# Youth Reinterpretations of Soviet-Era Memories in Uzbekistan

Niginakhon Saida

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

## To cite this version:

Niginakhon Saida. Youth Reinterpretations of Soviet-Era Memories in Uzbekistan. 2026. hal-05422977

HAL Id: hal-05422977

https://hal.science/hal-05422977v1

Preprint submitted on 2 Feb 2026

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
# Youth Reinterpretations of Soviet-Era Memories in Uzbekistan

## Réinterprétations Juvéniles des Mémoires de L'époque Soviétique en Ouzbékistan

## Переосмысление памяти о советской эпохе в молодёжной среде в Узбекистане

### Niginakhon SAIDA

Johannes Gutenberg University, East European, Caucasian, and Central Asian Studies, 
nuralova@uni-mainz.de

**Key Words:** Intergenerational Memory, Memory Transition, Soviet Nostalgia, Post-Soviet Youth, Public Memory

### ABSTRACT

This paper studies intergenerational transmission and reinterpretation of Soviet-era memories among Uzbekistan's Independence Generation. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews with young adults born after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the study investigates how young adults encounter, interpret, and contextualize the recollections of the Soviet past shared by their parents, grandparents, and other elders. The findings demonstrate that older generations selectively share their Soviet memories, predominantly focusing on positive aspects of everyday life. Negative recollections do appear (shortages and queues, forced cotton labour, constraints on religion and language, alcohol-related harm), but are often filtered out and downplayed. Young people do not read this nostalgia as ideological endorsement. They understand it as a longing for their own youth, shaped by emotional attachment and limited exposure to alternative historical knowledge. By exploring how post-Soviet youth dissect and reinterpret inherited narratives, this study highlights emerging forms of critical historical consciousness.

**Mots-clés:** Mémoire Intergénérationnelle, Transition Mémorielle, Nostalgie soviétique, Jeunesse Post-Soviétique, Mémoire Publique

### RÉSUMÉ

Cet article examine la transmission intergénérationnelle et la réinterprétation des mémoires de l'époque soviétique parmi la «Génération de l'Indépendance» en Ouzbékistan. S'appuyant sur vingt entretiens semi-directifs menés auprès de jeunes adultes nés après la désintégration de
l'Union soviétique, l'étude analyse la manière dont ceux-ci rencontrent, interprètent et contextualisent les souvenirs du passé soviétique transmis par leurs parents, grands-parents et autres aînés. Les résultats montrent que les générations plus âgées partagent leurs souvenirs de manière sélective, en mettant surtout l'accent sur les aspects positifs de la vie quotidienne. Des souvenirs négatifs (pénuries et files d'attente, travail forcé dans les champs de coton, restrictions religieuses et linguistiques, méfaits liés à l'alcool) apparaissent, mais ils sont souvent atténués ou passés sous silence. Les jeunes ne perçoivent pas cette nostalgie comme une adhésion idéologique, mais comme l'expression d'un désir de retrouver leur propre jeunesse, façonné par un attachement affectif et par leur accès limité à d'autres sources de connaissance historique. En explorant la manière dont les jeunes post-soviétiques déconstruisent et réinterprètent ces récits hérités, l'étude met en lumière l'émergence de nouvelles formes de conscience historique critique.

**Ключевые слова:** Межпоколенческая память, Переход памяти, Советская ностальгия, Постсоветская молодежь, Общественная память

## РЕЗЮМЕ

В статье исследуются межпоколенческая передача и переосмысление воспоминаний о советской эпохе среди поколения независимости Узбекистана. На основе 20 полуструктурированных интервью с молодыми людьми, родившимися после распада Советского Союза. В работе анализируется, каким образом молодые люди сталкиваются с воспоминаниями о советском прошлом, передаваемыми родителями, бабушками и дедушками и другими старшими, как они их интерпретируют и как контекстуализируют. Результаты показывают, что старшие поколения избирательно делятся своими советскими воспоминаниями, преимущественно акцентируя внимание на положительных аспектах повседневной жизни. Негативные воспоминания также присутствуют (дефицит и очереди, принудительный труд на производстве хлопка, ограничения в сфере религии и языка, вред, связанный с алкоголем), однако они часто отфильтровываются и преуменьшаются. Молодые люди не воспринимают такую ностальгию как одобрение, вызванное идеологическими установками авторов воспоминаний. Они понимают ее как тоску по собственной молодости, обусловленную эмоциональной привязанностью и ограниченным доступом к альтернативным историческим знаниям. Анализируя то, как постсоветская молодежь разбирает и переосмысливает унаследованные нарративы, исследование выявляет формирующиеся формы критического исторического сознания.
INTRODUCTION

In recent years, memory studies have advanced within the Central Asian context, in particular regarding how the Soviet experiences of the region are remembered, (re)interpreted, and contested.

Central Asia’s post-soviet memory studies can be broadly divided into two trajectories. The first one examines official or state memory, which involves examining how governments institutionalize remembrance through means such as national legislations, museums, memorials, history textbooks, media products, and political discourse. These studies highlight how such practices serve as tools of nation-building and legitimization of independence<fnref n="1" />.

The second trajectory explores public or vernacular memory, its selective and nostalgic nature, and the impact of these memories on contemporary political culture and identity formation. They draw mainly on oral testimonies of individuals which compliment and, at times, challenge the official memory. These studies explore how people remember and reinterpret the Soviet past in personal and localized ways, often expressing nostalgia, ambivalence, or quiet resistance<fnref n="2" />.

