My First Holiday in Bishkek

Today is Independence Day in Kyrgyzstan. As a result I did not have to work today. Under normal circumstances I would have to teach Russian Politics in fifteen minutes. But, it seems lots of people with citizenship in the Kyrgyz Republic did have to work today. Other than AUCA there were not too many other places closed for business that I could see. Almost all the retail outlets I passed walking into the center of town this morning were open for instance. Only a very few were closed for the day.

Students

For a while I used to read academic blogs. But, I really got fed up with anonymous usually female professors insulting their students. Now that I have taught three classes and sat in on a fourth I am even more baffled by these professors that hate their students. I have only good things so far to say about all the students I have met here. Prehaps somebody can explain to me exactly why they think that it is students and not bad professors that are the problem in higher education?

In a few hours I will be proving many people wrong

In less than two hours I am going to prove the entire academic establishment in America wrong. They all said that I was incapable of teaching because I had never done it before. Of course they had no evidence for this dogmatic position. Today I aim to provide concrete evidence refuting this academic orthodoxy. In a few hours I believe I will be completely vindicated in my faith that I was always right and they were always wrong on this issue.

Thank You to the People of Shaolin China

It is true as Wendell Shedd has noted in the comments to this blog that the little buses that form the bulk of public transportation in Bishkek are horribly overcrowded. However, there is one route that uses a bigger, roomier and airier bus. It is 149. The 149 buses were all donated by the city of Shaolin China and utilize a superior design to the other vehicles in service in Bishkek. I am now making it a habit to take the 149 or "Chinese bus" rather than the smaller ones whenever I can. It is definitely usually worth the extra ten minute wait.

The Longest Summer in my Life Finally Comes to an End

This summer seemed really long. Maybe it seemed so long because it just blended together with the rest of the three years I spent looking for a job since I got my PhD. Or maybe it is because almost everyday was warm and sunny during the two years I spent in Arivaca. Or maybe it is because I have spent the summer in three different places. First, I was in Arizona, then California and now finally I am in Kyrgyzstan. At any rate, tomorrow I start my first academic job. I will teach my first class ever at 4:00 pm Bishkek time. A lot of people spent a lot of time and effort to prevent me from getting this far. Up until a few months ago I honestly did not think I would ever get a university position.

Walking in Bishkek

In the evenings I will often walk back home from my place of work. It is about six miles (10 km), or almost the same distance as the route between Serenity Ranch and downtown Arivaca. The streets of Bishkek are lined with lots of trees planted back during the Soviet era. So it is a rather pleasant walk. But, one does have to be careful of the many uncovered manholes that punctuate the sidewalks here. Falling down one of them could result in serious injury or death.

Another Update on the Meskhetian Turks

I found a couple of new articles on the situation of the Meskhetian Turks recently. First there is the report in IWPR Caucasus Reporting Service by Natia Kuprashvili and Nino Gerzmava, "Georgia: Meskhetian Turks Closer to Return." This article deals with the ramifications of the recent legislation by the Georgian government regarding the repatriation of the Meskhetian Turks. Then there is the article "Exiled" by Alkan Chaglar in Londra Toplum Postasi. This article reviews the tragic history of the Meskhetian Turks since the end of World War II. There are currently over 30,000 Meskhetian Turks here in Kyrgyzstan.

Russian Politics Syllabus

Russian Politics
Fall Semester 2007
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Course Description: This is a course covering the political system of the Russian Federation. In particular it will examine the political geography of the state as an ethno-territorial federation. The course will start with a review of the history of the USSR followed by specifically looking at the formation and solidification of the RSFSR, the administrative territory that became the Russian Federation. It will then cover such issues as the structure of the federal system of the Russian Federation, ethnic identity, economic reform and the formation of political parties. Finally, the class will analyze the causes and consequences of the conflicts in Chechnya since 1994.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. For each of the twelve weeks with reading assignments, students will be required to submit 150 to 200 word summary of the material along with one question for class discussion. Students will also have to complete a 1400 to 2000 word research paper on some aspect of Russian politics. The paper is due the last week of class. In the two weeks prior to this deadline each student will be required to give a short oral presentation on the subject of the paper followed by a question and answer session.

Policy on Plagiarism: Plagiarism will result in a zero on the assignment for the first offense. A second offense will result in a grade of F for the course. Please be sure to cite your sources.

Grading:

Twelve short papers – 36% (3% each)
Written research paper – 20% (Due last week of class)
Oral report on research – 10%
Class participation -34%

Class Schedule

Week One: Introduction to the course and review of the syllabus.

