Deconstructing the Socialist "Dream" of Tashkent. A post-colonial perspective on Soviet urbanism

Journal title CRIOS
Author/s Federica Deo
Publishing Year 2025 Issue 2023/26
Language Italian Pages 12 P. 6-17 File size 677 KB
DOI 10.3280/CRIOS2023-026002
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Tashkent, the presentday capital of Uzbekistan, was in the second half of the twentieth century the stage for a major project of the USSR, which aimed to make it a gateway to socialist Asia and a showcase of the Soviet East. As the fourth city of the Soviet Union, by the 1970s Tashkent had become the most modern city in Asia. The earthquake that struck it in 1966 paradoxically created the opportunity – thanks to the People’s Friendship Pact – to implement much older political programs and address some crucial urban issues, indicative of Russian imperialist policies and subsequent annexation to the Soviet Union. Is it possible to identify colonialist practices in the central government’s plan to modernize Tashkent? Through an examination of the urban plans developed for Tashkent from the Russian occupation until 1966, the author aims to highlight the dynamics and strategies through which the central government and local administrations “collaborated” to build the great capital of the East.

Keywords: postcolonial history; soviet urban planning; soviet modernism.

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Federica Deo, Decostruire il "sogno" socialista di Tashkent. Una prospettiva post-coloniale sull'urbanistica sovietica in "CRIOS" 26/2023, pp 6-17, DOI: 10.3280/CRIOS2023-026002