From Stable “Temporality” to Permanent Variability: The Role of Reciprocity in the Formation of Communities in the “Private Housing Sector” of Russian Cities

The article is devoted to the specifics of local communities’ self-organization in the “private housing sector” of a Russian provincial city. It is shown that a significant part of the urban space of the Russian territory is made up of low-rise single-family houses, known as the “private housing sector”. The organization of living space and the way of life in such localities can be defined as “non-urban”. It is shown that reciprocity was the basis for the formation of such communities in Soviet times. Having spread as a mechanism for adaptation and survival in the urban environment, reciprocity has become the most important mechanism for securing the marginality (“temporary”) of communities in the “private housing sector”. Changes in the “private housing sector” in the post-Soviet period led to a decrease in the role of reciprocity in the organization of such communities, which in turn led to their fragmentation and the emergence of various variants of local communities. The article is based on the observation, including participant, of the evolution of local spaces and communities of the “private sector” of Irkutsk, Omsk and Khabarovsk during 2007–2019 and a series of interviews from 2016–2020.

Reinventing Urban Identities in Kazan

The paper aims to consider how, since the early 1990s, the city space of Kazan is shaped by different social actors. This paper assumes that a key influence on the process of social production of space in Kazan was the procedure of gaining autonomy after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the lo­cal variant of economic transformation into the global market system. From the beginning of the post-socialist transition, elites’ strategies were related to the politics of memory and the ideas of mul­ticulturalism and federalism. Consequently, Kazan underwent the process of reinventing of urban identity, and indigenization (by Hughes [2007] it was called Tatarazing) of city space. In the capital of Tatarstan the financialization of city space, accumulation through expropriation, and develop­ment by megaevents can be observed. Strategies of development enforced by elites are contested by city inhabitants and grassroots initiatives concentrated around the protection of architectural heritage. Centralized and hierarchical power in Tatarstan makes the grassroots initiatives’ demands possible by a collaboration with local elites.

Huns on the Ruins of Socialism: Public Past in Inner Asian Cities

This paper examines the process of Hunnic symbols introduction to urban space. The question is, why rapidly expanding and modernizing cities at the same time create so many references to ancient archaeological cultures that previously played almost no role in the urban or national culture? The main emphasis is on public past in two cities: Ulaanbaatar and Ulan-Ude. In order to provide insight into this variety of social behaviours, an increased focus is put on: indigenous placemaking, shamanic activity in the city, new temporalization and local politics of memory. As a consequence of these processes, new senses of urban space, time and history are established. The study presents the results of ethnographic fieldwork in Mongolia and Eastern Siberia 2018–2020.

“Urbanisation of the Steppe”. Sedentarization, Mobility, and Collective Business-Making Among the Torghuts in Post-transitional Mongolia

Drawing from Danuta Markowska’s notion of “urbanisation of the steppe” (1969) I present in this article some processes of transformation of pastoral life that occurred in postsocialist and post-transitional Mongolia. I focus especially on how some new forms of sedentarization, mobility and self-organization appeared among the new generation of the Torghuts from Bulgan district (soum) in western Mongolia, sons and daughters of the herders. Nowadays, they are developing their new businesses in Bulgan, and also in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, where they have established a Torghut business-hub called the Torguud Town. In this article I will reconstruct some essential processes in which they rearrange their space of living and their patterns of mobility, and show that these reac­tions, the new patterns of sedentarization and mobility, are related to spatial dimensions of pastoral self-organization. Moreover, these reactions are still rooted in mobility, constant swapping and a “technology of solidarity”, and thus embody very specific pastoral practices and ideas.

The Sedentarization and Gentrification in Post-Nomadic Districts

This paper presents a preliminary study on migrant’s adaptation in the post-nomadic settlements inside Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar and China’s Nantun (Evenk Autonomous Banner or Ewenke Zizhiqi) using specific examples of education and housing. The research fields were selected in order to find urbanised areas with herders migrating to the city, and where such movement is numerous enough to establish districts or at least impact the urban culture. Therefore the context differs from the situ­ations when fewer families enter a relatively large settlement and have to adjust to the found condi­tions. At first glance the recently urbanised areas might seem a provisional imitation of the city, as a result of the century-long development. The migrants define their culture-based settlement. The shared condition of the selected settlements is the status of a post-nomadic migration destination. Therefore there is an expectation of some shared similarities in city-life adaptation. Presenting such exemplary districts illustrates the interesting social dynamics in the post-nomadic cities. Among the similarities of the formation of the post-nomadic settings, we find some common mechanisms shaping social dynamics in migration, then community foundation. They arise even in the context of exceptionally diverse frameworks of state urban policies. We will also discuss gentrification pro­cesses in newly emerged districts and their impact on the cityscape.

