90 Sophie Roche
configurations and their relations to the natural environment. The ethnographer Edward Bruner 13 suggests differentiating between reality, experience,
and expression. Whereas the reality eludes the possibility of recalling events
because it is always mediated, expression is what most ethnographers, as per
Bruner, have access to. The study of experience is challenging as it operates
on participation and documentation of this participation. The social anthropologist Michael Jackson, 14 who operates at this level of experience, has further developed this approach providing ethnographic examples. I followed his
approach in conducting research and reflecting on the ethnographic material.
Interviews within this approach are secondary, as they may unintentionally shape the narratives according to the political climate (and the many
restrictions that it imposes). More interesting for the ethnographer is therefore how people act and talk among themselves and in daily conversations or
which topics they avoid. This chapter is thus based on experiences, whereas
factual data and public discourses have been taken from Tajik newspapers
and reports.
The Context of Uranium Mining in Northern Tajikistan
In the atmosphere of the Cold War, the nuclear bomb became the ultimate goal for the Soviet Union. The project was based on Russian scientists working under the supervision of the secret police of the People’s
Commissariat of Internal Affairs (Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh del,
NKVD), with Gulag prisoners and soldiers as the primary manual workforce erecting a plutonium plant in the midst of a swamp (Ozersk), and
with uranium brought from as far as the mountains of Tajikistan, in order
to test the bomb in the Kazakh steppes. 15 Nuclear production was one
of the truly pan-Soviet projects that ended only when the Soviet Union
ceased to exist.
It was discovered that the mountains surrounding the Ferghana Valley in
the heart of Central Asia held various mineral resources, including uranium.
Hence, it was also here where the first uranium processing plant of the Soviet
Union was built. Uranium from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Tajikistan
was intended to provide the material for the USSR’s first nuclear bomb. 16 As
of the 1940s, several plants had been opened by the Leninabad Mining and
Chemical Combine (now the Vostochny Rare Metal Industrial Association,
or Vostokredmet), including Tabashar, Adrasman, Mailuu-Suu, Uighur, and
Tyuya-Muyun. According to Vinson, “Vostokredmet incorporated seven
mines and five plants, including plant B, and processed up to one million
tons of uranium ore per year to produce yellowcake for the Soviet nuclear
power industry and Soviet military.” 17 The factory to process uranium ore
was located in the municipality of Chkalovsk. The Leninabad Mining and
Chemical Combine enriched yellowcake and produced uranium hexafluoride
configurations and their relations to the natural environment. The ethnographer Edward Bruner 13 suggests differentiating between reality, experience,
and expression. Whereas the reality eludes the possibility of recalling events
because it is always mediated, expression is what most ethnographers, as per
Bruner, have access to. The study of experience is challenging as it operates
on participation and documentation of this participation. The social anthropologist Michael Jackson, 14 who operates at this level of experience, has further developed this approach providing ethnographic examples. I followed his
approach in conducting research and reflecting on the ethnographic material.
Interviews within this approach are secondary, as they may unintentionally shape the narratives according to the political climate (and the many
restrictions that it imposes). More interesting for the ethnographer is therefore how people act and talk among themselves and in daily conversations or
which topics they avoid. This chapter is thus based on experiences, whereas
factual data and public discourses have been taken from Tajik newspapers
and reports.
The Context of Uranium Mining in Northern Tajikistan
In the atmosphere of the Cold War, the nuclear bomb became the ultimate goal for the Soviet Union. The project was based on Russian scientists working under the supervision of the secret police of the People’s
Commissariat of Internal Affairs (Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh del,
NKVD), with Gulag prisoners and soldiers as the primary manual workforce erecting a plutonium plant in the midst of a swamp (Ozersk), and
with uranium brought from as far as the mountains of Tajikistan, in order
to test the bomb in the Kazakh steppes. 15 Nuclear production was one
of the truly pan-Soviet projects that ended only when the Soviet Union
ceased to exist.
It was discovered that the mountains surrounding the Ferghana Valley in
the heart of Central Asia held various mineral resources, including uranium.
Hence, it was also here where the first uranium processing plant of the Soviet
Union was built. Uranium from the Soviet Socialist Republic of Tajikistan
was intended to provide the material for the USSR’s first nuclear bomb. 16 As
of the 1940s, several plants had been opened by the Leninabad Mining and
Chemical Combine (now the Vostochny Rare Metal Industrial Association,
or Vostokredmet), including Tabashar, Adrasman, Mailuu-Suu, Uighur, and
Tyuya-Muyun. According to Vinson, “Vostokredmet incorporated seven
mines and five plants, including plant B, and processed up to one million
tons of uranium ore per year to produce yellowcake for the Soviet nuclear
power industry and Soviet military.” 17 The factory to process uranium ore
was located in the municipality of Chkalovsk. The Leninabad Mining and
Chemical Combine enriched yellowcake and produced uranium hexafluoride