Sadovaya (More Interviews with Deportation Survivors)

On Friday I went with my student researchers to the village of Sadovaya to interview more Karachai survivors of the 1943 deportation. Sadovaya is about 35 kilometers outside of Bishkek. They interviewed seven more people, four women and three men. The trip was very productive and the people we talked to were very nice and cooperative. This research project is working out much better than I anticipated. The students involved are very motivated and skillful and the Karachai community of Kyrgyzstan has been extremely helpful and friendly. I definitely would like to organize similar student research projects on other groups in the future.

Update: One of the students involved has written an account of our trip to Sadovaya on her blog.

My very cool Nooruz gift

Today I found this comment on my blog from one of my former students. It came just in time for Persian New Year. I was so touched that I have decided to give it a proper post of its own.

Dear Dr. Pohl,

If you do not mind, I took my Sunday to read your Blog from the year of its creation until the semester we have met. I remain to be your reader from 2007 and on. You struggled for couple years. I am sorry you have been denied to realize your goals for such a long time. I just wanted to tell you, as your student, that You did prove them wrong concerning your teaching ability. You have set up an example of an academic who KNOWS his field. I am thankful to you that you have shared your expertise with me and my fellow students in class of Political Culture, and Borders & Migrations. I am also thankful that you have become more than an instructor to many of your students and have facilitated us to grow to our potential. You have added invaluable academic reputation to the International and Comparative Politics department of AUCA by pushing ICP students to think broader and deeper through a unique perspective.Thank You!!!

Respectfully,

Farhad

Nooruz

Today it is nice and warm again. It is also Nooruz or Persian New Year. There are all kinds of festivities going on in the center of town. My girlfriend, her son and I will be partaking in some of them in a short while.

Hazelnut Flavored M&Ms

Today I found and purchased a green bag of M&Ms at the university's snack bar. Marked on the bag was a notification that it had hazelnut flavoring. Like the orange flavored M&Ms which I have not seen in many months, I have only seen the hazelnut flavored M&Ms in Kyrgyzstan. At any rate I found the hazelnut flavored M&Ms to be very tasty.

Snowstorm

It has been snowing heavily here in Bishkek since early this morning.

Similarities between Kyrgyzstan and Uganda

Today I saw Klaus Schlichte from the University of Magdeburg give a fascinating talk on the similarities between Kyrgyzstan and Uganda. In addition to political similarities he also noted that synergistic combinations of native and foreign influence were prominent in music and fashion. In Uganda people combine revived indigenous traditions with Imperial British ones. In Kyrgyzstan people combine reinvigorated native elements with Soviet ones. I had not really thought about these cultural aspects before, certainly not in a comparative manner.

Back from spring break

Last week was spring break. So I did not have any classes. This week I have had three classes so far. In my Politics of Genocide course I played the Dead Kennedy's Holiday in Cambodia. I thought it was a creative pedagogical tool. But, I am not sure if they got anything out of the song or not. In my Migration and Borders class I covered the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Finally, in my Political History of the USSR class I covered the years between 1938 and 1941. In particular, I covered the Soviet annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Eastern Poland, and Bessarabia.

Still the Most Racist Thing Ever Posted on the Internet

Despite the passage of over a year this blog post is still the most racist thing ever posted on the Internet. The fact that the poster is a professor at an American university says much about the acceptability of anti-Arab racism among US academics. If the post had been about Jews rather than Palestinians he would have been fired from his job and blacklisted from ever working in a US educational institution again.

More Interviews with Survivors of Stalin's Deportations

Today we did in depth interviews with two Karachai survivors of the deportation. They went very well. One of the interview subjects was seven at the time of the deportation and had a very harrowing story of the deportation to Central Asia and life under the special settlement regime. Next Friday we are going out to do some more interviews with other Karachai survivors.

Spring is Back

It was warm enough today that I did not wear a coat to work. The beverage vendors have also set up along the sidewalk. So I think this means spring will be staying this time around.

Spring has Gone

This weekend it got cold again. On Sunday night and Monday morning we had a snow storm. The weather here is completely unpredictable.

65 Years Since the Deportation of the Balkars

In 1944, the Soviet government celebrated International Women's Day by forcibly deporting almost the entire Balkar population to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Omsk Oblast in Sibera. A Turkic people closely related to the Karachais, the Balkars lived primarily in the Karbardino-Balkar ASSR located in the Northwest Caucasus. Starting on 8 March 1944 and finishing the following day, the NKVD loaded 37,713 Balkars onto 14 train echelons bound for Central Asia and Siberia (Bugai, doc. 29, pp. 113-114). The Stalin regime placed the exiled Balkars under special settlement restrictions identical to those that it had imposed upon the deported Russian-Germans, Kalmyks, Karachais, Chechens and Ingush. By October 1946 the Balkar population had been reduced to 32,817 due to deaths from malnutrition and disease (Bugai, doc. 25, pp. 244-245). The Balkars remained confined by the special settlement restrictions until 28 April 1956 (Bugai, doc. 57, p. 273). Only in 1957, however, could they return to their mountain homeland in the Caucasus. During 1957 and 1958, 34,749 Balkars returned home (Bugai, doc. 64, pp. 279-280). The Stalin regime's ethnic cleansing of the Balkars on International Women's Day in 1944 clearly violated the commitment to both women's and workers' rights embodied in the holiday.

Source:

N.F. Bugai, ed., Iosif Stalin - Lavrentiiu Berii: "Ikh nado deportirovat;": Dokumenty, fakty, kommentarii (Moscow: "Druzhba narodov," 1992).

International Women's Day

Sunday is March 8th, International Women's Day. Here in Kyrgyzstan it is like a super sized version of Valentine's Day and Mother's Day combined. But, its recent commercialization should not obscure its labor and socialist roots. It was originally intended as a day to promote better pay and conditions for women working in industry. The first Women's Day was officially celebrated in the US on 23 February 1909. It made it to Europe in 1911 when it was first observed on March 8th. Promoted heavily by the German socialist, Clara Zetkin, it became an official Soviet holiday in 1922.

Source:

Temma Kaplan, "On the Socialist Origins of International Women's Day," Feminist Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring 1985), pp. 163-171.

Cambodia

For some reason my Politics of Genocide class seems to have taken a great interest in the events that transpired in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Most of the students in the class want to write their final research paper on Cambodia. I hope it is not because they admire Khmer Rouge education policy with its brutal killing of teachers.

Russian Theater

Tuesday I went to the Russian Theater for the first time to see a play. The play was titled Fantazii i tol'ko. It was in a small room in the back and the boundry between the stage and the audience essentially did not exist. The play itself was interesting and well worth the 200 som I paid for my ticket.

5 March 1953

Fifty six years ago today Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died. His regime killed millions in man made famines, firing squads, labor camps and special settlements. Only Hitler and Mao had comparable records of mass murder in the 20th century.

65 Years Since the Demobilization of Karachais from the Red Army

On 3 March 1944, the GKO (State Committee of Defense) issued Order No. 0741 removing the Karachais from the Red Army and sending them to live under special settlement restrictions in Central Asia. In total the Soviet regime demobilized 2,543 Karachais from the Red Army and sent them into internal exile with only the clothes on their backs. Here they joined the remainder of the Karachais deported from their North Caucasian homeland on 2 November 1944.