<footnote n="1">¹ Kuryłowicz, Michał. "To Speak to the Hegemon": The Visions of Soviet Past in the History Coursebooks of Central Asia Countries'. Politeja, vol. 20, no. 1(82), Jun. 2023, pp. 395–408. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.20.2023.82.20.</footnote>

<footnote>Umetbaeva, Damira. 'Official Rhetoric and Individual Perceptions of the Soviet Past: Implications for Nation Building in Kyrgyzstan'. Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, vol. 4, no. 1, 2015, pp. 71–93. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1353/reg.2015.0008.</footnote>

<footnote>Dukeyev, Berikbol. 'Representation of the Kazakhstani Famine (1931–33) in Secondary School History Textbooks, 1992–2021'. Central Asian Survey, vol. 42, no. 2, Apr. 2023, pp. 383–401. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2152778.</footnote>

<footnote>Blakkisrud, Helge, and Shahnoza Nozimova. 'History Writing and Nation Building in Post-Independence Tajikistan'. Nationalities Papers, vol. 38, no. 2, Mar. 2010, pp. 173–89. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/00905990903517835.</footnote>

<footnote>Burkhanov, Aziz, and Dina Sharipova. 'New Narratives and Old Myths: History Textbooks in Kazakhstan'. Nationalities Papers, vol. 52, no. 5, Sep. 2024, pp. 1193–208. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2023.64.</footnote>

<footnote>Abashin, Sergei. 'Mustakillik and Remembrance of the Imperial Past: Passing Through the Halls of the Tashkent Museum in Memory of the Victims of Repression'. Russian Politics & Law, vol. 48, no. 5, Sep. 2010, pp. 78–91. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2753/RUP1061-1940480505.</footnote>

<footnote>Ersanlı, Büşra. 'History Textbooks as Reflections of the Political Self: Turkey (1930s and 1990s) and Uzbekistan (1990s)'. International Journal of Middle East Studies, Special Issue: Nationalism and the Colonial Legacy in the Middle East and Central Asia, vol. 34, no. 2, May 2002, pp. 337–49, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3879831.</footnote>

<footnote>Malikov, Azim. 'Stalin's Repressions and Rehabilitation of the Victims in the Politics of Memory in Uzbekistan. Genocidas ir rezistencija 2 (56), 2024, p. 163–181.</footnote>

<footnote>Dadabaev, Timur. 'Manipulating Post-Soviet Nostalgia: Contrasting Political Narratives and Public Recollections in Central Asia'. International Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 61–81. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000443.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² Dadabaev, Timur. 'Power, Social Life, and Public Memory in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan'. Inner Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 25–48. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1163/146481710792710291.</footnote>

<footnote>Dadabaev, Timur. 'Trauma and Public Memory in Central Asia: Public responses to political violence of the state policies in Stalinist Era in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan'. Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies 3 (1), 2009, pp. 108–138.</footnote>
Despite this growing body of research, intergenerational transmission of soviet-memories in Central Asia remains largely unexplored. Addressing this gap, this paper studies how elders in Uzbekistan pass down accounts of the Soviet era and how the youth interpret, recast, or contest those narrations.

## LITERATURE REVIEW

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Central Asian states were “catapulted” into independence³. The newly independent nations were tasked, among other challenges, with nation-building. Each state carried this task out in similar, yet in a unique way, but reinterpreting the history and reshaping the soviet memory were given a special importance. Politicization and instrumentalization of history has two interlinked purposes – one is to construct a “cohesive national identity” and the other is to liberate a self from a “problem of guilt”⁴ (p.209). Central Asia has a long history of re-writing and re-interpreting the past based on present political needs. The official stand on the soviet past, reinforced through political discourse, education system, media and publications, commemorations, establishment of museums, and others focused on distancing the newly independent states and national identities from the soviet days.

Uzbekistan's Tashkent Museum in Memory of the Victims of Repression (opened in 2002), for example, presents the tsarist-imperial period and the soviet regime as periods of colonial domination and repression. Abashin notes that this representation serves the political elite to

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Recollections of Emerging Hybrid Ethnic Identities in Soviet Central Asia: The Case of Uzbekistan'. Nationalities Papers, vol. 41, no. 6, Nov. 2013, pp. 1026–48. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2013.774340.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Evaluations of Perestroika in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Public Views in Contemporary Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan'. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 49, no. 2, Jun. 2016, pp. 179–92. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postcomstud.2016.03.001.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Community Life, Memory and a Changing Nature of Mahalla Identity in Uzbekistan'. Journal of Eurasian Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, Jul. 2013, pp. 181–96. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euras.2013.03.008.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Manipulating Post-Soviet Nostalgia: Contrasting Political Narratives and Public Recollections in Central Asia'. International Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 61–81. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000443.

Flynn, Moya, et al. 'The Place of Memory in Understanding Urban Change in Central Asia: The Cities of Bishkek and Ferghana'. Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 66, no. 9, Oct. 2014, pp. 1501–24. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2014.957926.

Baldauf, Ingeborg. 'Uzbek Oral Histories of Migration and War: Remembering the Early Twentieth Century in Northern Afghanistan'. Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 235–56, https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190247782.003.0009.

Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, Güljanat. 'Remembered Traditions and Lifestyles of Soviet Kyrgyzstan'. Inner Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 157–75. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1163/146481710792710336.

Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, Güljanat. 'Famine in Kyrgyzstan in the 1930s and 1940s'. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 39–51, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52236-8.

³ Olcott, Martha Brill. 'Central Asia's Catapult to Independence.' Foreign Affairs 71 (3), 1992, p. 108-130.
doi:10.2307/20045233.

⁴ Torbakov, Igor. 'History, Memory and National Identity Understanding the Politics of History and Memory Wars in Post-Soviet Lands.' Demokratizatsiya 19 (3), 2011, p.209–32.
construct a national story of collective suffering in order to legitimize the current regime and to
distance the independent Uzbekistan from the Soviet past<fnref n="5" />.

Across the post-Soviet space, political narratives about the past have varied in tone and purpose. While Russia's Putin promoted a restorative nostalgia regretting the lost unity and geopolitical greatness, using memory to create further regional projects such as Eurasian Union, the former Kazakh president took a more balanced approach, acknowledging both Soviet modernization and colonial domination. Uzbekistan's first president Karimov, however, had an uncompromising approach towards the Soviet past, portraying it as a period of oppression in his talks<fnref n="6" />.

History textbooks analysis present an additional dimension of official memory. Uzbek history textbooks gradually replaced Soviet history with national history<fnref n="7" />. Meanwhile, Tajik history textbooks have been used for post-civil war nation-building by promoting an ethnic conception of the Tajik nation, reifying Uzbeks as the “other,” and selectively keeping Soviet modernization narratives. Kuryłowicz’s recent work shows that history textbooks in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan do not outright reject the Soviet legacy, but still, the textbook narrations are shaped by the political position of the state<fnref n="8" />.

The treatment of the Soviet period in these textbooks illustrates that history education functions as a negotiated space where state interests, ideological boundaries, and authors’ interpretive choices intersect. For example, the Kazakh famine of 1931-1933 is represented in secondary school textbooks in an ambivalent and contested manner, with authors oscillating between depicting it as a tragic consequence of collectivization, which adheres the state efforts not to politicize the famine, and as a genocide that targeted Kazakhs. It shows the role of authorship agency in textbook production challenging the notion that “textbook narratives are merely constructed from ‘above’ in a non-democratic state such as Kazakhstan” (p. 399)<fnref n="9" />.

Public memory of the Soviet past remains contested across the region. People's memories are pragmatic and experiential, shaped by daily life, needs, and moral values, rather than ideology.

<footnote n="5">⁵ Abashin, Sergei. 'Mustakillik and Remembrance of the Imperial Past: Passing Through the Halls of the Tashkent Museum in Memory of the Victims of Repression'. Russian Politics & Law, vol. 48, no. 5, Sep. 2010, pp. 78–91. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2753/RUP1061-1940480505.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ Dadabaev, Timur. 'Manipulating Post-Soviet Nostalgia: Contrasting Political Narratives and Public Recollections in Central Asia'. International Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 61–81. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000443.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ Ersanli, Büşro. History Textbooks as Reflections of the Political Self: Turkey (1930s and 1990s) and Uzbekistan (1990s). International Journal of Middle East Studies. Vol. 34, No. 2, Special Issue: Nationalism and the Colonial Legacy in the Middle East and Central Asia, 2002, pp. 337-349.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ Kuryłowicz, Michał. "To Speak to the Hegemon": The Visions of Soviet Past in the History Coursebooks of Central Asia Countries'. Politeja, vol. 20, no. 1(82), Jun. 2023, pp. 395–408. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.20.2023.82.20.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ Dukeyev, Berikbol. 'Representation of the Kazakhstani Famine (1931–33) in Secondary School History Textbooks, 1992–2021'. Central Asian Survey, vol. 42, no. 2, Apr. 2023, pp. 383–401. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2152778.</footnote>
These memories also reflect the reaction to the present conditions they encounter<fnref n="10" />. While some research shows the bitter memory shared by carriers of the Soviet memory (Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun's interviews with people who experienced Kyrgyz famine of 1930s and 1940s)<fnref n="11" />, others notice nostalgia among those who lived under the socialist regime. Interviews with elderly in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan show that public memory of the Soviet era coexists with the official memory. People selectively focus on social welfare and equality of the previous system, viewing it as a time of stability, community, and shared purpose<fnref n="12" />.

Continuing the scholarship on public memory in Central Asia, this paper examines how the Soviet past is remembered and reinterpreted by Uzbekistan's independence generation. It attempts to understand how parents and grandparents narrate their past experiences, and how those narratives are received, internalized, or contextualized by young Uzbeks.

The paper aims to address two questions:

1) What does the independence generation of Uzbekistan remember from the oral stories about the Soviet past shared by their elders?

2) How do they interpret and make sense of these shared memories in the context of their own post-independence experiences?

## METHODOLOGY

This research draws on 20 semi-structured interviews with Uzbekistan's independence generation. These are young people who were born in 1991 and afterwards. All participants were at least 18 years old during the interviews with one exception – a 17 year old school-girl whom I talked to in Khorezm. This exception was included deliberately to explore whether there is a notable difference in how transmitted memories of the Soviet past are perceived between those who have already completed secondary education and those who are still in school.

