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3/1/1991 - Notes and Impressions after initial reconnaissance trip to Tashkent and Uzbekistan by Thomas Goltz

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUTWRITER SCONSENT INSTITUTEOFCURRENTWORLDAFFAIRS Livinggton Mt USA March Uzbekisan PaCer Bird Martin ICWA gheelock Sires Ha NH 03755 Dear Peter You forgive 4riting another preliminary epistle touch difer manger rendering reconnaissance Tashkent contradictory information It there report before getting points First foremost basic missio accomplished IE I sucded curig Z dency I still haven completely sorted cause confusion prevailing throughout Soviet Union everyone lifeline hould right meaning access currency I could Thomas Gol ICWA fellow Studying Central Asia empha Tur Republic Soviet Uaion Sce19efiofCuenorld Affms RoEers Poundaon hovdedlonE4efellosNo cnleoumdgyogadultoliveoutsideeUnitedStatesdteuttemaionM Endowed byele1R CrefimmisalsosdbynuibufiomHorne mdindividudfodafiom The first hosts small private everything I The Three Sergiis They finger every economic country purveying computer organizing personalized business tours Uzbekistan My I discovered stated purpose travel USSR negotatons business Iniially I assumed simply means Three Seriis around Intouist monopoly travel considerable difference between I currency their American partners ruble rated hotels airfares something alone percent But profit their interest tavels simply getting world brinEins world This means using consultant their various business ventures ranging critiquing services available their businessman hotel former guest house state enterprise helping organize comin international business management conference Tashkent There other projects involvement prospective travel related Central Asia impot export assistance I imagine somewhere request sponsor USA elsewhere In Three SerEiis issued another invitation conduct months worth consultations primay sponsor which later understanding unofficial assist during sojourn I think without saying company deserves greater treatment future newsletter provisonally entitled __Prob Tvo In Estatg_l shins An4 Runnins A Private Bus iness The JSSR Sradu_te ybyni marketeeriDo timate A cresting ergiis Uzbeks raised Tashkent intend staying there In anticipation future chanes stPuctue Soviet society thoush instituted intensive Uzbek lansuaze course their office every Tuesday Thursday attended By their employees The writin Uzbekistan increasins Uzbek Russian piece future action fully integrated members society interlopers And Three SerEiis alone trying Their ivals touistic business tavel sphere recently founded Uzbeki Nationa Tourism Agency Saydd piece currency action comes alone uffling foreigners around country instance granting residency permit The director Uzbek sentlemen comfortable speakinz Russians Uzbek particularly interested producing travel related Central Asia SouEinE possible The rency And appears everyone Tashkent bureaucrats proto businessmen wilinE accomplish noble Again Sayakh seems warrant greater investigation another example nationa institutions trying break Moscow embrace The I Sayakh offices director staff negotiating Belgian travel agency maintain Stowing connections others outside In event thouEh I settled official association University Tashkent partially legitmac prestige nsistence department history Professor GoEa hdaov I become Friday Every GoEa joint project ranging creatn aforementioned popular guide Turan Turkstan Central Asia writing Uzbek EnE1sh dictionary Ooga I learn Uzbek first No matter filming Goga planned exploration Silk Road western China coming September Part program includes bending Goga history region written specifically wants subject Enver Pasha Ottoman Turkish leader Qurbashies Basmachies while fighting Soviets The attractive indeed Enver argely erased Turkish historiography Aaurk tradition while demonized Soviet historians being leader guerrilla movement designed communist Central Asia uniting Turkic states region A double loser remains potent symbol Turkism Ghos Of Enver Pasha another theme future newsletter In addition plethora GoEa projects formal position university visiting professor lecturing Turkey Middle East alternatively American subjects The first seems attractive concerned students faculty treated series talks focusing economic political transformation cousin country which I attached familiar while I established framework develop serious Turkey which overdue On mundane level I should I fight repeated requests include teach English clause contract university despite offer double salary triple The final agreed drawn month dollar charge billed ICWA Rubles around fifteen month black market exchange alone sight unseen apartment tutor Uzbek Russian three university funded research trips within Uzbekistan The university promises helpful gaining access So residency inkaEe prestigious