A Cold Narooz

Sunday was Narooz also known as Persian New Year or Vernal Equinox and it was cold. The day before it snowed all day. It is supposed to be Spring. But, we have had two heavy snow falls recently. Finally, today when I have to go back to work the weather is nice.

Unblocked Again, but who knows for how long

Blogger is again unblocked at work. Earlier it was blocked everywhere in the city. I thought the block was going to be permanent. But, evidently I can post today.

Vefa Center

It appears that where the old Ramstor used to stand there will be a third Beta Store. They are also building a new play area for kids. If it is free of charge then I am sure I will be taking Askarbek there frequently. If not then he will just have to keep going to the free places.

The Office

It appears that Blogger works fine in Bishkek outside of work. But, there seems to be no way to access it from work. So that means I will be posting infrequently from now on. This week is spring break, but I had to spend all day yesterday interviewing potential students for next year. Today I am not going into the office. I should get at least one day off.

Recent News

Since I last had access to Blogger I have been quite busy doing other things. In addition to teaching, grading and writing a never ending number of letters of reference for students; I have finished revising a journal article. I have also started working seriously on my next book project. I hope to make good progress on this last item during this week.

Spring Break

We are now officially on Spring Break. For some reason Blogger works at Vefa Center, but seems to be permanently blocked at work. At least it is not blocked in all of Bishkek.

It is nice to be appreciated even if your efforts are totally ineffective

I got the comment below on an older post today. Unfortunately, there is nothing effective I can do about the Turkmen government's travel ban and other unjust actions against AUCA students. All I can do is express my strongest opposition to these policies on this blog.

Thank you, Otto, for the worries about Turkmen AUCA students. I am one of your students, I took Comparative Politics from you and Emir last year. But now I am stuck here with the rest.. Anyways, I am glad that you have several posts, regarding our travel ban. Thank..

It is wicked cold now

While December and January were for the most part quite warm, February has been really cold. It has gotten so cold that Oksana went out and got me some long underwear. The extra layer helps a little bit, but it is still freezing.

Monday mornings seem to be unblocked

Blogger is unblocked now. It was blocked most of last week. However, a pattern may be emerging. For the last two Mondays I have been able to gain access to Blogger.

The Banality of Zionism

Today I taught Politics of the Middle East. This is the second time I have taught the class. The first time it was quite thrilling to be able to criticize Israel without being viciously attacked as happens to anybody in the US who openly holds a political position hostile to Zionism. But, here my views are considered part of the mainstream international opinion. Of course most people think that Israeli apartheid and dropping white phospherous on children are morally wrong. It is only in the US and obviously Israel that anybody else thinks differently. So now I am finding teaching the class less interesting. Most people outside the US not only view Israel's actions against the Palestinians as evil, but banal as well. Arendt was right on this much.

Excess Deaths among Deported Peoples in the USSR

Russian-Germans: 228,761 (1942-1952)

"Punished Peoples": 213,302 (1944-1952)
Ethnic Breakdown of "Punished Peoples"
Karachais: 13,141

Kalmyks: 12,564

Chechens: 125,477

Ingush: 20,284

Balkars: 7,594
Crimean Tatars: 34,242

Total: 442,064

Source: D.M. Ediev, Demograficheskie poteri deportirovannykh narodov SSSR (Stavropol': STGAU "AGRUS",2003), table 104, p. 294.

Quoted in Daily 49er (California State University Long Beach)

This comes at an interesting time since the abstract quoted is from an article I assigned to my Politics of the Middle East class last week. At any rate, Gerard Morel-Cruz, a graduate student of English and a writer for the paper quotes the abstract to my article "Socialist Racism: Ethnic Cleansing and Racial Exclusion in the USSR and Israel" in this last Sunday's online edition of the paper. So I guess at least one graduate student in the US has read something I have written. If I can only move that number up to a hundred.

Armored Frog

I only know a very little bit of Kyrgyz. Like almost everybody else of European descent in Kyrgyzstan I communicate in either Russian or English. Although my spoken Russian is far from perfect, it is the language I use when talking to Oksana and Askarbek. At this point neither of them know much more English than I know Kyrgyz. But, every so often I pick up a new word in Kyrgyz that I can actually pronounce. Yesterday I learned the word for turtle. It is tashbaka which literally means armored frog. I like that.

Sugar Stockpile

Oksana said there was a shortage of sugar in Kyrgyzstan and that prices were set to climb signficantly. So yesterday she purchased 20 kg of sugar at Osh Bazaar. I think we have enough sugar now to last us a while.

This time Blogger was only blocked for four days

Amazingly Blogger works today despite being blocked for the last four days. So with any luck I will be able to put up a couple of posts today. I am not sure how long it will remain unblocked.

Between a Journal Article and a Book

It seems to me that the average academic journal at 5-8 thousand words is too short and the average academic book at 80-100 thousand words is too long for some of the types of writing I would like to do. Right now I have just cut a journal article down from nearly 11 thousand words to under 8 thousand. But, if there were a publishing venue I could easily see writing pieces that are 20-30 thousand words. However, there seem to be no publishing outlets for academic works between the 8 thousand word maximum of a journal article and the 80 thousand words of a short monograph. Am I the only person who laments the absence of an intermediate length academic publication between these two extremes?

Today's Work

Today I only had one class to teach. The rest of the day I have been using to do other academic things. I marked up a few drafts sent to me by seniors writing their honor theses. I also have been revising the format, particularly the citation format of a journal article so I can submit it to a particular journal. I got about half way through the article converting the footnotes to in text citations. I must say revising citation formats is probably the least interesting part of writing.

Letters of Rec

I have had a lot of students ask me for reference letters for MA programs in the last couple of years. Looking through academic blogs I see that we are supposed to try and discourage students from attending graduate studies due to the very poor job market. But, to be honest I just write the letters and do not give any advice.

Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism Class

Currently my Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism class has the best discussions of any class I am teaching. This class is going much better than the last time I taught it. I think the fact that it has about half as many students this semester as it did a year and a half ago is a big reason for the improved discussions.

Hope Against Experience

I have applied for a promotion on the basis that I have had six scholarly pieces including two peer reviewed journal articles published since I started working at AUCA. I have also taught thirteen different courses since 2007. On my last student evaluations I got perfect scores for two classes, Russian Politics and Political Violence and Terrorism in Central Asia. Of course I have never seen any indication that research and teaching are in any way related to academic hiring and promotion. But, with a huge amount of luck and divine intervention I might possibly get the promotion.

Link on "German" Woman Deported to Tajikistan by Stalin

Here is a link to a very interesting article on a woman deported from Lithuania to Tajikistan by the Stalin regime because it viewed her as an ethnic German. Her mother was German and German is her native language. However, her father was a Lithuanian Jew and her mother formally converted to Judaism to marry him. She was born in Lithuania in 1938 and deported to Tajikistan in 1944. At any rate the story is a very good example of the proliferation of multiple identities in Central Europe during the 20th century. The woman in the story considers herself to be in various ways German, Jewish and Lithuanian.

Academic Journal Article Cites My Blog

The International Black Sea University in Tbilisi Georgia publishes a journal called IBSU Scientific Journal. Recently this journal published an article by Valeri Modebadze with the title, "Historical Background of Meskhetian Turks' Problem and Major Obstacles to the Repatriation Process." One of the citations in the article is to this blog. I have reproduced the bibliographic information for the blog post below.

Pohl, J. Otto, More Thoughts on Meskhetian Turks, (accessed 24 November 2008). Available from World Wide Web: http://jpohl.blogspot.com/2005/10/more-thoughts-on-meskhetian-turks.html.

