Soviet Orientalism and the Creation of Central Asian Nations

by Alfrid K. Bustanov

Overview

Orientalism – the idea that the standpoint of Western writers on the East greatly affected what they wrote about the East, the "Other" – applied also in Russia and the Soviet Union, where the study of the many exotic peoples incorporated into the Russian Empire, often in quite late imperial times, became a major academic industry, where, as in the West, the standpoint of writers greatly affected what they wrote. Russian/Soviet orientalism had a particularly important impact in Central Asia, where in early Soviet times new republics, later states, were created, often based on the distorted perceptions of scholars in St Petersburg and Moscow, and often cutting across previously existing political and cultural boundaries. The book explores how the Soviet orientalism academic industry influenced the creation of Central Asian nations. It discusses the content of oriental sources and discourses, considers the differences between scholars working in St Petersburg and Moscow and those working more locally in Central Asia, providing a rich picture of academic politics, and shows how academic cultural classification cemented political boundaries, often in unhelpful ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815365723
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/13/2017
Series:	Central Asian Studies
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alfrid K. Bustanov obtained his doctorate from Amsterdam University, the Netherlands is now TAIF Professor of the History of Islamic Peoples of Russia, European University in St Petersburg.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. The Leningrad Connection: Oriental Projects of Source Editions 2. Nationalism and Regionalism: Dividing and Integrating Soviet Central Asia in Meta-Histories 3. The Establishment of Kazakh Orientology General Conclusion