A few watermelons await their fate in the entrance hall of  Kokil Dara Khanagha.  

Kokildor-Ota Khanaka in Termez, in the far south of Uzbekistan, was originally a resting place for wandering Sufi dervishes and other Muslim scholars. Founded in the 16th century by Abdullah Khan II, khan of Bukhara, the building’s design is strongly influenced by the city’s cultural ties to Afghanistan.

Credits: E.S.

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Two men walk by the entrance of the Abai Theater of Semey. The theater, built in a typical Soviet modernist style, is named after Abai Qunanbaiuly, or simply Abai, widely considered the founder of written Kazakh literature. Semey has been an important cultural center in the XIX and XX centuries. At that time Russian authorities forced many intellectuals to relocate there to keep their liberal ideas away from Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The cultural environment of Semey played a crucial role in the education and growth of bright young locals, like Abai.

Credits: Simone Bergonzi (Italie, @simobergz)

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The Burana Tower, located in the Chüy Valley on the outskirts of Bishkek, is a minaret that forms part of the remains of the city of Balasagun (9th century). It is the setting for a legend reminiscent of Sleeping Beauty: a witch warned a king that his daughter would die when she turned eighteen, so the king built a tall tower to house his daughter. However, on her eighteenth birthday, a spider bit the young girl and she died as predicted. No Prince Charming here ….

Credits: Zoé Toulouse (France)

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Out on the Kazakh steppe, in the early days of Soviet rule, so-called red yurts tried to bring the USSR and its communist ideals to those that were most inaccessible to the party and the state. These “islands of Soviet power on the steppes” are an often forgotten yet important chapter in the emancipation of women. Novastan publishes this translated article with friendly permission from the redaction of Masa Media.

‘Red yurts’ and the Sovietisation of Kazakhstan

In 1928, with the beginning of the first five-year plan, the Soviet government was faced with the fact that most people in Kazakhstan retained a nomadic lifestyle. In order to integrate nomads into the Soviet economy, many were forced into sedentism and agriculture. Although the 1920s saw an increase in sedentary agriculture, especially when compared to the beginning of the 20th century, nomads were still the majority. By1928, 65% of Kazakhs still practised seasonal nomadism – and even by 1932, 7% kept a fully nomadic lifestyle.

In the eyes of party apparatchiks, the nomadic arrangement of the Kazakhs was a useless waste of land better suited for growing bread. Marxist-Leninist ideology, in turn, regarded nomadism as an “inferior” form of economic development; the Soviet authorities considered it important to propagate communist values and promote sedentism among those who had retained their nomadic ways. It was for this purpose that the government of the USSR organised ‘red yurt’ expeditions.

Below is a brief history on how the ‘red yurts’ were established.

Special thanks to the historian Ivan Sokolovsky for his help with fact-checking and the literature review.

What is a ‘red yurt’?

Red yurts were created to politically agitate those strate of Kazakh society – the steppe nomads – that were most inaccessible to the Party and the state. In 1928, Soviet newspapers referred to the red yurts as “islands of Soviet power on the steppes”.

The members of the red yurt expeditions, making good on this name, transformed ordinary Kazakh yurts into headquarters for agitprop, often topped with a red flag. The red yurt staff consisted of health workers and illiteracy eradication workers as well as legal workers, whose aim was to explain to nomads, especially women, their new rights.

“For each ‘yurt’ in our district we have three staff members each – a yurt manager (who was also the illiteracy eradicator), a paramedic-cum-midwife and a cleaner” – explains Borisova, a Red Yurt activist who was cited in Antonina Nuhrat’s book about the expeditions.

Red yurts were supported by many Soviet-administrative structures in Kazakhstan – but the People’s Commissariats of Education and Health were particularly reliant on them.

The red yurts also enjoyed tremendous support from women’s emancipation organisations, such as the Directorate of Workers and Peasant Women and the Committee for the Improvement of Women’s Working and Living Conditions. Only the Red Yurts could reach women from nomadic Kazakh families otherwise untouched by these organisations.

However, as there were virtually no basic health authorities in the nomadic regions, most of the red yurts’ resources were spent on health services for nomadic Kazakhs.

