Hybridizing Sovietness, Modernity, Nationality and Provinciality in Uzbekistan, 1941–1984

This dissertation is focused on post-WWII Uzbekistan as a space of multifaceted interactions of the local Uzbek population with the war evacuees from European regions of the Soviet Union. This topic, just as the problem of postwar social experiences in Uzbekistan in general, is a major lacuna in historiography. Current work suggests a methodological position revising the dominant colonial and totalitarian paradigms. The author aspires to restore historical agency of the people of Central Asia – the agenda that is rooted in post-colonial theory and historical scholarship. This work argues that Soviet sociocultural identities and experiences were essentially hybrid and explores the hybridity at the level of individual biographies as well as cultural and scientific institutions in post-WWII Uzbekistan. The author’s interpretation of hybridity is informed by the methodology of new imperial history, which is another productive way to transcend the scope of Central Asian Studies and join the global conversation of historians about such topics as human agency and political domination, preservation of tradition and negotiation of differences. This global perspective, firmly rooted in archival research and firsthand knowledge of local realities, is sine qua non of normalizing and de-exoticizing Central Asia, as well as one way of essentially decolonizing the field of Soviet history.