Environmental Relationalities 97
workers who built houses for the workers entrusted with the confidential
work of mining. Besides Germans, Russians and other minorities were settled in Tabashar in order to work in the different mines.
Palas was the main Sovkhoz (Soviet state farm) responsible for supplying
the mining towns’ population with agricultural products. The multi-ethnic
village Palas was known to the local population to have the best Sovkhoz,
growing the finest legumes and best grapes. This narrative was mixed with
envy because Palas received subsidies directly from Moscow. Palas was
“the farm of Chkalovsk and Tabashar,” the private garden for the military
towns. The infrastructure of the nuclear production in the Leninabad district
followed the same rural-urban hierarchy as the city of Khujand/Leninabad
maintained with its rural dependents.
Chkalovsk hosted mainly Russian professionals and engineers. As mentioned before, they were supplied with goods directly from Moscow and
hence felt to be “better humans” than the local population. “We used to buy
ice cream, bread or even Lebkuchen” in Chkalovsk, a Tajik from Khujand
recalled. “But the people were arrogant in Chkalovsk […] we always felt to
be one step lower” (woman 29.01.2018). Even in YouTube memory videos,
the “best ice cream of Chkalovsk” continues to be praised along with the many
leisure facilities that the town possessed (cinema, pool, theaters, children’s
parks, a planetarium, etc.).
The experience of Chkalovsk as a place with luxuries and good conditions
downplayed the risks that the work in the combine posed. The people of
Chkalovsk were proud to be part of the great Soviet military secret and felt
valued by Moscow. This translated into a social hierarchy between the two
cities that lay only a few kilometers apart.
Hence, we have two systems of life that developed independently and yet
interdependent on one another. Tajikistan, being at the outmost southern
border of the Soviet Union, was well suited to receive the many populations
that Stalin wanted to resettle far from the war zones. The result was the
emerging of highly inter-ethnic communities in many villages and towns
that developed in the region. 44
I suggest that it is this hierarchy of places and the relationships between
urban centers and their environment that set the stage for the narratives and
practices of integrating uranium production with all its positive and negative
side effects. This also explains why danger or pollution could be silently
accepted within a cultural narrative that submitted rural environments to
the industrial centers. This does not preclude rumors and experiences among
workers of the danger and pollution, but most importantly, it prevented local
citizens from asking how their health and the environment are affected by
the nuclear industry.
The scholarly focus on uranium tailing dumps and pollution overshadows the experience that people make independent of expert knowledge and
the modes to submit the nuclear production to a sociocultural narrative. In
order to understand how people react and cope with uranium waste and
workers who built houses for the workers entrusted with the confidential
work of mining. Besides Germans, Russians and other minorities were settled in Tabashar in order to work in the different mines.
Palas was the main Sovkhoz (Soviet state farm) responsible for supplying
the mining towns’ population with agricultural products. The multi-ethnic
village Palas was known to the local population to have the best Sovkhoz,
growing the finest legumes and best grapes. This narrative was mixed with
envy because Palas received subsidies directly from Moscow. Palas was
“the farm of Chkalovsk and Tabashar,” the private garden for the military
towns. The infrastructure of the nuclear production in the Leninabad district
followed the same rural-urban hierarchy as the city of Khujand/Leninabad
maintained with its rural dependents.
Chkalovsk hosted mainly Russian professionals and engineers. As mentioned before, they were supplied with goods directly from Moscow and
hence felt to be “better humans” than the local population. “We used to buy
ice cream, bread or even Lebkuchen” in Chkalovsk, a Tajik from Khujand
recalled. “But the people were arrogant in Chkalovsk […] we always felt to
be one step lower” (woman 29.01.2018). Even in YouTube memory videos,
the “best ice cream of Chkalovsk” continues to be praised along with the many
leisure facilities that the town possessed (cinema, pool, theaters, children’s
parks, a planetarium, etc.).
The experience of Chkalovsk as a place with luxuries and good conditions
downplayed the risks that the work in the combine posed. The people of
Chkalovsk were proud to be part of the great Soviet military secret and felt
valued by Moscow. This translated into a social hierarchy between the two
cities that lay only a few kilometers apart.
Hence, we have two systems of life that developed independently and yet
interdependent on one another. Tajikistan, being at the outmost southern
border of the Soviet Union, was well suited to receive the many populations
that Stalin wanted to resettle far from the war zones. The result was the
emerging of highly inter-ethnic communities in many villages and towns
that developed in the region. 44
I suggest that it is this hierarchy of places and the relationships between
urban centers and their environment that set the stage for the narratives and
practices of integrating uranium production with all its positive and negative
side effects. This also explains why danger or pollution could be silently
accepted within a cultural narrative that submitted rural environments to
the industrial centers. This does not preclude rumors and experiences among
workers of the danger and pollution, but most importantly, it prevented local
citizens from asking how their health and the environment are affected by
the nuclear industry.
The scholarly focus on uranium tailing dumps and pollution overshadows the experience that people make independent of expert knowledge and
the modes to submit the nuclear production to a sociocultural narrative. In
order to understand how people react and cope with uranium waste and