<table><thead><tr><td>Y.o.B</td><td>Number</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1991</td><td>1</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote n="10">¹⁰ Dadabaev, Timur. ‘Power, Social Life, and Public Memory in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan’. Inner Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 25–48. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1163/146481710792710291.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹ Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, Güljanat. ‘Famine in Kyrgyzstan in the 1930s and 1940s’. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 39–51, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52236-8.</footnote>

<footnote n="12">¹² Dadabaev, Timur. ‘Manipulating Post-Soviet Nostalgia: Contrasting Political Narratives and Public Recollections in Central Asia’. International Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 61–81. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000443.</footnote>

<footnote>Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, Güljanat. ‘Remembered Traditions and Lifestyles of Soviet Kyrgyzstan’. Inner Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 157–75. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1163/146481710792710336.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 1. Distribution of Participants by Year of Birth</caption><tr><td>1992</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>1997</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>1998</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>1999</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>2000</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>2001</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>2002</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>2003</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>2005</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>2008</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>20</td></tr></table>

The interviews were carried out in three waves during 2025. The initial rounds took place online through platforms such as Zoom, Google meetings, and Telegram calls, while the subsequent round was conducted in person during a field trip across five regions of Uzbekistan. Only one interview was conducted via email communication as per request of the participant.

Participants were drawn from nine regions of Uzbekistan, with a slightly higher representation from Andijan. For the purposes of this research, the capital city, Tashkent, is not treated as a separate administrative unit, but included within the Tashkent region.

<table><thead><tr><td>Region</td><td>Number of Interviewees</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Andijan</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>Bukhara</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Fergana</td><td>3</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><caption>Table 2. Regional Distribution of Interview Participants</caption><tr><td>Jizzakh</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Khorezm</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Namangan</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Navoi</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Samarkand</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Tashkent</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Total</strong></td><td><strong>20</strong></td></tr></table>

The participants were selected through convenience sampling via social media calls and network (snowball) sampling. Gender balance was maintained, with 50% female participants. Since recruitment relied primarily on personal and professional networks, the majority of respondents have some level of tertiary education. This shortcoming is to be amended by the following round of interviews.

<table><caption>Table 3. Highest Educational Attainment of Participants</caption><thead><tr><td>Highest Education Degree</td><td>Number</td><td>In %</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Bachelor's degree</td><td>10</td><td>50.00%</td></tr><tr><td>College/lyceum</td><td>2</td><td>10.00%</td></tr><tr><td>Master's degree</td><td>6</td><td>30.00%</td></tr><tr><td>PhD</td><td>1</td><td>5.00%</td></tr><tr><td>Secondary school</td><td>1</td><td>5.00%</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Grand Total</strong></td><td><strong>20</strong></td><td><strong>100%</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>

To better contextualize the educational background of participants, it is worth outlining the evolution of Uzbekistan's education system since independence. General secondary education is both free and mandatory, but the structure and duration of it have changed several times over the
past three decades. Inheriting from the Soviet education system, initially, the mandatory schooling
was 11 years, after which graduates could attend university. This changed in 2009 with the
introduction of 9+3 scheme which included nine years of schooling followed by three years in
either an academic lyceum or a vocational college. In 2018, the system was restructured once
again, reverting to eleven years of compulsory education, while two-year academic lyceums and
vocational colleges became optional alternative pathways after the ninth grade, equivalent to
completing the tenth and eleventh grades<fnref n="13" />. Hence, college/lyceum degree in this research does
not refer to a tertiary education, but part of a compulsory general-secondary education.

When indicating educational attainment, this research does not distinguish between completed and ongoing degrees. Participants listed with a master's degree, for example, had either finished their studies or were still enrolled at the time of the interview. Almost 60% of respondents held or were pursuing a bachelor's degree, 22.7% were at the master's level, and 6.8% were in the process of earning a PhD.

About 45% of participants were born and spent their formative years in rural areas, while the remaining participants grew up in urban settings.

FINDINGS

This section presents the findings in two main aspects. First, it outlines what the independence generation have heard about life in the Soviet era from their elderly relatives and acquaintances. Second, it looks at how young people perceive and interpret these shared memories.

What is Remembered: Nostalgia as a Dominant Aspect of Soviet Recollections

The findings show that elderly people, even those outside the family settings, do share their personal stories with younger generations, and quite often. Their stories are largely unprompted, meaning the recollections of the past occur naturally as part of casual conversations. The vocabulary and grammar choice the participants use imply a repetitive nature of memory-sharing. In Uzbek, the past is conveyed through different verb structures. Adding the letter “r” between a core verb and personal past ending creates a repetitive past action. For example, “so’rardim” (I would ask) as a frequent action in the past versus “so’radim” (I asked) as a one time action in the past. Participants use this and other habitual forms of the past tense both when describing how their elders used to speak about everyday life in pre-independence years and when explaining their own repetitive attempts to ask about the past. The language use also suggests that the conversations about the past are not only frequent, but also ongoing.