The Patterns of the Nomad in Buryat Urban Culture

The nomadic mode of life among Buryats no longer exists. It was devastated in the epoch of the Soviet Union by forced sedentarization and collectivization. However, the figure of the nomad is still present in the various arts. Contemporarily, the figure of the nomad has started to appear in pop culture. In this research article, I will prove the nomad i as a reference point for constructing a new urban identity among Buryats. I will focus mainly on lyrics, primarily in rap songs, because hip-hop is comprehended as urban phenomena. The challenge of revitalizing Buryat collective identity requires finding new symbols, that strongly impact on the people and allow them to self-identify with it. The Nomad, man of the steppe, fulfils these conditions. It connects past with present and demonstrates the Buryat affiliation to the Mongol Civilization. Additionally, everyone can be a nomad, contrary to national heroes who have defined personalities. Therefore, it is a good point of reference. The modern nomad is an effect of forming new Buryat identity in urban condition.

Three Shades of Red: Power of Symbols or Soviet Legacy in Contemporary Inner Asian Capitals

The paper focuses on Soviet symbols in Inner Asian capitals and the conflicts around socialist legacy. We analyze Ulaanbaatar, Kyzyl, and Ulan-Ude as three different models of transformation of political symbols in urban space. All three capitals in their names contain the word “red” semiotically associated with communist ideology. Correspondingly, we see three different models of symbolic struggle for urban space. Theoretically, the paper is based upon the model of symbolic politics. Empirically, the research is based on materials of our own observations, discourse analysis of media, and official municipal documents. In general, the research is an analysis of symbolic practices of power in the conditions of a number of complex changes in Inner Asia.

Asset or Burden: The Ethical Calculus of Care in Ulaanbaatar’s Urban Margins

How do family relations change in the move from rural to urban living? What are the impacts of ur­banisation on the domestic? Drawing on the ethnography of two families on the outskirts of Mongo­lia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, this chapter tackles the intersections of urbanisation and intergenerational care, charting the effects of rural-urban migration on family lives. Although their family structures differ, Tuya and Duya each find themselves shouldering the burden of being urban female breadwin­ners. To navigate conditions of profound economic precarity, they approach their families through a lens of economic-cum-moral strategizing, which we term a form of ‘ethical calculus’. In the city, money becomes synonymous with care and family members are categorised according to a scale of asset-to-burden based on their capacity to support or increase the breadwinner’s load. A focus on the work involved in such forms of care reveals a qualitatively different approach to family ties in ur­ban Mongolia that pulls people in two directions. The first is the reconfiguration of marginal popu­lations’ relationship with the state to one that equates care with money. The second is the atomising pressure that life on Ulaanbaatar’s margins puts on the hopes and capacities of household members.

The Steppe that Ceases to Be Itself: Migration and Attachment to Homeland Among the Nogais in Dagestan, North Caucasus

In Dagestan, the Nogais – descendants of the famous Golden Horde – live mostly in the Nogai Dis­trict, as well is in neighboring territories that administratively belong to Chechnya and Stavropol Krai; taken together, these territories form one geographical entity, known as the Nogai Steppe. A paradoxical situation is that despite heavy migration pressure and the fact that much of the labor force from the District works – either temporarily or permanently – in other Russian regions, the District capital – Terekli-Mekteb – is rapidly expanding. One of the reasons for this is that migrants build houses “for the future” – not to live in them now but with a view to inhabiting them once they come back after retiring. In this paper, based on ethnographic fieldwork research, I analyze how the Nogais – be it dwellers of the Nogai Steppe or economic migrants – maintain attachment to what they call “the land of the ancestors”. I argue that different forms of this attachment constitute a way of social mobilization in unfavorable political and economic conditions. Thus, they are intended to strengthen the position of the Nogais in the Nogai Steppe, in other words – to preserve its Nogainess.