Sources:

N.F. Bugai, L. Beria -I Stalinu: "Soglasno vashemu ukazaniiu..."(Moscow: "AIRO XX," 1995), p. 63.

N.L. Pobol' and P.M. Polian, eds., Staliniskie deportatsii 1928-1953(Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye Fond "Demokratiia", 2005), p. 390.

New Link - Farhad Kerimov

I have added a new link to Farhad's Notes, a blog run by a former student of mine. He is currently in Chicago on a study abroad for a year program. His blogroll consists entirely of current and former professors at AUCA.

Update: 6 March 2009

It appears that his blogroll now includes his girlfriend as well. She is not a professor or former professor at AUCA. She is still a student here.

New York Times Post on the Marienburg Massacre

The New York Times of all places has an excellent article on the massacre of German civilians in what used to be Marienburg East Prussia and is now Malbork Poland.

Spring has come early

Today is the last day of February and it looks like spring is already here. Yesterday it was quite chilly and snow fell all day. But, today it is sunny and warm and almost all of the snow has melted.

This Week in Class

This week we discussed Stalinist deportations in all three of my classes. In Migration and Borders we covered the exile of the Kalmyks to Siberia by Stalin from 1943 to 1957 as a case study of forced migration. In my Politics of Genocide course we discussed the deportation of the Russian-Germans, Karachais and Crimean Tatars as three examples of Soviet genocide during the 1940s. Finally, in my Political History of the USSR class we discussed the mass deportation of farmers branded as "kulaks" to special settlement villages in the Soviet Far North in 1930. In this last class we discussed the relationship between dekulakization, collectivization and industrialization. Between the three classes we covered a pretty good representative sample of Soviet mass deportations during the Stalin regime.

Link to Slate Article on Crimean Tatars

Yesterday Slate published an excellent article on the Crimean Tatars by Joshua Kucera.

Student Reaction to Through the Red Gate

Last week I showed Through the Red Gate to my Political History of the USSR and Migration and Borders classes. The week before that I showed it to my Politics of Genocide class. Overall I got a very positive response to the film from all three classes. Generally, they thought it was a very moving and informative documentary.

To the Thieves at KavkazCenter.com

I am shocked to find that the article I wrote and published on the Chechen and Ingush deportation time stamped 2:45 am, 23 February 2009 was reproduced in its entirety except for the sources and my name on the KavkazCenter.com website. Their time stamp is 15:29, 23 February 2009. I wrote the piece and publishing it without my permission and failing to put my name at the end of it is a crime in most countries. It is also morally theft and prohibited in the Koran. I doubt that the thieves at KavkazCenter.com will apologize to me, but their behavior is unacceptable.

Translation of Two Reports from Beria to Stalin

State Committee of Defense
Comrade Stalin

Reporting on the progress of the operation to exile the Chechens and Ingush as of this morning 24 February, so far taken from population points have been 333 thousand 739 people, of this number were loaded into train echelons 176 thousand 950 people. In the second half of the day of 23 February in almost all districts of Chechno-Ingushetii fell abundant snow, this has created difficulties in the transportation of people, especially in the mountainous districts.

Beria 24 February 1944

State Committee of Defense
Comrade Stalin

The operation to exile the Chechens and Ingush is proceeding normally. Up until the evening of 25 February were loaded into train echelons 342 thousand 647 people. From the loading stations have been dispatched to places of new settlement 86 echelons.

Beria 26 February 1944

Source:

N.F. Bugai, ed., “Deportatsiia: Beriia dokladyvaet Stalinu,” Kommunist, no. 1, 1991, pp. 103-104.

65 Years Since the Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush

Sixty five years ago, Stalin and his henchmen celebrated Red Army Day by rounding up and deporting virtually the entire Chechen and Ingush population from the Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Codenamed Operation Chechevitsa (Lentil), the forced removal of the Chechens and Ingush required the services of 119,000 members of the NKVD and SMERSh (Bugai doc. 14, p. 106). Many of these men had previously participated in the deportation of the Kalmyks and the Karachais. On the first day of the operation, Beria reported that by 11:00 AM the NKVD had evicted 94,741 people from their homes and loaded 20,023 into train wagons (Bugai, doc. 11, p. 103). In total the operation lasted until 29 February 1944 (it was a leap year) and involved the forced resettlement of 387,229 Chechens and 91,250 Ingush (Bugai, doc. 13, pp. 105-106). In a mere week the Stalin regime ethnically cleansed nearly half a million people from the Caucasus.

The Chechens and Ingush made the long journey to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in unsanitary, unheated and unlit cattle cars. The NKVD had stuffed between 40 and 45 people into each wagon (Bugai, doc. 31, pp. 114-115). These overcrowded conditions in the train cars greatly facilitated the spread of disease. Typhus afflicted many of the deportees enroute. Those that perished had to be left along the rail lines without a proper burial since the NKVD shot any deportees that strayed more than five meters from the train wagons. (Bugai, doc. 16, p. 107).

In exile in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan the Chechens and Ingush lived in extreme poverty in the years following the deportations. They lacked adequate housing, food, clothing and medicine. Large numbers of the deportees perished from malnutrition and diseases such as typhus in the first years of exile. According to the demographer, D.M. Ediev the excess mortality among these two nationalities from the years 1944 to 1952 totaled 125,500 Chechens and 20,300 Ingush. These figures represent 30.76% of the Chechen population before the deportations and 20.3% of the Ingush population (Ediev, table 104, p. 294).

The deportees also came under the restrictions of the special settlement regime. They had to report at least once a month to a special commandant of the NKVD. They also could not leave the confines of their assigned residence without permission from this commandant. They remained confined to restricted areas of exile (Bugai, doc. 10, p. 231). The NKVD controlled the residency, movement and employment of the special settlers.

The Soviet government did not free the Chechens and Ingush from the special settlement restrictions until after Stalin's death. On 16 July 1956, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet freed the Chechens and Ingush from the special settlement regime, but did not allow them to return home or petition for the return of property lost during the deportations (Bugai, doc. 59, pp. 274-275). The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union decided to restore the national autonomy of the Chechens and Ingush on 24 November 1956. The Supreme Soviet did not recreate the Chechen-Ingush ASSR and restore the legal right of the Chechens and Ingush to live in their historic homeland until 9 January 1957. These decisions became finalized as Soviet law only on 11 February 1957 (Documents reproduced in Aliev, pp. 49-55). Despite this partial rehabilitation there has never been any full public accounting of this crime against humanity.

Sources:

Ismail Aliev, Reabilitatsii narodov i grazhdan, 1954-1994 gody: Dokumenty (Moscow: RAN, 1994).

N.F. Bugai, ed., Iosif Stalin - Lavrentiiu Berii: "Ikh nado deportirovat'": Dokumenty, fakty, kommentarii (Moscow: "Druzhba narodov", 1992).

D.M. Ediev, Demograficheskie poteri deportirovannykh narodov SSSR (Stavropol': 'Argus', 2003).

See also my post on the subject from two years ago.

Red Army Day

Today is Red Army Day in Kyrgyzstan. The government has renamed it Defenders' Day, but it is still the old Soviet holiday to celebrate the formation of the Red Army by Leon Trotsky in 1918. It has evolved in Kyrgyzstan into a kind of Men's Day to serve as a counterpart to International Women's Day on March Eighth. The women in our department got us pizza for lunch on Friday and gave each of the men in the department a card and a handkerchief as a gift.

