DOCSLIB.ORG

Building Belonging in Muslim Moscow: Identity and Group Practices in the Post-Soviet Capital

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Building Belonging in Muslim Moscow: Identity and Group Practices in the Post-Soviet Capital Building Belonging in Muslim Moscow: Identity and Group Practices in the Post-Soviet Capital Charles Aprile Honors Thesis Submitted to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Bachelor of the Arts Thesis Advisor: Dr. Maya Nadkarni Swarthmore College ABSTRACT Due to the scale of migration that took place after 1991, Moscow is both an ideal and unique space in studies of race, ethnicity and group identity in the of Post-Soviet sphere. Moscow is unique in its history as the center of the multinational Soviet nation-state, as well as its renewed social and economic centrality to much of the former Soviet Union today. The city's layered and contradictory spaces bear testament to how the changing power relations of post-socialist transition affect the embeddedness of group identity in the city's daily life. Due to this layered past, Moscow has a pronounced lack of ethnic or racial residential segregation. This reality necessitates novel frameworks to explain how social belonging and exclusion are spatially inscribed into Moscow's urban fabric. This study uses historical context and ethnographic, interview and participant-observation among Muslim migrants to understand the mechanisms that reproduce, reify, complicate, and splinter Muslim group identities in the Russian capital. In "migrant markets," the findings of this research indicate how Muslims use the spaces to engage in workplace practices that serve to validate their varied cultural, collective and individual identities. At the same time, the stratified occupational structures in markets serve to reify Russian stereotypes against migrants and categorize them as "other." In observing religious activity in Moscow, this study found a serious disconnect between government-approved religious leaders and their supposed constituencies. Those leaders engage in discourses that seek Muslim inclusion into Russian society, yet themselves exclude working-class migrants from positions ofleadership in their institutions. In response to such dual exclusions, many migrants coalesce into subaltern groups who periodically retreat from the city's public sphere and who perform and take pride their identities. These groups also serve to fulfill migrants' practical needs through grassroots ethnic networks. All the above practices respond to conditions in the social, spatial and historical specificity of present-day Moscow, demonstrating how collective subjectivity and identity are deeply affected by settings of migration. List of Figures Figure 1: Orthodox icon with minaret in the back ........................................................................ 4 Figure 2: Police and worshippers ............................................................................................... 6 Figure 3: Second-floor view of Moskva Shopping Center. ......................................................... 73 Figure 4: Porters at Moskva with numbered uniforms ................................................................ 82 Figure 5: Store in the "Muslim Aisle" ............................................ .. .. ......... .. ................. 87 Figure 6: Ethnic Restaurants at TK Sadovod ...... .. ........... ..... .. .. .. ......... .. ........... ..............89 Figure 7: Iftar at the Memorial Mosque ................... ........... ......... .. ........... ........... .......... 98 Figure 8: Warm-up at Moscow "Alish" ..................... ......... .. ...................... ......... .. ........ 109 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction: Framing Belonging in Moscow .............................................................................................................. 4 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: Histortcal Context ........................................................................................................................................... 19 How Soviet Policy Constructed Nationality ........................................................................................................... 21 Migration and Urbanization in the USSR ................................................................................................................ 28 Moscow ................................................................................................................................................................................. 31 Nation-Building in Post-Soviet Russia ..................................................................................................................... 36 Islam and the Russian State .......................................................................................................................................... 40 Making Sense of Past and Present ............................................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 3: Theoretical Context ........................................................................................................................................ 46 Group Identity and the Mechanisms of Belonging .............................................................................................. 46 Cities and Global Migration .......................................................................................................................................... 56 Chapter 4: Markets and Practices of Group Identity............................................................................................... 67 The Emergence of "Migrant" Commercial Spaces in Russia ........................................................................... 70 Organized Informality..................................................................................................................................................... 7 6 Institutionalized Practices of Difference ................................................................................................................. 81 Collective Identity Formation and Solidarity ........................................................................................................ 85 Conclusion: Markets and Post-Socialist Life in the Age of Diversity ........................................................... 90 Chapter 5: Ethnic and Religious Publics and Counter Publics ............................................................................ 