General History of the USSR

Week Two: Read “Legacies: The Burdens of Russian and Soviet History” (chapter one) in Robert Strayer, Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?: Understanding Historical Change (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), pp. 21-44.

Week Three: Read “Cracks in the Foundation: The Post-Stalin Years” (chapter two) in Robert Strayer, Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?: Understanding Historical Change (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), pp. 47-83.

History of the Formation of the Russian Federation

Week Four: Read Terry Martin, “An Affirmative Action Empire: The Soviet Union as the Highest Form of Imperialism” in Ronald Grigor Suny and Terry Martin, eds., A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin (NY: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 67-82.

Week Five: Read “The Reemergence of the Russians” (chapter ten) in Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939 (London: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 394-431.

Week Six: Read “The End of Communism in Russia” (chapter one) in Richard Sakwa, Russian Politics and Society (NY: Routledge, 1993), pp. 1-37.

Ethnicity, Demography and Migration

Week Seven: Read “What is Rossia? Identities in Transition” (chapter twelve) in Valery Tishkov, Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Conflict and after the Soviet Union (London: Sage, 1997), pp. 246-271.

Week Eight: Read “’Normal’ Deaths During the First Decade of Transition” (chapter six) in Michael Hayes and Rumy Husan, A Century of State Murder?: Death and Policy in Twentieth-Century Russia (London: Pluto Press, 2003), pp. 144-175 and Timothy Heleniak, “Migration Dilemmas Haunt Post-Soviet Russia,” Migration Information Source (Oct. 2002). Found at http://migrationinformation.org/feature/print.cfm?ID=62 and downloaded on 23 July 2007.

Week Nine: Review

Government Institutions, Political Parties and Economics

Week Ten: Read “Rebirth of the Russian State” (chapter two) in Richard Sakwa, Russian Politics and Society (NY: Routledge, 1993), pp. 38-93.

Week Eleven: Read “Development of Multi-Party Politics” (chapter four) in Richard Sakwa, Russian Politics and Society (NY: Routledge, 1993).

Week Twelve: Read “The Seventh Oligarch: The Jewish Billionaires of Post-Communist Russia” (chapter three) in Amy Chua, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (NY: Doubleday, 2003), pp. 77-94.

The Chechen Wars

Week Thirteen: Read “The Road to War” (chapter five) in Valery Tishkov, Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 57-74 and “From Chechen Revolution to Jihad” (chapter fifteen) in Moshe Gammer, The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule (London: Hurst & Company, 2006), pp. 200-218.

Week Fourteen: Read “Our New Middle Ages, Or War Criminals of all the Russias” (chapter two) in Anna Politkovskaya trans. Arch Tait, Putin’s Russia” Life in a Failing Democracy (NY: Henry Holt and Company, 2004), pp. 25-80.

Student Research

Week Fifteen: Student oral presentations.

Week Sixteen: Student oral presentations continued.

Week Seventeen: Written version of the research paper due and concluding remarks.

Another New Link

Again in the spirit of reciprocity I am adding a new link. Melissa just got back from the Republic of Georgia and is finishing up her degree in International Relations. She has started a new blog called The Apple Orchard. I encourage all my readers to go check it out.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is in Town

Today is the big summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishkek. For the last week the authorities have been cleaning the streets, putting up colorful signs and sending swarms of police men and women to stand guard in the center of the city. The police here are currently wearing white uniforms. They have taken to directing traffic and the number of vehicles traversing Chui Prospekt has plummeted as a result. Every so often they will block off the main streets to normal pedestrians and drivers so that long conveys of special cars escorted by police cruisers and very low flying helicopters can have the avenues to themselves. Presumably these special cars contain important people attached to the SCO delegations. For the government of Kyrgyzstan hosting the SCO is a big deal. However, my impression is that the US mainstream media has not given much attention to the event.

Democratization Syllabus

Democratization
Fall Semester 2007
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Course Description: This course will cover the process of democratization in an historical and comparative manner. It will start by examining the history and social origins of democratic rule. After reviewing the general history and theory of democracy the course will cover the transition from authoritarian to more representative political systems in various countries during the last couple of decades. In particular the course will deal with the process of democratization in Eurasia and the Middle East. The course will analyze both those factors which facilitate greater democratization and those which impede it.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. For each of the twelve weeks with reading assignments, students will be required to submit a 150 to 200 word summary of the material along with one question for class discussion. Students will also have to complete a 2500 to 3000 word research paper comparing and contrasting the process of democratization in two different countries. The paper is due the last week of class. In the two weeks prior to this deadline each student will be required to give a short oral presentation on the subject of their paper followed by a short question and answer session.

