Ethnography of a Disappearing City: Memory, Postcoloniality, and De-Sovietization in Dushanbe

• In Event: Urban Histories of Central Eurasia: Memory, Mobility, and Modernization

Abstract

In the past quarter century, the capital of Tajikistan has undergone a major urban reconstruction—including mass demolitions that have left the city center dramatically changed—and new rural-urban migratory patterns that have significantly altered the ethnic and linguistic makeup of the city since the Soviet era. Drawing from approximately 7 months of ethnographic research conducted across 2017-2024, this paper probes these varying perspectives on the de-Sovietization of Dushanbe as a lens to explore the status of memory and postcoloniality in Tajikistan. Rather than assume an equivalence between “de-Sovietization” and “de-colonization”, I draw from a context in which the destruction of Soviet cultural heritage has not been accompanied by any significant denouncement of the Soviet past or present-day ties to Russia, but has rather perpetuated many power imbalances of the past while actively limiting the channels through which people can reflect on the country’s political heritage.

Author

• Mariana Peixoto Irby, New York U