92 A Typical Iftar Evening ................................................................................................................................................... 97 Hegemonic Multiculturalism and the Muslim Moral Public ............................................................................ 98 The MosDUMYouth Group ........................................................................................................................................ 104 Moskva Alish: A Kyrgyz Male Counterpublic ..................................................................................................... 107 Conclusions: Group Identity and the Post-Socialist City .................................................................................... 115 Summary of Main Findings ........................................................................................................................................ 116 Publics, Urban Marginality and Post-Soviet Legacies ..................................................................................... 120 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................................................... 124 2 Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my many subjects, as this work would have not been possible without their help, incredible hospitality and patience. The idea of this work first came during a semester abroad with the IHP: Cities of the 21 st Century program. I would like to thank Dr. Carmen Medeiros and Dr. Juan Arbona for stimulating my existing passion for the everyday life of cities and helping me gain important conceptual tools in the study of urban marginality. Research for this thesis was conducted over two summers. I would like to thank the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, director Dr. Anthony Foy and my mentor Dr. Tariq al-Jamil for providing me with the opportunity to pursue this research interest. My first summer of background research was done at the University of Chicago's Summer Research Training program, where I was greatly assisted in my writing and literature review by Christopher Todd, a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of History. In Moscow, I participated in the School of Russian and Asian Studies and was hosted by Moscow State University' Department of Philology. My research in Moscow was greatly facilitated by the help and advice of numerous
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Xenophobia As a Challenge to Positive Peace in Russia: Inter-Group Relations Within the Academia
    Xenophobia as a Challenge to Positive Peace in Russia: Inter-group Relations Within The Academia Master’s Thesis in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research Developmental Psychology Nikita Kordashenko, 1902049 Supervisor: Karin Österman Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies Åbo Akademi University, Finland Spring 2021 Nikita Kordashenko Abstract Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate positive attitudes towards integrating immigrant minorities, intense group identification, and psychological concomitants among Russian university students. Method: A questionnaire was completed by 129 females, 48 males, and three respondents who reported “other” as sex. The mean age was 19.8 (SD 2.6) for females and 21.8 (SD 2.9) for males. The age difference was significant. Results: Of females, 55.8 % and of males 66.7% reported that they knew some foreign student in person. Female students had a significantly more positive attitude towards integration immigrant minorities compared to male students. Male students scored slightly higher than female students on intense group identification. Respondents with low scores on positive attitudes towards integrating immigrants scored significantly higher on intense group identification. No significant differences were found for level of positive attitudes and anxiety and depression. Conclusions: More than half of the students knew some foreign student in person. Positive attitudes towards integrating immigrant minorities were overall high. There was a negative association between positive attitudes towards
    [Show full text]
  • Racism in Russia and Its Effects on the Caucasian TESAM Akademi Dergisi - Turkish Journalregion of TESAM and Academy Peoples Ocak - January 2019
    Can KAKIŞIM / Racism in Russia and its Effects on the Caucasian TESAM Akademi Dergisi - Turkish JournalRegion of TESAM and Academy Peoples Ocak - January 2019. 6(1). 97 - 121 ISSN: 2148 – 2462 RACISM IN RUSSIA AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE CAUCASIAN REGION AND PEOPLES1 Can KAKIŞIM2 Abstract Nowadays, Russia is one of those countries which crucially suffer from the racist sentiments and movements. In this country, radical right has an extensive social base and both ruling party and some other political entities can put forward examples of extreme nationalism. Caucasian-origin people have been the most negatively Caucasian immigrants from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan asinfluenced well as group the Northernfrom these Caucasians approaches already since the holding beginning. Russian The citizenship have been target of numerous violent attacks especially in the 2000s. At the same time, rising racism in Russia strengthens expectations from the government to follow more active imperialist policies as racist groups more intensely defend and voice the rights of the Russians living in the former Soviet republics. Furthermore, between Russia and post-Soviet countries and in this sense, they these groups provide an additional fighting power in the clashes geography. compose a significant dimension of the interstate relations in this Keywords: Russia, Racism, Caucasia, Immigration, United Russia 1 Makalenin Geliş Tarihi: 15.04.2018 [email protected] Kabul Tarihi: 22.01.2019 2 Dr. Öğr. Üyesi, Karabük Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Uluslararası Atıf:İlişkiler Bölümü Öğretim Üyesi. e-mail: peoples. Tesam Akademi Dergisi - Kakışım C. (2019). Racism in Russia and its effects on the caucasian region and , 6(1), 97-121.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnocultural Development of Future Music Teachers in Process of the Tatar Piano Music's Studying
