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Soviet “Blacks” and Place Making in Leningrad and Moscow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jeff Sahadeo
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Abstract

Movement from the USSR's margins to Leningrad and Moscow, among groups ranging from traders to professionals, intensified in the late Soviet period. Using oral histories, Jeff Sahadeo analyzes the migration and place-making experiences of migrants from Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Asian RSFSR, all of whom were often referred to then as well as now by the Soviet host population as “Blacks.” Sahadeo argues that the “two capitals,” despite being closed cities, became critical to advancement strategies for citizens unionwide, inextricably binding Soviet periphery and center. Sahadeo explores how race emerged as an important factor in place making but argues that this can only be understood through its interplay with class, gender, professional status, and other categories of identity. Soviet “Blacks” externalized experiences of difference as they sought incorporation into host societies while maintaining links between their adopted and native homes. Place-making strategies led them to see Leningrad and Moscow, not as Russian-dominated cities, but as modern spaces of Soviet progress.

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 71 , Issue 2 , Summer 2012 , pp. 331 - 358
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2012 

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References

A grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada assisted in research for this article. Allison Keating, Altynay Teshebaeva, Shakhnoza Matnazarova, Rauf Garagozov, Gulmira Churokova and Akmaral Arzybaeva conducted a number of interviews. I also thank Mark D. Steinberg, Jane T. Hedges, Madeleine Reeves, Adrienne Edgar, Adeeb Khalid, Bruce Grant, Slavic Review's two anonymous reviewers, and die members of the Spring 2009 Midwest Russian History Workshop. All names of migrants used in diis article are pseudonyms.

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31. On these inequalities, see Lubin, Labour and Nationality.

32. On state policies that limited Soviet migration, see Timothy Heleniak, “An Overview of Migration in the Post-Soviet Space,” in Buckley and Ruble, eds., Migration, Homeland, and Belonging in Eurasia, 32-34.

33. Vera Glubova, “Zaboty mnogonatsional'nogo goroda,” Arkhitektura i stroitel'stvo Moskvy, 1989, no. 9: 8.

34. The only official published data on the ethnic composition of Leningrad's and Moscow's population comes from the ail-Union censuses of 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989. See, for example, Itogi Vsesoiuznoiperepisi 1959goda: RSFSR (Moscow, 1963), and Itogi Vsesoiuznoi perepisi naseleniia 1989g. (Moscow, 1991), vol. 7, pt. 1.

35. On the difficulties of measuring immigration through official statistics, see Massey, Douglas S. and Capoferro, Chiara, “Measuring Undocumented Migration,” International Migration Review 38, no. 3 (Fall 2004): 1075-1102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the politics of Soviet ethnic selfidentification, see Anderson, Barbara and Silver, Brian D., “Estimating Russification of Ethnic Identity among die Non-Russians in the USSR,” Demography 20, no. 4 (November 1983): 461-89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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48. Hazi Begirov, interview, Lenkoran, 25 June 2009.

50. Hazi Begirov, interview, Lenkoran, 25 June 2009.

51. Aibek Botoev, interview, Moscow, 8 December 2007.

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55. Levan Rukhadze, interview, St. Petersburg, 25 November 2007.

56. Aijamal Aitmatova, interview, Tash Komur, 20 July 2009.

57. Anarbek Zakirov, interview, Bishkek, 9 August 2009.

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59. Karpenko, “Byt’ ‘natsional'nym,'” 53.

60. Gulnara Alieva, interview, St. Petersburg, 5 May 2007.

61. On African communities in Leningrad and Moscow, see Matusevich, ed., Africa in Russia.

62. Saule Iskakova, interview, Moscow, 10 July 2007.

63. Studies of interethnic mobility unsurprisingly consider migrants’ ability to speak a host city's language as the strongest correlate for self-described success. Chiswick, Barry R. and Miller, Paul W., “Immigrant Enclaves, Ethnic Goods, and the Adjustment Process,” in Barkan, Elliott R., Diner, Hasia, and Kraut, Alan M., eds., From Arrival to Incorporation: Migrants to the U. S. in a Global Era (New York, 2008), 89-90.Google Scholar On the importance of language to acculturation, see Laurence, Jonathan and Vaisse, Justin, Integrating Islam: Political and Religious Challenges in Contemporary France (Washington, D.C., 2006), 43.Google Scholar

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66. Asylbek Albiev, interview, Bishkek, 8 July 2009.

