵⁰ The interviewee showed photographs of different places in contemporary Bishkek to demonstrate the negative changes which had occurred. Interview with Respondent 10, female, Russian, 1964, higher education, journalist, 20 September 2008, Bishkek.

⁵¹ Interview with Respondent 11, female, ‘Frunzenka’, Kyrgyz, higher education, historian, 7 June 2011, Bishkek. A ‘Frunzenka’ (feminine form) is being used by the respondent to describe herself as an inhabitant of the city of Frunze not only in a formal but also in a spiritual, emotional sense. This may be compared to the term and use of Ferganets (see above).

⁵² Interview with Respondent 8, male, Kyrgyz, 1969, higher education, researcher, 18 August 2008, Bishkek.

⁵³ Interview with Respondent 8, male, Kyrgyz, 1969, higher education, researcher, 18 August 2008, Bishkek.

⁵⁴ Interview with Respondent 12, female, Kyrgyz, 1984, university student, 1 September 2008, Bishkek.

⁵⁵ Interview with Respondent 13, male, Russian, 1982, higher education, journalist, 24 August 2008, Bishkek.

⁵⁶ Interview with Respondent 14, male, Kyrgyz, Frunzenets, 1961, higher education, taxi-driver, petty businessman, 5 September 2008, Bishkek. Fruzenets is the masculine form of Frunzenka, which the man used to describe himself.

⁵⁷ Interview with Respondent 7, male, Kyrgyz, 1948, higher education, university teacher, 2 September 2008, Bishkek.

⁵⁸ This resonates with the findings of Darieva (2011), where long-term residents of Baku, in the face of the arrival of rural migrants ‘unprepared for urban life’, spoke of the loss of ‘order’ from the past, combining this with a nostalgic view of Soviet Baku. However, it is important to note that in the case of Baku, these complaints were heard specifically about a particular place—the ‘Baku Promenade’—which emerged strongly as a localised memory, rather than memories being evoked about the city as a whole.

⁵⁹ See Flynn and Kosmarskaya (2012, pp. 464–67), for a deconstruction of the anti-migrant discourse which exists amongst long-term residents in Bishkek.

⁶⁰ The reasons for this urban transformation cannot be looked at in detail in this article. The Uzbekistani state clearly wished to modernise the built environment to meet the demands of the twenty-first century; this was made possible due to the availability of sufficient financing. More importantly, the changes to the urban space are connected with the desire to construct a new national identity, and the presence of a predominantly negative relationship amongst the ruling elite in Uzbekistan to the country's Soviet past (Abashin 2010; Bell 1999; Adams 2010; Abdullaev 2006).

⁶¹ Interview with Respondent 1, female, Uzbek, 1960, higher education, NGO activist, 1 April 2009, Ferghana.

⁶² Interview with Respondent 3, female, Russian, 1978, higher education, housewife, 17 September 2008, Ferghana.

⁶³ Interview with Respondent 4, male, Uzbek, 1958, higher education, artist, 16 September 2008, Ferghana.

⁶⁴ Interview with Respondent 17, male, Russian, 1972, specialist technical education, power engineering specialist, 31 March 2009, Ferghana.

⁶⁵ The movement of people from rural areas to cities and towns is strictly regulated in Uzbekistan through the maintenance of the Soviet era propiska/registration regime.

⁶⁶ It is important to note that for the majority of the post-Soviet period the Kyrgyzstani state has not had the resources, or the political ambitions, for the mass transformation of the city's material environment. The city has changed, but this is mainly due to private initiatives. The most notable changes have taken place since 2010, when elite apartment blocks appeared in the city centre. The main public spaces and symbolic buildings, for example, the central square Ala-Too; the area where the two main streets meet and where the Post Office and a huge department store (TsUM) are located; the central parks and leisure spaces; the city's important administrative buildings where the ministries, parliament, president and constitutional court are located; these all remain as they were in the Soviet period.

⁶⁷ Interview with Respondent 7, male, Kyrgyz, 1948, higher education, university teacher, 2 September 2008, Bishkek.

⁶⁸ These observations were made during the course of this research, and also reflect research conducted by one of the authors of the article in Kyrgyzstan in the 1990s and early 2000s.

⁶⁹ Interview with Respondent 18, male, Russian, 1961, special technical education, businessman, 20 September 2008, Ferghana.