<footnote n="13">¹³ Umarova, Nigora. 2025. Uzbekistan to Introduce 12-Year Education System. In Kursiv Media. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://uz.kursiv.media/en/2025-09-09/uzbekistan-to-introduce-12-year-education-system/.</footnote>
"[Ota-onam) Har safar berilib gapirib beradilar (each time they (his parents) would tell with excitement)"

"Ko'proq yaxshi xotiralar bilan eslashardi, deyarli yomon xotiralar bilan eslashganini eslay olmayman. Juda kam eskizamon odamlari yomon xotiralar bilan eslashadi. Aynan SSSRni anazarda tutyapman. (They mostly would remember it with good memories; I can hardly recall anyone remembering it with bad ones. Very few people from the old period remember it with negative memories. I'm referring specifically to the USSR.)" – Sarvar, male, 1991, Bukhara;

"so'rardim" (I would ask) – Alisherbek, 2002, male, Namangan; Rahmatillo, male, 2003, Andijan;

"oldin opoq dodalarim bilan ko'p gaplashardim hozir o'qish, ish tufayli kamroq gaplashadigan bo'lib qolganman (I used to talk a lot with my grandparents before, but now, because of studying and work, I've started talking with them less often)." – Rahmatillo, male, 2003, Andijan;

"So'raganlarim bo'lgan" (there were times I would ask) – Jahongir, 2000, Khoresm;

"Buvim yoshligi haqida ko'p hikoya qiladi" (my grandmother speaks a lot about her youthhood) – Bobur, male, 1992, Andijan;

"Dadam ko'p aytadi..." (My father speaks a lot ...) – Fayzullo, male, 2003, Fergana.

The analysis of the interviews shows that young people often hear clear or mixed nostalgic stories from their elderly, mostly in family settings. Although each story expresses nostalgia in its own way, the common themes evolve around material aspects of life under the socialist system such as affordable prices, durable and quality goods, free education and healthcare, easy mobility, and tight community life. In this regard, young people not only hear similar affection towards the past, but also similar wordings.

### Cheap prices:

"They had a good education. They studied in Uzbek, received education in the state language, Uzbek. They still speak very well of all their teachers. For example, my grandmother also studied very well; she could go to class, then to an Olympiad and take first place... education was free... Prices were the same everywhere, everything was the same for everyone. There weren't big class differences. " – Anonymous, female, 1999, Tashkent;

"They always say how cheap small items used to be, priced by tiyin." – Sarvar, male, 1991, Bukhara;
"I've heard those classic phrases many times – 'for just one tiyin you could buy this,' 'and you'd still get another tiyin back.' I've heard things like that so often." – O'ktamjon, male, 2000, Andijan;

"Their main argument when praising the former Soviet Union is always the same. They say, 'we had plenty of gas, the electricity never went out, bread cost just one tiyin, everything was cheap, even matches were one tiyin.'" – Mokhinur, female, 2000, Andijan;

"My grandmother... said that everything was cheap back then, and of better quality." – Anora, female, 2005, Jizzakh.

## Product quality:

"What they most often recall is that the things bought in the 1990s are still working at home – the televisions, the electric stoves still work – whereas those made later turned out defective, they say. There's a common belief that the products from that time were of better quality." – Mukhlisa, female, 2003, Navoiy;

"For example, they say that in the old days products were sturdy and durable – usable and of good quality. But today's products, they say, are no good, poor in quality. That's what I often hear from the older people who come into the shop." – Gulimshahnoz, female, 1997, Andijan;

"My grandmother used to say it very often, that back then everything was cheap and of better quality, and now you have to search hard to find things like that or make them last. That's what they talked about the most." – Anora, female, 2005, Jizzakh.

## Easy mobility across the Soviet Union:

"Another thing: the Soviet Union was a huge country, and there weren't strict borders, they could freely travel anywhere. There were no restrictions, no special permissions, no visas, no documents like that. So, for travel, it was very convenient." – Anonymous, female, 1999, Tashkent;

"They [older colleagues] say, 'I could go to Moscow whenever I wanted, I could visit St. Petersburg anytime, I could go to Yalta whenever I liked.' They say, 'It was enough to give a bribe to the kolkhoz chairman.'" They say, 'If I could travel like that again, it would be great.' Now they complain that even the ticket itself costs a lot, and visas are expensive.'" – Jahongir, male, 2000, Khorezm;

"Back then, people could move around freely, for example, to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Tajikistan. They could come and go without any problem. There were no borders, no need to look for a visa or ask for permission." – Dilrabo, female, 1992, Namangan.
## Social Cohesion:

"They say that back then people were kinder to each other." – Gulimshahnoz, female, 1997, Andijan;

"It was interesting for them – there were no social networks then, everyone was outside, talking with each other." – Dinora, female, 2008, Khorezm;

"Recently what they're saying is the fact that people got more aggressive, and ... everyone got more focused and egoistical, even in terms of finances, because what they draw a parallel about is that in the 20th century, the relationships between the families were kind of closer, even financially. They knew the existence of more extended families than they are now" – Anonymous, male, 1997, Ferghana.

Young people also encounter darker stories about the soviet past from their elderly. Negative aspects of soviet everyday life often revolve around the themes of product shortage and queues, forced labor and hardships of cotton picking, restriction on freedom and language, alcoholism and domestic abuse.

