scholarly journals Between “imagined” and “real” nation-building: identities and nationhood in post-Soviet Central Asia

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rico Isaacs ◽  
Abel Polese
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Grey Zone ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Different Levels

Much of the existing literature on nation-building in Central Asia offers a statist top-down approach which focuses on how the nation and nationhood is “imagined” by political elites. In this special issue the contributors provide an analysis which seeks to explore the process of nation-building in Central Asia by addressing the other side of the state-society relationship. The case studies in this collection examine the “grey zone” between “imagined” and “real” differences between state-led policies and discourses related to nationhood and identity and how they are received by different audiences at different levels (regional, national and international). The authors bring to the fore the contested nature of nation-building in Central Asia as well as focusing on new or less conventional analytical tools for the study of nation-building such as cinema, construction projects and elections. This article provides the introduction to the special issue and lays out the contribution the articles make to the existing literature on nation-building in Central Asia. It also sets out the rationale and aims of the collection.

Imagined democracy? Nation-building and elections in Central Asia

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donnacha Ó Beacháin ◽  
Rob Kevlihan
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Central Asian Countries ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Nation State Formation

Is an imagined democracy more important than actual democracy for nation-building purposes? After 20 years of independence, Central Asian countries present a mixed bag of strong and weak states, consolidated and fragmented nations. The equation of nation and state and the construction of genuine nation states remains an elusive goal in all of post-Soviet Central Asia. This paper examines the role that electoral politics has played in nation-state formation. We argue that electoral processes have been central to attempted nation-state building processes as part of efforts to legitimize authoritarian regimes; paradoxically in those few countries where (for brief periods) partial democratization actually occurred, elections contributed, at least in the short term, to nation-state fragmentation.

Between the state and the artist: Representations of femininity and masculinity in the formation of ideas of the nation in Central Asia

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana T. Kudaibergenova
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Official View ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Newly Independent States ◽  
Ideological Construction

After the Soviet collapse, the newly independent states of Central Asia found themselves in the process of forming their own national “imagined communities.” This was done to legitimize their existing territorial integrity, their rights to their titular ethnicities, and the position of political elites. This process expressed itself through the creation of particular symbols, myths, and rituals which distinguished the nation but were also used to legitimize the nation's right to exist. The symbolic and ideological construction was influenced by the former Soviet era. For example, symbolically the country was still called Rodina (motherland), but most of the symbols of power were represented by male images, for example, Amir Timur in Uzbekistan or Ablay Khan in Kazakhstan. The tradition of representing power through a male connotation had a long history in Soviet Central Asia. Interestingly, however, some contemporary artists took an alternative view and used feminine images as strong, central symbols of their interpretation of national identity, contesting the official view of nation-building. This paper seeks to trace the development of the feminine and masculine dichotomy of representation by comparing official iconography with works of famous female artists such as Umida Akhmedova from Uzbekistan and Saule Suleimenova and Almagul Menlibayeva from Kazakhstan.

Promising Generations: From Intergenerational Guilt to Ndi Umunyarwanda

2019 ◽  
pp. 189-210
Author(s):  
Richard M. Benda
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Current Stage

Ndi Umunyarwanda is a relatively new concept, having surfaced in post-genocide political narrative in July 2013. There is little doubt however that this concept currently dominates Rwandan identity politics and is envisioned as the answer to almost all the historical ills that have befallen and divided Rwanda. In light of the currently predominant discourse on post-genocide Rwanda, Ndi Umunyarwanda could be perceived as a top-down process of social engineering if considered only from the perspective of the current stage of its political dissemination. However, approached from its inception stage as this essay does, It is a bottom-up phenomenon that originates from Youth Connekt Dialogues (YCD); a series of dialogues held between children of perpetrators, children (of) survivors and representatives of local and central governments. The essay offers a narrative analysis of this emergence of Ndi Umunyarwanda out of YCD. The argument proposed here is that change in post-genocide Rwanda happens in different stages and at different levels. A narrative examination of YCD and Ndi Umunyarwanda as sequentially related phenomena shows that individual and group-initiated changes at grassroots levels can and do shape the national metanarrative of post-genocide nation building.

Matrioshka hegemony? Multi-levelled hegemonic competition and security in post-Soviet Central Asia

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUTH DEYERMOND
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Simultaneous Presence ◽  
Competition And Cooperation ◽  
Asian Security ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractA multi-levelled hegemonic encounter has developed in Central Asia, in which a global hegemon, the USA; a regional hegemon, the Russian Federation; an aspirant sub-regional hegemon, Uzbekistan; and an emergent regional and global hegemon, China, co-exist within the framework of Central Asian security politics. Where these hegemons’ interests do not conflict this can be characterised as a matrioshka model of hegemony: the different level hegemons can accommodate one another peacefully and where their interests coincide they can form alliances. The model of multi-levelled hegemony developed here highlights the simultaneous presence of competition and cooperation. This article explores the way in which the various bilateral hegemonic relations in the region also indicate that actual and emergent hegemonic states at different levels can cooperate as hegemons in order to challenge, or to respond to challenge, by hegemonic states at other levels. This helps to clarify the question of whether the increasingly competitive interaction between these states is likely to lead to conflict.

Republics of Soviet Central Asia

1946 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 169-172
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Steiger
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

The Politburo’s Policy in Central Asia (1982–1991) [Politika Politbyuro CK KPSS v Central'noj Azii (1982–1991 gg.)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
С.М. Исхаков
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
The Real ◽  
Soviet Central Asia

Статья посвящена Политике Политбюро ЦК КПСС в отношении населения советской Центральной Азии в последнее десятилетие существования Советского Союза. Методологическая и теоретическая неразбериха, эклектика, откровенный субъективизм, скрытый догматизм стали характерными чертами современной историографии, которая уводит все дальше от реального исторического процесса, который происходил тогда в этом регионе под влиянием различных факторов. Характеризуется экономика и уровень жизни населения этого региона в канун перестройки, перспективы Центральной Азии, духовная жизнь, национальное самосознание, замыслы Ю.А. Андропова, действия М.С. Горбачева и республиканских руководителей в условиях начавшейся перестройки, сильные противоречия в высшей партийной номенклатуре. The article is dedicated to the Central Committee Politburo’s policy towards the population of Soviet Central Asia in the last decade of the U.S.S.R.’s existence. The methodological and theoretic chaos, eclecticism, open subjectivism, and concealed dogmatism became characteristic traits of contemporary historiography, which leads us farther and farther away from the real historic process that took place in the region, unraveling under certain factors. The article characterizes the region’s economy and the population’s level of life at the dawn of the Perestroika, Central Asia’s perspectives, its spiritual life, national self-awareness, Y. Andropov’s plans, M. Gorbachev’s and the republican leaderships’ actions during the Perestroika, as well as the strong inner contention in the Communist Party’s top nomenclature.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eren Tasar
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Church State Relations ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Previous Scholarship

This introduction describes the main arguments and historiographical interventions undertaken in the present work. The majority of previous scholarship on Islam in Soviet Central Asia has treated the Communist anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s as representative of the entire Soviet period. By contrast, this book argues that Stalin’s normalization of church-state relations in 1943–1944 allowed a permanent space for Islam to exist in Soviet society. This space rapidly became the site of an accommodation between Islam and Communism for many Central Asians. The introduction concludes with a discussion of the advantages and limitations of the sources employed throughout the book.

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