Blogger Available Again

After nearly two weeks of being blocked I can again access blogger. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when blogger is available here. So there will be a few posts today, but then it may be a couple of weeks before I can post again.

Things I am Currently Teaching

This last two weeks I have been teaching Reconstruction in American History, the Mandate Period in Politics of the Middle East, the relationship between ethnicity and nationalism in Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism and the relationship between social class structure and democracy in Democratization.

Important Advice for Future Ph.D. Candidates

These instructions on how to write a Ph.D. dissertation are very funny. They also contain a lot of actual good advice like not spending extra years of your life trying to make the dissertation perfect. I did my Ph.D. in two years, but a lot of people seem to waste close to a decade completing the degree.

hat tip: Frogs and Ravens

How do I get Students to do the reading?

It is the second week of the semester and already I am having trouble getting students to do the reading. I do not want to assign weekly quizes because I feel that infantilizes the students. I would much rather treat them as adults. I also do not want to require them to write weekly summaries or responses to the reading because frankly with over 80 students it would be a lot of work to grade. On the other hand verbal cajoling to do the reading has so far been ineffective. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Snow

Saturday it was really warm here. But, yesterday and this morning we got quite a bit of snow. So it looks like winter has returned.

January has been really warm here

The weather this winter has been quite warm. In contrast two years ago I thought I was going to get frostbite most mornings. I much prefer the mild winter to the freezing one.

First Week Done

I just finished teaching my first week of classes of the semester. I also sent off to the publisher my first journal article of the semester. If teaching and research were the only things I had to do it would be a pretty easy life. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of stuff that is neither I have to do next week.

Mid-Week

I have now made it half way through the first work week of the year. Things have not been too hectic. I expect to be better into the flow of everything next week. Too many new things tend to pop up in the first week of the semester.

First Day of Classes

Monday Askarbek had his first day of pre-school. He brought home a picture of a snowman and a water color of a chicken. He also evidently received some English language instruction. He said he liked the class. That seemed to make his mother happy. If Askarbek is happy and his mother is happy then I am happy.

American History

It looks like I will be teaching American History from 1865 to Present as well this semester. I just finished revising the syllabus. Other than the fact that it is at eight in the morning it will be a pretty easy course to teach.

My Longest Student Evaluation Comment

Most of my student evaluation comments are pretty short. Like "GTO - Great Teacher Otto!" But, the one below goes into quite a bit of helpful detail.

"Otto Pohl is one of my favorite instructors!!!His classes are always interesting and I take out a lot of new things. He always ready to answer any question and his answers are clear. He is very polite and tries to invlove all students into class discussions. I would strongly suggest to other students to take his classes!"

GTO

I got this comment on a couple of my recent class evaluations.

"GTO - Great Teacher Otto!"

Spring 2010 Syllabi Are Now Up

As can be seen below my syllabi for next semester are now posted. Democratization remains basically unchanged from it previous incarnations. Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity is a 300 level rather than a 400 level class this semester. To reflect this change  I have  reduced the amount of reading and altered the writing assignments for the class. Politics of the Middle East has been upgraded from a 200 level to a 300 level class. I have thus added a significant amount of reading for the class.

Syllabus for Democratization

Democratization
ICP 329.5

3 credits

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

Spring Semester 2010

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Meeting Time: Monday 2:10 room 309 and Thursday 2:10 room 229

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 that 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 three thematic sections students will have to write a reflection paper of between 800 and 1000 words. The first reflection paper should be on the general problems of developing and maintaining democracy. The second one should on unique problems faced in the former Soviet Union to democratizing. Finally, the third one should be on the problems faced in developing democratic systems in the Middle East. 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 three 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 one letter grade for each day they are late. 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.

Plagiarism Policy:  I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying 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 five 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, endnote 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. 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, endnote 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 – 20% (Due last week of class
Oral report on research – 10%
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.

General History and Theory of Democracy

Week Two: Read “Where and How Did Democracy Develop?: A Brief History” (chapter one), pp. 7-25 and Read “Democracy and Social Classes” (chapter one) in Tom Bottomore, pp. 12-27.

Week Three: Read “The Twisted Path” (chapter two) in Fareed Zakaria, pp. 59-87.

Week Four: Read “The Democratic Route to Modern Society” (chapter seven) in Barrington Moore, Jr., 413-432.

Week Five: Read “Globalization and Ethnic Hatred” (introduction) in Amy Chua, pp. 1-17. The first reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week.

Eurasia


Week Six: Read “Unintended Consequences: Economic Crisis and Social Awakening” (chapter four) in Robert Strayer, pp. 132-171.

Week Seven: Read “Strategies for Ethnic Accord in Post-Soviet States” (chapter thirteen) in Valery Tishkov, pp. 272-293.

Week Eight: Read “Epilogue: Memory” in Anne Applebaum, pp. 505-514 and conclusion of Lynne Viola, pp. 183-193. The second reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week.

The Middle East


Week Nine: Read Marina Ottaway “The Missing Constituency for Democratic Reform” (chapter eight), pp. 151-169.

Week Ten: Read “The Third Republic: Turkey since 1980” (chapter fifteen) in Erik J. Zurcher, pp. 292-342.

Week Eleven: Read “Iran: Revolutionary Islam in Power” (chapter three) in John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, pp. 52-77. The third reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week

Student Research


Week Twelve: Student oral presentations.

Week Thirteen: Student oral presentations continued.

Week Fourteen: Student oral presentations continued.

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

Update on Askarbek's Schooling

It turns out Friday was just registration for pre-school. The actual classes start Monday. In the mean time I have been trying to teach Askarbek some English.

Syllabus for Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity

Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity
ICP 385

3 Credits

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

Spring Semester 2010

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D

Meeting Time: Monday at 3:35 room 309 and Thursday 3:35 room 229

Course Description: This course will cover the relationship between the overlapping and interrelated concepts of ethnicity, nationalism and race. It will focus on the dynamics involved in transforming ethnic categories into national or racial ones. Throughout the course we will examine the cultural basis of ethnicity, the political claims upon territory by nationalists, and the essential and primordial definitions of racial groups created and enforced by the state. Among the topics that will be covered in this examination are the creation and survival of national diasporas, ethnic cleansing and genocide, and the construction of modern nation-states.

Requirements: This course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussions, three short reflection papers, a research paper and an oral report. The reflection papers should be between 600 and 800 words. The research paper should be between 1500 and 2000 words. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late. 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 can be found on JSTOR. Finding these articles using the bibliographic information provided below is part of the assigned work for this class.

Plagiarism Policy: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying 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 five 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, endnote 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. 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, endnote 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:

Class participation – 20%
Three reflection papers – 45% (15% each)
Oral report on research paper – 10%
Written version of research paper – 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 Course and Review of Syllabus

Weeks Two and Three: Ethnicity and Nationalism

Calhoun, Craig, “Nationalism and Ethnicity,” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 19 (1993), pp. 211-239.

Connor, Walker, “Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?,” World Politics, Vol. 24, No. 3 (April 1972), pp. 319-355.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, “Ethnicity Versus Nationalism,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 28, No. 2 (August 1991), pp. 263-278.

Smith, Anthony D., “Culture, Community and Territory: The Politics of Ethnicity and Nationalism,” International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 1996), pp. 445-458.

Weeks Four and Five: Diasporas

Armstrong, John, “Mobilized and Proletarian Diasporas,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 70, No. 2 (June 1976), pp. 393-408.

Clifford, James, “Diasporas,” Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 9, No. 3, (August 1994), pp. 302-338.

