Sovietistan Quotes

“Tajikistan's national library, the biggest in Central Asia. It opened in 2012 and covers an area of forty-five thousand square meters over nine floors. It has room for ten million books and, in order to fill all the shelves, each household was asked to donate books for the opening. Journalists who have been inside said there are only books in one of the halls; in the rest the shelves stand empty.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“They flew over the village in helicopters with banners warning that there would be an explosion at eleven o'clock .”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“stood like this for an hour, maybe two. The train snaked through the desert and steppe at forty or fifty kilometres an hour. Kazakhstan covers an area of 2,724,900 square kilometres, which is bigger than Western Europe. It is the ninth largest country in the world, and the largest one without a coast. And there, by the dusty train window, I started to realise just how big 2,724,900 square kilometres is. Kazakhstan is more than twice the size of the four other Central Asian countries combined. The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, today’s Kazakhstan, accounted for twelve per cent of the total area of the Soviet Union, which was a staggering 22,402,200 square metres. By comparison, Russia is currently 17,075,200 square kilometres. In other words, Kazakhstan alone accounts for more than half the territory lost by Russia in the breakup of the Soviet Union.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

“The Soviet cartographers did not have an easy task creating order out of the Central Asian patchwork of different peoples, languages and clans. Until 1924, the Russians treated Central Asia as one big region which they called Turkestan – Land of the Turks – as most people who lived there spoke Turkic languages. The Russians knew perfectly well that the people of Central Asia belonged to different clans and cultures, but saw no reason to complicate things further. It was difficult enough as it was. People often did not know which nationality they were. In the 1926 consensus, people could name their tribe and family, but could not always”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

“In 1941, a group of Soviet archeologists opened the grave to inspect Timur Lenk's remains. His coffin bore the following inscription: "When I rise from the dead the world shall tremble". It is said that they found another inscription inside the coffin: Whosoever opens my tomb shall unleash an army more terrible than I". Two days after the archeologists opened the tomb, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“There are very few lazy people in Uzbekistan now" he said. "I describe as lazy those who go to Moscow and sweep its streets and squares." - President of Uzbekistan”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“He shook his head and waved me on to his colleague, who was responsible for moral checks.
"Do you have any porn with you miss?" The customs officer looked at me with interest.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“People did often not know which nationality they were. In the 1926 consensus, people could name their tribe and family, but could not always answer if they were Uzbek, Kyrgyz or Tajik.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“The Soviet cartographers did not have an easy task of creating order out of the Central Asian patchwork of different peoples, languages and clans. Until 1924, the Russians treated Central Asia as one big region which they called Turkestan - the land of the Turks - as most people who lived there spoke Turkic languages.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“Nearly half the Turkmens in central Asia live outside of Turkmenistan, many of them in Afghanistan and Iran. there are more Tajiks in Afghanistan than in Tajikistan. In Samarkand and Bukhara, both in Uzbekistan, the main language is Tajik. The Uzbeks for their part, account for a sixth of the population of Kyrgyzstan and at least a fifth of the population of Tajikistan.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“Ala kachuu, 'snatch and run', is what the tradition of bride kidnapping is called in Kyrgyz… around one third of all marriages in Kyrgyzstan occur in this way… thirty per day. More than ninety percent of these wives stay with their kidnapper.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“As it is sufficient in Sunni Islam for a man to repeat Talaq, the word for divorce, three times for a couple to be divorced, many Tajik women have received the following text message from their husbands in Russia: 'Talaq, Talaq, Talaq'. In 2011, the Council of Ulema in Tajikistan banned divorce by mobile telephone.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan

“W gruncie rzeczy nie wyobrażam sobie lepszej ilustracji szczytu melancholii niż pesymista czytający Schopenhauera w Pamirze.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

“Nie do wiary, ale dzięki oddanym współpracownikom Wawiłowa jego bank nasion przetrwał ponad dwadzieścia osiem miesięcy oblężenia Leningradu. Władze nie zatroszczyły się o zabezpieczenie dwustu pięćdziesięciu tysięcy nasion, jednak pracownicy Instytutu zajęli się tą sprawą. Wyselekcjonowane nasiona przenieśli do dużej skrzyni i ukryli w piwnicy, gdzie na zmianę trzymali straż. Ani jeden z pilnujących nie uległ pokusie zjedzenia nasion, chociaż dziewięciu z nich zmarło z głodu przed zakończeniem oblężenia w 1944 roku.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

“(...) a kiedy się śmiał, czynił to na ten lekko zrezygnowany, ironiczny sposób, który przyswoili sobie obrońcy praw człowieka na całym świecie.”
― Erika Fatland, Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan