Sovietistan

I visited the beautiful Central Asian republics, which truly deserve to be visited, toured, and even inhabited, owing to the beauty of their land and the kindness and warmth of their people. Some of these countries were occupied by Tsarist Russia, and that occupation continued under the Bolshevik state. In fact, one of the advantages of Soviet rule was its attention to streets, buildings, infrastructure, and parks, as well as the establishment of opera and ballet houses, and the eradication of racial, religious, and sectarian discrimination. However, if those features are rightly called advantages, they are absolutely incomparable to the drawbacks of that era.

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Among the drawbacks of the Soviet era is that, in its campaign against religiosity, it neglected human heritage embodied in places of worship, including mosques and Islamic schools, and the same was true of churches. Moreover, it desecrated their architectural heritage through acts of vandalism, destruction, or whitewashing. Stalin also sent millions from the Islamic republics to fight the invading Nazi army without adequate preparation, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, the natural wealth of those republics was transferred to Moscow for its benefit, leaving their own peoples deprived. When some of those countries suffered harsh natural disasters, such as earthquakes, the Soviet leadership did not inform the world about them to mobilize international aid, limiting itself to meager assistance. The Soviets also did not open those countries to tourism or allow the construction of hotels, restaurants, and other enterprises, causing those republics and their peoples to endure extreme poverty and a desperate need for basic necessities.

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The final station:

1. It is said that in Iraq, those who long for the era of tyranny and dictatorship—namely the Saddam era and the period before 2003—are young people who did not live through that phase and have heard that basic necessities were available, life was easy, and jobs were guaranteed. In contrast, older Iraqis oppose the previous regime because they lived through that difficult period.

2. In the Islamic republics, the opposite is generally true. Older people who lived through the dictatorship era long for it because of the availability of social security and free healthcare, whereas their youth do not accept a return to the stage of repression, poverty, and absence of basic necessities. They believe that the current era is the best, and they are undoubtedly correct in their view.

3. A wonderful book worth reading is titled “Sovietistan” by the Norwegian writer Erika Vatland. In it, she narrates in an engaging manner the story of her journey to the five Islamic republics, the worst of which is, of course, Turkestan—or “Repressionstan” or “Ignorancestan.” It is like North Korea in the East and Cuba in the West. Those who do not visit them lose nothing. Ashgabat, the capital, deserves to have its name changed to… “Hatredabad.”