Cohen, Robin, “Diasporas and the Nation-State: From Victims to Challengers,” International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 1996), pp. 507-520.

Van Den Berghe, Pierre, L. “The African Diaspora in Mexico, Brazil and the United States,” Social Forces, Vol. 54, No. 3 (March 1976), pp. 530-545. The first reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Weeks Six and Seven: Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide

Bryant, Chad, “Either German or Czech: Fixing Nationality in Bohemia and Moravia, 1939-1946,” Slavic Review, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Winter 2002), pp. 683-70.

Hayden, Robert M., “Schindler’s Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers,” Slavic Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 727-748.

Mirkovic, Damir, “Ethnic Conflict and Genocide: Reflections on Ethnic Cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 548 (November 1996), pp. 191-199.

Wood, William, “Geographic Aspects of Genocide: A Comparison of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 26, No. 1 (2001), pp. 57-75

Weeks Eight: Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR

Martin, Terry, “The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 70, No. 4 (December 1998), pp. 813-861.

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

Williams, Brian Glyn, “The Hidden Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims in the Soviet Union: The Exile and Repatriation of the Crimean Tatars,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 37, No. 3 (July 2002), pp. 323-347.

Week Nine: Ethnicity and Race in the USSR

Hirsch, Francine, “Race without the Practice of Racial Politics,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 30-43.

Lemon, Alaina, “Without a ‘Concept?’ Race as Discurvsive Practice,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 54-61.

Weiner, Amir, “Nothing but Certainty,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 44-53.

Weitz, Eric D., “Racial Politics without the Concept of Race: Reevaluating Soviet Ethnic and National Purges,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 1-29.

Weitz, Eric D., “On Certainties and Ambivalencies: Reply to my Critics,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 62-65. The second reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Week Ten and Eleven: Soviet and Post-Soviet Nation Building

Blitstein, Peter, “Cultural Diversity and the Interwar Conjuncture: Soviet Nationality Policy in Its Comparative Context,” Slavic Review, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 273-293.

Handrahan, L.M., “Gendering Ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan: Forgotten Elements in Promoting Peace and Democracy,” Gender and Development, Vol. 9, No. 3 (November 2001), pp. 70-78.

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

Suny, Ronald Grigor, “Constructing Primordialism: Old Histories for New Nations,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 73, No. 4 (December 2001), pp. 862-896. The third reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Weeks Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen: Student Presentations

Week Fifteen: Written Version of Research Paper due on Thursday and Concluding Remarks

Educating Askarbek

Askarbek went to his first day of pre-school today. Yesterday Oksana got him a small black back pack with a Chinese knock off of Ultraman on it. So he looked really cool getting ready for his first day of pre-school. I have been at work all afternoon so I do not yet know how it went. But, I hope it went well. I have great expectations for the boy. He is extremely intelligent. We are hoping to send him to kindergarten in September after he turns six.

Syllabus for Politics of the Middle East

Politics of the Middle East

ICP

324

3 Credits

Spring Semester 2010

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Meeting Time: Tuesday 2:10 in room 216 and Friday 2:10 in room 125

Course Description: This course will cover modern political developments in the Arab states, Israel/Palestine, Turkey and Iran since the First World War. In particular the course will focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict with an emphasis on the central role played by Palestinian resistance to Zionist ethnic cleansing and colonization. It will also cover the rise of various forms of nationalism in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The course will then contrast the political developments in these Arab states with those in Turkey in Iran. Finally, the class will conclude with a discussion of the current war in Iraq.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, two short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. There will be three short reflection papers of 600 to 800 words. The first reflection paper should be on the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem in 1948 and why it still remains a salient issue in the Middle East. The second reflection paper should be on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Palestinian strategies of resistance. The third reflection paper should be on the ongoing war in Iraq and present an evaluation of the success of the US and British occupation strategies. Students will also have to complete a 1500 to 2000 word research paper on some aspect of Middle Eastern politics. The research paper is due the last week of class. In the three 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 one letter grade for each day they are late. 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 the required readings are contained in the course packets.

Plagiarism Policy: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying 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 five 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, endnote 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. 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, endnote 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:

Class participation – 20%
Three reflection papers – 45% (15% each)
Oral report on research paper – 10%
Written version of research paper- 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 Course and Review of Syllabus

Week Two: The Mandate Period

Hourani, Albert “The Climax of European Power (1914-1939)” in A History of the Arab Peoples (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1991), pp. 315-332.

Andersen, Roy R., Seibert, Robert F., and Wagner, Jon G., “The Rise of the State System: 1914-1950” in Politics and Change in the Middle East: Sources of Conflict and Accommodation (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1982), pp. 74-93.

Week Three: The 1948 War and the Lasting Legacy of the Palestinian Refugees

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

Alshaibi, Sama, “Memory Work in the Palestinian Diaspora,” Frontiers, Vol. 27, No. 2 (2006), pp. 30-53.

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

Week Four: Palestine Continued: Ethnic Cleansing in International Perspective

Falah, Ghazi, “The 1948 Israeli-Palestinian War and Its Aftermath: The Transformation and De-Signification of Palestine’s Cultural Landscape,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 86, No. 2 (June 1996), pp. 256-285.

Pohl, J. Otto, “Socialist Racism: Ethnic Cleansing and Racial Exclusion in the USSR and Israel,” Human Rights Review (April-June 2006), pp. 60-80. The first reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Week Five: Israel and its Arab and Oriental Jewish Populations

Rouhana, Nadim and Ghanem, Asad, “The Crises of Minorities in Ethnic States: The Case of Palestinian Citizens in Israel,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (August 1998), pp. 321-346.

Shohat, Ella, “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims,” Social Text, No. 19/20 (Autumn 1988), pp. 1-35.

Yiftachel, Oren, “‘Ethnocracy’ and its Discontents: Minorities, Protests, and the Israeli Polity,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer 2000), pp. 725-756.

Week Six: Egypt under Nasser

Cleveland, William, “The Middle East in the Age of Nasser: The Egyptian Base” (Chapter 15) in A History of the Modern Middle East, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), pp. 284-303.

Week Seven: Political Islam

Milton-Edwards, Beverly, “Past, Present and Future Politics: Political Islam” (Chapter 5) in Contemporary Politics in the Middle East (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2006), pp. 134-158

Week Eight: Nationalism in the Arab East

Devlin, John, “The Baath Party: Rise and Metamorphosis,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 96, No. 5 (December 1991), pp. 1396-1407.

Salibi, Kamal, “The Lebanese Identity,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1971), pp. 76-86.

Week Nine: The 1967 War and the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Kimmerling, Baruch and Migdal, Joel, S., “Steering a Path under Occupation” (chapter nine), The Palestinian People: A History, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), pp. 274-311.

Gallagher, Nancy, “Lessons from the Algerian War of Independence,” Middle East Report, No. 225 (Winter 2002), pp. 44-49.

Andoni, Lamis, “Searching for Answers: Gaza’s Suicide Bombers,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer 1997), pp. 33-45. The second reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Weeks Ten: Turkey and Iran

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

Keddie, Nikki, “The Revolution” (chapter 9) in Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).

Week Eleven: The War in Iraq

International Crisis Group, “Where is Iraq Heading? Lessons from Basra,” Middle East Report No. 67 (25 June 2007), pp. 1-19. The third reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Weeks Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen: Student Oral Presentations

Week Fifteen: Concluding Remarks and Final Paper Due.

