SCRSS Digest Spring 2011

Information Digest Spring 2011 Price £1.00 While it would be untrue to say that the Contents peoples of the union republics of the USSR were oppressed, national consciousness Russians and the Russian Language in was stifled. Languages and peoples had the Post-Soviet Space 1 been forcibly mixed together across a huge SCRSS News 4 territory equivalent to 15% of the globe. Soviet Memorial Trust Fund News 6 Following the Belovezha Accords, a new VTS for Russian and Soviet Studies 7 reality began to be built on this territory – Taking off into Space! 9 with sometimes unpredictable consequences. First Man in Space: Yuri Gagarin Visits the SCR, 13 July 1961 10 Geographically speaking, the republics of Reviews 11 the former Soviet Union formed four groups Listings 16 united by greater or lesser ethnic similarity, cultural and religious traditions: Baltic, East European, Transcaucasian and Central Asian2. What linked all these groups was having Moscow as the state capital, Russian Feature as the language of inter-ethnic communication and Russians constituting a significant proportion of the population of Russians and the Russian each republic. Attitudes towards this were ambiguous: if the Baltic peoples always felt Language in the Post- they had been forcibly annexed, the Soviet Space Georgians never considered themselves deceived or enslaved, having become part A personal view by Dr Nataliya of the Russian Empire voluntarily in the Rogozhina early 19th century. On 8 December 1991 the Agreement on the During the Soviet period a strict system Creation of the Commonwealth of existed by which every graduate of a higher Independent States (CIS) was signed by the educational institution was required to work heads of the three Soviet republics of for a three-year period wherever the Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia at the relevant ministry sent them. When they Viskuli hunting lodge in the heart of the arrived in these new places, they were given Belovezha Forest in Belorussia1. This was accommodation by the state, started to become the first step towards the families and often ended up staying for the disintegration of the USSR. On 21 rest of their lives. While some graduates December the Agreement was joined by managed to avoid being resettled, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, government policy dictated that very many Moldavia, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan and young people ended up thousands of Uzbekistan, confirming once and for all that kilometres away from family and friends. For the Soviet Union had ceased to exist as a some this was an ordeal and tragedy with unified state. which it was difficult to come to terms. 1 For others it was a chance to start a new Russians and Ukrainians, numbers some and, possibly, happier life. In this way the 50,000 people. planned economy and its provision of trained personnel created a whole new There is no direct oppression of Russians in social group – the so-called „young Transcaucasia today. However, Russians specialists‟. are virtually unrepresented in both central and local organs of government, while the For some regions the arrival of doctors, adoption of national languages for public engineers and scientists became a major administration hinders Russians in finding catalyst for development. Furthermore these work in government institutions. Education educated people, predominantly Russians, in Russian is being cut back, TV stimulated the growth of the local broadcasting in Russian has been reduced intelligentsia. Many years later a professor to a minimum, and books, newspapers and at Baku University told me with a sigh that journals are in very short supply. the Russian intellectuals had been Nonetheless, in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan extraordinarily interesting and their Russian communities continue to be active, departure was a huge loss to Azerbaijani Russian theatres are open, newspapers are society. Russians born and raised in published in Russian and Russian continues Tashkent, Yerevan, Kishinev and other to be taught in higher educational cities of the „near (but now out of reach) institutions. abroad‟ experienced the same pain of separation from what had become their However, the situation in Central Asia is native cities, as they left behind homes, somewhat different. friends and memories. Russians have played an important role in The mass exodus of Russians at the all aspects of Uzbekistan‟s life from the beginning of the 1990s resembled flight. moment they arrived on the territory of the Nikolai Sventitsky is founder and president future republic in the final quarter of the 19th of the Russian Club, an international cultural century. This was particularly the case and educational organisation. He was born during the Soviet period and – primarily – in in Tbilisi and adores that city, but says that Tashkent, the capital. Today the number of this period was very painful for him and Russians has decreased from 15% of the many other Russians born and raised in population of the country in the early 1960s Georgia: “There were slogans such as to 2% (or less). The 1989 census gave the „Russians – get out of Georgia!