DOI: 10.4324/9781003246893-12
9 Fallout Memory Trajectories
at Semipalatinsk
Reassembling the Post-Soviet Past
Susanne Bauer
Located in a river park in Semey, formerly Semipalatinsk, an enormous
monument is dedicated to the victims of nuclear testing. Reaching higher
than the trees, the memorial titled “Stronger than Death” on the banks of
the river Irtysh features a gigantic tombstone in anthracite color, with the
silhouette of the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion; beneath the atomic
mushroom is the sculpture of a woman shielding a child (Figure 9.1). With
nuclear tests being part of Semipalatinsk’s formerly secret past and now public
memory, residents of Semey city and surrounding settlements come here on
weekends or for an afternoon stroll during summer, taking their pictures in
front of the monument. Locals take their visitors to the memorial for sightseeing, along with Semey’s museum of Dostoyevsky and the new suspension
bridge across the river Irtysh built by a Japanese company in the 2000s, or the
surrounding woods with the scent of pine trees and the historic burial sites
in the wide-open steppe south of the city. Often this memorial is referred to
as an achievement, given the weight and impact of the nuclear past as well as
the overcoming of the economic crisis of the 1990s.
Built in 2001, the memorial “Stronger than Death” is an official, visible
testimony to how the new Republic of Kazakhstan officially has positioned
itself in relation to its Soviet nuclear past. The government commissioned two
Kazakh artists to design it: Shota Valikhanov, a sculptor and architect who
also supervised the creation of the independence monument on the Republic
Square in Almaty (Alma-Ata during the Soviet time), and Zhandarbek
Malibekov, the designer of the Kazakhstani national emblem. The memorial
joins the new republic’s state symbols, many of which evoke the Kazakh past
as one of Eurasian steppe nomads. Some date back to the 6th–5th century
BC, the century of the “Golden Man” (“zolotoi chelovek”) found about 50 km
east of Almaty in a Soviet archeological expedition in 1969–1970 and are
today presented in a dedicated section of the Central Museum of Kazakhstan
in Almaty. Foregrounding and linking “Kazakhness” back to the era of the
Eastern Scythes is one example of how heritage representations in museums
are crafting new accounts of deep Kazakh past. 1
The politics of state building also reached into the ways in which the aftermath and legacies of Soviet nuclear testing was dealt with. Closing down
9 Fallout Memory Trajectories
at Semipalatinsk
Reassembling the Post-Soviet Past
Susanne Bauer
Located in a river park in Semey, formerly Semipalatinsk, an enormous
monument is dedicated to the victims of nuclear testing. Reaching higher
than the trees, the memorial titled “Stronger than Death” on the banks of
the river Irtysh features a gigantic tombstone in anthracite color, with the
silhouette of the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion; beneath the atomic
mushroom is the sculpture of a woman shielding a child (Figure 9.1). With
nuclear tests being part of Semipalatinsk’s formerly secret past and now public
memory, residents of Semey city and surrounding settlements come here on
weekends or for an afternoon stroll during summer, taking their pictures in
front of the monument. Locals take their visitors to the memorial for sightseeing, along with Semey’s museum of Dostoyevsky and the new suspension
bridge across the river Irtysh built by a Japanese company in the 2000s, or the
surrounding woods with the scent of pine trees and the historic burial sites
in the wide-open steppe south of the city. Often this memorial is referred to
as an achievement, given the weight and impact of the nuclear past as well as
the overcoming of the economic crisis of the 1990s.
Built in 2001, the memorial “Stronger than Death” is an official, visible
testimony to how the new Republic of Kazakhstan officially has positioned
itself in relation to its Soviet nuclear past. The government commissioned two
Kazakh artists to design it: Shota Valikhanov, a sculptor and architect who
also supervised the creation of the independence monument on the Republic
Square in Almaty (Alma-Ata during the Soviet time), and Zhandarbek
Malibekov, the designer of the Kazakhstani national emblem. The memorial
joins the new republic’s state symbols, many of which evoke the Kazakh past
as one of Eurasian steppe nomads. Some date back to the 6th–5th century
BC, the century of the “Golden Man” (“zolotoi chelovek”) found about 50 km
east of Almaty in a Soviet archeological expedition in 1969–1970 and are
today presented in a dedicated section of the Central Museum of Kazakhstan
in Almaty. Foregrounding and linking “Kazakhness” back to the era of the
Eastern Scythes is one example of how heritage representations in museums
are crafting new accounts of deep Kazakh past. 1
The politics of state building also reached into the ways in which the aftermath and legacies of Soviet nuclear testing was dealt with. Closing down