Renegotiating stability, security and identity in the post-Soviet borderlands: the experience of Russian communities in Uzbekistan

Flynn, M. (2007) Renegotiating stability, security and identity in the post-Soviet borderlands: the experience of Russian communities in Uzbekistan. Nationalities Papers, 35(2), pp. 267-288. (doi: 10.1080/00905990701254359)

Abstract

In 1991 the ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking communities, who had migrated to and been resident in the non-Russian regions of both the tsarist empire and Soviet Union, found themselves located beyond the borders of the newly independent Russian Federation.1 Despite an absence of actual, physical movement, the communities experienced a form of stationary or figurative displacement as the Soviet Union broke up and political borders demarcating their homelands moved over them. This displacement was furthered in subsequent years due to the nature and security of the environment where they lived and their often secure sense of ethnocultural and socio-economic identity being challenged through processes of political and economic transformation and increased levels of instability and uncertainty. This article focuses on members of those Russian communities who are living in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Through an analysis of narratives of their everyday lives it explores how they perceive and understand the “displacement” which has occurred, and how they are responding and actively renegotiating relationships with both their physical homeland—Uzbekistan—and their “historical” homeland—Russia. Furthermore, the article assesses how through these processes of displacement and renegotiation they are reshaping their own identities in the post-Soviet period.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Flynn, Dr Moya
• Authors: Flynn, M.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races; D History General and Old World > DR Balkan Peninsula
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Central and East European Studies
• Journal Name: Nationalities Papers
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0090-5992
• ISSN (Online): 1465-3923
• Published Online: 25 May 2007