Plagiarism Policy: Plagiarism will result in a zero on the assignment for the first offense. A second offense will result in a grade of F for the course. Please be sure to cite your sources.

Grading:

Twelve short papers – 36% (3% each)
Written research paper – 20% (Due last week of class)
Oral report on research – 10%
Class participation – 34%

Class Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to the course and review of the syllabus.

General History and Theory of Democracy

Week Two: Read “Where and How Did Democracy Develop?: A Brief History” (chapter one) in Robert A. Dahl, On Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), pp. 7-25.

Week Three: Read “The Twisted Path” (chapter two) in Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (NY: W.W. Norton, 2003), pp. 59-87.

Week Four: Read “Democracy and Social Classes” (chapter one) in Tom Bottomore, Political Sociology (London: Pluto Press, 1993), pp. 12-27.

Week Five: Read “The Democratic Route to Modern Society” (chapter seven) in Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1966), 413-432.

Week Six: Read “Globalization and Ethnic Hatred” (introduction) in Amy Chua, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (NY: Doubleday, 2003), pp. 1-17.

Week Seven: Review

Eurasia

Week Eight: Read “Unintended Consequences: Economic Crisis and Social Awakening” (chapter four) in Robert Strayer, Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?: Understanding Historical Change (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), pp. 132-171.

Week Nine: Read “Strategies for Ethnic Accord in Post-Soviet States” (chapter thirteen) in Valery Tishkov, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in and after the Soviet Union (London: Sage, 1997), pp. 272-293.

Week Ten: Read “Epilogue: Memory” in Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps (London: Allen Lane, 2003), pp. 505-514 and Conclusion of Lynne Viola, Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements (NY: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 183-193.

The Middle East

Week Eleven: Read Marina Ottaway “The Missing Constituency for Democratic Reform” (chapter eight) in Thomas Carothers and Marina Ottaway, eds., Uncharted Journey: Promoting Democracy in the Middle East (Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), pp. 151-169.

Week Twelve: Read “Democracy and Authoritarianism: Turkey and Iran” (chapter fourteen) in William L. Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000), pp. 267-292.

Week Thirteen: Read “The Third Republic: Turkey since 1980” (chapter fifteen) in Erik J. Zurcher, Turkey: A Modern History (London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd., 1997), pp. 292-342.

Week Fourteen: Read “Iran: Revolutionary Islam in Power” (chapter three) in John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, Islam and Democracy (NY: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 52-77.

Student Research

Week Fifteen: Student oral presentations.

Week Sixteen: Student oral presentations continued.

Week Seventeen: Written version of the research paper due and concluding remarks.

New Link

I am adding a new link in the spirit of reciprocity. Wendell Shedd's Accidental Russophile has been linked to my blog for at least several days now. However, I have been busy here in Bishkek doing other things. I am now rectifying the omission.

Work

I am starting to adjust to life here in Bishkek a little bit now. My chair approved the reading assignments for my syllabi. I am going to make a few clarifications regarding class requirements and alter the grade structure somewhat. But, I am not going to alter the actual content of the courses. I will post my syllabi for Democratization and Russian Politics later this week.

I also received my proofs for "A Caste of Helot Labourers" recently. It will be published by SOAS as part of the proceedings of the conference I attended in November 2005. It does not look like I have much to correct. Which is good since the corrections are due by 20 August 2007.

Getting Around Bishkek

I have been here almost a week now. I have finally learned the route from my flat to where I will be working. There are lots of little buses that run in between the two places. They cost 5 som each way. The exchange rate is about 37 som to the dollar. So a round trip ride is a little more than a quarter. That has got to be one of the best deals on transportation in the world.

To make it even better the Kyrgyz currency does not contain any coins. It consists solely of bills. So unlike almost every other country in the world one does not have to deal with collecting a large number of bulky and basically worthless coins. Instead you can put all the bills in your wallet. Kyrgyz money comes in 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 som notes. Most countries would have gotten rid of the 1 note and maybe even the 5. The UK does not have a one pound or two pound note anymore. They have one pound and two pound coins. Canada likewise has one dollar and two dollar coins rather than bills.

Now Living in Bishkek

I made it to Kyrgyzstan yesterday. I am still getting used to my new surroundings. Getting settled in has been taking up a lot of my time and energy. So it will be a while before I make any substantial posts about living in Bishkek.