67. Maia Asinadze, interview, Moscow, 29 November 2007.

68. Gulnara Alieva, interview, St. Petersburg, 5 May 2007.

69. On memories of home as a cushioning device, see Kabachnik, Peter, Regulska, Joanna, and Mitchneck, Bern, “Where and When Is Home? The Double Displacement of Georgian IDPs from Abkhazia,” Journal of Refugee Studies 23, no. 3 (September 2010): 315-36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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72. Jumaboi Esoev, interview, St. Petersburg, 17 November 2007.

73. Farshad Hajiev, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 November 2007.

74. Abdul Khalimov, interview, Moscow, 30 November 2007.

75. Marat Tursunbaev, phone interview, Tashkent, 15 May 2007.

76. Hazi Begirov, interview, Lenkoran, 25 June 2009.

77. Damira Nogoibaeva, interview, Bishkek, 6 August 2008.

78. Aryan Shirinov, interview, St. Petersburg, 12 November 2007.

79. Lali Utiashvili, interview, Moscow, 29 November 2007.

80. On Moscow's housing system, see Colton, Timothy, Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Cambridge, Mass., 1995), 459-63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Colton argues that popular fears of Moscow becoming a Calcutta or Mexico City led to general support for the propiska system. See also Matdiews, Mervyn, The Passport Society: Controlling Movement in Russia and the USSR (Boulder, Colo., 1993).Google Scholar

81. Akmal Bobokulov, interview, Moscow, 13 November 2007.

82. Aliya Nurtaeva, phone interview, Washington, D.C., 25 October 2006.

83. Said Nabiev, interview, Moscow, 28 November 2007.

84. On marriage as a path for limitchiky to gain permanent status, see Zaslavsky, Neo- Stalinist State, 144; Colton, Moscow, 463.

85. The issuing of these spravky began in the late 1930s, as part of the Soviet regime's decision to allow peasants to sell goods that they produced on private plots. Draitser reports that the regime saw the value in bringing fruits and vegetables through private trade to the capital from the 1970s onwards. As James R. Millar notes, the scope for this and other private trade was expanding across the Brezhnev-era USSR as part of what he calls the “little deal” between the state and citizens. Millar, “The Little Deal: Brezhnev's Contribution to Acquisitive Socialism,” Slavic Review 44, no. 4 (Winter 1985): 694-706. For results of this on Moscow's streets, see Sahadeo, “Accidental Traders.“

86. Massey, , Space, Place, and Gender, 152.Google Scholar

87. On the role of the nation-state in shaping the complex process of balancing ideas and ideals of original and adopted homes, see Ahmed, Sara, Castafleda, Claudia, Fortier, Anne-Marie, and Sheller, Mimi, Uprootings/Regroundings: Question of Home and Migration (Oxford, 2003), 4.Google Scholar

88. On the role of social and state power in conditioning migrants’ ability to emplace themselves, see Stefjansen, and Lofving, Staffan, eds., Struggles for Home: Violence, Hope and the Movement of People (New York, 2009).Google Scholar

89. The literature on dormitory life is scant. See Gorlov, V. N., “Sovetskie obshchezhitiia rabochei molodezhi,” Otechestvennaia istoriia, 2004, no. 5: 177-80Google Scholar; and Korolev, Sergei, “The Student Dormitory in the ‘Period of Stagnation,'” Russian Politics and Law 42, no. 2 (March/April 2004): 77-93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On nationality and housing in the USSR and elsewhere, see Rowland, Richard H., “Nationality Population Distribution, Redistribution, and Degree of Separation in Moscow, 1979-1989,” Nationalities Papers 26, no. 4 (1998): 705-21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the French system of housing immigrants in suburban cites, see Silverstein, Paul A., Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation (Bloomington, 2004).Google Scholar On British and American patterns, see Foner, Nancy, In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration (New York, 2005).Google Scholar

90. Foner, In a New Land, 120; Chiswick and Miller, “Immigrant Enclaves,” 90.

91. Saule Iskakova, interview, Moscow, lO July 2007.

92. Aryan Shirinov, interview, St. Petersburg, 12 November 2007.

93. Murad Imamaliev, interview, St. Petersburg, 8 February 2007; Farshad Hajiev, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 November 2007.

