Life at the Edge of the Empire: Oral Histories of Soviet Kyrgyzstan
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we often forget the hardships of past generations under communism. Researchers continue to sift through archives and conduct interviews for a glimpse into the lives of these individuals. Yet even with such efforts, within Central Asia, many tales remain untold. One professor inspired by his own difficulties locating such resources set out to give these people a voice through the project titled Life at the Edge of the Empire: Oral Histories of Soviet Kyrgyzstan.
Interviewee Alexander Shafir (Photo Courtesy of Centralasianhistory.org)
Project Background
Across Eurasia, The spread of the communism introduced an alien ideology that forever transformed the region’s diverse peoples and cultures. Overnight entire ethnic communities were uprooted while others were forcibly sedentarized decimating once flourishing nomadic cultures. These draconian policies altered and even destroyed time-honored traditions for future generations to come.
A great deal of scholarship examines the effects of the Soviet experience amongst Russia and its Eastern European neighbors often overlooking Central Asia. Existing research exploring this legacy within Central Asia is characterized by scant efforts to account for the struggles faced by individuals in this region of the Soviet Union. When conducting his own research, scholar and Professor Sam Tranum encountered this problem first hand.
“When I was in graduate school, I tried to write a paper based on primary sources about collectivization in Central Asia. I was hoping to concentrate on Turkmenistan, where I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2004-2006” Sam said, “But I had so much trouble finding sources, that I broadened my search and decided to write about whatever country I could find enough sources on.”
Surprised by the lack of primary resources available in both English and Russian of the Soviet experience throughout Central Asia, Professor Sam Tranum in the spring of 2009 together with his Historical Journalism class at the American University of Central Asia, set out to create their own archive of interviews. Their project titled Life at the Edge of an Empire consists of a collection of 33 interviews of individuals from diverse ethnic, religious, and professional backgrounds within Kyrgyzstan providing remarkable insight into the lives of common men and women. The accounts within this publication and online archive discuss topics ranging from life during World War I to reflections on independence and privatization.
In the hopes of preserving these forgotten stories, 17 students from Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan participated in this project conducting, transcribing, and translating this collection under Sam Tranum’s editorship. Local students found their interview subjects through family and friends while others worked through Kyrgyz acquaintances and nearby organizations that serve the elderly, including the Babushka Adoption Foundation.
The stories collected by this project touch on events including: “Urkun/World War I; sedentarization; collectivization; World War II; the post-war reconstruction period; Stalin’s death; the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras; independence; and privatization. The interviewees were asked about language, religion, the roles of men and women in society, their school days, their war experiences, migration issues, deported nationalities, agriculture, food, and entertainment.” According to the project’s website.
Interviewee Dilber Ejeke,a former Factory worker (Photo Courtesy of Centralasianhistory.org)
For Future Generations
Whether it’s the story of a former KGB agent or the experiences of a Kyrgyz alpinist, while reading this collection one uncovers a commonality, which eclipses perceived generational gaps. The individuals within this collection come from all backgrounds, some have seen their loved ones come and go others have fought through world wars but no matter how much their lives differ, their own experiences attest to the resiliency of man, and our common humanity regardless of circumstance.
A failure to understand our own past is not a problem unique to the former Soviet Union. Thousands of individuals’ histories go unpublished, eternally forgotten with the each person’s passing. Through projects like Life at the Edge of the Empire: Oral Histories of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, students are given the opportunity to uncover their own histories while sharing the experiences of past generations.
Such a project is never complete, that’s why Sam encourages future students and Central Asian scholars to contribute to the projects archive, which can be found at www.centralasianhistory.org