‟ and people number of Russians living in Uzbekistan as were frightened.” 1,660,000, yet by 2006 no more than a million remained3. The exodus of Russians No reliable information exists today on the continues today. The reason why so few number of Russians living in the former Russians or Russian speakers remain is the Soviet republics. One thing only is clear: republic‟s strict policy of Islamisation. “I‟m a many less people remain than have left. giaour4 to them […] and I‟ve no future in this Thus, the Russian diaspora in Azerbaijan country,” says Vyacheslav, a postgraduate has decreased two-fold. In Armenia student at Tashkent University. “There used Russians are an ethnic minority, constituting to be a lot of families of Russian engineers around 15,000 people or 0.5% of the and doctors living in our block, now there‟s population of the republic, although their no one left apart from us. As soon as I finish numbers were never particularly high here. my studies, my mother and I are leaving for According to the Georgian census of 2001 Russia.” Russians constituted the fourth largest ethnic minority in that republic. Yet their The Russian diaspora in Tadzhikistan is one numbers have decreased from 10.1% of the of the smallest in the CIS after Armenia. In population of Georgia in the early 1960s to 1989 some 398,000 Russians lived in the 1.5% today. At present the Eastern Slavic republic, representing 8% of the population community in the republic, comprising and the third largest ethnic group after 2 Uzbeks. Today 60,000 remain and these also to the low birth rate among have only postponed their departure. Kazakhstan‟s Russian population. Marina, an attractive second-generation native of Dushanbe, says: “I would have left The fate of Russians living in Turkmenistan as well, but at the moment my career is is the most pitiful. Data sources give their more successful in Tadzhikistan. My numbers as fluctuating between 100,000 knowledge of the culture and traditions of and 120,000. The harsh political regime has this country is valued here, as well as my turned them into hostages, living in almost European manners and Slavic appearance.” total isolation. The Russian community of Marina has a flat in reserve outside Turkmenistan has been banned since 1995. Moscow. She says that sooner or later she There are cases of arbitrary arrest and will have to return to Russia for the sake of detention, violation of property rights and her young son, but will continue to live and freedom of domicile. As one of my work in Dushanbe for as long as the compatriots living in Ashkhabad attests, situation allows. losing one‟s job is a death sentence for the vast majority of Russians: “Salaries are In Kyrgyzstan Russians are the third largest pitiful, no more than 25–28 dollars, but ethnic group after Kyrgyz (70%) and Uzbeks without that money one couldn‟t live at all.” (15%), and one of the largest officially At the same time sackings are recognised diasporas of Russians living commonplace: over the past few years outside contemporary Russia. Together with around 20,000 doctors and 20,000 teachers Ukrainians, the Eastern Slavic community in have been dismissed, predominantly the republic numbers around 500,000. Russians. Not everyone has the financial Nonetheless, the number of Russians in means to move to Russia: apartments fetch Kyrgyzstan has decreased by 30% over the very little on the market, air tickets and past 10 years and, according to the 2009 removals are expensive, and many are census, they represent only 7.8% of the frightened that, having bought tickets, they population. The majority lives in the capital. will be left without any livelihood in Russia. Russian speech can be heard on the streets In July 2010 Alexandra Semenova, a of Bishkek, advertisements are in Russian journalist with the BBC Russian Service, and Kyrgyz, and young people know and reported that Russians with dual citizenship like Russian popular music. The fact that had unexpectedly discovered they were parliamentary discussions were conducted unable to leave the country and had been in Russian during the coup d‟état of spring told to renounce their Russian citizenship6. 2010 is evidence of the language‟s wide use This decision is illogical, given Russians‟ in the republic5. third class status in Turkmenistan, but it seems they are viewed as bargaining chips Russians in Kazakhstan are predominantly in relations with Russia over the settlement the descendants of 18th- and 19th-century of „gas‟ issues. settlers who arrived following the Kazakh state‟s accession to the Russian Empire or The economic decline in the former Central the children of „young specialists‟ who Asian republics of the USSR has led to the migrated during the Soviet period.

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