## Scarcity of products and queues:

"They say things like 'We had money, but we didn't have ten pairs of shoes, just one. There were no products available; I had money, but I couldn't buy anything' ... My grandmother told me that even if the neighbors had money, they wouldn't do any renovations or replace anything, they wouldn't even buy a car. She said it was because if someone came and asked, 'where did you get this from?,' there would be questioning." – Durdona, female, 2002, Samarkand;

"They said that during the Soviet era, they used to stand in line for flour, for [vegetable] oil."" – Alisherbek, male, 2002, Namangan;

"My grandmother lived during the Soviet era, and so did my parents. But I haven't really heard any positive stories from them. I remember asking them, like, 'What was it like when you were young? Were there markets?' They said there were shortages. For example, they'd say, 'We had money in our hands, but there was nothing in the market.' They said those were difficult times." – Madina, female, 2002, Bukhara;

"When they compare [soviet and post independence periods], the most common comparisons are about prices. And then about availability. When they talk about prices, it's in a positive way; but when they talk about availability, it's the opposite. I mean, if you needed something big, like an apartment or a car, you had to wait for it." – Sarvar, male, 1991, Bukhara.
### Cotton work:

"They say they used to go to the cotton fields, and those were difficult times. They tell how snow would cover the cotton completely, and they'd pull the snow off from both sides using boards or buckets to clear it away, and then continue picking. That's how hard it was back then." – Dilrabo, female, 1992, Namangan;

"Comparatively older generations, such as my grandmother, tell about the harsher times. When they were very little, she says, they were taken to [cotton] fields for plant singling. They used to pick cotton, even in winter. You know, those unopened buds on the cotton plants, she says they'd bring them home and crack them open by hand on a stone in the evening. My grandmother remembers that the kolkhoz boss would ride around the village on a horse with a whip, checking every house. If someone had turned off the light and gone to sleep, he would whip them and shout, 'Why aren't you cleaning the cotton?!' ... She also says planes would fly overhead [in cotton field during cotton picking season] spraying chemicals."" – Mokhinur, female, 2000, Andijan.

### Restriction on freedom

"Now there is a shift. In their recollections, they remember certain things, for example, religious restriction during the SSR period, in a more critical tone.... There was no education in this area back then, and because such education did not exist, they say that an entire generation of us grew up without a religious foundation." – Sarvar, male, 1991, Bukhara;

"My grandfather now prays, but he can only perform one of the daily prayers. He can only manage the dawn prayer. As for the others, first, he doesn't have the strength, and second, the time to learn has already passed. He simply no longer has the ability to memorize the necessary elements. He just does not have the capacity to perform all five prayers. His mind doesn't take it in anymore. And during the period when he would have been able to learn, I was studying the foundations of atheism. At home, my parents prayed, yet I was studying and memorizing atheism, and I had to take exams on it, I had to get grades—there was no choice. Later on, they themselves began to say these things: that in the end, we lived the wrong way, that something about it all was wrong, that such a utopia never existed, that we were not living in some perfectly pure world where unicorns ran around everywhere. They acknowledged it, even if it was difficult for them to do so." – O'ktamjon, male, 2000, Andijan.

### Alcohol abuse:

"Access to alcohol, which my grandmother doesn't like, she says that in almost every family at that time, there were beatings, domestic abuse, because of alcohol. Men used to drink a lot, because of the access. And my grandfather also says alcohol was really
accessible in that time, and this is one of the bad things that I concluded from everything that they tell me.” – Anonymous, male, 1997, Ferghana.

## Gendered Dimensions of Remembering

There is a gendered pattern of remembering and sharing memories. Elderly females, often grandmothers, mothers and sometimes aunts or neighbors, often share stories about household economy, hardships at work (such as cotton work), and neighborhood sociability. This can be explained that back then, quite like it is today, women were more concerned with domestic life and wellbeing of children and other members of the household, which directly depended on food, clothes, etc. It also indicates that female elderly valued social coherence in their neighborhoods more and care about lack of it in modern lifestyle.

“For example, they’d say, ‘We had money in our hands, but there was nothing in the market.’ They said those were difficult times.” – Madina, female, 2002, Bukhara;

“My grandmother... said that everything was cheap back then, and of better quality.” – Anora, female, 2005, Jizzakh;

“Our grandmothers talk about how easily they would go out gathering in the neighborhood and sit together to chat. Or they tell stories about the cotton harvest season. And they often add that, back then, people were a bit kinder to one another.” – Gulimshahnoz, female, 1997, Andijan;

“I have another grandmother who says that people were hungry in those days. When she talks about her childhood, she says ‘we would wear the same piece of clothing for five or six years. We wore what our older sisters or brothers had worn. We would take turns using the same school bag, going and coming back from school. Those were hard times. We only had simple kalish (rubber sandals) on our feet, the water would seep through them. Back then, there was heavy snowfall, and life was difficult’” – Mokhinur, female, 2000, Andijan.

In contrast, the young generation hear stories from their elderly men that often center around macro level experiences: price facts, equality/stability, mobility, and sometimes overt ideology. The narratives they hear from elderly male are less emotional and more factual, often focusing on quantitative comparisons or ideological assessments.

“Usually, we discussed these kinds of stories with my father. And when we talked about them, he mostly spoke about the economic conditions of that time. For example, how much a box of matches costs, how much price of a bread was, and that flour was cheap.” – Sitora, female, 2001, Jizzakh;

“My grandfather says that at that time he was a director somewhere, maybe in a kolkhoz or some enterprise. He says that we lived in abundance then; they would bring home turkeys, and he worked in some kind of warehouse.” – Durdona, female, 2002, Samarkand;
"In particular, my father talks about this a lot. He tells stories about when he went to the army, about working together with my grandfather, what life was like back then, and how much things cost in the stores. ... My father often says that in the past, people didn't even plaster their houses properly; they would just coat the walls with simple clay plaster, just enough to get through the winter. Now, for example, people invest in their homes, they buy cars. Back then there were no cars, no telephones. He talks about this a lot." – Fayzullo, male, 2003, Fergana;

"One of my uncles used to tell this story a lot. He said that once they somehow found three so'ms somewhere, and with that money they bought a lot of ice cream and ate it." – Anora, female, 2005, Jizzakh;

"For example, my grandfather said that when they were studying at the university, they were taught the book on the foundations of atheism; there was a whole course on it." – O'ktamjon, male, 2000, Andijan.

