Landscape and Loss: World War II in Central Asian Cinema

During World War II, representatives of almost all the Soviet Republics fought in partisan detachments in the occupied territory of the Leningrad Region. Among them were many representatives of the Central Asian republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Many Leningrad citizens, including relatives of partisans, had been evacuated to Central Asia by that time. However, representatives of Asian workers’ collectives came to meet with the partisans. The huge distance, the difference in cultures and even completely different weather conditions did not become an obstacle to those patriots-Turkestanis who joined the resistance forces in the North-West of Russia.

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Edward Wilson, Russia and Black Africa Before World War II, New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1974. 397 pp. USD26.00. Charles McLane, Soviet-African Relations, London: Central Asian Research Centre, 1974. 190 pp., GBP5. Warren Weinstein, editor, Chinese and Soviet Aid to Africa, New York, Washington and London: Praeger, 1975. 290 pp. USD20.00

Canadian-American Slavic Studies ◽

10.1163/221023976x00800 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 142-145

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

World War Ii ◽

Research Centre ◽

World War ◽

Black Africa ◽

Central Asian

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Red Army Propaganda for Uzbek Soldiers and Localised Soviet Internationalism during World War II

The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review ◽

10.1163/18763324-04201003 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 39-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Boram Shin

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

National Identity ◽

Central Asia ◽

World War ◽

National Space ◽

Central Asian ◽

Red Army ◽

Army Soldiers

During World War II, the Red Army, which had been a predominantly Slavic institution, felt the need to ‘learn the languages’ of its non-Slavic Central Asian soldiers when a large number of recruits from Central Asia arrived at the front. The Red Army authorities mobilised Central Asian political and cultural apparatuses to produce propaganda materials targeting these non-Slavic soldiers. The mobilised Uzbek propagandists and frontline entertainers reinterpreted the Soviet motherland (rodina) using the local metaphor of the Uzbek fatherland (el/yurtt/o‘tov). In this process of reimagining the Soviet/national space, Soviet heroism and internationalism, promoted as a part of Soviet patriotism, reshaped the Uzbek national identity as an Asiatic liberator. This paper explores the propaganda materials and frontline entertainment tailored to the Uzbek Red Army soldiers and traces the nationalised war hero narrative in Komil Yashin’s 1949 playGeneral Rahimov.

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The Political Implications of Demographic and Industrial Developments in Soviet Central Asia*

Nationalities Papers ◽

10.1080/00905997908407850 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 25-52

Author(s):

Michael Rywkin

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Central Asia ◽

The Political ◽

World War ◽

Political Implications ◽

Central Asian ◽

Current Affairs ◽

Asian Society ◽

Soviet Central Asia ◽

British Research

Western studies of Russian or Soviet Central Asia originated in England, spearheaded by Anglo-Russian rivalry in the area in the second part of the nineteenth century. British research was dominant until after World War II, covering the field from classical academic study (Royal Central Asian Society) to current affairs (Col. Wheeler's Central Asian Research Center).

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World War II and Islamically Informed Soviet Patriotism

10.1093/oso/9780190652104.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Eren Tasar

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

World War Ii ◽

Social Context ◽

Communist Party ◽

Historical Background ◽

Institution Building ◽

World War ◽

Central Asian ◽

The Social ◽

Muslim Communities

This chapter provides historical background on Islamic institutions in Central Asia since the eighteenth century, as well as the social context of Islamic practices and institutions. It then explains the creation of the Central Asian muftiate, SADUM, in 1943 and its early struggles to cement control over selected Muslim communities. The chapter describes how this unsuccessful centralization drive set the tone for the more nuanced institution-building strategies that SADUM developed in the 1950s. The chapter also discusses early debates within the Communist Party (within the context of World War II) about how to adopt a more flexible posture toward religion after Stalin’s religious reforms of 1943‒44.

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