On April 16, 2021, a seminar organized by the Central Asia Program (USA, Washington) was held to present the project “Memory from the Flames of Afghanistan”.
MODERATOR
Marlene Laruelle, Ph.D., is Director, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies; Director, Central Asia Program; Co-Director, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University.
SPEAKERS
Botagoz Rakisheva, Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Director of the Public Opinion Research Institute, Kazakhstan
Elmira Nogoibaeva, Head of the Polis Asia Analytical Center and Esimde (I remember) research platform (Kyrgyzstan)
The Memory from the Flames of Afghanistan project was initiated by Marlene Laruelle, Ph.D., Director, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies; Director, Central Asia Program; Co-Director, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University) and Botagoz Rakisheva, Candidate of Sociological Sciences (Public Opinion Research Institute, Kazakhstan) in 2012. The main task of the project was to collect information about the Afghan war from its direct participants in order to preserve historical memory. At the first stage of the Project, interviews (Oral history) were conducted with internationalist soldiers of the 1979-1989 Afghan war from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and a documentary was filmed. A total of 20 interviews were conducted in Uzbekistan, 31 interviews in Tajikistan, 21 interviews in Kazakhstan. As a result of the project, three books were prepared, which were published by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS) under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The team of authors would like to thank KazISS for the opportunity to publish these books.
In 2020, at the initiative of the Head of the Polis Asia Analytical Center and the Esimde project (Kyrgyzstan) Elmira Nogoibaeva, the project was carried out in Kyrgyzstan, which resulted in the 4th volume of the book “Memory from the Flames of Afghanistan” which includes interviews with internationalist soldiers, documentary film “Man in War” and an exhibition of documentary photography from the archives of Kyrgyzstan citizens who served in Afghanistan. The exhibition was organized by Natalia Andrianova, Zarema Kolkombaeva. Documentary was filmed by Nazikbek Kydyrmyshev. In Kyrgyzstan, 21 interviews were conducted with veterans of the Afghan war of 1979-1989, with soldiers and officers from various branches of military units. Interviews were conducted by the Head of the Project Elmira Nogoibaeva and Nazikbek Kydyrmyshev. The authors would like to thank the Open Society Institute, OSI (Open Society Foundation) for the opportunity to publish the book.
Four volumes of the book “Memory from the Flames of Afghanistan” are posted on the following web-sites:
“Esimde” Discussion Platform: http://esimde.org/archives/3130
Public Opinion Research Institute: https://opinions.kz/ru/knigi
Documentary films are posted on the web-sites:
“Memory from the Flames of Afghanistan” (Kazakhstan): https://opinions.kz/ru/issledovaniya/filmy
“Man in War” (Kyrgyzstan): http://afghan.esimde.org/archives/6646
MODERATOR
Marlene Laruelle, Ph.D., is Director, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies; Director, Central Asia Program; Co-Director, PONARS-Eurasia; and Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. She works on political, social and cultural changes in the post-Soviet space. Marlene’s research explores the transformations of nationalist and conservative ideologies in Russia, nationhood construction in Central Asia, as well as the development of Russia’s Arctic regions. She has been the Principal Investigator of several grants on Russian nationalism, on Russia’s strategies in the Arctic, and on Central Asia’s domestic and foreign policies from the US State Department, the Defense Department, the National Science Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Henry Luce Foundation, etc.
SPEAKERS
Botagoz Rakisheva, Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Director of the Public Opinion Research Institute, Kazakhstan (https://opinions.kz). Botagoz is the Principal Investigator of the World Values Survey-wave 7 in Kazakhstan, the National Representative of WAPOR in Kazakhstan, a member of ESOMAR, ESCAS, the Scientific and Expert Council of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan. Since 2020, she has been a lecturer at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Previously, she worked at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Institute for Comparative Social Research CESSI-Kazakhstan. Research interests: methodology of sociological research, comparative intercountry surveys, Kazakh diaspora, migration, socio-political processes in Central Asia, youth of Central Asia, Oral history.
Elmira Nogoibaeva, Head of the Polis Asia Analytical Center (Kyrgyzstan) since 2007. Researcher of socio-political processes in Central Asia. Previously, she worked as the Head of the department and Editor of the analytical journal “Orientir” at the International Strategic Research Institute under the President of Kyrgyz Republic. In 2010, together with her team she researched the inter-ethnic conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, including “Analysis of the situation in the conflict southern regions of Kyrgyzstan” - ICAF. She founded the Academy of Civic Education, which was included in The Council of Europe Schools of Political Studies (Strasbourg). In 2017, together with her associates, she founded the Esimde (I remember) research platform, based on the principles and methods of memory studies memory activity in Kyrgyzstan.
Video from seminar is on the web-site Central Asia Program:
https://www.centralasiaprogram.org/%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BC%D1%8F%D1%82%D1%8C-%D0%B8%D0%B7-%D0%BF%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8-%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE