Uzbekistan Initiative Papers No. 19 October 2014 Yulia Tsyryapkina teaches at the Altay State Pedagogical Academy in Barnaul, Russia. She studies the Russian mi- Evolution of the Russian Language nority and the space of Rus- sian language in Uzbekistan. in the Tashkent Region’s Urban This research was made pos- Spaces sible thanks to a financing from the Foundation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris, France) in the frame- Yulia Tsyryapkina work of the project “Eth- nocultural processes among (Docent at Altay State Pedagogical Academy) Russian-speaking populations in the cities of the Tashkent Close to Tashkent, the city of Angren is one of the main coal producing centers of region in the conditions of a Uzbekistan. Despite the Uzbekification of public life since independence, and dra- matic changes in the ethnic composition of the city—the share of the Russian popula- nationalizing state”, 2013, tion decreased from 31.4% in 1989 to 2.6% in 2013—Russian language had main- and a financing from the tained very strong in Angren public space. This phenomenon can be explained be- RGNF, no. 13-21-01277 “Rus- cause Russian is still indispensable in the industrial sector. With the ongoing mod- sian-speakers in Uzbekistan ernization of Angren extraction combines, and the new status of special industrial in the 2000s: Ethnocultural zone (SIZ) given to the city, the demand for Russian language could increase. processes in the conditions of a nationalizing state”. The opinions expressed here are those of the author only and do not represent the Cen- tral Asia Program. UZBEKISTAN INITIATIVE PAPERS No. 19, October 2014 Although important, ethnic and cultural process- statistical and analytical data analysis, the infor- es in modern Uzbekistan continue to be under- mation for which is usually not available in Uz- studied. In the nation-building period following bekistan. the collapse of the Soviet Union, particular con- sideration and interest was given to the study of Recent years have seen a number of anthropo- the national culture, state language, and history logical studies producing complex analysis of the of the Uzbeks. Consequently, little research and urban space in Tashkent. In one of his English- analysis addressed issues surrounding minori- language publications, Artyom Kosmarski traces ties in the region, including ethnic and cultural the history of Tashkent from a colonial city to a processes among the minorities in the new soci- socialist metropolis.3 Along with an analysis of opolitical and economic context of independent the city’s diverse architectural heritage, the au- Uzbekistan. Among ethnic minorities Russians thor notes important ethnic and cultural changes stand apart, but they can be included in a large in the environment of the capital of independent ethnolinguistic group of the Russian-speaking Uzbekistan. While looking at the social fabric of population (including Koreans, Tatars, Germans, Tashkent, Kosmarski came to the unique conclu- Ukrainians, Jews, and others). sion that the Russian-speaking population enjoys a high degree of comfort in the capital city. The To date, there are almost no comprehensive author argues that it is the “Europeans,” or the studies of the ethnic and cultural processes Russian-speaking populations, who fully support among Russians and Russian-speaking popula- the policies of Islam Karimov and his uncom- tions in the city of Tashkent and the Tashkent promising struggle against Islamists that secures region. Those few studies that do touch upon the their perception of safety in Tashkent.4 changes in the environment for the minorities in Uzbekistan in the post-Soviet period have mainly It should be noted that ethnic and demographic been produced by Western researchers. Perhaps processes in Uzbekistan are the subject of nu- the only work that specifically studies the Rus- merous studies by Uzbek analysts.5 Among them, sian population of the Tashkent oblast is the one can highlight the work of Evgeniy Abdul- study done by the American political scientist layev,6 a philosopher, poet, and current editor- Scott Radnitz,1 who analyzed the factors leading in-chief of the spiritual, literary, and historical to the emigration of minorities, primarily Rus- magazine Vostok svyshe. His works offer an anal- sians/Russian speakers. According to the author, ysis of all the processes of nation building in Uz- in deciding to move to Russia these groups are bekistan and the changing role and importance primarily motivated by economic reasons, not by of the Russian language in the 2000s. While there the context of a ‘nationalizing’ state. These find- is neither much empirical basis nor detailed ings are based on interviews the author conduct- analysis of the situation across different regions ed