Vefa Center

I live close to Vefa Center, a three story shopping mall. Since New Year's Day, the large supermarket there, Ramstor has been closed. I am not sure when or if it will reopen. Yesterday, the book store closed. It will not be reopening. The advantages of living close to Vefa Center seem to be dwindling fast.

Back to Work

I came into the office today for the first time in several days. I finished up my journal article on the Crimean Tatars. Now I have to do some revisions on my syllabi.

2010

It is now 2010. So far this year I have not done much. I did a little bit of work on a journal article I hope to finish before classes start again on the eleventh, but that is it. I only have three classes to teach this semester so I hope I can make some progress on a new book project.

Vacation

The school is closed right now and I do not intend to go back to work until after the New Year. Instead I am spending the time with Oksana and Askarbek. Today Askarbek and I went shopping at Vefa and the little bazaar behind our apartment.

The Other Accordion Player

There is a blind Kyrgyz accordion player on my street. He only plays during the day so I usually do not see him. However, since the end of classes I have been arriving at work later and going home earlier so I see him more often. I always make sure to tip him in coins so he can hear the money drop into his collection box.

Are University Administrations More Lenient Towards Plagiarism Today Than 20 Years Ago?

In my most recent post on plagiarism, Walt commented that he felt there has been a significant change in administration culture in the last fifteen years. That is today university administrations are generally far more lenient towards plagiarism than they were two decades ago. My sense is that this is true. But, I have limited data points. So my question to anybody involved in education is has there been a signficant cultural change allowing for the tolerance of plagiarism by university administrators and if there has been when did it happen?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Today there was a New Year's party for the children of employees of the university. I took Askarbek to it. He really liked the person dressed up in the Shrek suit. The party was held in the big concert hall with the giant portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin. There is a blank spot where Stalin's portrait was painted over during the Khrushchev era. Tomorrow is Christmas for Catholics and Protestants here and I am taking the day off from work. I will be back at the grindstone on Boxing Day.

A Good Link on Russian-Germans Deported to Kazakhstan

In keeping with the theme of the last post Reuters recently carried a very good story on Russian-Germans deported to Kazakhstan by Stalin.

Mortality Rates Among Soviet Deportees 1941-1945 Part II: Russian-Germans

The Russian-Germans deported during the fall of 1941 also suffered extremely high death rates during the Second World War. On 2 June 1942, the NKVD gave the number of Russian-Germans deported to special settlement restrictions as 807,293 (Zemskov, p. 97). By 1 January 1945, the number of Russian-Germans counted as special settlers had declined to 496,811. Part of the loss can be explained by the reclassification of Russian-German special settlers as members of the labor army. The total number of Russian-Germans serving in the labor army on 1 January 1945 reached 105,268 people (Zemskov, table 21, p. 119). This means that between 1942 and 1945 the number of Russian-German special settlers and labor army conscripts declined from 807,293 people to 602,079, a drop of 205,214 people or over 25%. Again as in the case of deportees from the Baltic States in 1941 there are no large scale releases of Russian-Germans during this time. Given this fact we can assume that the vast majority of the missing deportees perished due to malnutrition, disease and exposure. One additional thing to bear in mind is that not all of the 105,268 men and women in the labor army in 1945 were part of the original 807,293 Russian-Germans deported from west of the Urals. A large number of them were conscripted from the local Russian-German populations already living in Siberia, the Urals, Kazakhstan and Central Asia in 1941. The actual number of deaths among the deported Russian-Germans is thus greater than implied by the figures given above. In less than four years over a quarter of the Russian-Germans deported from western regions of the USSR perished. Again these are extremely high mortality rates under any circumstances.

Source:

V.N. Zemskov, Spetsposelentsy v SSSR: 1930-1960 (Moscow: Nauk, 2005).

Mortality Rates Among Soviet Deportees 1941-1945 Part I: Baltic States, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine

Between 14 May and 15 September 1941, the NKVD forcibly deported 85,716 people from the Baltic States, Moldova, western Ukraine and western Belarus to Siberia, Kazakhstan and Kirov Oblast as "anti-Soviet elements". The contingent sent to Kirov Oblast consisted of 2,049 people from Estonia (Zemskov, pp. 90-91). The total number of deportees from these western regions is confirmed in an NKVD report dated 2 June 1942 (Zemskov, p. 97). By 1 October 1945, this number had been reduced to 43,099 people (Zemskov, p. 115). This represents a loss of over half the deported population. There are no records of any large scale releases of deportees from this contingent which consisted of 27,887 people from Belarus, 22,648 from Moldova, 12,682 from Lithuania, 9,595 from Ukraine, 9,236 from Latvia and 3,668 people from Estonia (Zemskov, p. 91). The deportees from Belarus and Ukraine in this contingent are seperate from the contingent of the 132,458 Polish settlers, 75,662 Polish refugees (mostly Jewish) and 66,000 family members of Polish military officers and government officials deported in 1940-1941 that had all been released by a decree from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued on 12 August 1941 (Zemskov, p. 97 and pp. 89-90). The 2 June 1942 NKVD report confirms that these other contingents from eastern Poland had in fact been released (Zemskov, p. 97). All evidence points to deaths from malnutrition, disease and exposure as the reason for the overwhelming majority of losses among the missing 42,617 deportees from the Baltic States, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. This represents an average mortality rate of over 12% a year or 1% a month. The losses for the Estonians sent to Kirov Oblast were a little less than half of the average for the total contingent. The NKVD counted 1,553 deportees from Estonia in Kirov Oblast  on 1 October 1945 (Zemskov, p. 115). This represents a loss of 496 people or 24% of those deported in 1941. These are truly staggering losses even by Stalinist standards.

Source:

V.N. Zemskov, Spetsposelentsy v SSSR: 1930-1960 (Moscow: Nauka, 2005).

Unblocked Again

After nearly two weeks of being blocked, Blogger is again available today. As I explained earlier this seems to be a chronic problem. But, today it seems to be working so I will put up a couple of posts.

Another surge in the war on plagiarism

In my American Presidency class I have had to fail four students out of twenty for multiple cases of plagiarism so far. In my own department, International and Comparative Politics, I have not found any cases of plagiarism so far this semester. It appears that the ICP department has become a plagiarism free zone, but the rest of the university lags seriously behind.

Final Day of Classes

Today is the last day of classes before winter break. I just have one more class with six more presentations. Then it is back to working on a huge stack of grading, recommendations and other student related work.

Question

Just out of curiousity how many of my blog readers have read anything else I have written?

I will not be allowing any more of that

Today due to extreme student procrastination I had to listen to 13 student presentations in one hour. From now on I am not allowing any students to delay oral assignments without serious penalties. Inevitably too many people want to go on the last day possible. Next semester I will be assigning specific days to students for oral presentations and those not ready on their designated day will get a zero. Such draconian measures regarding written assignments have generally been effective in the past.

More Late Geek Blogging: District Nine

I saw District Nine this weekend. One thing that struck me was how inefficient private enterprise is compared to state socialism when it comes to ethnic cleansing. The corporate mercenaries in the movie allow themselves to be stymied by a pitifully small amount of armed resistance. This would never happen under a proper socialist regime. Stalin forcibly removed nearly 70,000 Karachais in a single day, more than 90,000 Kalmyks in two days, over 180,000 Crimean Tatars in three days, and close to 500,000 Chechens and Ingush in six days. Needless to say the Chechens put up far more armed resistance to Soviet rule than the aliens in District Nine did against a handful of South African mercenaries.

Quince Juice

Friday, I went to the supermarket to buy some juice. I purchased a liter of peach juice which is pretty common here in Bishkek. I also purchased a liter of juice made from a fruit I do not think I have ever consumed before, quince. It tasted a bit like tart apple juice.

