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Главная » 2010 » Февраль » 12 » Cold War Survivors
Cold War Survivors
07:04
A regular week, a good week, for 44-year-old Matobsho Nazrishoev, a police officer in the former Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, consisted of going to work, putting in his time patrolling the streets in the quiet mountain town of Khorog, nestled between banks of the Pyanj and Gaunt rivers along the Afghan border, and spending the weekend with his young family. But on an early September morning in 1991, following the failed August coup in Moscow and the resulting collapse of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan declared itself an independent republic and Matob, an imposing bear-of-a-man with long curls falling over his shoulders and an endearing laugh, swears that, "in this single week it felt like I lost 7 years of my life.

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"After the collapse, there were demonstrations everywhere– people were going back and forth along the Afghan border. Prisoners were released from the jails. There was no order. And since that week, things still haven't gone back to normal."It's difficult to understand how anyone can long for the good old days of gulags and bread lines. One young Tajik girl explained to me that, "if it wasn't for the Revolution, we'd be like Afghanistan now." This Diminutive girl concluded with a surprising and powerful, "I hate democracy. I am a Communist." Unlike the former Baltic and Eastern European Republics, the Central Asian Republics had limited traditions of nationalist aspirations and can credit the majority of their institutions, infrastructures and industries to the Soviet Era. Following the October Revolution, overall standards of living in the region were significantly raised and education and health care reached all levels of society. "The president rode the bus with the rest of us," is a saying often used to explain Soviet society to outsiders. In 1994, in an act of patriotism and possibly rebellion, Matob named his newborn daughter USSR (SSSR in Russian and CCCP using Cyrillic script)."I loved the USSR," he explains while gesticulating with powerful hands. "I gave all of my life to it. It was a great and powerful country. It was even strong enough to beat Hitler. We were all brothers and the USSR was our mother. There is a tradition in our culture where if the mother dies we name the daughter after her. After the collapse of the Soviet Union I named my daughter USSR."When pulled away from playing with her sister, USSR answers with a series of shy smiles and nods that she likes her name but still doesn't quite understand what it means. Her friends at school don't make fun of her and she likes it when she sees her name on old movies and sporting event on TV or on retro t-shirts that are now popular in Central Asian capitals. Hiding under her long bangs she shares that she's turning ten this year and when she grows up she wants to be a teacher, a dancer and a magician.Tajikistan, one of the Soviet Union's and now Russia's farthest and most strategic outposts in curbing the infiltration of Afghan narcotics and Islamic militants, has the unfortunate distinction of being the only former republic to fall into civil war after independence. From 1992 to 1997 the civil war, often referred to as "a great misunderstanding", claimed over sixty thousand lives and created over half a million refugees.Khorog, cradled in the towering Pamir Mountains (also known as the Roof of the World), experienced little fighting but famine became an acute concern.Since declaring a ceasefire and signing a peace agreement, Tajikistan has succeeded in incorporating opposing militias into a pluralistic power sharing system that the UN touts as a model for post-conflict reconciliation. However, emerging from the war, Tajiks were quick to learn how far behind their untended economy and infrastructure had fallen and how distorted democracy and corrupt markets had replaced Moscow-dependent communism as the ideology of the day. "The one thing I like since the fall of the Soviet Union," Matob shares without prompting, "is that I rediscovered my faith. During the civil war all the roads to Khorog were closed. We were completely isolated, but it was Islam that saved us from isolation." When asked how he feels when he looks at his daughter as she plays in the corner with her younger sister Matob answers, "First I see her as my daughter, but then I also remember the USSR and how good things used to be. When I was young I travel;;ed to Baku, Murmansk, Leningrad. I visited all these cities as a student. Today I can't even take my daughter out of our own city: not only because I can not afford it, but now these same cities are all in foreign countries." "And what kind of future do you want for your daughter?" I ask as we sit down on Afghan carpets to meal of rice pilaf, coriander-spiced soup along with cured meats and pickled vegetables."I hope that these times, these times of transition, pass very quickly," he begins after a brief pause. "I don't want her to live her entire life in times like these. I don't know what she will be in the future, but I want her to be leader in her society and to live up to her name."As hard as it was to imagine 20 years ago, recent events clearly suggest that there are worse enemies to face in this world than Communists. Some in Washington are even yearning for the days when we knew exactly who are enemy was and we at least shared with them a mutual concern for education, equality and the preservation of life, even if we couldn't agree on the means of production.With the recent passing of Ronald Regan, America's great Cold Warrior, an era has truly ended but for those in the former Soviet Republics, like USSR and her father, it seems the fall out from the Cold-War era will hang over their heads for years to come.
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