The relationship between the red yurts and the authorities

The central and regional authorities of the USSR deferred to local party activists and regional administrative bodies when it came to matters concerning the Red Yurts. The administrative councils in even the most remote auls (villages) provided all possible assistance to the expeditions, up to providing them with horses and carts for their regular relocations. Upon arrival in the district center, the heads of the yurts would report to the district executive committees, the highest local authorities in the USSR at the time.

Borisova, the red yurt activist, noted that their yurt also had its own council.

“The council of the yurt is something between a women’s club board and an official commission. The yurt council consists of the head of the yurt, a medical officer, the secretary of the local cell of the All-Union Communist Party [later known as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union – editor’s note], the chairman of the aul council, the secretary of the local Komsomol cell, a representative of the Koshchi organisation (an organisation for the settled farmers of Turkestan), and from the cooperative, a court officer, an agronomist or veterinarian, a local teacher, a female delegate or council member, [and] a pioneer worker” – Borisova explained.

Assessments of the cooperation between the party organisations and the red yurts vary – some complain of difficulties in coordinating and obtaining support from the authorities, even charging that they were abandoned to their own fates, while others praise the support of party structures. Such contradictions may be indicative of strong regional differences in apparatchik attitudes toward the red yurts.

Red yurts and the rights of women

In 1928, the red yurts launched their activities based on the Infant and Maternity Protection Organisation – other organisations had organised their own ‘yurts’ up to four years before that. In the same year, the Central Executive Committee recommended that the red yurts should focus their activities on disseminating hygienic and medical information among nomadic and semi-nomadic Kazakh women.

Women from the ‘Workers’ and Peasants’ Administration, the so-called ‘Women’s Department’, were active in the initiatives of the red yurts. It was the ‘women’s departments’ which sponsored yurt activities together with the People’s Commissariat for Health. They continued to operate as part of the red yurts in Kazakhstan until the end of the 1930s, even after expeditions were no longer organised at state level.

One activist said that “women’s red yurts served as the epicenter of all cultural-educational work” in Kazakhstan. Women’s activists and others declared their task as “fighting against an uncultured everyday life.” This expression was in fact a euphemism for combating Islamic culture and its local variations (adat) – including polygamy, dowry and marriage to minors.

The work concerning women’s reproductive health was particularly demanding. The yurt’s duties included the provision of qualified obstetric care, prevention of pregnancy complications and gynecological examinations. During these examinations, Kazakh women were asked standard questions, for example about when they started menstruating or when they had their first sexual intercourse. The red yurts also tried to educate them about contraception.

Surveys were also used to, for example, gather information about how women were treated by their husbands and whether they could read. Such questions were perceived as shameful and unacceptable and made the work of the ‘yurt’ extremely difficult.

In its activities, the Soviet authorities relied strictly on Marxist-Leninist ideology – hence the policy of the red yurts was based on the idea of ‘class struggle‘. Its services were not available to ‘class enemies’.

“The first paragraph of the instruction on the work of the ‘red yurts’ states that the wives and daughters of the bai (wealthy man) are not allowed to work [in the yurt]. At the opening of the yurts, it is also specifically announced that the ‘red yurt’ will work among farmhands, poor women, middle-class women, [and] all those nomadic women who are not disenfranchised” said Borisova.

This policy, according to those who worked in the red yurts, caused the yurts to get a bad reputation among some.

“And the women themselves [who worked at the yurts] even warned the wives of bais – ‘don’t go to the kzyl-otau’ [red yurt in Kazakh – editor’s note],” they gloated.

The work of the red yurts also included an educational programme called likbez (likvidatsiya bezgramotnosti, the elimination of illiteracy) – this initiative promoted Soviet legal norms, medical knowledge and involved women in cooperatives, teaching them skills such as sewing and tailoring. Legal norms in the ‘yurts’ were promoted through ad hoc judicial committees. Placard newspapers were published nine times per year.

Everyday life in the red yurt

From the outside, the red yurt was an ordinary Kazakh dwelling with a red flag on top. It was covered with koumacha [a bright red cloth – editor’s note] depicting slogans in Kazakh-Arabic script. The interior was divided into two separate zones by a curtain.

