Feature ethnization of urban space "imperial cities" (Dushanbe)

The article discusses the process of ethnicization (development of the indigenous population), a special type of urban space - the space of the imperial city. Under the imperial city of the type of settlement it is understood, not so much as a product of the territorial community, as, as part of the imperial Cosmopolis, the instrument of his connection with the subject territories. An example of that is disclosed in the article, these processes serve the city of Dushanbe - the capital of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic and the Republic of Tajikistan. The empirical material for the analysis of social processes in Dushanbe is the official statistical information, participant observation and a series of biographical interviews with residents of the city. This article demonstrates how to configure the imperial capital of the Soviet space Tajikistan, the role it played in relation to the population of the republic. The author shows, under the influence of some factors, there was a change of the space of the imperial city, how it penetrated ethnic elements as they interact with the imperial structure. As noted in the article, for all the active penetration of ethnic elements in the structure of the city, he remained the center of imperial policy. At the same time for the local population, he was «a Russian city.» An indicator that played Russian and imperial forms of life that were perceived as Russian. Ethnic Russians were in the city and 70-ies of XX century, the largest group of the population. But the share of Russian population by the end of the 80s is significantly reduced, as well as decreases the role in the life of the imperial city of the Republic of Tajikistan. After the collapse of the USSR and the Russian exodus from Dushanbe city is transformed into a mono-ethnic settlement. However, Russian and imperial forms of life disappear. They mastered a new generation of citizens not as Russian, but as urban. As shown in the article, the imperial city served in relation to the local community as an intermediary in the inter-regional negotiations. In the absence of this intermediary negotiations stopped and there is a direct clash, leading to civil war. Awareness of this fact leads to the fact that the particular structure of the imperial city is saved and endowed with new meanings. As a general sense of the former imperial city of Dushanbe serves the sense of space, where negotiations are possible. So, it becomes possible avoidance of direct conflict. It retains the «russian» culture and «russian» space of the city, preserves the orientation of the local elite into an alliance with Russia.

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