scholarly journals Trends for snow cover and river flows in the Pamirs (Central Asia)

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Chevallier ◽  
B. Pouyaud ◽  
M. Mojaïsky ◽  
M. Bolgov ◽  
O. Olsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
River Flows ◽  
The Soviet Union

Abstract. In the often discussed Aral Sea basin (Central Asia), water availability depends essentially on the high mountains located in its eastern part, especially from the Pamir Alay Range where the Vakhsh and Pyandj Rivers, the main tributaries of the Amu Darya River, flow. In this region, the cryosphere, glaciers, and snow cover significantly impact the water cycle and the flow regime, which could be deeply modified by climate change. The present study, part of a project funded by the EU FP6, analyzes the hydrological situation in six benchmark basins covering areas between 1800 and 8400 km2, essentially located in Tajikistan, with a variety of topographical situations, precipitation amounts, and glacierized areas. Four types of parameter are discussed: temperature, glaciers, snow cover, and river flows. Two time periods are considered: (i) a long time series ending in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union and based on field observations and data collection; (ii) a May 2000 to May 2002 interval, using scarce monitored data and satellite information to follow snow cover dynamics. The results confirm the global homogeneous trend of temperature increase in the mountain range and its impacts on the surface water regimes. Concerning the snow cover, significant differences are noted regarding the location, the elevation, the orientation and the morphology of the respective basins. Finally the expected changes in the flow river regime are regulated by the combination of the snow cover dynamics and the increasing trend of the air temperature. It confirms the high sensitivity of this region to the warming as identified by the 4rd IPCC Assessment Report.

scholarly journals A Great Game in Greater Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-243
Author(s):  
M. H. Glantz
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Aral Sea Basin ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Great Game ◽  
Central Asian Republics

The region historically referred to as Soviet Central Asia includes the 5 Central Asian Republics (CARs) of the Former Soviet Union (FSU): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Their political status changed drastically when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and they became independent republics. Since the early 1990s, Central Asian leaders have referred on occasion to neighboring Afghanistan as the sixth CAR. In fact, it does occupy 14% of the Aral Sea Basin and its mountains supply about 15% of streamflow to the region’s mighty Amu Darya River that used to flow into Central Asia’s Aral Sea.

New Materials for Studying Preparation and Staging of the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957

2018 ◽  
pp. 550-563
Author(s):  
Daniel Sawert ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Soviet Society ◽  
Unique Event ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Cultural Standards ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Local Traditions

The article assesses archival materials on the festival movement in the Soviet Union in 1950s, including its peak, the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students held in 1957 in Moscow. Even now the Moscow festival is seen in the context of international cultural politics of the Cold War and as a unique event for the Soviet Union. The article is to put the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in the context of other youth festivals held in the Soviet Union. The festivals of 1950s provided a field for political, social, and cultural experiments. They also have been the crucible of a new way of communication and a new language of design. Furthermore, festivals reflected the new (althogh relative) liberalism in the Soviet Union. This liberalism, first of all, was expressed in the fact that festivals were organized by the Komsomol and other Soviet public and cultural organisations. Taking the role of these organisations into consideration, the research draws on the documents of the Ministry of culture, the All-Russian Stage Society, as well as personal documents of the artists. Furthermore, the author has gained access to new archive materials, which have until now been part of no research, such as documents of the N. Krupskaya Central Culture and Art Center and of the central committees of various artistic trade unions. These documents confirm the hypothesis that the festivals provided the Komsomol and the Communist party with a means to solve various social, educational, and cultural problems. For instance, in Central Asia with its partiarchal society, the festivals focuced on female emancipation. In rural Central Asia, as well as in other non-russian parts of the Soviet Union, there co-existed different ways of celebrating. Local traditions intermingled with cultural standards prescribed by Moscow. At the first glance, the modernisation of the Soviet society was succesful. The youth acquired political and cultural level that allowed the Soviet state to compete with the West during the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students. During the festival, however, it became apparent, that the Soviet cultural scheme no longer met the dictates of times. Archival documents show that after the Festival cultural and party officials agreed to ease off dogmatism and to tolerate some of the foreign cultural phenomena.

scholarly journals Frontier Dynamics: Reflections on Evangelical and Tablighi Missions in Central Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 212-241
Author(s):  
Mathijs Pelkmans
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Kyrgyz Republic ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Successes And Failures

AbstractMissionaries have flocked to the Kyrgyz Republic ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Evangelical-Pentecostal and Tablighi missions have been particularly active on what they conceive of as a fertile post-atheist frontier. But as these missions project their message of truth onto the frontier, the dangers of the frontier may overwhelm them. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork amongst foreign and local Tablighis and evangelical-Pentecostals, this article formulates an analytic of the frontier that highlights the affective and relational characteristics of missionary activities and their effects. This analytic explains why and how missionaries are attracted to the frontier, as well as some of the successes and failures of their expansionist efforts. In doing so, the article reveals the potency of instability, a feature that is particularly evident in missionary work, but also resonates with other frontier situations.

