RUTA Association holds third conference in Uzhhorod, focusing on Soviet colonial legacy

At the conference of the RUTA Association in Ukrainian Uzhhorod, the question of global civil society engagement is at the center.

Published: 24 July 2026, 11:49

The dried-up Aral Sea: Legacy of Soviet Colonialism — Photo: uig/imago

By Noemi Smolik

Botakoz Kassymbekova, professor of Eastern European history at the University of Zurich, observed that most conferences on Eastern European history take place in Western countries and the USA, with Eastern Europeans rarely given a voice — at most, Russian researchers. Yet, she noted, it makes a significant difference whether history is told from Moscow, Tashkent, or Riga.

Kassymbekova, who is from Kazakhstan, also pointed out that the history of Central Asian countries — not to mention the history of the Buryats, Yakuts, Sami, or Circassians, who remain part of the Russian Federation — is generally a blind spot. These countries share much with the nations of Central and Eastern Europe through years of Soviet rule.

Three years ago, she founded the RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asian Studies in Global Conversation. The association met for the third time last weekend in western Ukrainian Uzhhorod, where more than 150 scientists, journalists, and artists gathered to debate the legacy of Soviet colonialism.

Colonialism and Its Overlooked Legacy

Most RUTA countries, especially those in Central Asia, perceive Soviet rule as colonialism — a perspective still far too little addressed within the global postcolonial debate. Key facts often overlooked include:

• Millions of people in Central Asia were forced to Russify their names and abandon their Arabic script in favor of Russian.
• Anyone unable to write Russian was declared illiterate, with fatal consequences.
• In the 1930s, up to 40 percent of the population in Kazakhstan starved to death — proportionally even more than in Ukraine.
• Deportations affected not only Crimean Tatars and Chechens but also Buryats, Koreans living near the Korean border in the Soviet Union, and Circassians. Up to a third of those deported died during transport.
• In some Central Asian countries, expansive Soviet agriculture destroyed entire water systems — the Aral Sea is now almost completely dried up — causing catastrophic ecological consequences that affected countries must still address.

Nuclear Tests in Eastern Kazakhstan

A moving moment during the three-day conference was the screening of the film "Jara" by Kazakh filmmaker Aigerim Seitenova. The film features surviving women reporting on the consequences of nuclear tests in eastern Kazakhstan.

Between 1949 and 1989, the Soviet Union conducted more than 450 nuclear tests in the area around Semipalatinsk (today Semej) — without informing the population. Residents were left helpless in the face of cancer, other mysterious diseases, miscarriages, and birth defects in newborns. Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union did they learn the true cause.

Over 2.5 million people were and still are officially affected, as some diseases are hereditary. Seitenova considers this number far too low.

Confronting Trauma

These traumatic experiences were long kept silent. Only now is the second — and often already the third — generation beginning to confront them. Inspired by Prague-born philosopher Tereza Hendl, who focuses on ethics and health and has experience dealing with trauma in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the RUTA Association also advocates for processing the psychological and physical consequences of trauma.