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In May 1992 political and social tensions in the former Soviet
Republic of Tajikistan escalated to a devastating civil war, which
killed approximately 40,000-100,000 people and displaced more than
one million. The enormous challenge of the Soviet Union's
disintegration compounded by inner-elite conflicts, ideological
disputes and state failure triggered a downward spiral to one of
the worst violent conflicts in the post-Soviet space. This book
explains the causes of the Civil War in Tajikistan with a
historical narrative recognizing long term structural causes of the
conflict originating in the Soviet transformation of Central Asia
since the 1920s as well as short-term causes triggered by
Perestroika or Glasnost and the rapid dismantling of the Soviet
Union. For the first time, a major publication on the Tajik Civil
War addresses the many contested events, their sequences and how
individuals and groups shaped the dynamics of events or responded
to them. The book scrutinizes the role of regionalism, political
Islam, masculinities and violent non-state actors in the momentous
years between Perestroika and independence drawing on rich
autobiographical accounts written by key actors of the unfolding
conflict. Paired with complementary sources such as the media
coverage and interviews, these autobiographies provide insights how
Tajik politicians, field commanders and intellectuals perceived and
rationalized the outbreak of the Civil War within the complex
context of post-Soviet decolonization, Islamic revival and
nationalist renaissance.
The southernmost and poorest state of the Eurasian space,
Tajikistan collapsed immediately upon the fall of the Soviet Union
and plunged into a bloody five-year civil war (1992-1997) that left
more than 50,000 people dead and more than half a million
displaced. After the 1997 Peace Agreements, Tajikistan stood out
for being the only post-Soviet country to recognize an Islamic
party-the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT)-as a key
actor in the civil war as well as in postwar reconstruction and
democratization. Tajikistan's linguistic and cultural proximity to
Iran notwithstanding, the balance of external powers over the
country remains fairly typical of Central Asia, with Russia as the
major security provider and China as its principal investor.
Another specificity of Tajikistan is its massive labor migration
flows toward Russia. Out of a population of eight million, about
one million work abroad seasonally-one of the highest rates of
departure in the world. Migration trends have impacted Tajikistan's
economy and rent mechanisms: half of the country's GDP comes from
migrant remittances, a higher share than anywhere else in the
world. However, it is in the societal and cultural realms that
migration has had the most transformative effect. Migrants'
cultural and societal identities are on the move, with a growing
role given to Islam as a normative tool for regulating the cultural
shock of migration. Islam, and especially a globalized
fundamentalist pietist movement, regulates both physical and moral
security in workplace and other settings, and brings migrants
together to make their interactions meaningful and
socio-politically relevant. It offers a new social prestige to
those who work in an environment seen as threatening to their
Islamic identity. The first section of this volume investigates the
critical question of the nature of the Tajik political regime, its
stability, legitimacy mechanisms, and patterns of centralization.
In the volume's second part, we move away from studying the state
to delve into the societal fabric of Tajikistan, shaped by local
rural specificities and social vulnerabilities in the health sector
and gender relationships. The third section of the volume is
devoted to identity narratives and changes. While the Tajik regime
works hard to control the national narrative and the interpretation
of the civil war, society is literally and figuratively on the
move, as migration profoundly reshapes societal structures and
cultural values.
In May 1992 political and social tensions in the former Soviet
Republic of Tajikistan escalated to a devastating civil war, which
killed approximately 40,000-100,000 people and displaced more than
one million. The enormous challenge of the Soviet Union's
disintegration compounded by inner-elite conflicts, ideological
disputes and state failure triggered a downward spiral to one of
the worst violent conflicts in the post-Soviet space. This book
explains the causes of the Civil War in Tajikistan with a
historical narrative recognizing long term structural causes of the
conflict originating in the Soviet transformation of Central Asia
since the 1920s as well as short-term causes triggered by
Perestroika or Glasnost and the rapid dismantling of the Soviet
Union. For the first time, a major publication on the Tajik Civil
War addresses the many contested events, their sequences and how
individuals and groups shaped the dynamics of events or responded
to them. The book scrutinizes the role of regionalism, political
Islam, masculinities and violent non-state actors in the momentous
years between Perestroika and independence drawing on rich
autobiographical accounts written by key actors of the unfolding
conflict. Paired with complementary sources such as the media
coverage and interviews, these autobiographies provide insights how
Tajik politicians, field commanders and intellectuals perceived and
rationalized the outbreak of the Civil War within the complex
context of post-Soviet decolonization, Islamic revival and
nationalist renaissance.
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