94. Aryuna Khamagova, phone interview, Ulan-Ude, 12 February 2007.

95. Tolkunbek Kudubaev, phone interview, Osh, 15 November 2008.

96. Farshad Hajiev, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 November 2007.

97. Narynbek Temirkulov, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 July 2007.

98. Vendina, “Social Polarization,” 225. See also Raleigh, ed. and trans., Russia's Sputnik Generation, 45.

99. Jyldyz Nuriaeva, phone interview, Bishkek, 9 July 2007.

100. Ulinich, Anya, Petropolis (London, 2007), 281.Google Scholar

101. Elnur Asadov, interview, Baku, 5 June 2009.

102. Aryuna Khamagova, phone interview, Ulan-Ude, 12 February 2007.

103. Ibid.

104. Asylbek Albiev, interview, Bishkek, 8 July 2009.

105. Ashram Bagramov, interview, Lenkoran, 25 July 2009.

106. Lonkila, Markku and Salmi, Anna-Maria, “The Russian Work Collective and Migration,” Europe-Asia Studies 57, no. 5 (July 2005): 683.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

107. Fischer, Claude S., To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City (Chicago, 1982), 33.Google Scholar

108. On informal networks in the Soviet period, see Alena V. Ledeneva, Russia's Economy of Favours: Blat, Networking, and Informal Exchange (Cambridge, Eng., 1998).

109. Karpenko, “Byt’ ‘natsional'nym,'” 57-58.

110. Ibid., 58.

111. Ol'ga Brednikova and Elena Chikadze, “Armiane St. Peterburga: Kar'ery etnichnosti,” in Vornokov and Osval'd, eds., Konstruirovanie etnichnosti, 249.

112. Ibid.

113. Johnson, Robert Eugene, Peasant and Proletarian: The Working Class of Moscoiv in the Late Nineteenth Century (New Brunswick, 1979).Google Scholar It is beyond the scope of this paper to link zemliaky to the contested definitions and meanings of diasporas but, on diaspora, see Brubaker, Rogers, “The ‘Diaspora’ Diaspora,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28, no. 1 (January 2005): 1-19 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Clifford, James, “Diasporas,” Cultural Anthropology 9, no. 3 (August 1994): 302-38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

114. All of die twelve traders in our survey were conscious of the ethnic or regional basis of their trading networks. See Draitser, , Taking Penguins, 35-55 Google Scholar, on how this was perceived by Russians. See also Mars, Gerald and Altman, Yochanan, “The Cultural Bases of Georgia's Second Economy,” Soviet Studies 35, no. 4 (October 1983): 546-60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

115. For example, eje would decide month-to-monfh who would sell particular goods (i.e., cherries or watermelons) in particular markets. See Sahadeo, “Accidental Traders.“

116. Eljan Jusubov, interview, Baku, 5 June 2009.

117. Aryan Shirinov, interview, St. Petersburg, 12 November 2007.

118. Gulnara Alieva, interview, St. Petersburg, 5 May 2007.

119. Ibid.

120. Another conscript, Aibek Botoev, claimed the brutality of army service led to ethnic protection associations; yet he saw soldiers at similar levels sharing close bonds regardless of ethnicity. Aibek Botoev, interview, Moscow, 8 December 2007.

121. On the role of intersecting trajectories, I borrow from David Lambert and Alan Lester, eds., Colonial Lives across the British Empire: Imperial Careering in the Long Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 2006), 26.

122. Angermiuller, “Ot natsional'nogo patriotizma,” 277.

123. Aisulu Baisalbekova, interview, Osh, 26 August 2009.

124. Farshad Hajiev, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 November 2007.

125. Karklins, Ethnic Relations, 120. Much work remains to be done on the system's nature and extent.

126. Some Soviet sociologists criticized “closed city” policies for the aging of vital Soviet cities: see B. S. Khorev and N. P. Matveev, eds., Rasselenie i dinamika naseleniia Moskvy i Moskovskoi oblasti: Sbornik statei (Moscow, 1981). On Moscow's perpetual labor shortages, see Colton, Moscow, 66. Ruble notes that Leningrad purposefully sought skilled workers from other regions in order to raise its prestige following World War II. Ruble, Leningrad, 59.