Circus

On Saturday I went to the circus with my girlfriend and her two kids. It was my first time going to the circus in Bishkek and I was surprised at how expensive it was. It cost 550 som ($13.50) for each ticket including the one for the five year old. The average working class salary here in Bishkek is less than 4000 som ($100) a month. Then the idiot Russian woman working at the cashier window sold us tickets with the wrong date stamped on them. They said 22 February 2009 instead of 21 February 2009. This caused a problem when she sold the same seats with the correct date to another group of people. When even the circus is corrupt and incompetent you know you have a problem. But, since the price of tickets was such that they could only sell about two thirds the seats of the tiny one ring auditorium, we managed to find some empty seats to occupy. The show itself was fairly entertaining. I liked the Russian clowns a lot. They were pretty funny.

Oral History of the Karachai Community in Kyrgyzstan: Remembering the Deportations 65 Years Ago

On 2 November 1943, Soviet security forces forcibly resettled almost the entire Karachai population of nearly 70,000 people from their North Caucasian homeland to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Less than 69,000 survived the trip of which over 45,000 arrived in Kazakhstan. The NKVD settled the remaining nearly 23,000 deportees in Frunze Oblast, Kyrgyzstan. The Soviet government then dissolved the Karachai Autonomous Oblast and divided its land among other administrative territories. It also changed many of the geographical place names of within the region. It completed this ethnic cleansing by sending the Karachais living outside their national oblast or serving in the Red Army to join the rest of their kin in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In exile in Central Asia the Karachais came under a series of legal disabilities that separated them from most other Soviet citizens. Classified as “special settlers” the Soviet regime imposed severe restrictions on the residency and movement rights of the Karachais. They also lived in conditions of extreme poverty and thousands died prematurely of malnutrition, disease and exposure. In the years after Stalin’s death there arose a movement by Karachai activists to lobby Moscow for the right to return to their former homeland. The Soviet government allowed the Karachais to return home to the Caucasus only after 1957. They, however, did not restore the borders of the Karachai Autonomous Oblast. Instead the Soviet government created a Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast by combining most of the former territory of the Karachai Autonomous Oblast with the Cherkess Autonomous Oblast. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the Karachai population in exile in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan opted to return to their ancestral homeland during the next few years. By 1960 over 80% of the Karachai population lived in this new administrative region. For more than a dozen years virtually the entire Karachai population lived as exiles and second class Soviet citizens in Central Asia far from their Caucasian homeland.

Not all the Karachais, however, returned to the Caucasus. A significant number remained in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Relatively little has been written specifically about the experience of the Karachai special settlers in Kyrgyzstan and their relationship to the local authorities and population. Thus we have formed a group consisting of three students and one faculty advisor to study the following question regarding the Karachai special settlers in Kyrgyzstan from the Caucasus during the years 1943 to 1961. How did the legal structures of the special settlement regime implemented by the authorities in the Kyrgyz SSR affect the day to day life of these deportees in relationship to the surrounding population? We are particularly interested in issues of economic integration, social capital, physical segregation, ethnic discrimination and political mobilization. This study will focus on the life experiences of the deported Karachais and will make extensive use of interviews with survivors. Published archival material, memoirs and scholarly literature on the deportation will supplement the information gathered by the group in the course of interviewing survivors of the deportation. We have already made preliminary contact with five interview subjects. This study will result in a scholarly journal article on the exile experiences of the Karachais in Kyrgyzstan. The group will also present its findings at a round table discussion at American University of Central Asia and at the student conference on migration sponsored by the Social Research Center. Further publication based upon this project may also result if substantial new material is unearthed.

Good News

The student research project I am supervising, Oral History of the Karachai Community in Kyrgyzstan: Remembering the Deportations 65 Years Ago, received a grant of $450 today. This money will allow us to conduct interviews of the survivors of Stalin's ethnic cleansing of their Caucasian homeland on 2 November 1943. I am hoping we can fill in some of the gaps in the historical record that are not addressed in the archival documentation.

More Union Work

Today I met with the national head of the Union of Educators and Scholars of the Kyrgyz Republic. It went well. Right now we are trying to get a meeting with the head of the Board of Trustees of AUCA. Finally, on a very positive note, I got a preview of a forthcoming article on the union in the student newspaper. It is extremely favorable to our position.

Interviewing Survivors of Stalin's Deportations

Currently I am supervising a student research project on the history of the Karachais deported to Kyrgyzstan by Stalin in winter 1943-1944. Today, I went with the three students involved in the project to the Assembly of Peoples of Kyrgyzstan to get make contact with the Karachai community here. It was our good fortune that they were holding a meeting at the same time that we arrived. We met with five survivors of the deportation and got their contact details. We will be arranging a more formal meeting and meal with them soon. They were very friendly and helpful. My students are very excited about this project.

Hampshire College

Hampshire College in Amherst has now become the first US institution of higher education to divest from Israel. The school is famous for a couple of reasons, but one of them is that it hosts the National Yiddish Book Center. The conflict between certain elements of the Jewish Diaspora and Zionism is not new. But, the presence of such a symbolic institution of the cultural history of the Jewish Diaspora at Hampshire certainly highlights this conflict. In the larger scheme of things it looks like the movement for Palestinian human rights is finally starting to get some support in the US.

Translation of NKVD Report on Labor Army Conscripts in Kyrgyzstan

NKVD USSR, Moscow -
Chief of Section on Special Settlements
Colonel Comrade Kuznetsov

11 January 1946

In the matter of providing information on the number and movement of mobilized German men and women, working on the construction of hydroelectric stations and industries in Frunze Oblast of the Kyrgyz SSR as of 1 January 1946.

We report, that in the fourth quarter of 1945 on the construction site of the Voroshilov hydroelectric station left 20 people, of this number demobilized due to age were two people and deserted 18 people, arrived 17 people (transferred from the construction site of the Alamedin hydroelectric station).

During this time on the construction site of the Alamedin hydroelectric station left 61 people, from them: demobilized due to age - 23 people, deserted 41 people, arrived - 4 people (returned deserters).

All deserters from the construction sites of Voroshilov and Alamedin hydroelectric stations until their mobilization lived in sovkhozes and kolkhozes in Frunze Oblast, in connection with unsatisfactory material-living conditions on the construction sites - lack of necessary shoes and clothes for work in winter time, finally, naturally, they left the construction sites for places, where their relatives lived. In connection with this significant flight the chief of the UNKVD of Frunze Oblast lieutenant-colonel comrade Martynenko pointed out that there was a lack of a security regime at the places of work of mobilized German men and women and proposed the return of all fugitives to the construction sites.

On creating the necessary living conditions at the construction sites of the hydroelectric stations for mobilized Germans we refer the question to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) and Council of Peoples Commissars of the Kyrgyz SSR.

Chief of the Section on Special Settlements of the NKVD of the Kyrgyz SSR

Neverenko

Chief of the 4th Section of the Section on Special Settlements

Major Kuz'min

Source: N.F. Bugai, ed., "Mobilizovat' nemtsev v rabochie kolonny...I. Stalin": Sbornik dokumentov (1940-e gody) (Moscow: Gotika, 1998), doc. no. 238, pp. 307-308.

