We have already started this work in Tajikistan. The Institute for History, Archaeology, and Anthropology of the Academy of Sciences is preparing a history of the Tajik People from the most ancient times up to our own day. The first two volumes, which deal with ancient and medieval history, are ready for print. This was a global opposition, but it was even thought that eastern and western brains functioned in different ways, that not only culture, but patterns of thinking differed drastically. This is an extreme Eurocentric vision that first of all ignores the differences between a brilliant variety of Oriental cultures and civilizations.
Western culture is only one of the many cultures that have emerged in the history of mankind.
Compulsory russification started immediately after the conquest, the first tsarist governor-general of Turkestan, General Kaufman, expressed his views quite succinctly, when he said, that 'the development of education in the area should move in the direction of what is necessary for Russians'. After the Russian revolution exactly the same politics continued to dominate, the only difference being a rather transparent veil of hypocrisy. Language politics gave obvious expression to russification. As I already told you, it would be a great mistake to consider everything connected to the Russian culture as compulsory russification. Through Russia we adopted many highly-developed forms of culture, we have now our national operas and symphony orchestra, novels and modern poetry, painting and sculpture.