127. Lewin, , Gorbachev Phenomenon, 66.Google Scholar

128. Ashwin, Sarah, Russian Workers: The Anatomy of Patience (Manchester, Eng., 1999), 11.Google Scholar

129. Karklins has noted the importance that Soviets placed on the multiethnic basis of Soviet work collectives. Karklins, , Ethnic Relations, 129.Google Scholar

130. Wilton, Janis, “Identity, Racism, and Multi-Culturalism: Chinese Australian Responses,” in Benmayor, Rina and Skotnes, Andor, eds., Migration and Identity (Oxford, 1994), 85-100.Google Scholar

131. Only in the late Gorbachev era did the Soviet press recognize, and in the case of the right-wing press espouse, racism in Leningrad and Moscow. My own investigations of Soviet archives in Moscow, Baku, and Bishkek have only yielded oblique references to interethnic tensions. By contrast, abundant mention is made of the various national festivals produced for the two capitals’ audiences.

132. Lali Utiashvili, interview, Moscow, 29 November 2007.

133. Rafael Voskanian, phone interview, 20 December 2006.

134. Dea Kochladze, interview, St. Petersburg, 26 November 2007.

135. Levan Rukhadze, interview, St. Petersburg, 25 November 2007.

136. Jumaboi Esoev, interview, St. Petersburg, 17 November 2007.

137. Shuhrat Kazbekov, interview, Moscow, 13 November 2007.

138. Eljanjusubov, interview, Baku, 5 June 2009. Millar notes the importance of these and other types of non-state-regulated trade to Soviet cities. Millar, “Little Deal.“

139. Shuhrat Ikramov, interview, Moscow, 12 March 2007.

140. Lali Utiashvili, interview, Moscow, 29 November 2007.

141. Dea Kochladze, interview, St. Petersburg, 26 November 2007.

142. Levan Rukhadze, interview, St. Petersburg, 25 November 2007.

143. Torgun Mammadov, interview, Baku, 6 June 2009.

144. The national myth of the hard-working migrant in the United States applies more to Europeans who came at the turn of the twentieth century, however, than to the non-white migrants who have since predominated. Foner, In a Nexv Land, 207. Dorothy Louise Zinn has noted that Senegalese migrants to Italy constructed an image of themselves as more worldly and knowledgeable than the local population. Zinn, , “The Senegalese Immigrants in Bari: What Happens When the Africans Peer Back,” in Benmayor, and Skotnes, , eds., Migration and Identity, 53-68.Google Scholar

145. Lonkila and Salmi, “Russian Work Collective and Migration,” 688.

146. Tolkunbek Kudubaev, phone interview, Osh, 15 November 2008.

147. Buckley notes massive fraud in the Moscow passport office during the late Soviet period. Buckley, “Myth of Managed Migration,” 908.

148. Elnur Asadov, interview, Baku, 7 June 2009.

149. Jamila Toktogulova, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 July 2007.

150. Jyldyz Nuriaeva, phone interview, Bishkek, 9 July 2007.

151. Ibid.

152. Shuhrat Ikramov, interview, Moscow, 12 March 2007. On academic freedom in the capitals, see Yurchak, , Everything Was Forever, 139.Google Scholar

153. Farshad Hajiev, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 November 2007. Africans themselves reported a far more complicated picture of “friendship,” particularly regarding Slavic students. On prejudice faced by African students, see Hessler, “Death of an African Student in Moscow,” 33; Matusevich, Maxim, “Probing the Limits of Internationalism: African Students Confront Soviet Ritual,” Anthropology ojf East Europe Review 27, no. 2 (2009): 19-39.Google Scholar

154. Farshad Hajiev, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 November 2007.

155. Yurchak, , Everything Was Forever, 85.Google Scholar

156. Elmira Nasirova, interview, St. Petersburg, 11 July 2007.

157. Damira Nogoibaeva, interview, Bishkek, 6 August 2008.

158. Alieva connected this incident to the 1986 riots in Almaty after Mikhail Gorbachev replaced the ethnic Kazakh First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR with a Russian. Gulnara Alieva, interview, St. Petersburg, 5 May 2007.

159. Eljan Jusubov, interview, Baku, 5 June 2009.

160. Jyldyz Nuriaeva, phone interview, Bishkek, 9 July 2007.

161. Ahmed, , Castaneda, , Fortier, , and Sheller, , Uprootings/Regroundings, 6.Google Scholar On the broader Soviet phenomenon of holding separate national and Soviet values, see Khalid, Adeeb, Islam after Communism: Religion and Politics in Central Asia (Berkeley, 2007), chap. 1.Google Scholar

162. On die law of rising recollections, see Ritchie, , Doing Oral History, 35.Google Scholar