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An Introductory History of Soviet Uzbek Academics 1924-1960

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An Introductory History of Soviet Uzbek Academics 1924-1960 Sevket Akyildiz Sevket Akyildiz AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY OF SOVIET UZBEK ACADEMICS 1924-1960 INTRODUCTION It took approximately 36 years (from 1924 to 1960) to establish from scratch the Soviet Central Asian academics in Uzbekistan. The investment, organization and political commitment shown by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU, est. 1925) in the predominately Muslim region of Central Asia resulted in a highly literate and educated local population. Indeed, by the 1960s, education provision in Soviet Central Asia surpassed that found in most of the socialist and non-socialist ‘Muslim majority’ countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.i In this paper I will clarify the story of the local academics in the Central Asian republic with the largest population: the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan (est. 1924). I will describe the origins of the Soviet academics and explain how they were educated, groomed and promoted by the CPSU for specific ideological, economic and cultural purposes between 1924 and 1960.1 During the historical period covered by this paper most academics employed in Uzbekistan were ethnic Slavs, Tatars or Jews. However, I will focus upon the emergence, development and integration of ethnic Uzbek academics into the higher education system during Stalin’s rule (a period when dissenting voices were purged from society) and in the decade following his death in 1953. I feel a study of the Soviet Central Asian academics is necessary because in Western literature there are some grey areas in the knowledge about the creation of local academic cadres from ‘working class’ origins in Soviet Central Asia. I also think that the historical debate about the promotion of academics from amongst a labour reserve of Muslim men and women should be brought to the attention of 1 Due to the word limit I will not be examining the acts of everyday resistance or criticism by individuals or groups of academics. In fact this would make a worthwhile research paper for a scholar with access to the archives at Moscow and Tashkent. For analysis of post-Soviet re-evaluation concerning the lived reality of the Uzbek masses see Dadabaev (2010). 1 Sevket Akyildiz contemporary scholars. Even if some people in the West today care little for the higher education model of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, est. 1922), nonetheless it is interesting that a significant number of students and academics in contemporary Great Britain are concerned by the fusion of ideology (neo-liberal), higher education and employment options. So I ask, what happened in an alternative model where the working masses, regardless of ethnicity, benefited from education, positive discrimination policies and meritocratic principles. I am not arguing that the Soviet academic model was utopian or flawless; I will investigate the recent past of former Soviet Uzbekistan and consider this ideologically infused education model from a planning and implementation perspective. A literature review of Soviet Uzbek academics includes D. Carlisle (1976), M. Shorish (1973), M. Rywkin (1989), E. Sievers (2003), S. Keller (2007). I have used Cold War and contemporary English language sources in this paper; I do this to synthesize the ideas from the English language sources. My paper is structured in two parts. In part one I will outline the social and ideological context that produced the academics within the USSR. This will involve explaining the nature of the Soviet nation-state building project and how it shaped the construction of Central Asian higher education institutions. In the second part I will discuss the history of the Uzbek academics as a social phenomenon and explore the issues of state toleration of the pre-1917 bourgeois academics, the political purges of 1937-38, the emergence of Uzbek academics circa 1960, and the function of the new universities (vuzy) in this process. Below ‘activism’ (aktivnost) refers to the actions and behaviour of citizens who struggled in the interests of the CPSU. Proactive citizens (aktiv) were encouraged to participate in collective community projects and political engagement. Conceptualizing the Soviet academics ‘Soviet academics’ (akademik, also known in Sovietology as the ‘red professors’)2 refers to university educators with doctorate qualifications and compliant to the social 2 In Soviet terminology the ‘red professors’ were the first group of higher education personnel to work alongside the Bolsheviks. The aim was to train and prepare postgraduates for employment in government, scholars, and researchers. They were located at the Institute of Red Professors, Moscow (Institut Krasnoy Professury, IKP; the 2 Sevket Akyildiz interventionist policies of the CPSU. Their Soviet upbringing included the internalization of Marxism-Leninism and Soviet civic identification (although admittedly, this would vary between individual academics accordingly to their lived reality, private observations and social context) (Collias 1990: 84). The Soviet era academic had two core roles; firstly, they were employed as scholars and teachers of knowledge and learning at institutions of higher education and advanced research. Secondly, they had a duty to actively foster state-civic identity and values amongst graduates and postgraduates. In brief they were expected to be ideological activists for the CPSU. Clearly, their prescribed social role differs from the role of the Western academics. Western academics might, through their work, question the political and social status quo of their society, but otherwise they are generally not encouraged by the government to be proactive disseminators of the dominant state ideology (at least in theory). In contrast, Soviet academics, as state employees, actively promoted Marxism-Leninism and its values and norms. I admit here that this was the ideal and that at times dissenting voices and criticism of the regime were evident – and notably so during perestroika (post 1986 economic and political restructuring policies). For example, the sociologist Tatiana Zaslavskaya was critical of the condition of Soviet society even in the pre-perestroika era, and post-1986 she was consulted in decision-making by Gorbachev (Brown 2009: 509). PART ONE: NATION-STATE BUILDING AND HIGHER EDUCATION The Soviet academics operated within an ideological and social context, and I will outline this reality below. The aim of the CPSU was to radically transform society and the consciousness of citizens. This they planned to achieve by changing and then controlling the social and ideological environments that influenced thought, speech and actions. Having taken control of the territory of Central Asia in the early 1920s, subordinated dissenting voices and offered a new vision to the locals (including a multicultural paradigm that accommodated cultural sensitivities), the CPSU implemented radical social intervention policies. On the road to building the collective workers’ utopia and the ‘Soviet people’, the physical, social, emotional, and institution operated between 1921 and 1938), and thereafter they were absorbed into the federal higher education system. (See Katz, 1956.) 3 Sevket Akyildiz psychological world of all Soviet citizens would change. New cultural institutions (at both national and federal levels) were constructed and intended to marginalize traditional institutions.3 Traditional Eastern societies and cultures were perceived as ‘backward’ by the Bolsheviks (Martin 2001: 56).4 Hence, Western-style modernity arrived in the form of new institutions and social values and norms imported from Russia and transplanted onto the peripheral regions (like Uzbekistan). The locals were unprepared and too disorganized to resist. A new infrastructure was built consisting of cultural centres, roads, hospitals, factories and government buildings and staffed (Hiro 1994: 21). Furthermore, Soviet citizens were kept in line through constant surveillance, but equally through mass civic education and indoctrination. A detailed programme of civic-values incorporating socialist ideals was propagated. Partnering the building of the new socialist society were the new state education institutions, such as schools, colleges and universities. In these places ‘Soviet upbringing’ (vospitanie) took place. This involved general education (acquisition of knowledge), vocational skills training and education for citizenship (‘moral and political education’, or grazhdanin) (Akyildiz 2011; Avis 1987: preface). Modern mass higher education institutions were a new social phenomenon within Central Asia during the 1920s and 1930s. From the 1920s onwards, the CPSU felt it vital to educate a new generation of ideological graduates to help them manage the economy. From this pool of talent the local academics would emerge. University tutors were specifically employed to educate, discuss and inculcate Marxism- Leninism. Indeed, throughout Soviet society graduates became the most ‘ideologized stratum…their education and in most cases their career imposed the ideology constantly on them, even if only as external ritual whose inner meaning they rejected…’ (Hosking 1992: 404). This last point about disillusionment is important, but as I have mentioned already I am more interested in explaining the establishment of a new group of educators during the early decades of Soviet rule. In 3 These were elements of sblizhenie (the ‘coming together’ of all the Soviet ethnic groups and nations). The long- term aim was sliyanie (the ‘merger’ of all these nationalities
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