    Journal of History Culture and Art Research (ISSN: 2147-0626) Tarih Kültür ve Sanat Araştırmaları Dergisi Vol. 6, No. 6, December 2017 Revue des Recherches en Histoire Culture et Art Copyright © Karabuk University http://kutaksam.karabuk.edu.tr ﻣﺠﻠﺔ اﻟﺒﺤﻮث اﻟﺘﺎرﯾﺨﯿﺔ واﻟﺜﻘﺎﻓﯿﺔ واﻟﻔﻨﯿﺔ DOI: 10.7596/taksad.v6i6.1336 Citation: Salikhova, L. I., Batyrshina, G. I., Safiullina, L. G., & Abdirakhman, G. B. (2017). Ethnocultural Development of Future Music Teachers in Process of the Tatar Piano Music’s Studying. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 6(6), 159-167. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v6i6.1336 Ethnocultural Development of Future Music Teachers in Process of the Tatar Piano Music’s Studying Liliya I. Salikhova1, Gulnara I. Batyrshina2, Liliya G. Safiullina3, Gulnar B. Abdirakhman4 Abstract Studying the Tatar piano repertoire as element of national musical traditions is an important factor of ethnocultural development of the future music teachers of Tatarstan in the course of vocational training in higher education institution. It is caused inexhaustible by opportunities of ethnomusical heritage in formation of the personality, need of development in students of professionally significant ethnopsychological qualities, readiness for the solution of musical and educational tasks on the basis of the Tatar national culture. Disclosure of potential of the Tatar piano music in ethnocultural development of future music teachers became a research objective. On the basis of synthesis of experience of musical and performing training of future music teachers - students of Leo Tolstoy Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication of Kazan Federal University, the performing analysis of the Tatar piano music, authors submit compositions in which found the brightest embodiment of tradition of the Tatar folk art.
    [Show full text]
  • Russian Museums Visit More Than 80 Million Visitors, 1/3 of Who Are Visitors Under 18
    Moscow 4 There are more than 3000 museums (and about 72 000 museum workers) in Russian Moscow region 92 Federation, not including school and company museums. Every year Russian museums visit more than 80 million visitors, 1/3 of who are visitors under 18 There are about 650 individual and institutional members in ICOM Russia. During two last St. Petersburg 117 years ICOM Russia membership was rapidly increasing more than 20% (or about 100 new members) a year Northwestern region 160 You will find the information aboutICOM Russia members in this book. All members (individual and institutional) are divided in two big groups – Museums which are institutional members of ICOM or are represented by individual members and Organizations. All the museums in this book are distributed by regional principle. Organizations are structured in profile groups Central region 192 Volga river region 224 Many thanks to all the museums who offered their help and assistance in the making of this collection South of Russia 258 Special thanks to Urals 270 Museum creation and consulting Culture heritage security in Russia with 3M(tm)Novec(tm)1230 Siberia and Far East 284 © ICOM Russia, 2012 Organizations 322 © K. Novokhatko, A. Gnedovsky, N. Kazantseva, O. Guzewska – compiling, translation, editing, 2012 [email protected] www.icom.org.ru © Leo Tolstoy museum-estate “Yasnaya Polyana”, design, 2012 Moscow MOSCOW A. N. SCRiAbiN MEMORiAl Capital of Russia. Major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation center of Russia and the continent MUSEUM Highlights: First reference to Moscow dates from 1147 when Moscow was already a pretty big town.
    [Show full text]
  • World Combat Games Brochure
    Table of Contents 4 5 6 What is GAISF? What are the World Roles and Combat Games? responsibilities 7 8 10 Attribution Culture, ceremonies Media promotion process and festival events, and production and legacy 12 13 14 List of sports Venue Aikido at the World setup Armwrestling Combat Games Boxing 15 16 17 Judo Kendo Muaythai Ju-jitsu Kickboxing Sambo Karate Savate 18 19 Sumo Wrestling Taekwondo Wushu 4 WORLD COMBAT GAMES WORLD COMBAT GAMES 5 What is GAISF? What are the World Combat Games? The united voice of sports - protecting the interests of International A breathtaking event, showcasing Federations the world’s best martial arts and GAISF is the Global Association of International Founded in 1967, GAISF is a key pillar of the combat sports Sports Federations, an umbrella body composed wider sports movement and acts as the voice of autonomous and independent International for its 125 Members, Associate Members and Sports Federations, and other international sport observers, which include both Olympic and non- and event related organisations. Olympic sports organisations. THE BENEFITS OF THE NUMBERS OF HOSTING THE WORLD THE GAMES GAISF MULTISPORT GAMES COMBAT GAMES Up to Since 2010, GAISF has successfully delivered GAISF serves as the conduit between ■ Bring sport to life in your city multisport games for combat sports and martial International Sports Federations and host cities, ■ Provide worldwide multi-channel media exposure 35 disciplines arts, mind games and urban orientated sports. bringing benefits to both with a series of right- ■ Feature the world’s best athletes sized events that best consider the needs and ■ Establish a perfect bridge between elite sport and Approximately resources of all involved.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Lands of the Romanovs: an Annotated Bibliography of First-Hand English-Language Accounts of the Russian Empire
    ANTHONY CROSS In the Lands of the Romanovs An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of The Russian Empire (1613-1917) OpenBook Publishers To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/268 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. In the Lands of the Romanovs An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613-1917) Anthony Cross http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2014 Anthony Cross The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt it and to make commercial use of it providing that attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Cross, Anthony, In the Land of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613-1917), Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/ OBP.0042 Please see the list of illustrations for attribution relating to individual images. Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omissions or errors will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. As for the rights of the images from Wikimedia Commons, please refer to the Wikimedia website (for each image, the link to the relevant page can be found in the list of illustrations).