Looking for Forced Labor Projects from the Stalin Era in the Chui Oblast of the Kyrgyz Republic

Today I came across a reproduction of an NKVD report dated 11 January 1946 about two hydroelectric stations in Frunze Oblast built by Russian-Germans mobilized into the labor army. What follows is a quick English language summary. I will post a verbatium translation of the document tomorrow. I do not have time right now.

The report notes that 59 Russian-Germans working on the Voroshilov and Alamedin hydroelectric stations deserted their construction sites and went to live with relatives during the last quarter of 1945. These forced laborers had all lived in sovkhozes and kolkhozes in Frunze Oblast prior to their conscription into the labor army. The report claims that poor living conditions, especially a lack of shoes and clothes for winter conditions, motivated their flight. The report then notes the response of the chief of the UNKVD of Frunze Oblast, Martynenko. He pointed out the lax security regime at places where Russian-German men and women mobilized into the labor army worked. He also proposed that all the fugitives be returned to their places of work. The report concludes by noting that the question of living conditions for labor army workers at the construction sites had been referred to the party and state authorities of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic.

Source: N.F. Bugai, ed., "Mobilizovat' nemtsev v rabochie kolonny...I. Stalin": Sbornik dokumentov (1940-e gody) (Moscow: Gotika, 1998), doc. no. 238, pp. 307-308.

Frunze Oblast is now Chui Oblast. It is the oblast that surrounds Bishkek. That means that the Voroshilov and Alamedin hydroelectric stations must be fairly close to me. If anybody knows exactly where these structures are located could you please let me know? You can either e-mail me or leave a comment on this blog.

Electric Shock Baton Update

Evidently the girlfriend got to try out the electric shock baton on some drunk guy Saturday night. She did not give me any more details about the use of the weapon.

Electric Shock Baton

Normally, after I get paid each month, I buy my girlfriend a piece of jewelry. Yesterday, I had the following conversation with her.

GF: I don't want a pendant.

GF: I don't want a bracelet.

GF: I want an electric shock baton.

Me: What for?

GF: Work. (she is a security guard) It's dangerous at night.

Me: How much does it cost?

GF: 5000 som ($125)

Me: No problem.

Closing Time

The big news here in Bishkek is President Bakiyev's recent announcement that the US must leave Manas air base. Far less reported, but more important to my girlfriend and her kids, is the fact that Panfilov Park has been closed for reconstruction since October. It is scheduled to reopen in spring.

Reading List for the Holodomor

The USSR in the 1930s

Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor)

Politics of Genocide


Michael Ellman, “Discussion Article: Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932-1933 Revisited.” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 59, No. 4 (June 2007), pp. 663-693.

http://www.paulbogdanor.com/ellman1933.pdf

Michael Ellman, “The Role of Leadership Perceptions and of Intent in the Soviet Famine of 1931-1934.” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 57, No. 6 (September 2005), pp. 823-841.

http://www.paulbogdanor.com/ellman.pdf

Jacques Vallin; France Mesle; Serguei Adamets; Serhii Pyrozhkov, “A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses during the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s.” Population Studies, Vol. 56, No. 3 (November 2002), pp. 249-264.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-4728%28200211%2956%3A3%3C249%3AANEOUP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S

Genocide Class

So far this semester my genocide course has been my favorite. The intellectual level of the discussions have been quite high. Among other topics these discussions have addressed issues of international law, the intellectual infrastructure of racism, historiographical disputes and the problems of reconciliation and justice. So far we have covered Native Americans, Australian Aboriginals, the 1904 massacre of the Hereros in Namibia, and the Armenian Genocide. Next week we will be covering the 1932-1933 Ukrainian Famine (Holodomor).

Strange Weather Again

For the last few days it has been unseasonably warm in Bishkek. In fact the weather has been springlike. This morning it was quite warm. All this changed this afternoon. For the last few hours there has been heavy snowfall.

Union Work

Last semester I got elected head of the newly formed AUCA local of the Union of Educators and Scholars of the Kyrgyz Republic. Today I had my first formal meeting with the administration. Tomorrow we will have our first general membership meeting.

Link to Jews sans frontieres

I noticed today that Jews sans frontieres has added me to their blog roll. So I am returning the favor. Mark Elf and crew have been doing an excellent job of covering events in Palestine for years now. Thanks a lot for the link.

I am not sure if it an act of war or a crime, but it is irritating.

In response to FLG's question as to whether the Russian attacks on Kyrgyzstan's Internet infrastructure are cyberwarfare or cybercrime I have the following answer. It is a big pain in the ass is what it is. During the time the Internet was barely working I had to submit three online recommendations for students for MA programs at Central European University in Budapest. It took me all day to get the applications to go through. Other professors here at AUCA had the exact same problem. Under normal circumstances I should have been able to do them all in less than an hour.

This might explain why the internet has been so slow recently

Evidently Russian hackers have been hitting Kyrgyzstan with denial of service attacks. See the article below for more details.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/158517/kyrgyzstan_off_net.html?tk=rss_news

Another New Link - Schaun and Rachel Wheeler

Schaun Wheeler and his new wife Rachel have a new blog. Schaun did much of the research for his dissertation in Kyrgyzstan and spent a lot of time hanging around AUCA. So far there is not much up on their blog, but I hope that changes soon.

New Link - Seamus O'Sullivan

My colleague Seamus O'Sullivan who used to teach in the American Studies department across the hall is now working at American University of Afghanistan. He has maintained a very interesting blog for some time, but I have neglected until now to link to it. Despite my previous neglect, I encourage everybody to check out his blog Intransigent in Kabul.

Things I have done this week

In addition to teaching three classes, I have had an unusual amount of extra work this last week. For instance, I have written a half a dozen letters of recommendation for students. It seems as soon as I finish one letter another one arrives for me to do. Currently, I have about a half a dozen more left to finish. I have also edited an academic encyclopedia article, given a guest lecture for another professor and helped put together a grant proposal. I hope next week things will settle down for a little while.

The Shelves of Ramstor

It appears that my fears of impending food shortages were unfounded. Last night when I went to Ramstor I noticed that they had more meat and lots of eggs. Their stock of milk products, however, was still significantly below their normal level.

Afghanistan

My Afghan sources have recently informed me that the country has become extremely dangerous. The country is also evidently experiencing real not foreshadowed food shortages. After over seven years of fighting, US military forces have still not managed to bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan.

Food Shortages

I have noticed for the last week that the big modern Ramstor supermarket near me has had dwindling supplies of meat, milk products, and toilet paper. They are completely out of eggs. I hope this does not foreshadow a return to Soviet era shortages.

Solving Third World Problems

Since I have arrived back in Bishkek I have had to solve a number of third world problems. To date this has included restoring electricity to my flat, recovering my lost luggage from London, and getting a new stove. On the last point I believe that the old stove, an Elektra 1001, dated back to the building's initial construction in 1985. It still had CCCP prominently stamped on it. At any rate it refused to come back on with the rest of the electrical appliances last week. I think I now have all of my third world problems, except for the broken window, fixed for the time being.

New Book Published

My new book, Catherine's Grandchildren: A Short History of the Russian-Germans Under Soviet Rule is now available for purchase from the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. You can order it from here. The book is $15 for members and $20 for nonmembers. This post is purely for noncommercial and informational purposes since I do not receive any money from the sale of this book.

The Dollar is Way Up

Yesterday I exchanged $100 US for Kyrgyz som. I got back over 4000 som. Just a couple of weeks ago it was only 38 som to the dollar.

