Some Central Asian states speak about decolonisation of the region more often. Local communities try to rethink their links to the Soviet history and culture, and also call for breaking free from the influence of Russia. Moreover, almost every country has unsolved issues that can hamper decolonisation processes.
Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, decolonisation processes become the subject of public discussions more often. Kamila Smagulova, researcher of PaperLab, alumna of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics, noted that ‘decolonisation’ in Kazakhstan also means ‘national’. In other words, the expansion of the scope of use of the Kazakh language, rethinking of the past and the growing popularity of heroes of the Kazakh intelligentsia, who were repressed in the 20th century, in history.
“Yes, these processes have become more intense after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. But we should keep in mind that just a month before that Kazakhstan had suffered from the January events,” Smagulova said. “Thus, the January events acted like the intrinsic factor that affected the society, while Ukraine was the external factor.”
Given that, decolonisation in Kazakhstan, according to her, lies in the horizontal plane – and is mentioned by the civil society, and various activists, artists, feminist movements view their activities through the lens of decolonisation. However, there is no intergroup dialogue between then.
Besides, according to Smagulova, the difficulty is that there is no relevant terminology. In other words, there is no distinction between ‘decolonial and ‘postcolonial’.
“In my opinion, we are missing the postcolonial lens, which failed to get viral in the society, unlike decolonisation. I think it should be studied in detail so that every actor of the process could understand it,” Smagulova said.
As to the power, there are no calls for decolonisation at the state level, according to the expert. However, in March 2023, president of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev spoke against building memorials to personalities known only in one region, or significant in the Soviet period.
“But we cannot say this is the direct reaction to the society’s needs. There may be some processes that can be interpreted as the signs of decolonisation, but we cannot say there is some correlation that ‘the society asks for some decolonial lens and the power responds.’” In other words, we cannot build this chain so far,” Smagulova said.
Kyrgyzstan
According to project coordinator of Kloop.kg Aizirek Almazbekova, there are decolonisation processes taking place in Kyrgyzstan, but they are not so large-scale.
“In other words, there are some discussions in the society, but they are not large-scale,” she said. “But we see that development of the Kyrgyz language is paid more attention than before, and citizens are also interested in it.”
Moreover, according to her, a particular part of the society, mainly activists and journalists, try to fight against Russian propaganda via media or social media.
“I think these processes have become more intense after the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine,” Almazbekova said. “Of course, it is not the war that gave rise to them, some processes had existed before. But Russia’s invasion has triggered their development.”
However, she said, there are still some difficulties in Kyrgyzstan that cannot be solved within a short time.
“First, Russian media in Kyrgyzstan still have more influence on people. They dominate in the market and the population consumes their content,” Almazbekova said. “Second, millions of our nationals are migrant workers in Russia. This is why we feel great economic influence, which ties our hands.”
Besides, protests have been prohibited in the centre of Bishkek, particularly, near the Russian embassy, while the authorities of Kyrgyzstan have copied Russian laws several times and tried to introduce them in the republic.
“So, there are some discussions of decolonisation, and citizens try to express their views, try to demand answers to their questions. But it intertwines with the above problems. But the fact that we speak out means a lot, to my mind. What is important is that the society began to rethink, reflect and ponder,” Almazbekova said.
Tajikistan
Meanwhile, the topic of decolonisation has not become the mainstream in Tajikistan. And there is the explanation to it, said Marat Mamadshoev, editor of CABAR.asia in Tajikistan. According to him, the republic has gained independence but colonial forms generally remain the same.
“It often manifests itself in the dependent politics and economic dependence on Russia,” analyst said. “In particular, many able-bodied people of Tajikistan go to Russia to earn money and stay there.”
Also, the inequality in economy is obvious. According to Mamadshoev, Tajikistan still supplies fruit and raw materials in the foreign trade turnover.
“And it is clear that we sell them at cheaper prices, and buy Russian oil products or some Russian commodities at more expensive prices,” he said. “And if we diversified our exports, the situation could be different.”
Mamadshoev also pointed out that the topic of decolonisation is raised from time to time, yet there is no systemic or scientific discussion of it in the Tajik media .According to him, the reason is that neither the government, nor the society makes long-term political plans backed up by material or moral resources. Everyone is busy with current issues, generally.
