Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia

225 Pages·2006·3.768 MB·English

by  Catharine Alexander, Victor Buchli, Caroline Humphrey

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URBAN LIFE IN POST-SOVIET ASIA
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Capturing a unique historical moment, this book examines the changes in urban life since
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c the collapse of the Soviet Union from an ethnographic perspective, thus addressing significant
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D gaps in the literature on cities, Central Asia and post-socialism. The book encompasses
5 Tashkent, Almaty, Astana and Ulan-Ude: four cities with quite different responses to the fall
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9 of the Soviet Union. Each chapter takes a theme of central significance across this huge
2 geographical terrain, addresses it through one city and contextualises it by reference to
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8 the other sites in this volume. The structure of the book moves from nostalgia and memories
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t of the Soviet past to examine how current changes are being experienced and imagined
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a Privatisation is giving rise to new social geographies, while ethnic and religious sensibilities
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a are creating emergent networks of sacred sites. But, however much ideologies are changing,
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cities also provide a constant lived mnemonic of lost configurations of ideology and practice,

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i acting as signposts to bankrupted futures. Overall, this book provides a detailed account of
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y the changing nature of urban life in post-Soviet Asia, clearly elucidating the centrality of these
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al urban transformations to citizens’ understandings of their own socio-economic condition.
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ti Catherine Alexanderis Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University
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rs of London. She has carried out fieldwork in Turkey, Britain and Kazakhstan, and has
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v published on domestic space and cities. Most of her research has been engaged with changing
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n relationships between state, society and market including privatisation, property relations and
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[ welfare and the third sector.
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d Victor Buchliis Reader in Material Culture in the Department of Anthropology, University
e College London. His research interests focus on the material culture of socialism and post-
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a socialism, modernist architecture and urbanism in Russia and Kazakhstan, the archaeology
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nl of the recent past, and theoretical understandings of material culture and materiality.
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D Caroline Humphrey is Professor of Collaborative Anthropology at the University of
Cambridge. She has worked extensively in Russia, Mongolia and North-West China, and also
more briefly in Nepal and India. She has published on economic change, ritual and religion,
and her current interests concern socialist and post-socialist urban cultures in China and Russia.
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URBAN LIFE
IN POST-SOVIET ASIA
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e Edited by
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5 Catherine Alexander,
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9 Victor Buchli
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0 and Caroline Humphrey
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UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON PRESS
First published 2007
2 by UCL Press
1 The name of University College London (UCL)
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2 is a registered trademark used by UCL Press
r with the consent of the owner
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b Taylor & Francis
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2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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e Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
D by UCL Press
5 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
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9 UCL Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
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8: This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
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t “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
a collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
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a © 2007 Editorial selection and matter, Catherine Alexander, Victor Buchli
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a and Caroline Humphrey; individual chapters, the contributors
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a All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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s reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
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a other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
al and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
M permission in writing from the publishers.
ti British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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s A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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v Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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n A catalog record for this book has been requested
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b ISBN 0-203-94487-9 Master e-book ISBN
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o ISBN10: 1–84472–115–9 (hbk)
nl ISBN10: 0–203–94487–9 (ebk)
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o ISBN13: 978–1–84472–115–3 (hbk)
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ISBN13: 978–0–203–94487–5 (ebk)
CONTENTS
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List of figures vii
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c List of tables viii
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D Notes on contributors ix
5 Preface xi
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0 1 Introduction 1
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a CATHERINE ALEXANDER AND VICTOR BUCHLI
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a 2 Astana: materiality and the city 40
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S VICTOR BUCHLI
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si 3 Almaty: rethinking the public sector 70
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a CATHERINE ALEXANDER
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4 Tashkent: three capitals, three worlds 102
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it MARFUA TOKHTAKHODZHAEVA
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v 5 City of migrants: contemporary Ulan-Ude in the context of
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U Russian migration 125
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d 6 The creation and revitalisation of ethnic sacred sites in Ulan-Ude
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d since the 1990s 136
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l ALTANHUU HÜRELBAATAR
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o 7 The homeless of Ulan-Ude 157
D
IRINA BALDAYEVA
8 New subjects and situated interdependence: after privatisation
in Ulan-Ude 175
CAROLINE HUMPHREY
Index 208
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LIST OF FIGURES
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m 1.1 Map of Central Asia 15
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c 2.1 New housing for state bureaucrats 41
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D 2.2 Astana cityscape along the river Ishym 41
5 2.3 Weekend promenade along the Ishym embankment 43
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9 2.4 Population of Astana, 1869–2003 44
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0 2.6 The ‘Prestizh’ housing block locally known as the ‘Kursk’ 50
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a 2.7 Detail of a shanyrak 53
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h 2.8 Shanyrakas decorative element in street railing 54
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b 2.9 Shanyrakas neo-classical trompe l’oeilceiling decoration 55
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i 2.11 Russian colonial-era wooden izba 63
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y 3.1 Almaty’s outskirts (new villas) 77
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a 3.2 Almaty’s outskirts (temporary shacks) 78
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3.3 Almaty’s population, 1926–2003 80
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it 3.4 State apartment block in micro-region (Almaty) 81
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er 3.5 Ethnic composition of Almaty by three largest groups,
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i 1939–1995 88
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d 4.3 New Russian Orthodox church 115
e 6.1 The Lenin Monument, Square of the Soviets, Ulan-Ude,
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a 1988 137
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6.3 Buddhist monks conducting a purification ritual 142
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6.5 Map of the camp of Geser 151
7.1 Dwelling at the rubbish dump of Soviet District, Ulan-Ude,
2001 163
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LIST OF TABLES
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m 3.1 Almaty’s population, 1926–2003 80
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c 3.2 Total population movement by ethnicity in Almaty, 2002 86
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a 4.1 Tashkent’s size and population, 1877–2015 103
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h 6.1 Lamas’ Buddhist centres in Ulan-Ude 141
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b 8.1 Inhabitants of Verkhneudinsk in 1880 181
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NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
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Catherine Alexanderis Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths College,
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c University of London.
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5 Irina Baldayevais a Kandidat of Sciences in Ulan-Ude.
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9 Victor Buchliis a Reader in Material Culture at University College London.
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8 Caroline Humphreyis Professor of Collaborative Anthropology at the University
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t of Cambridge.
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h Altanhuu Hürelbaatar is a Research Associate in the Department of
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b Anthropology, the University of Cambridge.
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a Galina Manzanovais a Researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ulan-
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ys Ude).
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a Marfua Tokhtakhodzhaevapractises as both an architect and an ethnographer in
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Tashkent.
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