GAZA and SOAS

It appears that lots of interesting things have recently been happening at the School of Oriental and African Studies where I did both my MA and Ph.D. SOAS Students in Solidarity with Gaza occupied the Brunei Suite in the Brunei Gallery for several days. They have their own blog recording their recent actions. For more news on what has been happening at SOAS in the last few days see Solomon's Mindfield. Things are not nearly so active here at AUCA. But, I did notice that students have put up a few signs and two collection boxes for the victims of Israel's assault upon Gaza.

Hat Tip: Mark Elf at JSF

Article on Stalinism

Russian historian, Arseny Roginsky, has written an excellent article in English on the continuing legacy of Stalinism in Russia.

Mass Grave Unearthed in Malbork/Marienburg

Polish excavators recently unearthed 1,800 corpses of German civilians murdered by the Red Army in 1945 in what is now Malbork Poland. Previously this city was named Marienburg and was part of East Prussia in Germany. This massacre took place as part of a larger ethnic cleansing of some eight million Germans from the eastern territories of Germany in 1945 and 1946. Der Spiegel has the full story in English at the address below.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,600216,00.html

The New Semester Begins

I got back to Bishkek yesterday okay, but my luggage did not. It is still on holiday in London. When I got back I found out we had no electricity in my flat. But, I managed to get that fixed yesterday. Today I taught my first class of the new semester, Politics of Genocide. Tomorrow I teach Political History of the USSR and Migration and Borders. Despite lots of little third world problems, life in Bishkek is very good. I have an enjoyable job, a wonderful girlfriend, and a conveniently located apartment.

Going back to Bishkek

This afternoon I am flying back to Bishkek. My three week vacation in the US went really fast. I had a great time.

Migration and Borders Syllabus

Migration and Borders
ICP 329.5
3 credits
International and Comparative Politics
American University of Central Asia
Fall Semester 2009
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.


Meeting Time: Tuesday and Thursday 10:50 am

Course Description: This course will cover the topic of cross border migration. It will concentrate primarily upon the movement of people across international borders. However, it will also briefly cover the role of internal state borders with regards to forced migration in the USSR during the 1940s. The class will deal with various types of international migration in the 20th and 21st centuries including labor migration, forced migration and ethnic “return” migration. The course will emphasize the effects of state policies upon migrants in both countries of emigration and immigration. Case studies will be drawn from the US-Mexican border, Europe, the USSR and its successor states and Palestine.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. Students will be required to write three 600 to 800 word reflection papers. They will have to write one paper on each of the three types of migration covered in this course: labor migration, forced migration and return migration. Each of these papers should engage with one or more of the readings assigned for the topic. They will also have to write a 2500 to 3000 word essay on one specific case of migration. The paper is due the last week of class. In the five 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. Late papers will lose ten percent each day they are late. Please see the separate handout on late papers. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All of the required readings are included in the course packet.

Policy on Plagiarism and Citations: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them from the course and recommend to the chairman of the ICP department that they be expelled from the program. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying of from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than four words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, end note or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F for the course and be recommended for expulsion from ICP. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, end note or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.


Grading:

Three Short Papers – 45% (15% each)

Written research paper – 30% (Due last week of class)

Oral report on research – 15%

Class participation – 10%

Grading Scale:

100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule

Week one: Introduction to the course and review of the syllabus

Crossing the Border

Week Two: Read “Border Crossings and the Transformation of Value and Valuers” (chapter six) in Hasting Donnan and Thomas M. Wilson, Borders: Frontiers of Identity, Nation and State (Oxford, UK: Berg, 1999), pp. 107-127.

Week Three: Read “Frontiers and Migration” (chapter five) in Malcolm Anderson, Frontiers: Territory and State Formation in the Modern World (Cambridge, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), pp. 127-150.

Labor Migration

Week Four: Read Thomas J. Espenshade, “Unauthorized Immigration to the United States,” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 21 (1995), pp. 195-216.

Week Five: Read “Europe’s Immigrant Integration Crises,” (chapter one) in Patrick Ireland, Becoming Europe: Immigration, Integration and the Welfare State (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004), pp. 1-26. The first paper is due Thursday.

Ethnic Cleansing

Week Six: Read “Forced Migrations: Prehistory and Classification” (chapter two) in Pavel Polian, Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004), pp. 17-48.

Week Seven: Read Elza-Bair Guchinova, “Deportation of the Kalmyks (1943-1956): Stigmatized Ethnicity,” (chapter seven) in Uyama Tomohiko, ed., Empire, Islam, and Politics in Central Eurasia, Slavic Eurasian Studies, no. 14 (Sapporo, Japan: Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, 2007), pp. 187-221.

Week Eight: Read Introduction and Piotr Pykel, “The Expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia,” (chapter one) in Steffen Prausser and Arfon Rees, eds., The Expulsion of the ‘German’ Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War (Florence, Italy: European University Institute, 2004), pp. 1-20.

Week Nine: Read Rosemarie M. Esber, “Rewriting the History of 1948: The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Question Revisited,” Holy Land Studies, vol. 4, no. 1 (2005), pp. 55-72. The second paper is due Thursday.

Ethnic “Return” Migration

Week Ten: Read “Did they jump or were they pushed?” (chapter one) in Hilary Pilkington, Migration, Displacement and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 3-22.

Week Eleven: Read “18 May 1944: The Deportation of Crimean Tatars” (chapter one) in Forced Migration Project of the Open Society Institute, Crimean Tatars: Repatriation and Conflict Prevention, (New York: Open Society Institute, 1996, pp. 11-28.

Week Twelve: Read Rainer Ohliger and Rainer Munz, “Minorities into Migrants: Making and Un-Making Central and Eastern Europe’s Ethnic German Diasporas,” Diaspora, vol. 11, no. 1 (2002), pp. 45-83. Watch the documentary, Through the Red Gate. The third paper is due Thursday.

Student Research

Week Thirteen: Student oral presentations.

Week Fourteen: Student oral presentations.

Week Fifteen: Student oral presentations.

Week Sixteen: Student oral presentations continued.

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

Political History of the USSR Syllabus

Political History of the USSR
ICP 255
3 Credits
International and Comparative Politics
American University Central Asia
Spring Semester 2009
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.


Meeting Time: Tuesday and Thursday 2:10 pm.

Course Description: This course is an introductory survey course to the political history of the Soviet Union. It will cover the political, economic and social changes in the USSR from the time of its founding until its collapse. Important political events that will be covered include the Bolshevik Revolution, the Civil War, the collectivization of agriculture, the Great Terror, World War II, and the reforms of the Khrushchev era. Special emphasis will be given to the multinational nature of the Soviet Union. In particular the course will pay attention to how different nationalities in the USSR experienced and remembered the events covered in class.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussions, short writing assignments, and a research paper. There will be two short 600 to 800 word papers due. The first one will be on collectivization and dekulakization. The second one will be on some aspect of World War II in the Soviet Union. Students will also have to complete a 1400 to 2000 word research paper on the history of their family in the USSR. Students may substitute a research paper on a different subject in consultation with the instructor. This paper is due the last week of class. All late papers will lose ten percent for each day they are late. Please see the separate handout regarding late papers. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: The primary text book for this class is Geoffry Hosking’s, The First Socialist Society: The History of the Soviet Union from Within (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). In addition to this book there are a number of shorter readings that will be provided to the students by the instructor.