This subtly noticeable difference, however, does not mean the stories shared by elderly men and women do not overlap. In fact, many stories go about the same way. The distinction is visible in the focus only.

## Nostalgia Reinterpreted

The majority of young participants in this research understand that the recollections of the Soviet past they hear from their elderly are not political or ideological. They see the nostalgia the elderly have for their past life as a longing for youthhood – their formative years. The youth interprets it as an emotional attachment to times associated with shared leisure, collective work, or early family life rather than the political structure of the time. This distinction between biographical and ideological nostalgia recurs quite often, indicating a consistent interpretive frame among younger respondents.

"Otherwise, if we take, for example, the years 1983–1985, we know that we were still part of the Soviet Union. Everything was in Russian, and things were difficult because we were not independent; we did not have our own language rights, and even our religion—people could not openly attend holiday prayers. And yet, they still remember those years as happy ones, because they remember their youth, they feel a kind of longing for it." – Dilrabo, female, 1992, Namangan;

"The reason is that they themselves understood that there had been a bit of fanaticism, that they had grown up almost like robots, they know this, but they do not want to admit it. And now, of course, there is nostalgia, a sense of lost youth." – O'ktamjon, male, 2000, Andijan;
"They talk about these things and laugh. For them, of course, it is nostalgia because it is their youth. Everyone remembers their youth with nostalgia." – Durdona, female, 2002, Samarkand.

Young respondents also link the nostalgic recollections of their elderly to their dissatisfaction with how things are in the present. So they interpret these recollections as moral commentary on contemporary life. To them, these stories do not represent historic accuracy, but a set of contrast narratives with the present.

Participants consistently noted that their elderly refer to the past as more simple, fair, or secure times, but remained cautious in perceiving this idealization at a face value.

"Of course, in the view of most of them, the situation today is bad, there is no justice anywhere, and life is becoming more difficult day by day. They believe that, in contrast, during the Soviet period everything was easy, inexpensive, and fair. Communism, they say, was the most perfect system, while capitalism has brought humanity to the brink of collapse. And we often hear the opinion that only Russia and Putin can save the world, that if Putin were to reunite all the post-Soviet republics and restore the USSR, everything would return to order again." – Bobur, male, 1992, Andijan;

"Recently what they're saying is the fact that people got more aggressive, and ... everyone got more focused and egoistical, even in terms of finances, because what they draw a parallel about is that in the 20th century, the relationships between the families were kind of closer, even financially. They knew the existence of more extended families than they are now" – Anonymous, male, 1997, Ferghana.

The way young participants recount these stories reveals a dual awareness: they understand the emotional and moral logic behind elders' nostalgia while also recognizing that such memories are selectively constructed. Some participants delve into more critical analysis and reason the nostalgia with lack of financial literacy or limited media freedom and control over information:

"I've heard those classic phrases many times – 'for just one tiyin you could buy this,' 'and you'd still get another tiyin back.' I've heard things like that so often... Ok, back then it was one tiyin, now it's two thousand so'ms. But nothing major has actually changed. Two thousand is still a small amount of money... That's still basically nothing. When they converted rubles into Uzbek so'm, they did it in a very incorrect way. It shows how financially uninformed the older generation was." – O'ktamjon, male, 2000, Andijan;

"I think there are probably two important sides to it. Those are also not entirely correct, but people still haven't acknowledged that they are wrong. One is that the Soviet period was peaceful, and the other is that people were simpler back then. Now, as a counterargument, you can say one thing: during the Soviet era, information was not widely circulated. And even now, there is no full access to the internet either." – Ibid.
The respondents understand that the stories they hear from their parents and grandparents about life during the Soviet era are selective. Rather than viewing nostalgia as an intentional distortion of the past, they interpret this selectivity as a form of emotional or psychological filtering – a tendency to remember what is comforting or dignifying while leaving out hardship, coercion, or deprivation. Together, these reflections reveal that the independence generation does not reject elders’ memories but interprets them as incomplete fragments subject to emotion and time. This awareness of omission introduces a subtle but important shift in intergenerational memory transmission: the Soviet past is not accepted as a collective narrative that reflects a historic accuracy, but as selectively remembered personal experiences. This recognition indicates a growing critical literacy of memory among young Uzbeks.

## CONCLUSION

This study shows that Soviet-era memories in Uzbekistan circulate across generations less as coherent public history than as intimate biographical fragments. Young participants hear both positive and negative sides of everyday life before independence.

The findings of this research indicate two key points. First, they confirm earlier scholarship on public memory of the Soviet past in Central Asia. Scholars such as Dadabaev, Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, and Umetbaeva in particular have documented oral stories filled with nostalgia among people who experienced the Soviet era. This nostalgia typically evolves around notions of social welfare and stability. This paper notes that young people in Uzbekistan encounter these same narratives from their elderly – stories that speak about affordability, security, and stability of the socialist system. Intergenerational memory transmission is not limited to nostalgic recollections. Bitter memories are also passed down, though they tend to concern concrete aspects of everyday life rather than overarching political repression.