position obtained commitments consumng productive projects minimalized If university comes through pomises I happy think categorically declare And served cureain taise Again I obliged underline I subjected ethoa impressions perhaps follo subject revision I Eo alonE First foremost subject lanEuaEe Eea contradiction pertains while I Eeat proEress adjustins Turkish Uzbek weeks Eet alone quite nicely patience required interlocutors I forced accept I learn functional Russian ajority people Tashkent Uzbeks included Uzbek kitchen lanEuaEe This raises number uncomfortabIe questions essential which Uzbek Uzbeks On totally subjective level I think I concept separate distinct Uzbek lanuaEe colonial ceation Soviet commissars interested dividinE rulinE native population Centra Asia prootin enuine ethnic linsual identity eerEe Turki speakers reEion A cursory eview cultural history perhaps Up until early 1920s there Uzbekistan There never The itself comes rather amorphous Eroup clans tibes larEely indisti nsuishable Kazaks other Chasatay Turki speakinE Eroups their history Turkistanian favored Coluabia University Professo preeminent Central Asia expert Edward A11worth I think forsive heavy handed extrapolations I induCEs there anythinE known Uzbek lansuaEe until 1920s Rather there number distinct dialects Turkl ntellectual discourse literary dipioatic activity mainly conducted Chasatay court lanEuaEe Taerland successors Ottoman Turkish Farsi Persian But arrival Soviets foilowin October Revolution especially after Stalin control Communist Party 1920s hairline fractures between various Turki dialects widened fissures cemented chasms In essence prosram takinE kitchen lansuages elevatin E national status sealinE ethnic differences where previously existed And commissars found contemporary allies amonE orientalist dialectoloEy crowd Euys differences emphasis ablative Kazak Uzbek irEhz render those tongues mutually uninteiliEible cannot order street stand there difference between theory practice Eeat indeed Ereat theoretical nothinE prove I quickiy dscovered virtual identity between Uzbek Turkish other Turkic lanEuaEes Tatar neishborhood Barely months study problem I about ready reject there Uzbek language The theorists wince professors vested interest promotion Uzbek literature others adjusting Turkish toward Uzbek while interlocutors trying adjust their Uzbek toward Turkish proves point there essence large language stretching Xinkiang China shores Mediterranean thedivisions exist imposed outside specific politica reason This known divide terfully Central Asia A similar effort outland administrators aided often unknowing scholarly pursuit attempted subdivide Arabic dialects discrete would become different languages accepted Arabs themselves But Arabs resisted lingual Balkanization And although spoken street language Damascus Algiers different Cockney West Texan written intellectual language discourse standard remains single greatest unifying factor otherwise fractured Arab world reasons Arabism continues force reckoned world today The Central Asians scholars theorists assure failed preserving essential unity force ircumstance history resigned owing idelity dialect small homeland Uzbekisan azakistan Turkmenistan small autonomous regions carved larger Republics Karakalpak A SR Uzbekistan SSR Or Certainly years communal identity command effect defining population But after superficial insights problem think question notion there separate nation sarcastic political cartoon quoted Al worth Te M odern_Uzbeks still pertains Before partition Central Asia nationality republics completely befuddled couldn which nationalities ourselves might belong Much argument hopelessly obscure because familiar Arabs circa politics deepest darkest Turkistan Thus allow change gears closer theoretical model Germany Imagine foreign power United States aftermath World War One insisting every dialect declared language right written accordance idiosyncrasies And imposing power wisdom chose local dialect promote language status cynically selected obscure representative regional dialect oficially sanctioned national tongue Not Bavarian Oberamerzauese Plattdeutsch Hamburzian Maknz picture complex UzbekTurki through script reforms durinz years three major minor Traditionally ChaEatay Turki written Arabic based script close identical Ottoman Turkish minor chanEes effected certain etters reflect small dialectical differences Then 1920s Latin based script introduced parallel Mustafa Kemal Ataturk lanzuase reforms newly founded Republic Turkey In instances reforms inended drive wedge between present disassociatinE modern lanzuaze pious orthography Quranic Aabc But became clear Ataturk Turkey zoinE become another Soviet early evident Moscow ziven pause lanzuaze politics Centra Asia So while Anatolian Turks zoinz their weedinz Farsi Arabic accretions their Turkish replacinz Turkish words remarkably