Plagiarism Policy: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them from the course and recommend to the chairman of the ICP department that they be expelled from the program. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying of from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than four words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, end note or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F for the course and be recommended for expulsion from ICP. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, end note or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:

Two short papers - 40% (20% each)

Written research paper –30% (Due last day of class)

Class participation – 30%

Grading Scale:

100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule

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

Week Two: The Bolshevik Revolution.

Chapters 1 and 2 in Hosking, pp. 15-56.

Week Three: War Communism

Chapter 3 in Hosking, pp. 57-92.

Week Four: The 1920-1921 Famine

Read: James W. Long, “The Volga Germans and the Famine of 1921,” Russian Review, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Oct., 1992), pp. 510-525.

Week Five: Nationality Policy during the 1920s

Chapter 4 in Hosking, pp. 93-118 and read Yuri Slezkine, “The USSR as Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism,” Slavic Review, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer 1994), pp. 414-452.

Week Six: Economic Transformation in the 1930s.

Chapters 5 and 6 in Hosking, pp. 119-182.

Week Seven: Destruction of the “Kulaks”

Read: Lynne Viola, “The Other Archipelago: Kulak Deportations to the North in 1930,” Slavic Review, Vol. 60, no. 4 (winter 2001), pp. 730-755. Watch the video, Through the Red Gate. The first paper is due on Thursday.

Week Eight: The Great Terror

Chapter 7 in Hosking, pp. 183-204 and read James Morris, “The Polish Terror: Spy Mania and Ethnic Cleansing in the Great Terror,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 56, No. 5 (July 2004), pp. 751-766.

Week Nine: The USSR on the Eve of the Great War

Chapters 8 and 9 in Hosking, pp. 205-260.

Week Ten: World War II

Chapter 10 in Hosking, pp. 263-295.

Week Eleven: World War II Continued

Read: Viktor Krieger, “Patriots or Traitors? – The Soviet Government and the ‘German Russians’ After the Attack on the USSR by National Socialist Germany” in Karl Schlogel, ed., Russian-German Special Relations in the Twentieth Century: A Closed Chapter? (New York: Berg Publishers, 2006), pp. 133-163.

Week Twelve: Late Stalinism

Chapter 11 in Hosking, pp. 296-325 and read Nicolas Werth, “The ‘Chechen problem’: Handling an Awkward Legacy, 1918-1958,” Contemporary European History, no. 15, 2006, pp. 347-366. The second paper is due on Thursday.

Week Thirteen: Khrushchev

Chapter 12 in Hosking, pp. 326-362.

Week Fourteen: The Era of Stagnation

Chapter 13 in Hosking, pp. 363-401 and read H.M. Joo, “Voices of Freedom: Samizdat,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 56, No. 4, June 2004, pp. 571-594.

Week Fifteen: Nationality in the USSR after World War II

Chapter 14 in Hosking, pp. 402-445 and read Anatoly Khazanov, “People with Nowhere to Go: The Plight of the Meskhetian Turks,” (chapter 7) in After the USSR: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Politics in the Commonwealth of Independent States (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), pp. 192-210.

Week Sixteen: The End of the Soviet Union

Chapter 15 in Hosking, pp. 446-501.

Week Seventeen: Research paper due and concluding remarks.

Syllabus for Politics of Genocide

Politics of Genocide
ICP 425
3 Credits
International and Comparative Politics
American University Central Asia
Fall Semester 2009
J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Meeting Time: Monday and Wednesday 9:25 am

Course Description: This course will focus on genocide in the 20th century. The first weeks will cover the theoretical and legal aspects of genocide studies. From the third week to the tenth week the class will focus on specific case studies. The exact emphasis of each week’s reading will be determined by the students. I have only provided broad categories based upon perpetrators rather than victims. Within these categories students will choose the exact material covered with my approval.

Requirements: This course will revolve around class discussion based upon readings chosen by the students. Each week from week three to week ten, students will lead discussion on readings they have chosen. All readings must be approved by me at least a week before the scheduled discussion. All the students in the class and not just those presenting that week are required to read these selections. The students leading discussion must submit a written paper between 1500 and 2000 words on the subject on the same day. Every student will be required to select class readings, lead discussion and submit a paper on the readings once. In addition all students will be required to write a 3000 to 3500 word research paper on one case of genocide. They will be required to give an oral presentation on this research in one of the last five weeks of class. All late papers will lose ten percent for each day they are late. Please see the separate handout regarding late papers. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: I will provide students with the readings for week two. For all other weeks, the readings will be selected by the students. The students doing the selection should make sure that the readings are available to the entire class. The easiest way to do this is to select journal articles from JSTOR or EBSCOHOST.

Plagiarism Policy: Policy on Plagiarism and Citations: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them from the course and recommend to the chairman of the ICP department that they be expelled from the program. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying of from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than four words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, end note or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F for the course and be recommended for expulsion from ICP. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, end note or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:

First Paper – 20%

Leading Class Discussion – 10%

Final Paper – 30%

Final Oral Report – 15%

Class Participation – 25%

Grading Scale:

100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule

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

Week Two: Theory and International Law

Read: Robert M. Hayden, “Schindler’s Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers,” Slavic Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 727-748, Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 1-40, and Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, “The Study of Mass Murder and Genocide,” in Gellately and Kiernan, eds., The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 3-26.

Week Three: The Colonial World

Week Four: The Ottoman Empire

Week Five: The USSR in the 1930s

Week Six: Nazi Germany

Week Seven: The USSR in the 1940s

Week Eight: Cambodia

Week Nine: Yugoslavia

Week Ten: Rwanda

Weeks Eleven to Fifteen: Student Oral Reports.

New Link

In the interest of reciprocity I am adding a link to Fear and Loathing in Georgetown to my blog roll.

Pay It Forward

Today I was in Borders Books buying a few more tomes before returning to Bishkek. I was in the history section holding two large books when an older gentleman approached me. The books by the way were Michael Geyer and Sheila Fitzpatrick, eds., Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared (New York: Cambridge University Press), 2009 and Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. He asked me if I intended to purchase the books I was holding. I informed him that I did indeed intend to buy them. The man then told me he was going to do me a favor. Not wishing to be rude I politely listened to him. He took out a sheet of paper with official Borders writing on it and said he had a discount of 40% on any single book purchased. He said he would give it to me if I later did a favor for a stranger. I readily agreed and he handed me the sheet. The book by Kiernan cost $40, so I saved $16. When I get back to Bishkek I will be on the look out for a complete stranger to help.

Through the Red Gate

This is the first review and recommendation of a completed film ever on this blog. Under Jakob's Ladder is still in the production stage. As a general rule I have not been very impressed with the medium of film recently. Through the Red Gate, however, is a very welcome exception to this trend. My only complaint about the film is that is too short. It is only about 45 minutes. Its subject matter, the fate of Mennonites in the USSR during collectivization and dekulakization, could easily sustain several hours of informative documentation. The documentary is centered around interviews with surviving members of the Bargen and Regehr families who lived through the Stalin regime's campaign to "liquidate the kulaks as a class." The Bargen family left the USSR as part of the last batch of 5,461 Mennonites legally allowed to leave the USSR by the Soviet government near the end of 1929 (1). The Regehr family in contrast was not so lucky. The OGPU deported them to a special settlement village in the Urals in the summer of 1931. The two families are related and during the 1930s the Regehrs managed to smuggle out of the USSR a large number of letters to the Bargens in Canada. Many of these letters have been published in English translation in Ruth Derksen Siemens, Remember US: Letters from Stalin's Gulag (1930-37) Volume One: The Regehr Family (Kitchener, ON: Pandora Press, 2007). This surviving contemporary record along with personal memories of the events gives the documentary a strong primary source base. I intend to show this documentary to both my Political History of the USSR and my Migration and Borders classes next semester. For more information on the documentary and the related book see the excellent website of Dr. Ruth Derksen Siemens.