    [Show full text]
  • How the Chinese See Russia
    How the Chinese See Russia Bobo Lo December 2010 Russia/NIS Center Ifri is a research center and a forum for debate on major international political and economic issues. Headed by Thierry de Montbrial since its founding in 1979, Ifri is a non-governmental and a non-profit organization. As an independent think tank, Ifri sets its own research agenda, publishing its findings regularly for a global audience. With offices in Paris and Brussels, Ifri stands out as one of the rare French think tanks to have positioned itself at the very heart of European debate. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Ifri brings together political and economic decision-makers, researchers and internationally renowned experts to animate its debates and research activities. The opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ alone and do not reflect the official views of their institutions. Russia/NIS Center © All rights reserved – Ifri – Paris, 2010 ISBN: 978-2-86592-809-5 IFRI IFRI-Bruxelles 27 RUE DE LA PROCESSION RUE MARIE-THERESE, 21 75740 PARIS CEDEX 15 – FRANCE 1000 BRUXELLES TEL. : 33 (0)1 40 61 60 00 TEL. : 32(2) 238 51 10 FAX : 33 (0)1 40 61 60 60 FAX : 32 (2) 238 51 15 E-MAIL : [email protected] E-MAIL : [email protected] WEBSITE : www.ifri.org B. Lo / Chinese Perceptions of Russia Executive Summary China is in the midst of one of the most remarkable transformations in history. In its search for economic development and industrial modernization, Chinese policy-makers look to the West for their points of reference. Russia, which once offered an alternative model, now stands as an object lesson in what not to do.
    [Show full text]
  • Vietnamese Migrants in Russia in Migrants Vietnamese
    NEW MOBILITIES IN ASIA Hoang Vietnamese Migrants in Russia Lan Anh Hoang Vietnamese Migrants in Russia Mobility in Times of Uncertainty Vietnamese Migrants in Russia New Mobilities in Asia In the 21st century, human mobility will increasingly have an Asian face. Migration from, to, and within Asia is not new, but it is undergoing profound transformations. Unskilled labour migration from the Philippines, China, India, Burma, Indonesia, and Central Asia to the West, the Gulf, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand continues apace. Yet industrialization in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and India, the opening of Burma, and urbanization in China is creating massive new flows of internal migration. China is fast becoming a magnet for international migration from Asia and beyond. Meanwhile, Asian students top study-abroad charts; Chinese and Indian managers and technicians are becoming a new mobile global elite as foreign investment from those countries grows; and Asian tourists are fast becoming the biggest travellers and the biggest spenders, both in their own countries and abroad. These new mobilities reflect profound transformations of Asian societies and their relationship to the world, impacting national identities and creating new migration policy regimes, modes of transnational politics, consumption practices, and ideas of modernity. This series brings together studies by historians, anthropologists, geographers, and political scientists that systematically explore these changes. Series Editor Pál Nyíri, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam Editorial
    [Show full text]
  • I Am Falling Behind the Happenings
    The Diary of Anatoly S. Chernyaev 1985 Donated by A.S. Chernyaev to The National Security Archive Translated by Anna Melyakova Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya http://www.nsarchive.org Translation © The National Security Archive, 2006 The Diary of Anatoly S. Chernyaev, 1985 http://www.nsarchive.org January 4th, 1985. I am falling behind the events. And they are bustling. Before the New Year’s I was distressed for Ponomarev:1 Kosolapov asked for permission to print in Communist the conclusion we wrote for B.N. [Ponomarev] for the eight-volume International Labor Movement. In response, he received instructions from Zimyanin2 to remove the footnote that it was the conclusion—let it, he says, be just an article... This is how Zimyanin now gives orders to B.N., being lower in rank than him! But something else is the most important—he reflects the “opinion” that it is not necessary to establish the connection (for many decades into the future) between Ponomarev and this fundamental publication in an official Party organ... That is, they are preparing our B.N. for the hearse. I think he will not survive the XXYII Congress; in any case not as CC [Central Committee] Secretary. At work, almost every day brings evidence of his helplessness. His main concern right now is to vindicate at least something of his self-imagined “halo” of the creator of the third (1961) Party Program. In no way can he reconcile himself to the fact that life has torn “his creation” to pieces. He blames everything on the intrigues of either Gorbachev3 or Chernenko4; but mainly on “the curly one” (this is how he calls Chernenko’s assistant Pechenev); and also in part on Aleksandrov5 and Zagladin.6 He complains to me, seeking in me somebody to talk to, a sympathizer.