similar French Soviet commissars chanzed Uzbek Latin scrip Cyrillic based alphabeu linsual addins special characters subtractins others reflect Tashkent Turki rather removinz symbol New York English replacin simple would written pronounced To scientifically specific removed letters create vowel harmony unique Turkic lanusges world exception dialect Tashkent As confusing picture should there movement afoot return Uzbek Turki Arabic based script which pertained prior effect linking Uzbek Uiher itself nearly identical languaze spoken western China which still written Arabic script The Uighers I should Uihers informed 1920s might complain chanin Uzbek Arabic deprive younz Uzbeks access archives their forefathers during Soviet socialism cynics accumulated literature written Cyrillic Uzbek particularly profound anyway having through censors lasting curiosity value Also Moscow effective promotion Russian primary medium education communication Uzbek newspapers television feature reports weighty subjects cotton harvested collective while national Russian informs developments Kremlin world result Uzbeks really attention official version their language supposed shackles state socialism falling returning Russian Uzbek proto Uzbek IE superrezional Turki There propound political consequences Uzbek recognized omehow phony limitinz language Uzbekistan being recoznized somehow phony limiin country And Turki speakinz interlocutors professed interest ricing themselves specific designation being ethnic Uzbek graduating returning larger communal world belonging Turkistan Turan Cearly subject deserves great attention investigation smacks similar failed yearning Arabs unite single federated nation after their division European colonial powers discrete states which Soviet Republics Central Asia never existed history And accepts notion artificial division least partially responsible virulent Arab nationalism represented individuals Saddam Hussein become worried indeed prospect similar xenophobia Central Asia Ooga Khidia professed concern exactly point While personally believes creation federated state Turan Turkistan although suggested Kazaklstan should excluded future union passed point assimilation Russia would voting union Gorbachev March referendum about future status USS R Goga reasonins pretty straightforward independence along Baltic model means creation throughout Muslim world presence independent national armies inevitably military coups expenditure defense Best subjects Moscow Central Asian Saddam seemed imply Others sanguine about remaining country E USSR A Tatar driver again speaking Turki could understand despite insistenc experts should cannot insisted I contact return leadership BAk Turkistanian movement bases zbekistan Kazakistan Crimea elsewhere greater Turan confess small white other conversations maintained father Turkish mother American simply ability speak Turki little explicable Curiously perhaps driver insisted Turkistanians supporters United States coalition against Saddam Hussein Iraq logic Reagan brought Soviet Union economic knees The logic Soviet leadership largely Russian Russians traditional oppressors Turkistanian9but people built Saddam arsenal Ergo support United States Even Muslims echoed sentiment lopping argument simply declarizthat communists befriended Saddam suppor United States Although outside being I Gorbachev party would But I straying point The initial excursion politics language culture Uzbekistan Central Asia wishful thinking aside Russian Russian culture dominate At first distressing I tearing frustration drivers waiters bazaar merchants blithely babbled Russian oblivious I couldn understand And hough Russian Russian medium conversation between plethora ethnic groups Tashkent Russians Jews Okrainians Koreans Estonians primary medium exchange between Uzbeks themselves Even Goga Russian One night I invited Rustem Irmatov aforementioned Uzbekistan national travel bureau birthday party I Uzbek table littered bottles vodka plates salmon diverse The guests turns toast director Russian And I asked someone translate names Uzbek words There several other similar incidents I about despair bother learn pidgin language drivers bazaar Here subject worthy uture study fringe folks peoples imperfectly maintained sense ofatavistic after being overrun different dominant culture totally assimilated I began casting around other models compare course legion The T Kurds Indians Mexicans Africans Arabs The problem terms research access fringe group especially intellectual enquiry conducted secondary language I paradigm imagine German speak Japanese Portuguese English Bu fluency Portuguese received grant study Hispanic communities United States Which language study English Spanish The answer course approach I adopted It decision because means I about embark wholly unexpected avenue Slavic studies But without living working Uzbekistan Central