Cited Sources

1. Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), p. 320.

I have Sympathy for the Devil, but not for Israel

One very nice thing about living overseas is that unlike in the US you are not subject to constant media bombardment praising every action of Israel and condemning all criticism of Israel as antisemitism.

Burgers in California

One of the things that Americans take for granted that does not exist in Kyrgyzstan is ready and cheap access to a wide variety of good burgers. Since returning to the US to visit family I have eaten four burgers. In order they were from Carl's Junior, Ruby's, McDonald's and In and Out. Obviously the one from Ruby's was the best. But, for a little over two dollars including tax, the one from In and Out was surprisingly very good.

Back from Arivaca

Yesterday I arrived back in California after a week in Arivaca, Arizona. My talk at the Arivaca library on daily life in Bishkek went well. About twenty people showed up for the presentation.

65 Years Since the Ethnic Cleansing of the Kalmyks

It has been 65 years since the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ordered the deportation of the Kalmyks from their homeland to Siberia. I do not have time to write a new post this year, but here are some of my previous posts on the subject.

Back to the Arivacan Homeland

Yesterday, I arrived in Arivaca, Arizona. The weather here is cold and rainy. But, the people are as friendly as ever. At 2:00 pm on Tuesday, 30 December 2008, I will be giving a talk on daily life in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The talk will take place at the Arivaca library.

Arrived in the USA

My first flight out of Bishkek was cancelled. So I ended up being delayed for a day. But, I am in California now.

Catherine's Grandchildren: A Short History of the Russian-Germans under Soviet Rule

My first book written for a general audience is now in print. The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia has published Catherine's Grandchildren: A Short History of the Russian-Germans under Soviet Rule. I will be donating a copy to the Arivaca Library.

Winning the War on Plagiarism

This semester out of 69 research papers from International and Comparative Politics students I only found one case of plagiarism. In percentage terms this is less than one tenth of what I found last semester. This is most likely because I have been conducting the War Against Plagiarism in International and Comparative Politics for almost a year now. It seems to be having results.

I am now done with the semester

This semester I taught five classes with ninety nine students. I just finished grading the last research papers and calculating final grades. I also finished writing one book manuscript, two journal articles and one encyclopedia article this semester. Now I have a few free weeks before work starts again. Next Sunday I am flying back to the US for a short break.

Fifty Final Research Papers Graded So Far

In the last two days I have graded fifty final research papers. I still have a big stack left to grade. According to my calculations I have forty left to grade. I hope to finish most of them before Monday.

Who exactly reads this blog?

This blog is definitely writer rather than audience driven. But, it would be interesting to know if there are any regular readers out there that I do not know about. So consider this an invitation to post a comment if you are a reader that has never done so before.

Lessons Learned this Semester (fall 2008)

The first lesson is not to teach five courses on top of writing books, journal articles and encyclopedia articles. This is not to mention other types of work. Next semester I am only teaching three courses. Then I will not have to work seventy hours a week.

The second lesson is to not teach any more eight am courses. It is still dark in Bishkek at that time in the morning and there is no lighting on the street at seven am. I have already witnessed one pedestrian killed by a bus during my morning walk to work this academic year. I do not intend to share his fate.

Russian-Germans from Kyrgyzstan in the Labor Army

Russian-German men living east of the Urals before 1941 became subject to service in the labor army as a result of GKO Order No. 1281 ss of 14 February 1942. The Russian-German men inducted into the labor army due to this decree living in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian republics of the USSR as well as the Bashkir ASSR and Cheliabinsk Oblast found themselves building the South-Ural Railroad. The NKVD moved these forced labor conscripts to Cheliabinsk Station where they began construction. From February through April 1942, the Stalin regime mobilized nearly 40,900 Russian-German men living in the Urals, Central Asia, Siberia, the Soviet Far East and other regions into labor army detachments for railway construction and other physically demanding work.

Source:

A.A. German, "Mobilizovannye sovetskie nemtsy v lageriakh NKVD i na khoziaistvennykh ob'ektakh drugikh narkomatov v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny," in Stranitsy Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny (k-60-letiu pobedy): Doklady Akademii Nauk, No. 3, 2008 (15), pp. 171-172.

Russian-Koreans in Karlag

Russian-Germans were not the only nationality called up into the labor army to work in Karlag. In February 1942, the Soviet government began the conscription of Russian-Koreans into labor army detachments. From Kazakhstan alone they mobilized some 20,000 Russian-Korean men (64). A recorded 2,141 of these men worked in the mines at Karaganda from 1942 to 1945 (63). Other Russian-Korean labor army conscripts worked in mines, construction projects, and tree felling throughout Uzbekistan and Russia (pp. 65-66). To date comparatively little research has been done on the subject of non-German nationalities conscripted into the labor army.

Source:

Valeriy S. Khan, "Uzbekistani Koreans in the Labor Army during W0rld War II (Historiography of the Problem)", International Journal of Central Asian Studies, Vol. 11, 2006, pp. 59-71.

Blog Type

According to this website Otto's Random Thoughts is the following type of blog.

ISTJ - The Duty Fulfillers

The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever. The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to work in their own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do it.

Another Best Blog Darts Thinker Award

The Best Blog Darts Thinker Award for today goes to Russell Arben Fox at In Medias Res. He has a lot of interesting essays on modern communitarianism. Having lived in Arivaca Arizona for two years I am a big fan of communitarianism.

A Political Science Blog for Best Blog Dart Thinker Award

Today's Best Blog Dart Thinker award goes to Laura McKenna at 11D. I have now given out nine awards. I have six left to go.

Three Blogs Named After Frogs for the Best Blog Darts Thinker Award

The next three Best Blog Darts Thinker Awards go to a trio of related blogs on East Asian History. They are Frog in a Well Japan, Frog in a Well China and Frog in a Well Korea. These three blogs have a lot of interesting short academic pieces of an historical bent.

Three Best Blog Darts Thinker Awards for Writing on the Middle East

I have grouped these three blogs together because they all deal with the Middle East. In particular, they focus on the problems stemming from Israel's continued denial of national self determination, justice and human rights to the Palestinian people. The first award goes to Mark Elf and crew at Jews sans frontieres, the second to Philip Weiss at Mondoweiss and the third to Leila Abu-Saba at Dove's Eye View.

Today's Best Blog Darts Thinker Award

This is the second blog in my list of fifteen to get the Best Blog Darts Thinker Award. Today the award goes to Peteris Cedrins of Daugavpils Latvia for his very thoughtful blog Marginalia. It has a wealth of insightful essays on various aspects of history, politics and literature as it relates to Latvia. Although Latvia is a small country, it has a very rich and interesting history.