It was too good to last

Today it is dark and wet again. So much for the nice weather. I knew it was too good to last.

The Weather is Nice Again

Even though it is cold here in Bishkek today the sky is clear and the sun is shining. After a long string of dark, stormy and wet days this is a very welcome change. I hope it lasts for a few more days.

Recent Doings

Recently I have been busy at work grading papers, helping students with research papers and writing letters of recommendation. As a result I have not had much time to do much serious writing either for the blog or other media. I hope to remedy this later in the month during winter break.

Classes I am Teaching Next Semester

Next semester I am teaching the following classes.

Politics of the Middle East

Democratization

Ethnicity, Nationalism and Race

End of the Semester is Near

There are only two more weeks left of the semester until classes are done. Then there is finals week which I will use to grade papers. After that I get three weeks off from teaching.

Back to Normalcy

Oksana and Askarbek came home last night. The boy has been watching Tom and Jerry cartoons all morning. For some reason Tom and Jerry was very popular in the Soviet Union and continues to be in Central Asia today.

Under Jakob's Ladder makes Poughkeepsie Journal

The Poughkeepsie Journal has an article about the most unsual actor in Under Jakob's Ladder. The film like all good prison movies has rats in it. One particular rat in the movie is a pet of one of the prisoners and named Stockings. The article on Stockings is below. Unfortunately Stockings is dying and will not be appearing in any future films.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20091122/LIFE/911220315/1005/Stockings--a-rat--makes-her-movie-debut

Former Turkmen Students at AUCA Banned from Foreign Travel for Five years

According to the article below a number of my former students now trapped in Turkmenistan and unable to continue their education have been legally banned from travelling abroad for five years.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav111309b.shtml

Blogger availability has been erratic

The availability of Blogger from Bishkek recently has been erratic to say the least. Today it is available from work, but this has become a rarity in recent weeks. So if I do not post anything for long stretches of a time it is because it has again become impossible to access Blogger in Bishkek.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving and the university is closed. But, blogger still seems to be blocked at work, I am not sure why. At any rate this year I am thankful for Oksana, Askarbek and Aliya. This last week Askarbek was at his grandmother's and the place seemed really empty with just two of us in the tiny apartment. Currently they are out of town, but Oksana and the boy will be back home next week.

Finally Blogger is Unblocked

For the last eleven days Blogger has been blocked in all of Bishkek and I assume all of Kyrgyzstan. I do not know why. But, it is now available again.

Raspberry Flavoured M&Ms

Yesterday I found raspberry flavoured M&Ms for sale at the lunch counter at work. I thought they were pretty good, but one of my students described them as the taste of "total perversion."

New Publication in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism

My article, "Volk auf dem Weg: Transnational Migration of the Russian-Germans from 1763 to the Present Day," has now been published in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 9, No. 2, 2009.

It is now Winter in Bishkek

Yesterday it snowed all day. I do not think we will be getting many more warm days here in Bishkek for the rest of the year. I also hope they turn the heat on soon. My flat is freezing.

I actually took two days off this weekend!

I decided not to work on Sunday either. I am pretty sure that is the longest stretch of time I have gone without working since January. Instead I spent the weekend with my girlfriend and her son. He is now starting to recite parts of Green Eggs and Ham

Revolution Day

Tommorrow is the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. That means that I get the day off. It of course falls on a Saturday this year. But, since I normally have to work on weekends, I am still counting it as a day off. After all the other two days I get off are Catholic and Orthodox Easter, both of which fall on a Sunday.

71 Years Since Stalin Murdered Yusup (Jusup) Abdrakhmanov

Probably more than any other individual Abdrakhmanov is responsible for the creation of modern Kyrgyzstan. Although only 18 at the time he was instrumental in the creation of the Mountain Kara-Kyrgyz Oblast within the Turkestan ASSR in 1922. This territory, however, only included the northern regions of present day Kyrgyzstan. The status of the present day oblasts of Bakten, Osh, and Jalal-Abad still remained unresolved at this time. Two years later Abdrakhmanov played an important role in the formation of the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast within the RSFSR. This second territory provided defined borders and state structures for the Kyrgyz people for the first time in modern history. Abdrakhmanov became the second secretary of the Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of this newly formed state formation.

On 25 March 1925, the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast became the Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast and on 1 February 1926 it became the Kyrgyz ASSR. Abdrakhmanov at age 23 became the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissariarts of this newly upgraded territory. His responsibilities included questions of land, finance, education, labor and the workers and peasants inspectorate. In 1933, the Stalin regime removed Abdrakhmanov from his post after falsely accusing him of abusing his position and transferred him to work first in Samara and then Orenburg. In 1937 he was again falsely accused by the Stalin regime. This time of having been a member of Alash-Orda. He was arrested and transferred to Frunze (Bishkek) for trial. On 5 November 1938, the Stalin regime executed Abdrakhmanov for his alleged membership in this party. He was 34 years old. The Khrushchev administration later formally rehabilitated Abdrakhmanov in 1958.

Source:

O. Dzh. Osmonov, Istoriia Kyrgyzstana: Kratkii kurs (Bishkek: Ministry of Education and Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic, 2003), pp. 206-217.

AUCA-Manas Agreement?

Today the front page of the student newspaper, New Star, has an article about what appears to be some sort of agreement between AUCA and the US military base at Manas. This is the first I was aware that there was any proposal for the university to openly cooperate with the US military. The article does not give much information and it has a lot of grammer and spelling errors, but I have reproduced it in its entirety below.

Sharing Common Interests

Students of American University visited the Manas Transit Center on October 17 with aim to start off the corroboration between two institutions. The visit was initiated by Tomas Joyes, the colonel order to raise awareness and understanding between representatives of American military and students of American University in Central Asia First meeting gave ideas for mutual collaboration. The military workers are planning to attend AUCA initiation ceremony and AUCA students in return will visit the Transit Center on Thanksgiving. The existing Manas Air base was renamed into Manas Transit Center in 2009, in order to clarify the function of the center in Kyrgyzstan. The main function of the Center is to operates transition of fuel, cargo and troops from USA to Afghanistan and backwards. Around 1800 military workers, both soldiers and technicians can go throw base to the country of their destination. The number of workers of the center made up from 1100 American military workers, of 200 European military workers and 700 Kyrgyz people who work on the center on different positions.

Ryskulova Nargiza

If anybody has any additional information regarding this "mutual collaboration" could you please let me know.

Registration for next semester

Today was the first day of registration for next semester's classes. So I spent much of the day signing my name over and over again. I will be teaching Politics of the Middle East, Democratization, and Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism.

Russian Government Backtracks on Full Rehabilitation of Stalin

The Russian government has now publicly distanced itself from the full rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin. Medvedev recently strongly criticized the late Soviet dictator. See the BBC story in the URL below for more details.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8334009.stm

Picture of me and two students

This is a picture from a while ago when everybody in the photograph was younger.

Late Geek Blogging: Watchmen

I finally saw Watchmen. I know all the real geeks saw it when it came out in the summer, but I see no reason to rush these things. For the record I have never read the comic book on which the movie is based. But, I did like the movie. I especially liked Dr. Manhattan. Since he achieved victory in Vietnam I bet he could do the same in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course Dr. Manhattan does not actually exist so the US might need some other strategy. However, I see nothing remotely as promising as having a big, blue, naked, radioactive guy march upon the enemy and blow them to pieces.

Why am I at work on a Saturday?