    [Show full text]
  • Gorbachev and the Dynamics of Change *
    GORBACHEV AND THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGE * K.S. Karol By six in the morning, queues are already beginning to form in front of the news-stands in Moscow and Leningrad. People may be queuing to buy Ogonek, a popular illustrated weekly which had no great readership until very recently, or a literary review which is publishing a work that has been held up by the censors for decades, or a long-awaited critical novel. They may even be queuing to make sure of getting hold of their usual daily, or sometimes even Pravda, if it contains an article or an interview that is out of the ordinary: they are afraid that it will be sold out within a few hours. Live television programmes are also becoming more common and the public, who are often invited to take part in them, follow them with an attention that was unknown in the past. Although they have a world-wide reputation for being indigestible, the Soviet press and mass media are suddenly enjoying immense public popularity, thanks to the policy of glasnost (openness) introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev. Is this phenomenon really only the tip of an iceberg? Are profound changes really at work in Soviet society? How far can the perestroika (reconstruct- ion) inspired and led by the new General Secretary actually go? For the first time since the Revolution of October 1917-and on the eve of its seventieth anniversary-censorship has been virtually abolished in the Soviet Union. Editors of various publications, who are assumed to know just how far they can go, have sole responsibility for what they publish.
    [Show full text]
  • Fifth Periodical Report Presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in Accordance with Article 15 of the Charter
    Strasbourg, 17 November 2017 MIN-LANG (2017) PR 7 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES Fifth periodical report presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter FINLAND THE FIFTH PERIODIC REPORT BY THE GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES NOVEMBER 2017 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................................6 PART I .................................................................................................................................................................7 1. BASIC INFORMATION ON FINNISH POPULATION AND LANGUAGES....................................................................7 1.1. Finnish population according to mother tongue..........................................................................................7 1.2. Administration of population data ..............................................................................................................9 2. SPECIAL STATUS OF THE ÅLAND ISLANDS.............................................................................................................9 3. NUMBER OF SPEAKERS OF REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES IN FINLAND.................................................10 3.1. The numbers of persons speaking a regional or minority language..........................................................10 3.2. Swedish ......................................................................................................................................................10
    [Show full text]
  • Dynamics of Maritime Terrorist Threats to Russia and the Government's
    Dynamics of Maritime Terrorist Threats to Russia and the Government’s Response Simon Saradzhyan * Introduction Russia has been the victim of a number of horrendous terrorist attacks at the hands of endemic actors, such as networks of radical separatists and terrorists based in the North Caucasus. These networks have bombed a Coast Guard residential complex and a pa- rade at a Caspian Sea town, killing dozens; they have plotted to hijack one atomic submarine and claimed responsibility for sinking another; and their supporters seized a vessel with Russian passengers on board and threatened to blow it up. Some groups within these networks have already crossed the moral threshold between conventional and catastrophic terrorism by staging such horrendous attacks as the hostage taking in Beslan, in which 331 people, half of them children, were killed in 2004. The hostage- taking raids on the Beslan school and on Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater in 2002 demon- strated the formidable capabilities of these networks in planning and executing com- plex attacks, which involved profound knowledge of the practical flaws and organiza- tional deficiencies of Russia’s counter-terrorism and law-enforcement system. Attack- ers in both cases included individuals willing to die in the course of the attacks. The Russian authorities have dealt these networks a number of serious blows thanks to the strengthening of the Russian state and its security and law-enforcement appara- tus, as well as to the increased involvement of local populations, including former re- bels, in counter-insurgency and policing efforts. They have also significantly improved the security of critical facilities of land-based infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons facilities.
    [Show full text]