Best Blog Darts Thinker Award

Fear and Loathing in Georgetown has awarded my blog with a Best Blog Darts Thinker Award. This is the first time in over four years of existence that this blog has won any award. I am supposed to acknowledge the award and pass the award on to fifteen more blogs. However, I have not seen any requirement that I list all fifteen of these blogs in a single post. Also, FLG himself only named eleven blogs. Which I believe sets a precedent for procedural flexibility. I will name one blog that deserves the Best Blog Darts Thinker Award each day for the next fifteen days. The first one is Kristina Gray's excellent Kazakhnomad's Weblog. See the entry below and click on the links to see some of the reasons why she deserves this award.

Karlag NKVD

My friend Kristina Gray has a series of posts on her blog about Karlag, the labor camp complex that operated in Karaganada Oblast, Kazakhstan from 1931 to 1959. She visited Dolinka, the administrative capitol of this section of the Gulag Archipelago. Karlag prisoners engaged in a wide variety of economic activities including agriculture, coal mining, limestone quarrying, glass manufacturing and food processing. At the end of 1943, a contingent of Russian-Germans mobilized into the labor army arrived at Karlag. By January 1944 they numbered 1,280 people including 488 women versus 50,080 convicted prisoners of which 20,572 were women. The labor army colonies in Karlag primarily worked in coal shaft no. 4. In January 1946, the NKVD demobilized the Russian-Germans working in the labor army at Karlag and reclassified them as special settlers. However, they still remained legally obligated to remain working in coal shaft no. 4 and other Karlag enterprises. The corrective labor camp complex in Karaganda Oblast continued to house prisoners for another thirteen years.

Source: A.A. German, "Sovetskie nemtsy v lageriakh NKVD v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny: Vklad v pobedy," Voenno-istoricheskie issledovania v Povolzh'e , Sb. Nauch., (Saratov: Izd-vo: "Nauchnaia kniga," 2006), Issue no. 7, p. 297.

AUCA Professor Murdered in Bishkek

An unidentified man stabbed Maciej Chowaniok two nights ago in Bishkek resulting in Chowaniok bleeding to death. A citizen of Poland, Chowaniok taught journalism at the American University of Central Asia and Kyrgyz National University. He was 28 years old.

Article on Anti-Nazi Sudeten Germans: There were over 200,000 of them

A very large number of the Sudeten Germans forcibly expelled from Czechoslovakia actively fought against the Nazis. This article from a Czech source suggests that the number was certainly over 200,000. The expulsion of the Sudeten Germans included not only Germans who actively fought against the Nazis, but also German speaking Jews. Like the Soviet deportation of the Russian-Germans to Kazakhstan and Siberia and the Israeli expulsion of the Palestinians it was a racially based policy.

More Bishkek Blackouts

The government promised that there would be no more power cuts after 1 November 2008 until spring 2009. This promise has already been breached several times. Last night the power went out at my flat. Over fourteen hours later when I left for work this morning it still had not come back on.

Unionize It!

Today I joined the new faculty union being organized here. It always felt weird to be working in a country that officially celebrates May Day and not have a union card. Workers of the World Unite!

Winter has Arrived

Last night it snowed again and today it is cold.

Strange Weather

Yesterday it rained hard. Last night it snowed. This morning it was cold. Now it is warm and sunny. Kyrgyzstan has even more radical weather changes than Arizona. At least there are no monsoons here.

New Link - Moon Brothers

I have been working as an historical consultant for the film Under Jakob's Ladder since summer. In order to keep posted on the progress of this project I suggest you check out the Moon Brothers' own blog. I have added a permanent link to their blog to my blog roll.

The Dollar is Up

In the last couple of weeks the dollar has been going up. It has risen from 34 to almost 39 som. This is very good news for me.

Commemoration of Karachai Deportation

Here is a link to an article describing the recent activities in Karachaevo-Circassia to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the deportation of the Karachais.

More on the Karachai Deportation

For those interested in the ethnic cleansing of the Karachais 65 years ago here are some of my earlier posts on the subject. The first one is another post on the actual deportation. The next one is on the Karachai "special settlers" in Kyrgyzstan. The final post is on the Karachais sent to work in the Pakhta Aral region on cotton farms. From November 1943 to November 1944, the Stalin regime conducted a serious of punitive deportations against the Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, and Meskhetian Turks. The Soviet government deported these nationalities in their entirety from their homelands to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and in the case of the Kalmyks to Siberia. Along with these wholesale deportations, the NKVD also ethnically cleansed Crimea of its Greek, Armenian and Bulgarian minorities and the border regions of Georgia of Kurds and Hemshins. I will try and cover the 65th anniversary of each of these deportations.

65 Years Since the Deportation of the Karachais

On 2 November 1943, Soviet security forces forcibly resettled almost the entire Karachai population of nearly 70,000 people from their North Caucasian homeland to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The Soviet government then dissolved the Karachai Autonomous Oblast and divided its land among other administrative territories. It also changed many of the geographical place names of within the region. It completed this ethnic cleansing by sending the Karachais living outside their national oblast or serving in the Red Army to join the rest of their kin in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In exile in Central Asia the Karachais came under a series of legal disabilities that separated them from most other Soviet citizens. Classified as “special settlers” the Soviet regime imposed severe restrictions on the residency and movement rights of the Karachais. They also lived in conditions of extreme poverty and thousands died prematurely of malnutrition, disease and exposure. In the years after Stalin’s death there arose a movement by Karachai activists to lobby Moscow for the right to return to their former homeland. The Soviet government allowed the Karachais to return home to the Caucasus only after 1957. They, however, did not restore the borders of the Karachai Autonomous Oblast. Instead the Soviet government created a Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast by combining most of the former territory of the Karachai Autonomous Oblast with the Cherkess Autonomous Oblast. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the Karachai population in exile in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan opted to return to their ancestral homeland during the next few years. By 1960 over 80% of the Karachai population lived in this new administrative region. For more than a dozen years virtually the entire Karachai population lived as exiles and second class Soviet citizens in Central Asia far from their Caucasian homeland.

New Mobile Phone

Ten months ago I purchased my first mobile phone. It was a used and older model Nokia. It cost me 1700 som. Yesterday it died. The battery refused to charge. My girlfriend said she could get me a brand new phone for less than 2000 som. I was skeptical, but sure enough while I was at work yesterday she found a brand new current model Nokia for 1800 som. So I am thinking that I got seriously ripped off on the first phone purchase. A lot of merchants here seem to have no moral compunctions about stealing from foreigners. It is a primary reason why there is so little foreign investment here.

Rashid Khalidi (Mein Doktorgrossvater)

I notice that Khalidi's name is all over the blogosphere. I do not know the man directly. He was, however, the Ph.D. supervisor of my own Ph.D. supervisor. Or as I like to call him, my Doktorgrossvater. I saw him speak once at SOAS. I thought his talk was very good. It was certainly not "radical" compared to many other speakers on Palestine at SOAS. Indeed, other than in the context of US politics, where any criticism of the State of Israel is taken as "radical" could Khalidi be considered anything, but a moderate. But, of course in the US even opposition to such extreme Israeli policies as torture and killing children is often denounced as "anti-semitism."

I have not read most of what Khalidi has written. But, what little I have read is quite impressive. For my Politics of the Middle East class this semester I assigned the piece below.

Khalidi, Rashid, “Observations on the Right of Return,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Winter 1992), pp. 29-40.