Conférence (26 nov. 2014, Paris) : Politique de construction urbaine et mobilisation à Nurek

L’IFEAC et le Groupe de recherche sur l’Asie centrale du Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (CERI-Sciences Po) ont le plaisir de vous inviter à l’ouverture du cycle de conférences « Se mobiliser en Asie centrale ». Faisant suite au colloque international organisé au CERI les 14-15 octobre 2014, ces conférences ont pour objectif d’étudier les différentes formes de mobilisation et d’action collective en Asie centrale.
Cette première séance accueille le Dr Artemy Kalinovsky de l’Université d’Amsterdam, qui nous présentera les processus sociaux en jeu lors de la construction de la ville de Nurek dans le Tadjikistan des années 1970-1980. Artemy Kalinovsky aura pour discutant Marc Elie, chercheur au CERCEC, spécialiste de l’histoire soviétique et des politiques environnementales en Asie centrale.
La séance sera en anglais.

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IFEAC и исследовательская группа по Центральной Азии (GRAC) Центра международных исследований Института политических исследований Парижа (CERI-Sciences Po) рады пригласить Вас на открытие цикла конференций «Мобилизации в Центральной Азии». Являясь продолжением международного сипозиума, организованного в CERI 14-15 октября 2014 г., эти конференции ставят целью изучение разных форм мобилизации и коллективных действий в Центральной Азии.
Первая сессия представит нам доктора Артемия Калиновского из Амстердамского университета, который выступит с докладом о социальных процессах, на которые делалась ставка, во время строительства города Нурек в Таджикистане в 1970-1980 гг. Артемий Калиновский будет дебатировать с Marc Elie, исследователем CERCEC, специалистом по истории Советского Союза и и вопросах экологической политики в Центральной Азии. 
Сессия пройдет на английском языке.

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IFEAC and the Central Asia research group (GRAC) of the Centre for international research and studies (CERI-Sciences Po) launch a new series of lectures entitled “Mobilisations in Central Asia.” Following the international conference held in Paris on October 14-15, 2014, these lectures aim at exploring the different patterns of mobilisation and collective action in Central Asia.
For this first lecture, we have the honour to welcome Dr Artemy Kalinovsky form the University of Amsterdam, who will present the social process at stake during the construction of Nurek city in 1970-1980 Tajikistan. Artemy Kalinovsky will be discussed by Marc Elie, a specialist of Soviet history and Central Asian environment issues from CERCEC.
The session will be in English.

Synopsis

“A Beautiful City for the World’s Tallest Dam. The Politics of Urban Construction and Mobilization at Nurek”

The Nurek Dam in Tajikistan one of the most impressive engineering feats accomplished by the Soviet Union. Yet it also became a project of social transformation. By the 1970s, the village of Nurek was on its way to becoming a model city, with a well paved thoroughfare, green space, modern amenities, as well as cultural and entertainment venues. The project had an international (but especially Tajik) workforce, a testament to all the promises of equally shared Soviet modernity. Engineering students from Asia, Africa, and Latina America who were doing their degrees in Moscow, would come to Nurek to gain experience. Tourists were brought from around the world to see the dam under construction, take in the city’s orderly and modern layout and its well-endowed library, and enjoy lunch by the river before heading back to Dushanbe, the capital of the Tajik SSR. On paper, the dam and the city both look like typical “High Modernist” projects – a well ordered conception of space conceived in Moscow and written on Tajik soil, subordinating people and nature to a plan. Yet the history of the city throws up a different reality. The idea of constructing a city to house the dam builders had its greatest supporters among local politicians, but only gradually won the support of officials in Moscow and the managers and engineers responsible for building the dam. It was the various problems faced in the course of construction, particularly over the retention of labour, which led to the construction site gradually evolving into a well-ordered city. Concerns about disease, drunkenness, and boredom all played a role in shaping Nurek City. Drawing on materials from local party and state archives as well as interviews, this paper will examine these processes, and then consider ways in which the emergence of Nurek City affected the surrounding villages. How was the appearance of a “model city” populated by workers from around the USSR received by locals? How did it change local economic and social relations? What kind of claims did they make on local and party and state organizations?

Conférencier

Dr. Artemy M. Kalinovsky is Assistant Professor of East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam, where he teaches courses on Russian, Soviet, and Central Asian history and contemporary affairs. He is the author of A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2011), co-editor with Sergey Radchenko, of The End of the Cold War and the Third World (Routledge: 2011), and, with Craig Daigle, of the Routledge Handbook of Cold War Studies (2014).

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