Yesterday I finished writing a journal article. Today I came into the office, but I have found myself completely unmotivated to do any actual work. Since it is Saturday and still fall break I am going to cease trying to get anything productive done today. Maybe I will have some motivation tomorrow. If not then work will have to wait until Monday like it does for everybody else.

Why is Rawls so boring?

Recently I tried reading John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, but have been unable to get past the first fifty pages. It is so boring. The other night I read about ten pages and lost all consciousness. It was like I injested a handful of Benadryl. I do not understand why he is so highly regarded. The ideas in the first fifty pages could have been presented in one paragraph.

Truly Random Events in my Life

Two of my Afghan students gave me a jar of fresh chili paste. It tastes like very good Mexican salsa. I have been eating it on Russian style rye bread for the last week.

Yesterday, I went to a kalian (hookah) lounge with some friends. If you are looking for good flavor combinations try watermelon and mint. Also quite good is melon with mint. In fact my new policy is mint in all my shisha blends.

I have spent most of fall break working. The afternoon I took off yesterday to go smoke minty fruits is the closest thing to a vacation I have gotten since January. I am hoping to be able to take some time off before I turn forty.

Link to my editorial on Suprun

The link below will take you to an abridged German translation of an editorial I wrote on the historical context of the recent persecution of Mikhail Suprun and Aleksandr Dudarev. You can see by the use of brackets and elipses that they cut out quite a bit due to length. However, if you go to the sidebars on the right you can get the complete English language original and its German translation in PDF format.

http://www.ornis-press.de/zurueck-in-die-zeit-des-grossen-schweigens.1196.0.html

More on Russian-German Gulag victims

Below is another memory book entry regarding ethnic Germans who perished in the Viatlag camps. Between 1938 and 1956 a total of 2,309 Germans, mostly Volga Germans, perished from hunger, disease and shootings in the Viatlag complex. Of this number only 540 were ever convicted by Soviet courts, the vast majority, 1,487 were special settlers and members of the labor army. Another 282 died while still under investigation before being convicted (Berdinskikh, p. 394). The single greatest year for mortality was 1942 with 1,185 deaths among ethnic Germans in Viatlag (Berdinskikh, p. 398). This year also saw 2,265 Russian-German deaths in Bogoslav, 302 in Tagillag and 925 in Usollag (Krieger, pp. 145-146). A recorded total of 11,874 Russian-Germans conscripted into the labor army died in NKVD camps during 1942 (German, table 4, p. 180). Some of these victims have been identified and their fate has been published in various memory books such as those for Viatlag. Mikhail Suprun and Aleksandr Dudarev were attempting to assemble a memory book for the ethnic Germans in the camps and special settlements of Arkhangelsk Oblast before the FSB confiscated their research. On 20 March 1949 there were 11,275 Russian-German special settlers in that region. Among this group were 809 Russian-Germans deported as kulaks during the early 1930s, 9,300 forcibly repatriated from Germany in 1945 and 1946 including 385 that had joined Andrei Vlaslov's Russian Liberation Army, 835 mobilized into the labor army, and 295 non-Germans sent into internal exile with German family members (Zemskov, pp. 127-128). Documenting the indivdual fate of these men and women is an important historical project which the Russian government currently seeks to make illegal.

Bezel

Albert Viktorovich

Born 1901 in city of Kamyshin (Pushkin Street, Building 20) Stalingrad/Volgorad oblast (Rossiia), German, citizen of USSR, white collar class background, education – 4 grades (Krasnokutsk gymnasium 1916), non-party, book keeper, white collar worker (chief book keeper city housing administration and reconstruction office), lived in city of Engles(?) Volga German ASSR, married, 1 child (son), convicted, sentenced in January 1941 by Supreme court of the Volga German ASSR under article 109 UK RSFSR (abuse of his official position, violating financial discipline) to 6 months forced labor with deduction of 25% of salary, sentence served in place of residence, served in RKKA (28 May – 10 October 1941, technical-quartermaster 2nd rank, active army, Western front, 320th artillery regiment), removed to reserves and exiled as a “person of German nationality”, place of settlement (from 17 November 1941) – Rossiia, Krasnoiarsk krai, city Minunsinsk, Lenin Street, building 160, labor army man, mobilized 25 January 1942 by Minunsinsk district military command, arrived in Viatlag 16 February 1942 from Krasnoiarsk, used for book keeping work in the financial section (12th lumber preparation detachment),confined under guard 16 July 1943 by chekist-operative section of Viatlag after being accused of “counterrevolutionary crimes” (“anti-soviet agitation”), sentenced 29 January 1944 by Special board of the NKVD USSR under article 58 point 10-2 UK RSFSR (“anti-soviet defeatist agitation”) to eight years of deprivation of freedom, started sentence 16 July 1943, was to finish sentence - 16 July 1951, died 25 March 1944 of tuberculosis of the lungs and alimentary dystrophy of the third degree, 12th camp point, station Ima (branch No. 15), rehabilitated 13 October 1989, archive personal file - No. 2515-m. (Reproduced in Berdinskikh, pp. 360-361.)

Sources:

V.A. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005).

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.

Viktor Krieger, “Einsatz im Zwangsarbeitslager,” in Alfred Eisfeld, ed., Von der Autonomiegrundung zur Verbannung und Entrechtung. Die Jahre 1918 und 1941 bis 1948 in der Geschichte der Deutschen in Russland (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 2008).

V.N. Zemskov, Spetsposelenty v SSSR, 1930-1960 (Moscow: Nauk, 2003).

Fall Break

This next week is fall break. I am going to try and catch up on everything during this time since I do not have any classes to teach. This includes all those letters of recommendation I need to write for students.

Another Memory Book Entry

Here is another memory book entry taken from the same source as the one in my previous post.

Gaan

Genrich (Gennadii) Davidovich

Born 1917 in village of Mannheim (Mannheim – Mainskoe) Gnadenfliur canton(Federovsk district/?/) Volga German ASSR – Saratov Oblast (Rossiia) German, citizen USSR (according to him a citizen of Germany), from poor peasant class, education middle specialist (Krasnokutsk agro-technical school, Volga German ASSR 1937), candidate member of VKP (b) [All Union Communist Party (Bolshevik)] since 1939, agronomist, white collar worker (participating agronomist in Gnadenfliur machine-tractor station Volga German ASSR 1937-1940), married, lived in place of birth, from August 1940 – in RKKA (Red Army soldier 518th rifle regiment 129th rifle division), from 18.07.41 – in German POW camp, from 20.07.1941 – in German army (translator for commander of 733rd artillery division), captured and placed in POW camp 02.02.1943 by section of the RKKA at the Stalingrad front, arrested 17.04.1943 by Dubonsk district department UNKVD [Administration of Peoples Commissariat of Internal Affairs] Stalingrad oblast, sentenced 30.07.1943 by the military tribunal of the Stalingrad garrison under article 58 point 1-b UK RSFSR (treason to the motherland by military personnel) to 10 years deprivation of freedom and five years deprivation of rights with confiscation of property, began sentence 20.04.1943, was to finish sentence on 20.04.1953, arrived in Viatlag 09.01.1944 from Stalingrad (Volgograd), employed as a lumberjack (5th and 8th camp points), classified on 31.07.1945 as 4th (“nonworking”) category of work suitability (a traumatic injury to the spleen) died 14.08.1945 from tuberculosis of the lungs ([technical medical terms I do not understand in English yet alone Russian]), 4th camp point (“sangorodok”) settlement Polevoi-2, grave No. O-12, archive personal file - No. 74759 (26 pages).

