Ali Igmen, "Speaking Soviet with an Accent: Culture and Power in Kyrgyzstan" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2012)

New Books in Central Asian Studies

In this episode, Alisa talks with Ali İğmen, Professor of Central Asian History and the Director of the Oral History Program at California State University. In his book Speaking Soviet with an Accent: Culture and Power in Kyrgyzstan, Dr. İğmen examines Soviet Russia’s efforts to reshape local Kyrgyz culture into Soviet culture, as well as the ways in which the local Kyrgyz responded to these attempts. This is the first English-language study of Soviet culture clubs in Kyrgyzstan, which profoundly influenced the future of Kyrgyz cultural identity and helped foster the work of many artists, including the renowned novelist Chingiz Aitmatov.

The film mentioned in the episode is The First Teacher, a 1965 drama directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, based on Chinghiz Aitmatov's book of the same name.

The project Alisa refers to is Можно без политики? (Can We Do It Without Politics?) which traces the political implications of culture in an authoritarian society.

Alisa Kuzmina is a PhD Candidate at the University of Minnesota, specializing in Cultural Cold War history, with a focus on Soviet and American marriage policies and the social-cultural norms surrounding them.

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