The literacy zone was a miniature school with a small hanging blackboard, a bench and a few tables. On the walls often hung bookshelves with educational literature and propaganda posters in Russian, Kazakh and Tatar, mostly concerned with maternity and hygiene. The space functioned as an ‘after-work club’.

The other half of the yurt was designed for medical activities – there paramedical and midwifery equipment was kept. There were white benches and stools as well as tables and cupboards with medical supplies and instruments.

Some yurts were equipped with space for needlework and handicrafts. The kitchen was outside, as was typical for yurts. Having been assigned a particular aul, the red yurt would visit the community up to several times a month.

How extensive was the initiative?

The actual number of ‘red yurts’ – as well as the number of territories and people covered by them – is difficult to determine. Some of them continued to operate even after collectivisation, up until their complete disbandment in 1939.

In 1926, the authorities planned to establish two red yurts for each district. An article in 1927, however, states that only 13 yurts operated in all of Kazakhstan – reaching just 534 women. Another article in the same year states that 13 yurts for ‘women’s departments’ and 59 yurts for ‘political education’ were in operation.

Soviet researcher Kapira Sadvakasova found that in 1928 there were about 80 ‘red yurts’ operating – while Paula Michaels gives a figure of 69. Michaels also notes that by 1929, of the some 130 ‘red yurts’ operating in Kazakhstan, 100 were exclusively female.

In any case, by the beginning of mass collectivisation, the Soviet leadership had lost interest in the red yurts. Collectivisation implied the destruction of the nomadic way of life as such – and the replacement of auls with collective farms. This approach rendered the red yurts useless.

Regardless, various researchers agree that the red yurts had little impact on the ‘Sovietisation’ of the steppe as a whole – there were too few of them for such a task.

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

Sources Used:

1. Paula A. Michaels Curative Powers. Medicine and Empire in Stalin’s Central Asia
2. Нухрат А. Юрты кочевки: К работе женских красных юрт. М., 1929
3. Rebekah Ramsay Nomadic Hearths of Soviet Culture: ‘Women’s Red Yurt’ Campaigns in Kazakhstan, 1925–1935

Written by Ilyas Beybarsov

Translated by Abigail Scripka and Graeme McGuire

The post “Islands of Soviet power on the steppes” appeared first on Novastan English.

In Central Asia, the beginning of spring is traditionally marked by Nowruz, also known as ‘Persian New Year.’ Typical holiday celebrations include horse games, family visits, and large feasts. But Nowruz is not only fun and games. As political leaders seek to break with their countries’ colonial past, Nowruz remains a popular tool in the quest for regional identity.

A faint smell of grass in the air, blue skies yet barren trees. In the outskirts of Bishkek, hundreds of supporters cheer as twenty-some men on horseback compete over a goat carcass. The date is March 21, and it is the first day of spring, an occasion that is marked by a region-wide holiday known as Nowruz. But not all Nowruz celebrations are as spectacular as the traditional polo-like horse game Kok Boru played at the Bishkek hippodrome.

The lead up to Nowruz is possibly just as important as the holiday itself. Regional differences aside, most people in Central Asia start preparing for Nowruz with a spring cleaning of their homes. Others repay their debts or reconcile with enemies to start the new year with a clean slate. On Nowruz itself, the day of the spring equinox, people dress up and spend time with family, friends or neighbours. Food and drinks are especially important and, in most countries, a centuries-old tradition prescribes that ‘sumalak’ is made. This incredibly sweet dessert is made from sprouted wheat.

The Zoroastrian roots of Nowruz

But enough with the customs and traditions – Nowruz is not only fun and games. This holiday has a political element to it as well. In the past, different rulers and colonisers have tried to suppress Nowruz. To explore the modern-day politics of Nowruz, it is essential to delve deeper into its history. Nowruz is also called ‘Persian New Year,’ a name that reveals this holiday’s Iranian roots. Although the exact origin story of Nowruz remains shrouded in mystery, most historians agree that Zoroastrianism was the driving force behind it.