Source:

V.A. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005), doc. 2, pp. 415-416.

Entry from a Memory Book

Since The Guardian ran an article on Thursday about the Russian government's persecution of Suprun and Dudarev the story seems to have gone viral. Almost all the new links are based on the article in The Guardian so I am not going to link to them. Instead I am going to provide some examples of exactly what got Suprun in trouble with the Russian government. He was compiling a memory book of the ethnic German victims of the Gulag labor camps and special settlements in Arkhangelsk. Memory books have been published in Russia before. They are nothing more than collections of basic biographical data of Stalin's victims. Sometimes they merely reproduce the information contained in the personal files of the victims. The entry below on Filipp Martinovich Ganzen (Genzen) was first published in a memory book dealing with ethnic Germans in Viatlag, Martirologa "Nemtsy v Viatlage", compiled by V. I. Verem’ev. It was later reproduced in V.I. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005), doc. 1, pp. 412-413. The translation below is my own and I have attempted to stay as close as possible to the literal rendering of Soviet jargon and euphemisms as possible. For instance alimentary dystrophy is a fancy way of saying starvation. The swelling form of alimentary dystrophy is the familiar image people my age have of children starving to death in Ethiopia during the 1980s as a result of that country's communist government emulating Stalin's agricultural policies.

Ganzen (Genzen)

Filipp Martinovich

Born in 1904 in the village of Mariental/Sovetskoe Mariental canton/Sovetskogo district Volga German ASSR/Saratov oblast (Rossiia), German, citizen of the USSR, from working (artisan-peasant/?/) class, education – four grades (1912-1916), non-party, fireman (chief of fire fighters), married, 3 children (two daughters and a son), lived in place of birth, exiled in September 1941 as “a person of German nationality”, place of exile – village of Uralka (?) Ordynsk village soviet Tiukhtetsk district Krasnoiarsk krai (Rossiia), labor army man, mobilized 23. 01. 1942 by Tiukhtetsk district military command, arrived in Viatlag 16. 02. 1942 from Krasnoiarsk, employed in fire fighting and general work (9th lumber preparation detachment), sentenced 28.01.1944 by permanent session of the legal board for criminal affairs of the Kirov oblast court in Viatlag under article 59 point 6 UK [criminal code] of the RSFSR [Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic] (failure to carry out labor duties) to 6 years deprivation of freedom and three years deprivation of rights, sentence started - 28.01.1944, was to finish sentence on 28.01.1950, on the determination of the legal board for criminal affairs of the Supreme court of the RSFSR of 23.03.1944 the sentence was annulled, the case was declared closed, he was freed from punishment on 24.04.1944, transferred to category of “labor mobilized”(in “work columns”), declared an invalid on 10.01.1944 (swelling form of alimentary dystrophy), died 01.07.1944 from alimentary dystrophy of the 3rd degree (swelling form) with diarrhea, 1st camp point, settlement Rudnichnyi, grave No. G-50, archive personal file – No 1180-m/77452.

(Card of special registration of Viatskogo ULIU. Archive)

Source:

V.A. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005), doc. 1 pp. 412-413.

Restaurants

The Chinese restaurant behind the university has closed. So recently I have been eating at an Azerbaijani kebab place not far from work. It is very good, but the menu is quite limited. In fact every time I have been there I have had the kofte kebab and shish kebab combination. It is probably the best place in town for grilled meat. I just can not eat kebabs everyday the way I can Chinese food.

Chon Bash for Two Days

The rest of the full time faulty in the ICP department were away today and yesterday so I got to be Chon Bash (Kyrgyz for Big Head). Fortunately, nothing beyond the means of my meagre administrative skills popped up. The most difficult decision I had to deal with was where to eat lunch.

More News Stories on Suprun and Dudarev

The following links have some more information on the ongoing attempt by the Russian government to suppress the research of Mikhail Suprun into the repression of Russian-Germans by Stalin during the 1940s.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jfpRI3pTnVJalXXbhQcyQmmOx5Kg

http://barentsobserver.com/-take-action-in-the-suprun-case.4643640-16180.html

http://yourfreedomandours.blogspot.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/15/russia-gulag-historian-arrested

Another Good Sign: Berlin Takes Action Regarding Suprun

The German government has now officially complained to Russian President Medvedev about the political persecution of Suprun and Dudarev. The Russian government is seeking to imprison Suprun for up to four years for his research and writing on Stalin's repression of ethnic Germans in the USSR during the 1940s. The article below from The Moscow Times has more information on the case and the recent actions by the German government.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/news/article/387359.html

A Small Important Victory in Reclaiming History

The attempt by the grandson of Joseph Stalin to sue Novaya Gazeta for libel after they correctly characterized the late Soviet dictator as a "bloodthirsty cannibal" has failed. This is a very important victory for human rights activists and others seeking to prevent Russia and other post-Soviet states from sliding back into absolute dictatorships. The New York Times has a good article on the trial with lots of great links at the url below.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/stalins-grandson-loses-defamation-suit/?hp

The False Charges of Treason Against the Deported Peoples Part II

Several years ago Karachai demographer D.M. Ediev pointed to a solid piece of evidence that the charges of wholesale treason against the Balkars came after the decision to deport them had already been made. On page 27 of his book, Demograficheskie poteri deportirovannykh narodov SSSR (Stavropol': StGAU "AGRUS", 2003) he quotes from telegram No. 6160 sent by Beria to Stalin on 25 February 1944. The archival citation for the telegram is GARF "Special File" of Stalin. Fond R-9401 s/ch. Opis 2. Delo 64. 1944: List 163. This document had been reproduced earlier by N.F. Bugai in a redacted form that did not indicate that the deportation had been decided upon before Beria began looking for "evidence" that the Balkars had collectively "betrayed the motherland."

Redacted Bugai version:

"I familiarized myself with the material on the conduct of the Balkars at the time of the offensive by the German-Fascist military in the Caucasus, and after their expulsion..." (Ediev, p. 26).

Full version reproduced by Ediev:

"In connection with the proposed exile of the Balkars from the North Caucasus, I familiarized myself with the material about their conduct during the time of the offensive by the German-Fascist military in the Caucasus, and after their expulsion..." (Ediev, p. 27). [Note that the italics were added by Ediev for emphasis.]

Source: D.M. Ediev, Demograficheskie poteri deportirovannykh narodov SSSR (Stavropol': StGAU "AGRUS", 2003).

The Current Status of Students from Turkmenistan

The few Turkmen students still here will probably all finish out this academic year at AUCA. This means that a large number of them will graduate. However, it looks like the Turkmen government will continue to ban those AUCA students still in Turkmenistan from coming to Kyrgyzstan to complete their educations. This ban appears at this point to be indefinite. It also appears very likely that no further Turkmen students will be allowed to leave their country to attend AUCA in the foreseeable future. I find this most unfortunate. Some of my best students have come from Turkmenistan. Their absence will make AUCA a less intellectually diverse place.

Jonathan Brent on the Rehabilitation of Stalin

The article by Jonathan Brent linked below provides a good background to the recent moves towards rehabilitating Stalin in the Russian Federation.

