Understanding Eurasia in Multiple Perspectives.

• Author: Hakim, Meryem
• Position: "Voices from the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow," "Russian Practices of Governance in Eurasia: Frontier Power Dynamics, Sixteenth Century to Nineteenth Century," "Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present"

The three works reviewed in this article address Eurasia in different periods and different areas of concentration. Each one provides valuable information in understanding the historical and political developments that have affected the Eurasian landmass. Understanding this huge geography, its people, its past and present situation require a holistic approach with detailed knowledge and awareness of regional peculiarities.

The first book, Voices from the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow, is a survey undertaken by means of interviews conducted among immigrants coming to Moscow and Leningrad during the last decades of the Soviet Empire. The stories of former subjects of the Tsarist imperialist regime of Central Asia and the Caucasus region becoming citizens of the Soviet Empire detail the experiences inflicted upon them due to the political, sociological, and economic changes that took place during the last decades of the Cold War era. The Soviet administration attempted to instill in people's minds the so-called 'friendship of peoples' which, in the post-Soviet era, complicated the nation-building attempts of the newly independent republics. The end of the twentieth century witnessed a growing tendency toward nationalistic behavior not only among those of non-Russian nationalities but among the Russian people as well. This book is an account of the societal changes that led to an increasing radicalization of urban Russians in the leading cities of Russia, such as Moscow and Leningrad.

The second book, Russian Practices of Governance in Eurasia: Frontier Power Dynamics, Sixteenth Century to Nineteenth Century, is devoted to the historic relations established between the nomadic Kalmyk and Kazak people and the Tsarist Russian rulers from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. The nomadic tradition of administration, as well as local and regional power struggles coupled with Russian imperial policies to subordinate Eurasian nomads, are explained in this work. This book also provides an understanding of the notables and aristocratic rulers of the Eurasian nomads in their ambition and influence within their own societies, which later changed the dynamic and balance for the benefit of outside rulers like the Chinese and Russians.

The third book, Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present, is a comprehensive study of Eurasia. It is a history of Central Asia that takes the unexpected approach of studying the roots of today's post-Soviet and currently Chinese-controlled Central Asia, the so-called Xinjiang. Understanding the unity in many aspects of the identity of the present-day Turkic societies of Central-Inner Asia as a whole is important. The history, culture, religion, customs, and traditions are similar for the sedentary and nomadic societies that today are divided by international borders delimited by outside powers. Adeeb Khalid reveals this approach is often neglected in many studies of this geography and therefore makes a significant contribution in this area.

Voices from the Soviet Edge

The motto of the Soviet Union's socialist ideology was to establish a 'friendship of people' within the Soviet space to eliminate discrimination and maintain equality among the multinational population within the country. Voices from the Soviet Edge is an oral account of the emigration of those former citizens of the Soviet Union's peripheral regions to the former and current capitals of the Russian Federation, Leningrad, and Moscow. The book consists of seven chapters. As Sahadeo points out in his introduction, the first two chapters are devoted to the background of inter-ethnic relations established between the center of imperial Russia up to the Soviet maintenance of control in the periphery of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The third and fifth chapters deal with migrants coming from the periphery, i.e., the Central Asian and the Caucasian Republics, to realize their dreams of reaching the most advanced cities of the Soviet Union and benefitting from opportunities to work, trade, study, and receive advanced medical care.

Migrants born in distant republics wanted to enjoy material benefits and luxury -the extravagance of the city environment. The idea of their common citizenship within the Soviet realm was propagated by the indirect support of the official policy implanted in the minds of those in the periphery. Symbols of modernity drew many to the Soviet capitals, who dreamed of them as places where they would find a better quality of life. In reality, however, many individuals experienced difficulties of settling in and becoming an integral part of the urban, Russian-dominated metropoles of the Soviet state. The earlier migrants who came to Leningrad and Moscow in the 1970s benefitted from opportunities that were extended to them through state-sponsored programs made available to all citizens of the Soviet system, regardless of ethnicity and nationality, intending to create an 'international' multicultural society.

The 'friendship of nations' was another important slogan in the USSR...