Asia makes sense The strategy point Uzbek Turki first three months residency totally shutting Russian until corner Uzbek comprehension Russian Well analysis excitemen aside I would totally candid admit succumbing initial depression prospec living Tashkent learning Russian having battle legions nasty cabbies pimps lower level mafia types around abode Hotel Uzbekistan In prior realization acceptance I would biting Russian ready throw towel I describe state Am I Buddhist syndrome attitude describes visceral response fringes world belief reincarnation compelling question indeed precious should subject oneself gratuitous discomfort disease depression In retrospect feeling cosmic cursedness weather I flown egalitarian fligh Moscow aboard Tupalov Andropov carried 350ohe nasty passengersWho carry itheir aboard obliged stare bread looking ohioken passed lizht ouldn The Was leship Eey uponmy arrival Tashkent streets slippery dirty SiOOti theci occasi0nal winter storms paralyze placeand force esidents furry coats making impersonal robatons And retreating night eighth Hotel Uzbekistan solace either forward comparison WhenI arrived CopenhaEen checked reEular irport hotel I enteFed heaven clean sheets clean carpets clear water My thrill these basics decent_hostel nderline their absence Hotel Uzbekistan where I turned I would greeted green miasmic Eoo spewinE forth spiEo stream worked The coffinTlike single With footboards close draped caked floors dUbieus sheets balcony overlooking urban sprawls million souls seemedhappy thogu depressin duction Tashkent those first three I askimysel pretty basic questions Tommy doing Jrs nhoestqstionthaed aresponsebefore could precede probaSy thatmyrreturn ticket Zause cgpcenne steep fines chaneed temped The started perhapswi inability Cotacts outside hotel erraticnature telephonesysem For starters there switchboard every individual telephone Now 49ndy eealitaian burbler Russian_ brOkenUzbek speaking oreigner meant through anyoeZ floor ladies orkey girls leading misunderstandings I0 manage explain I wanted about subject decipher response Occasionally could enlist theservi Va small E German stewrd ormerly defunct Interflug seconded small W German chaPter company Condor Russian speaking station manager Tashkent course Gulf ewashout thinss pretty problematic frustrating Receivinz calls Sad wosedue there receptionist entire hotel instance obliged incoming calls outside World starin crusty peeling walls hours It wihout saying concept service existent efresh sustenance ascend several buffets O espresso coffee shops sandwiches available uppel floors descend mamoth restaurant round Oiental Care basement Quality service aside timing important lower establishments splittinz disco 5ands rendered eonversation indeed thought impOssible dranked volume things restaurant before first chord A Td filse forgs hotel prison First idewalk outsi hotel dangerous uniental enough moisture I making outing poeeht rendezvou chiropract specialist The I streeS making prospect wandering aroundl nviting But after suckifig cOurage brave skatinz streets forei iyself Od mingle masses decVered fruser ation wanted speak Uzbek Tuk ofthat iaguage insisting always Russian Rus Ru Ssian It aprObl findi masses place Ie fiashy signsadvet Joe Eats Blue Moon Disco there adver tiSement And place there a9ntee could One night company Y telephone technician three lovely Danish Stewardesses Serling Air Condor their charter airline wasusing Tashkefi refueling change northern Europe resorts ldian Ocean South Eas ASia I wandered forth atieto theHotel Uzb klsAn kitchen We heard massive structure dbbed Thre One restaurant complex actually suCceeded finding three identically hugedin after impersonal bistroslwould served between5 Next managed locate private eateries collective restaurant situated antechamber historic sauna The ospects Ii better could seated because place booked solid despair obliged return Hotel Uzbekitan where Yugoslav worked kitchen manager batch potatoes slabs actually around ichen deliver repast No joined other foreigners hanging around Tashkent I Buddhis syndrome force So asked stewardesses What doing tried explain setting residency You crazy meant So Schultz German transport moving refrigerators VCRs other electronic Afghanistan Hans Swiss cotton merchant looking break Uzbekistan starts export cotton directly Condor Valerie And suddenly reviewing first I ready agree Why God indeed precious spend fraction Only analogous beats himself hammer because feels stops experience relief toilet fushes water pause exaggerate slightly I ready throw towel But three street sludge washed green grass began appear lifeless mulberry trees began telephones worked short appointments turned dinners night friendships frustration having Russian turned challenge learn language everything started different I exaggerate declare Tashkent beautiful It Tashkent typical Soviet East