with focus groups in the small town of of Uzbekistan, the author is a witness to these Chirchik in the Tashkent region, but Radnitz ex- developments and records common shifts in the trapolated his findings for the entire territory of identity of the Russian population in Central Uzbekistan. Asia.7 The British anthropologist Moya Flynn published It is difficult to find distinguished new research a similar study in 2007 in which she investigated on minorities in Central Asia in Russian histori- the identity of the Russian-speaking population ography. Natalia Kosmarskaya’s monograph on in Tashkent.2 The author's conclusions appeared the Russian population of Kyrgyzstan,8 which to coincide with the general perspective of West- was grounded on a rich empirical foundation, ern anthropological studies on minorities in Cen- represents something of a breakthrough. Some of tral Asia: Russian-speaking people are part of the the author’s conclusions can be extrapolated to Uzbek society; they are anchored to Uzbekistan cover ethnic and cultural processes among the as their home and are concerned about socioec- Russian-speaking population of Uzbekistan. onomic problems. This study was based on in- terviews with people but unaccompanied by 2 UZBEKISTAN INITIATIVE PAPERS No. 19, October 2014 The availability of fragmented research on the the Tashkent region. Workers from many areas ethno-cultural peculiarities of the Rus- of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Russia came to sians/Russian-speaking population of Uzbeki- take part in the construction of this new indus- stan is a start. However, scholars have not yet trial coal site. produced generalizing, comprehensive research covering all aspects of life for the Russian- The city became home to many large industrial speaking population in the regions of Uzbekistan facilities such as coal mines, a rubber plant, An- in the context of a ‘nationalizing’ state. Moreover, gren State District Power Plant (GRES), Novo- field studies suggest that the way the Russians Angren GRES, a ceramic factory, machine- adapt to this context differs from the conven- building plants, a gold-processing plant,10 ce- tional perceptions of discrimination against Rus- ment, asphalt, concrete, chemical, and metallur- sians in Central Asia, and the question of the role gical production, Podzemgaz, and others. The of the Russian language in social and cultural life history of Angren, according to the remembrance of the republic is overly dramatized. of its residents, suggests that the city was flood- ed with immigrants from various regions of the Ethnic and Social Background of Angren in 1946– Soviet Union, including many mining experts, 80 sinkers, miners, builders, etc. Angren is located approximately one hundred The majority of the city’s population was Rus- kilometers from Tashkent in the Akhangaran sians or Russian-speaking. A Soviet source rec- valley between the Chatkal and Kurama moun- orded that during the process of Angren’s indus- tain ranges in the floodplain of the Angren river. trial development in the late 1950s and early Historically, the Angren valley links Tashkent 1960s it was difficult to urbanize the Uzbek pop- with the pearl of Central Asia, the Ferghana val- ulation.11 Uzbeks had been less engaged in indus- ley. Today Angren is the last city of the Tashkent trial development and less urbanized, as the data region on the way to the Ferghana valley, located in table 1 below indicates. on a strategically important highway. The city was developed after lignite deposits were dis- Therefore, the cities of the Akhangaran valley— covered there in 1933 as part of a comprehen- Angren and Almalyq—were predominantly “Eu- sive exploration and development of natural ropean” in their early years of development. In resources in Central Asia. The exploration of the Angren there was a high proportion of Russians, Angren valley began in 1940, and a year later Tatars (Crimean Tatars and Volga Tatars are construction of the Angrenugol mine was most likely combined in table 1), Ukrainians, and launched with an emerging village called An- Koreans. At the same time, Angren had tradition- grenshahtostroy nearby. 9 Archival documents ally hosted a high number of Tajiks (in 1959, 7.4 indicate that exploration efforts in the Akhan- percent of the population). The Akhangaran val- garan valley were led personally by Josef Stalin ley has many place names derived from the Per- and Lavrentiy Beria. On the eve of the Second sian language (Akhangaran means for instance “a World War, the Soviet Union was speeding up master blacksmith”).12 the pace of industrialization in Central Asia and Kazakhstan and actively engaged in the devel- opment of new mineral deposits in order to turn the region into an independent national econom-