River flow regime and snow cover of the Pamir Alay (Central Asia) in a changing climate

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (8) ◽  
pp. 1491-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Chevallier ◽  
Bernard Pouyaud ◽  
Marie Mojaïsky ◽  
Mikhaïl Bolgov ◽  
Oliver Olsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Snow Cover ◽  
Flow Regime ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Changing Climate

INDIA’S ROLE IN KAZAKHSTAN’S MULTI-VECTOR FOREIGN POLICY

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 043-049
Author(s):  
Punit GAUR ◽  
Anurag TRIPATHI ◽  
Shovan Sinha RAY
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Complex Interdependence ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Economy ◽  
Near Future

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan’s economy was weak since most of the industrial enterprises were located in Russia. To attain economic growth, Kazakhstan crafted a unique foreign policy known as the multi-vector foreign policy, which facilitated an easy inflow of direct foreign investments into the state economy. After economic liberalization in 1991, India took a serious interest in Central Asia, and since then the two nations have come a long way marked by complex interdependence in the international arena. They have demonstrated a successful and sustained upward trend in their bilateral relationship through soft power, trade and long-standing historical connections. Thus, the prospects of mutual cooperation between Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan, and India are quite promising in the near future.

Denouement Of Borders

2019 ◽  
pp. 237-248
Author(s):  
Alyssa M. Park
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Korean Population ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Maritime Province

This chapter examines Soviet and Japanese disputes over the Korean population in the Maritime Province from the 1920s to 1945. It shows that heightened geopolitical tensions in Northeast Asia resulted in a renewed effort on the part of the Soviet Union to institute citizenship, migration and resettlement, and cultural policies among Koreans. Tensions inside the Maritime also escalated in the late 1920s and 1930s due to collectivization efforts and the Great Terror. Soviet policies culminated in the 1937 forced deportation of Koreans to Central Asia. The chapter argues that the deportation was an extreme attempt by the Soviet state to align its authority over territory and people in a sensitive border region. The chapter ends with a discussion of Korean migration, citizenship, and the border region between Russia, North Korea, and China after 1945.

Faith and Culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 303-314
Author(s):  
Atola Longkumer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Traditional Medicines ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Global Christianity

Of the two Asian regions, socio-economically, South Asia presents both prosperity and abject poverty, embedded in varying traditions. Central Asian states are well-endowed with natural resources and sustain a diverse cultural heritage against a backdrop of Islam. The indigenous shamanic cultures that have sustained myriad indigenous people (often described by terms such as tribals, Adivasis, minorities) for generations across South Asia need to be recognised along with its globalisation. Healing, use of traditional medicines, the position and role of women, caste hierarchy and the relationship with the other are incorporated into South Asian Christianity. ‘Anonymous Christians’ have also contributed to concepts such as ‘insider movements’ to discuss embedded followers of Jesus. In Central Asia, Charismatic Christianity is finding particular resonance. The relative freedom of religious expression has given opportunities for Christians to witness to the gospel. The potential ecumenical relationship with the existing Orthodox Church presents an opportunity for global Christianity. Christianity has received fresh interest in Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of the nation-states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Theological creativity along with prophetic proclamation will be needed to balance these challenges of culture and faith in the region.

The Decolonization of the Environment in Kazakhstan: The Novel Final Respects by Abdi-Jamil Nurpeisov

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Sharipova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fishing Village ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Sea Power ◽  
Entire World

AbstractThis article examines the novel Final Respects by Abdi-Jamil Nurpeisov from a postcolonial ecocritical perspective. Nurpeisov was one of the first Kazakh writers to discuss the decolonization of the environment and the “process of self-apprehension” by writing about the tragedy of the Aral Sea, power relations between the center and periphery, and the interconnectivity of humans and the environment in the Soviet Union. Through the prism of a small fishing village, he shows the tragedy of a nation that has an impact on the entire world. The novel is thus a critique of anthropocentric policies imposed by Moscow on Kazakhstan and other Soviet republics. Throughout the text, Nurpeisov reiterates the connection between the local and the global on one hand, and human culture and the environment on the other.

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