Although subtle, it is worth highlighting the gendered dimension of remembering. Elderly women tend to recall the Soviet past through micro-level experiences of domestic life, neighborhood relations, and everyday socialization, whereas elderly men more often emphasize macro-level aspects such as economic conditions, social equality, mobility, and ideology.

Second, as one of the pioneering studies on the perception of transmitted memories in Central Asia, this work illustrates how young people reframe the memories shared by their elders. It concludes that youth transform inherited nostalgia into reflective interpretation of the era they haven't directly experienced. They reason elderly's reminiscence with emotional attachment to their youthhood, with limited access to information and the absence of comparative perspectives at the time.
REFERENCES

Abashin, Sergei. 'Mustakillik and Remembrance of the Imperial Past: Passing Through the Halls of the Tashkent Museum in Memory of the Victims of Repression'. Russian Politics & Law, vol. 48, no. 5, Sep. 2010, pp. 78–91. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2753/RUP1061-1940480505.

Baldauf, Ingeborg. 'Uzbek Oral Histories of Migration and War: Remembering the Early Twentieth Century in Northern Afghanistan'. Afghan History Through Afghan Eyes, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 235–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190247782.003.0009.

Blakkisrud, Helge, and Shahnoza Nozimova. 'History Writing and Nation Building in Post-Independence Tajikistan'. Nationalities Papers, vol. 38, no. 2, Mar. 2010, pp. 173–89. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/00905990903517835.

Burkhanov, Aziz, and Dina Sharipova. 'New Narratives and Old Myths: History Textbooks in Kazakhstan'. Nationalities Papers, vol. 52, no. 5, Sep. 2024, pp. 1193–208. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2023.64.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Community Life, Memory and a Changing Nature of Mahalla Identity in Uzbekistan'. Journal of Eurasian Studies, vol. 4, no. 2, Jul. 2013, pp. 181–96. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euras.2013.03.008.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Evaluations of Perestroika in Post-Soviet Central Asia: Public Views in Contemporary Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan'. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 49, no. 2, Jun. 2016, pp. 179–92. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postcomstud.2016.03.001.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Manipulating Post-Soviet Nostalgia: Contrasting Political Narratives and Public Recollections in Central Asia'. International Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 61–81. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591420000443.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Power, Social Life, and Public Memory in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan'. Inner Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 25–48. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1163/146481710792710291.

Dadabaev, Timur. 'Recollections of Emerging Hybrid Ethnic Identities in Soviet Central Asia: The Case of Uzbekistan'. Nationalities Papers, vol. 41, no. 6, Nov. 2013, pp. 1026–48. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2013.774340.

Dadabaev, Timur. *Trauma and Public Memory in Central Asia: Public responses to political violence of the state policies in Stalinist Era in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan*. Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies 3 (1), 2009, pp. 108–138.
Dukeyev, Berikbol. 'Representation of the Kazakhstani Famine (1931–33) in Secondary School History Textbooks, 1992–2021'. Central Asian Survey, vol. 42, no. 2, Apr. 2023, pp. 383–401. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2152778.

Dukeyev, Berikbol. 'Representation of the Kazakhstani Famine (1931–33) in Secondary School History Textbooks, 1992–2021'. Central Asian Survey, vol. 42, no. 2, Apr. 2023, pp. 383–401. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2022.2152778.

Ersanlı, Büşra. 'History Textbooks as Reflections of the Political Self: Turkey (1930s and 1990s) and Uzbekistan (1990s)'. International Journal of Middle East Studies, Special Issue: Nationalism and the Colonial Legacy in the Middle East and Central Asia, vol. 34, no. 2, May 2002, pp. 337–49, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3879831.

Flynn, Moya, et al. 'The Place of Memory in Understanding Urban Change in Central Asia: The Cities of Bishkek and Ferghana'. Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 66, no. 9, Oct. 2014, pp. 1501–24. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2014.957926.

Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, Güljanat. 'Famine in Kyrgyzstan in the 1930s and 1940s'. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 39–51, https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52236-8.

Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, Güljanat. 'Remembered Traditions and Lifestyles of Soviet Kyrgyzstan'. Inner Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp. 157–75. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1163/146481710792710336.

Kuryłowicz, Michał. "To Speak to the Hegemon": The Visions of Soviet Past in the History Coursebooks of Central Asia Countries'. Politeja, vol. 20, no. 1(82), Jun. 2023, pp. 395–408. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.20.2023.82.20.

Malikov, Azim. 'Stalin's Repressions and Rehabilitation of the Victims in the Politics of Memory in Uzbekistan.' Genocidas ir rezistencija 2 (56), 2024, p. 163–181.

Olcott, Martha Brill. 'Central Asia's Catapult to Independence.' Foreign Affairs 71 (3), 1992, p. 108-130. doi:10.2307/20045233.

Torbakov, Igor. 'History, Memory and National Identity Understanding the Politics of History and Memory Wars in Post-Soviet Lands.' Demokratizatsiya 19 (3), 2011, p.209–32.

Umetbaeva, Damira. 'Official Rhetoric and Individual Perceptions of the Soviet Past: Implications for Nation Building in Kyrgyzstan'. Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, vol. 4, no. 1, 2015, pp. 71–93. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1353/reg.2015.0008.