ABSTRACT

The collapse of the USSR and the opening of the central Asian Republics are an opportunity for anthropology to propose another reading of the reality of power in Soviet and post-Soviet Uzbek society. The variety of political practices in the Soviet Union, depending on the regions, have often been minimized due primarily to the impossibility of reaching the social reality directly. Kremlinologists have attached considerable importance to institutions and ideology. They have thus often overlooked the complex running of these societies. In the 1980s, several political and financial scandals were unveiled. The most tremendous one was the “White Gold” scandal in Uzbekistan. The First Secretary of the Uzbek Communist Party at the time, Sharaf Rashidov, and the son-in-law of Leonid Brejnev were at the center of a vast embezzlement system of cotton production, the Central Asian Republic’s main wealth. The entire social fabric was involved in this system and revealed the existence of an underground economy and of extremely complex solidarity networks. Nowadays, this ex-Central Asian Soviet Republic enables us to observe the articulation of a heavy Soviet heritage with the specificity of cultural Uzbek practices. This sheds light not only on the current running of this society but also on the past Soviet reality. In post-Soviet Uzbekistan, the State and its institutions continue to play a central role in the society’s organization. And even though the Muscovite center no longer exists, new type of actors-the international organizations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)—interact with the running of this young political area. This chapter proposes to analyze two main dimensions of Uzbek political life: the different ways to gain a political position and the sources of legitimacy to exercise power.