Block housing projects elevators sometimes monuments Lenin Marx But trees parks planted Czarist Russians shading solid colonial style buildings survived earthquake And better weath I about allowing myself labyrinth parks colonial Tashkent Set along spoked avenues emanating Revolution Park previously known Lenin Square before Kaufmann Square after Russian general conquered Central Asia organized often would myself approachin hotel I certain I proceeded straight outward Most modern downtown Tashkent dates great earthquake Soviet style generic types lumped together single massive structures KGB building flankins aforementioned Three One restaurant garden building located newspaper building which seven eight newspapers published There nothing architectural interest between seams Salin other structures hinting discrete charm colonialism Soviet style Opera building built Japanese POWs cupolas decorated accordance architect vision central Asian themes facing evocative somewhat musty Tashkent Hotel structure somehow reminiscent Pera Palace lstanbul prior famed hostel restoration recent years former residence regent tucked beneath canopy mulberry trees obscured Lenin Museum Down May Avenue cossnz major canals wending through pleasant house where Kirinsky Mongolian consul general there grwashed melted other structures which designed toward grace Tashkent beautiful being Muslim monuments between True middle rabbit warren Uzbek makha adobe brick wattle Muslim settlements there stands handsome facade madraa complex mufilik diocese seminary Muslims Central Asia outside Char Su bazaar there fetid smelling Turkish these Muslim structures serve underline Tashkent established imperial today Turkc Muslims living there Russifed Uzbeks The bazaar I should mention morphological structure usually associates concept oriental market situated series walkways there cornucopia spices lttle stuff associates bazaars cities Istanbul Damascus Cairo In terms trinkets curios merchandize worth looking rabbit pajama house coats Uzbek Tajik pocketless parkas little rockers accompanying pipes wooden devices strapped urinary tracts children might relieve themselves sheets But piles fruit vegetables enough pause especially Prom Moscow One gentleman pleasant enough reporter informer charged showing National Geographic around nearly insane jealousy comparing meagre available Moscow abundance streets Tashkent Samarkand Prices could relatively steep slabs selling rubles about oficial exchange dollar market exchange local terms representing about tenth monthly floor ladies hotel Lemons Tajikistan selling rubles apiece still atractinE interest The explanation abundance predicated couple different factors The first Central Asia enjoy temperate climate growing season unlike Russia proper The second Glasnost local collective farmers allowed harvest their small plots great effect The third locals never became industrial workers always steal produce collective arket themselves Too subjective leve1 I think nantained Russian communists never anaged wholly extirpate native sense Wheeling dealfng middlemanshp nearly genetc Central Asian uslim society since Prophet uhaad encouraged believers trade China As atter course theory reflects overall cu1nary level given I street I could I available acceptable particularly vared The immediate national pilav Cooked great sallon zrease spicy doffed chnks after three servings stuff redundant The street kebabs sometimes grilled sually fried I understand cotton grease bombs lacked attention expects shish kebab Turkey elsewhere iddle East There manta ravioli although larger those familiar Turkey green radish turnip salads which I derive Korean kitchen imported along 200000 ethnic Koreans brought zbekstan Stalin wistful moods shuffling populations Tashkent enriched cuisi considerably There private orean restaurant called strangely enough The Peking I sought night deposited small pagoda building orean characters written foyer inside I informed bilding become private restaurant moved elsewhere Finding other private restaurants Tashkent problematic I succeeded discovering worth effort expended tacking quite advertisements signs believe The first Care Ukraina located basement apartment building about minues hotel exactly where I every I stretching outward bound around The restaurant established years qickly became favorite gathering point Tashkents diinishing Jewish population other liberal thinkers inevitably mafia types often indistinguishable liberal thinkers context Soviet state To honest exactly Russian Tea House street Odessa Manhattan East Village several televisions blaring MTV tapes corner marginally lower decibe level restaurants Hotel Uzbekistan But Care Ukraina special something lacking every state restaurant I semOtch It It human The smacked individual kitchen produced On several visits delicious including national specialty horse flesh sausage steak