However, according to the analyst, there are recipes of countering the external dependency.
“First, we must admit that the situation, if compared to 1991, has not changed much, and we are even more dependent in some moments,” he said. “Second, we need to carry out a simple analysis and find out who we are, where we are, what we want and what we can do.”
The most real thing that Tajikistan can do, according to Mamadshoev, is to pursue economic reforms, seek ways of diversification of export and organise domestic production wherever resources and staff are available. As to the politics and society, real rule of the people and democracy are needed.
“We need to stop countering the media, the civil society,” the expert said. “The power and citizens must cooperate, pull together, instead of looking for enemies in each other. Only in this case we can expect some successes and achievements.”
Turkmenistan
As to Turkmenistan, here, according to independent researcher based in Ashgabat Rustam Mukhamedov, we see the continuation of the same politics that was established back in the 90s, during the times of President Saparmurat Niyazov. In other words, there is the strict authoritarian rule and tabooing of some topics, including decolonisation.
“At the same time, the power makes attempts to smooth out certain bumps that could do harm to the diplomatic relations with Russia. And relations have become deeper than previously in recent years,” Mukhamedov said.
According to him, cooperation between Turkmenistan and Russia has become active in many directions. The parties declared each other important strategic partners, which is seen in a great number of meetings and execution of partnership documents in many areas.
Moreover, there are remarkable ‘curtseys’ made to Russia at the political symbolical level. Thus, Turkmenistan has never held any marches on the Victory Day, and in 2020 a military parade was held in Ashgabat near the memorial “People’s Memory” in honour of the 75th anniversary of the victory accompanied by the display of equipment used in the times of the Great Patriotic War. According to Mukhamedov, it was used for the domestic audience as the colours of the 748th rifle regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian frontline was handed over to Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as his grandfather, Berdymukhamed Annaev, was serving there. Besides, at the end of 2022, it was announced that a Russian-Turkmen university was going to be opened in Turkmenistan.
“In other words, we see a mixture of different practices, so there is no clear-cut answer to the question ‘what particular processes of decolonisation take place in the country’,” the analyst said. “Even if the state makes attempts to introduce the idea of decolonisation, they are totally beneficial to maintain the consolidation of the power. And they just try to marginalise and suppress everything that falls beyond the official interpretations.”
Besides, according to Mukhamedov, given the strict authoritarian environment, the society in Turkmenistan tries to remain indifferent to politics. So, it is difficult to estimate the attitudes of the masses. He said that the practice of public discussions based on pluralism of opinions is not widespread in the country, there are no independent researches or opinion polls.
“It would be great to be in possession of open data, which will show the real picture to us,” the analyst said. “But we do not have it. And the data that we receive is scant and does not show the actual situation.”
Uzbekistan
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan was the first one in the region to get beyond control of the Soviet colonial power intentionally, said Binazir Yusupova, PhD researcher of the Dublin City University and alumna of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics. According to her, during the presidency of Islam Karimov, decolonisation grew into desovietisation and decommunisation.
“There is the trend towards national ideology, return to the roots, beginnings,” Yusupova said. “Personalities of some national heroes, whose history was forbidden for study by the Soviet power, were restored.”
Besides, Soviet names of streets in towns were changed; some memorials were removed. The names of most people who fell victim to Stalin’s repressions were also restored. But all this, according to Yusupova, was done in fact to strengthen the power of Karimov himself.
“In other words, decolonisation is when people, citizens understand everything themselves, try to rethink the past, admit some previous mistakes. In our country, the process was not as extensive as we would like it to be,” the researcher said.
Many Uzbekistanis, according to her, still take Russia as the “older brother” and this attitude remains strong against all odds. Moreover, Russia is still the centre where most migrants head to for work.
“The ongoing war in Ukraine might speed up the decolonisation processes in Uzbekistan,” Yusupova said. “But it is important not to restrict the civil society and activists so that they could promote this idea actively.”
Besides, according to her, it is important to represent historical events objectively and to stop the practice when particular things may be studied in the era of a particular person. To do this, scientists, researchers must be given real freedom, and platforms for discussion and exchange of opinions should be created.
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