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Revolutionary Paths: The Soviet Union in the Long “Eastern” Century

January 31 @ 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

The Soviet Union was built in the context of imperial collapse across Eurasia. By the beginning of World War II, it had solidified into the largest, most globally competitive state to emerge from these upheavals. While we often consider this as an experiment in creating an anti/post-capitalist economy, it was equally an experiment in creating an anti/post-imperial state. In fact, the latter endeavor, associated with the (post)colonial “East,” is arguably more central to the nature and significance of the Soviet Union. This paper will discuss the value of approaching early Soviet state-building as part of the longer history of decolonization, and the particular relevance of the Kazakh Soviet “cultural revolution” for this approach.
Rebekah Ramsay is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Her current book project examines the “cultural revolution” in early Soviet Kazakhstan. During the 1920s and 1930s, Kazakh pastoralist communities were devastated by forced collectivization, mass famine, and political purges. The book argues that, in the midst of these hardships, Kazakh articulations of cultural revolutionary reforms shaped the nature of Soviet citizenship and made space for survival in the face of rapidly diminishing alternatives. Before coming to Berkeley, she worked at the University of Central Asia in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan.
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Venue

Encina Commons, room 123