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/117239.html

Links on the Suprun Affair

Here are a list of news articles on the Russian government's political persecution of Professor Mikhail Suprun and Col. Dudarev. The first article is in English, the second one in Russian and the third one in German.

http://www.cdi.org/russia/Johnson/2009-186-25.cfm

http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2009/109/02.html

http://www.ornis-press.de/staatsfeindlich-forschung-zu-russlanddeutschen-schicksalen.1184.0.html

FSB Arrests Historian of Stalinist Repression Against Russian-Germans

On 13 September 2009, the FSB arrested and interrogated Mikhail Suprun of Pomorsky State University of Arkhangelsk in connection with his research on Stalin era repression of Russian-Germans. They seized his computers and databases as well as a large number of books and documents. He was working on creating a memory book for the Russian-German victims of the Gulag's labor camps and special settlements in Arkhangelsk. Assisting him in this endeavor was Aleksandr Dudarev, the Head of the Information Center of the Arkhangelsk MVD, who provided Suprun with access to the relevant archives. The Russian government intends to prosecute both Professor Suprun and Col. Dudarev for their research into Stalinist repression. The official charges against Suprun are "divulging personal information" that is collecting the names and other biographical data of individual Russian-Germans repressed by Stalin for publication. He is also charged with urging Dudarev to abuse his authority by granting him access to the Arkhangelsk MVD archives. For more information see the links below.

http://www.khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1254770164

http://www.khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1254517948

Walt Richmond on the False Charges of Treason Against the Deported Peoples

My colleague Dr. Walt Richmond left the following comment on my last post, but its detail and importance certainly merit it having a more prominent place on this blog. I will post later on some additional evidence that the decision to deport the Balkars was made by the Stalin regime before they formulated the false charges of treason against the entire nationality. But, in the meantime please read Dr. Richmond's piece. The italicized part of this post is from Dr. Richmond.

There was also a lot of disinformation concerning the Balkars' deportation. From the original draft of my book, which unfortunately I had to significantly edit:It had long been assumed that the notion of deporting the Balkars was first proposed in January 1944. Additionally, in his memoirs Z. Kumekhov, First Party Secretary of Kabardino-Balkaria, asserted that he vehemently opposed the deportation, which he only learned of on 25 February. However, Balkar historian Khadzhi-Murat Sabanchiev has recently illuminated the process through which the decision to deport the Balkars was made. On 20 February NKVD Chief Lavrenty Beria arrived in Grozny to supervise the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush. At the same time two documents were prepared in Nalchik. The first described the location and numbers of the Balkar population. The second stated that despite the all the efforts made by the Communist Party to help the Balkars a portion remained hostile to Soviet power, and that agents had informed the Party of a counter-revolutionary movement among Balkar nationalists. Therefore, the note concluded, it was necessary to deport the entire Balkar nation. The notes were signed by Kumekhov, local NKVD Chief K. P. Bziava and local NKGB chief S. I. Filatov. Beria signed the second note on 24 February, and on the same day reported to Stalin that during the occupation “the Balkars were negotiating with the Karachays about the unification of Balkaria and Karachay,” 1227 “bandits” had been arrested, and that “362 people fled from Balkaria with the Germans.” It should be remembered first that 1227 represented three percent of the 1939 population of Balkaria (assuming all the arrestees were Balkars) and 362 was less than two percent of the entire number of people who fled the North Caucasus with the Nazis. It seems that Beria had already decided to have the Balkars deported and was merely looking for “a suitable cause,” as Stalin had phrased it a quarter century earlier prior to the deportation of the Cossacks. These three “facts” apparently suited Beria as sufficient, for in the same telegram he recommended the deportation of the Balkar nation as soon as the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush was completed. Stalin replied affirmatively the next day. On 26 February Beria issued Prikaz (Order) 00186 entitled “On Measures to Resettle the Balkar Population from the Kabardino-Balkar ASSR.” In the order he recommended transferring one raion to North Ossetia instead of Kabarda. This proposal was rejected; Elbrus and Prielbrus raions were transferred to Georgia and the remainder to Kabarda, which was renamed the Kabardin ASSR.

References:

Bugai, Nikolai. "Deportatsiia: Beriia dokladivayut Stalinu," Kommunist 3 (1991), pp. 101-12.

Pohl, J. Otto. Ethnic Cleansing in The USSR, 1937-1949. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Sabanchiev, Khadzhi-Murat. “Vyselenie Balkarskogo Naroda v Gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny: Prichiny i Posledstviia,” Murad Esenov, ed. Tsentral’naia Asiia i Kavkaz. Online. Available HTTP: http://www.ca-c.org/datarus/sabanch.shtml (Accessed 10 April 2006).

The False Charges of Treason Against the Deported Peoples Part I

Most scholars as opposed to Stalinist hacks have long maintained that the decision to deport the Kalmyks, Karachais, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars and Crimean Tatars had very little to do with the official Soviet claim that these people were guilty of mass treason and collaboration with the Nazis. Even the exaggerated and unsubstantiated charges made by Beria only accused 10% of the Crimean Tatars of serving in German units. A report from Kobulov and Serov to Beria on 22 April 1944 claims that 20,000 Crimean Tatars deserted from the 51st army in 1941. A direct translation of their message reads, "20 thousand Crimean Tatars deserted in 1941 from the 51st army as it retreated from Crimea." (Bugai 1992, doc. 2, p. 131). This claim was made despite the fact that the NKVD's own Section for the Struggle Against Banditism had only verified 479 cases of desertion and shirking of military service from the Red Army in Crimea for all nationalities versus 1,666,891 for the Soviet Union as whole for the years 1941 to 1944. (Bugai 1992, p. 286). Beria then repeated the claims of Kobulov and Serov in a message to Stalin with some alterations on 10 May 1944. His report states, "From sections of the Red Army in 1944 deserted more than 20 thousand Tatars who betrayed the Motherland, and went over to serve the Germans with arms in their hands and fought against the Red Army..." (Bugai 1991, p. 107). It is probable that Beria meant 1941 rather than 1944 since the information appears to have come directly from the earlier communication by Kobulov and Serov. The source for the 20,000 figure is unknown, but is probably an exaggeration. Soviet intelligence reported a total of 15,000 Crimean Tatars serving in eight German organized battalions in April 1942. (Bugai 2002, doc. 30, p. 62) In contrast the German enlistment records for these battalions show only 9,255 Crimean Tatars serving in them. (T.S. Kulbaev and A. Iu. Khegai, pp. 206-207). A number of these men died during the war and and others retreated to Germany with the Wehrmacht and avoided forced repatriation to the USSR. Which means that over 90% of the Crimean Tatars deported by the NKVD on 18-20 May 1944 were completely innocent. Since the vast majority of the deportees, more than 80% were women and children, this is not surprising. (Williams, p. 336) The condemnation of nearly 150,000 innocent women and children to eternal exile in Uzbekistan and the Urals as special settlers for the alleged crimes of 20,000 men represents one of the most disproportionate collective punishments ever carried out. Despite its immense brutality this crime still has a great many defenders among Russians and others seeking to rehabilitate the Stalin regime today.

Sources:

N.F. Bugai, ed., "Deportatsiia: Beriia dokladyvaet Stalinu..," Kommunist, no. 1, 1991.

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

N.F. Bugai, ed., Deportatsiia narodov kryma: Dokumenty, fakty kommentarii (Moscow, Insan, 2002).

T.S. Kulbaev and A. Iu. Khegai, Deportatsiia (Almaty: Deneker, 2000).

Alexander Statiev, "The Nature of Anti-Soviet Armed Resistance, 1942-1944: The North Caucasus, the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic, and Crimea," Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, vol. 6, no. 2, Spring 2005.

Brian Glyn Williams, "The Hidden Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims in the Soviet Union: The Exile and Repatriation of the Crimean Tatars," Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 37, no. 3 (July 2002).

Blogger Again Available

For some reason the university blocked all blogger related web pages between Thursday and today. But, now they seem to work again without any problem. I am not sure what the deal was.