100 Sophie Roche
identify this past glory of Chkalovsk, as the town was just like most abandoned
and neglected cities of the former Soviet Union: houses were without colors,
hospital walls were losing their plaster and some of the buildings were taken
over by reptiles and insects, and small shops were no longer selling goods from
Moscow, but rather the same goods as in the nearby city of Khujand. The university is said to be excellent. It was repainted and renovated especially for the
president’s daughter, who decided to study medicine in this town. The appropriation of the former town by Khujandi has turned Chkalovsk into an extension of Khujand rather than a town engaging with its nuclear history. Only an
atom model at the entrance of Chkalovsk indicates the city’s bygone past.
The name Chkalovsk was changed to Buston in 2016 despite another village some fifty kilometers away already having this name. For many Russians,
this was the end of their former home, the end of a past, which they remembered as wonderful:
[I] lived in Chkalovsk for some part of my childhood. These are the
best and sunniest memories of all the exciting life that I have lived for
30 years. This news was like a knife to the heart. Chkalovsk is forever in
my heart … I will wait until all this dirt settles down and I can return
“home.” Again, to feel the warm wind on my cheeks, the lake at the
hotel glittering as it again receives tourists … To see how the children
play in the courtyards and at the stadium and sports grounds – and adults
… go to the cinema and buy the biggest melon they can find on the
market … I just want a world without borders, where I can live not in a
metropolis, but in the center of my world - Chkalovsk. A city of anomalous attraction … 50 (emphasis in original)
These memories shared via social media resonate with the imagination that
Khujandi still cultivates toward Chkalovsk. My interlocutors in Khujand
integrate Chkalovsk as the progressive extension of their own city. In this
regard, the natural resources that the surrounding mountains have are seen to
be part of the urban-rural relationality. For the urban population, this rural
environment satisfies their needs, whether it is the “Kairakum sea” (dam)
used for bathing and electricity, or the farmers producing products and selling them on the city markets. In this rural-urban environmental relationality,
uranium naturally integrates into this hierarchy, just as carrots, tomatoes,
and other agricultural products that are cultivated and brought to town. This
perspective does not include the villagers as an independent population, but
as submitted to a social hierarchy.
A Nuclear Reactor for Tajikistan
The Tajik government has negotiated with Russia to build a nuclear reactor –
a plan originating in the 1980s but never finalized. On November 2, 2015,
identify this past glory of Chkalovsk, as the town was just like most abandoned
and neglected cities of the former Soviet Union: houses were without colors,
hospital walls were losing their plaster and some of the buildings were taken
over by reptiles and insects, and small shops were no longer selling goods from
Moscow, but rather the same goods as in the nearby city of Khujand. The university is said to be excellent. It was repainted and renovated especially for the
president’s daughter, who decided to study medicine in this town. The appropriation of the former town by Khujandi has turned Chkalovsk into an extension of Khujand rather than a town engaging with its nuclear history. Only an
atom model at the entrance of Chkalovsk indicates the city’s bygone past.
The name Chkalovsk was changed to Buston in 2016 despite another village some fifty kilometers away already having this name. For many Russians,
this was the end of their former home, the end of a past, which they remembered as wonderful:
[I] lived in Chkalovsk for some part of my childhood. These are the
best and sunniest memories of all the exciting life that I have lived for
30 years. This news was like a knife to the heart. Chkalovsk is forever in
my heart … I will wait until all this dirt settles down and I can return
“home.” Again, to feel the warm wind on my cheeks, the lake at the
hotel glittering as it again receives tourists … To see how the children
play in the courtyards and at the stadium and sports grounds – and adults
… go to the cinema and buy the biggest melon they can find on the
market … I just want a world without borders, where I can live not in a
metropolis, but in the center of my world - Chkalovsk. A city of anomalous attraction … 50 (emphasis in original)
These memories shared via social media resonate with the imagination that
Khujandi still cultivates toward Chkalovsk. My interlocutors in Khujand
integrate Chkalovsk as the progressive extension of their own city. In this
regard, the natural resources that the surrounding mountains have are seen to
be part of the urban-rural relationality. For the urban population, this rural
environment satisfies their needs, whether it is the “Kairakum sea” (dam)
used for bathing and electricity, or the farmers producing products and selling them on the city markets. In this rural-urban environmental relationality,
uranium naturally integrates into this hierarchy, just as carrots, tomatoes,
and other agricultural products that are cultivated and brought to town. This
perspective does not include the villagers as an independent population, but
as submitted to a social hierarchy.
A Nuclear Reactor for Tajikistan
The Tajik government has negotiated with Russia to build a nuclear reactor –
a plan originating in the 1980s but never finalized. On November 2, 2015,