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 takes center stage.

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 are held in Western countries and the USA, with Eastern Europeans rarely given a voice — at most, Russian researchers. Yet, she noted, there is undoubtedly a vast 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, however, share much with Central and Eastern European nations 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, bringing together more than 150 scientists, journalists, and artists to debate the legacy of Soviet colonialism.

Colonialism and Its Overlooked Legacy

Yes, colonialism — because 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. Few are aware that in Central Asia:

• Millions of people were forced to Russify their names.
• They were compelled to abandon their Arabic script in favor of Russian.
• All who could not write Russian were declared illiterate — with fatal consequences.

Few also know that in the 1930s, up to 40 percent of the population in Kazakhstan starved to death — proportionally even more than in Ukraine. While deportations of Crimean Tatars or Chechens are known, Buryats, Koreans living on the Korean border in the Soviet Union, and Circassians were also deported. Up to a third of these people died during transport alone.

Also barely in public awareness: In some Central Asian countries, expansive Soviet agriculture led to the destruction of the entire water system. The Aral Sea is now almost completely dried up, causing catastrophic ecological consequences that the affected countries must now address.

Nuclear Tests in Eastern Kazakhstan

A moving moment during the three-day conference was the screening of the film "Jara" by Kazakh director Aigerim Seitenova. In the film, surviving women report 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 deformities 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 of the diseases are hereditary — a number Seitenova considers far too low.

Confronting Trauma

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