Zoroastrianism is the world’s oldest monotheistic religion and is based on the teachings of Zoroaster, an Iranian prophet. Central to this religion is the battle between Good and Evil, often framed in terms of light and darkness. In this regard, it is clear to see why Nowruz is so important to Zoroastrians, as the arrival of spring generally brings warmer weather and longer days. The Zoroastrian roots of Nowruz also explain the holiday’s popularity in Central Asia. Many experts claim that Zoroaster, the religion’s founder, was a native speaker of Avestan. This Persian dialect was predominant in an area stretching from eastern Iran to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In short, Zoroastrianism, with all its customs and traditions, has ancient roots in Central Asia and might even have originated there.

A quintessential Central Asian holiday

Yet, contemporary Nowruz celebrations in Central Asia are not the same as they were thousands of years ago. They have been shaped by the unique geography of the region, as well as the peoples that came to inhabit Central Asia as the result of migration, invasion and (forced) assimilation. Historically, Nowruz has been associated with Greater Iran. Since antiquity, cities like Samarkand and Bukhara had been important centres of Persian culture and language. Until this day, a majority of the people living in these two cities still speak the Tajik dialect of the Persian language. But with the Muslim conquest of Central Asia and the influx of Turkic and Mongol tribes from the north, this Persian cultural dominance started to wane.

Read more on Novastan: Four Central Asian cultural practices newly inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List

With new rulers came new cultural influences. Some of these conquerors initially tried to suppress local customs and traditions like Nowruz. But neither Muslim leaders nor Turco-Mongol warlords such as Timur succeeded in abolishing ‘Persian New Year’. Instead, they embarked on a more successful approach of co-adaptation by integrating some of their own folklore into already existing cultural practices. That is why today, Nowruz in Central Asia is characterised by both nomadic traditions, such as Kok Boru, and Persian influences like the drinking of sumalak.

Colonisation and suppression

When the Russian imperial armies came to colonise Central Asia in the late 19th century, however, things changed. In modern-day Uzbekistan, the Russians had left the Emir of Bukhara as a local figurehead. To save face and strengthen his political legitimacy, the annual Nowruz celebrations were an excellent opportunity to show off. The emir even invited circus artists from European Russia to perform. But among the local population, popularity of Nowruz decreased. When the Soviets took over and annexed Central Asia after the Russian civil war, this trend continued. In the cities, Soviet engineers and urban planners redesigned public space, destroying centuries-old neighbourhoods in the process. This severely affected the social fabric of towns and cities throughout the region, hampering holiday preparations.

Read more on Novastan: “Hymns of Blood” – Tajik short stories from Perestroika

Moreover, during Soviet times, Nowruz was banned for years as it was seen as a religious holiday. Only after Soviet orientalists and ethnologists reframed it as pre-Islamic, celebrations were allowed once again. Especially since the collapse of the USSR, the popularity of Nowruz has increased spectacularly.

Nowruz as a political tool

Historically, Nowruz in Central Asia has always been subject to the political whims of local rulers. In the present day, this is no different. Nowruz encapsulates Central Asian histories, cultures, and geography. Hence, holidays like these can be instrumentalised by politicians and others who seek to break with the legacy of the Soviet-colonial past in a quest for regional and national identity. During the rule of late president Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, for example, some government officials favoured Nowruz over Gregorian New Year. They even “issued instructions to stop holding end-of-year parties.” Holidays other than Nowruz were deemed “contrary to Uzbek culture.” Only after Karimov died and his successor President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over in 2016, bans and constraints on celebrating Western-style New Year were relaxed.

Read more on Novastan: Central Asia and Russia: an ever-changing relationship

In Kazakhstan too, political leadership has rediscovered Nowruz as a way to strengthen legitimacy. In a move reminiscent of the Emir of Bukhara, current president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has proposed several reforms with regard to Nowruz. These reforms include extending the national holiday to a whopping ten days instead of the usual four, as well as a proposal to deepen Nowruz’s spiritual and moral meaning. In 2022, Tokayev was re-elected president amid hopes and promises of political and societal reform. Some analysts argue that his plans are an attempt to break with the legacy of Tokayev’s predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev. But the low turnout of the recent parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan, just before Nowruz, illustrate that initial enthusiasm about reforms has somewhat subsided.

With deep historical roots in Central Asia, however, Nowruz is likely to remain a popular tool for identity politics as national leaders seek to navigate the future by cherry-picking from the region’s pre-colonial past.

Written by Julian Postulart

For more news and analysis from Central Asia, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Linkedin or Instagram.

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