potatoes gravy crisp salad sound bland compared state distinctly Ukrainian which I wherein wrapped around cheese oasted washed vodka Service friendly efficient waiters working illegal state restaurants riting these notes occurs I might gotten little excited place simply because relief establishment wouldn competition But there I needed I congratulate myself seeking tonic psychic other oreigners including couple American scholars heard Care Ukrana other private restaurants deeply jealous ability discover Tashkent different their And restaurant served venue human contact My initial visit folks invited social gatherings parties birthday party Armenian The other guests aroun years Russian girls lewish Tatar lasses young bucks Uzbek The young lewish named Julie spoke English basic medium exchange Turkish Tataro party happen I presented birthday stick Maybaleen lipstick I through connection I introduced nlzht restaurant Uzbekistan The Tatar girls Julie picked hotel would front hotel regarded whores whisked There under bridge behind unprepossessing street kebab stand further obscured mounds concrete Regants recall correctly advertised wooden couple hanging outside entrance second wondered mugge Then opened light flooded gloom entered different world Again exaggerate charms establishment context But context reality gloomy streets Tashkent instants behind heaven It clean It asefull decorated There napkins clean stached table clothes The itself split dining perhaps ables acoves discretely curtained disappeared these feast commenced interrupted geneic Sasha black maketee assumed fiend girlfriends seven number disabused I ejected fellow although insistent rekindle friendship bringing bottle vodka flask oldavian bandy theao apptierbeing sufficient Siberian delicious white cheese Callin evenins shelled rounded official exchange aound 0aheealechaneae itamountedtoatenspot There other discoveies usually through fiend connection Serii I Three SeEiis skiing Saturday mountain outside though petty udientay little limiting siren boots olied share The mountain I should cowded ussian skiies Soviet Union acting petty bunch eican skiies Vale Aspen unusual sense unexpected ssians Soviets having hought country supposed falling Late SeEii aforementioned Sauna estauant lunch anothe another makhale bazaar Hee entie street illegal Stilled eateries openly competing state sponsored shops Guess where folks flock And there others began making human environment attractive indeed point where could start dseard overwhelming sense urban blight decay Firs foremos Kahramon Rakhmoanov director government foreizn relations Formerly Tashkent Radio interpreter Syria native American English fluent literary Uzbek rarity among Uzbek elite I obtained number while Seattle ended simply stumbling thought central police station while attempting Seattle doctors Rash Joyce Doan In event spent evenings seeking truth bottom vodka bottle running around friends thought might helpful proect He quite blunt about would shoes Turkic Central Asia Two years months Tashkent month Khiva Samarkand Kokand Bukhara Pollowed months Kirhizia another Turkmenia another Kazakistan perhaps there several fortnightly visits little pockets Turkishness scattered Moldavia West Siberia East On final evening together brough little party place attended radio announcer opera singer belting Verdi edification The opera singer daughter lovely bashful Eal Scan Connery child bride joint Uzbek Italian Amerlcan feature Tamerlane another newsletter course Another pleasant human contact small group Americans Tashkent residen through Sea Tashkent sister connection They group split about evenly between learn Russian those study things Uzbek One young Will appeared native Uzbek dialects which I thought little obsessive about spent quite together includin dinner parents chale couple young Indiana University holed squalid graduate students associated Academy Science One David seemed native aionE perfectly comnfortable Uzbek while other John other linguistic spectrum IE apart convoluted grammatical constructions possible could directions street I spent Seattle couple Alan Pat opted Russian thing seemed irrattional terror Uzbeks their neighborhood There others Diana Ea Oezon popped teach English learn Uzbek scratch couple other American Eals teaching English exchange residency permits whose study Russian The center piece American community though Doans Rosh Joyce effective American Counsul General Uzbekistan I think I leave their another culmination Zhe Seattle Tashkent sister relationship alone deserves newsletter Suffice presence level headed folks Tashkent pretty reassuring My presence warmly especially departing I pounds Americans includins cancerous tissues doctors Seattle It pretty about eliable system What Much Samarkand aborted mugging subway system I close epistle other themes future issues Best Regards Thomas Goltz Receivedin Hanover