Life at the Edge of the Empire: Oral Histories of Soviet Kyrgyzstan

by Sam Tranum

The 35 oral histories in this English-language anthology touch on events including: Urkun; World War I; sedentarization; collectivization; World War II; the post-war reconstruction period; Stalin s death; the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras; independence; and privatization. The interviewees talk about language, religion, the roles of men and women in society, their school days, their war experiences, migration issues, deported nationalities, agriculture, food, and entertainment. The first edition was published with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American University of Central Asia. This is the second edition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2009

About the author

Originally from Massachusetts, I worked as a staff reporter at the Charleston Daily Mail, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Energy Intelligence in Washington DC. I also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkmenistan, and taught journalism at the American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan. I have an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago.

Reviews

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

These life stories, presented without adornment or analysis, are fascinating. None of the storytellers were under sixty and a few claimed to be over 100 years old. They all told about their lives in clear, concise detail and I was surprised by some of the things they said. Many of them were very well-educated individuals who had traveled all over the USSR and even beyond. Many also believed that life in Kyrgyzstan had been much better under Communism -- now that's something I never expected.

If you want to know about life in Kyrgyzstan or Central Asia in general, this would be a great start.

[Philipp Zimmermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an exchange student at AUCA, I am very impressed that fellow students collected such an insightful variety of oral histories. The interviewees are so diverse, just as the interviewers themselves, featuring all major central asian ethnicities, as well as urban and rural accounts. Some biographies show impressive careers of upward social mobility within the Soviet system, while others continuously suffered from socio-economic hardships. It includes such diverse perspectives and interpretations of Soviet rule and gives some idea of the post-Soviet transformation. Unfortunately, the transcripts appear somehow flattened and shortened to make it more accessible to the reader - I would have preferred though to get the long read for a more profound understanding of the characters.