Authors

Discussion

In the early Soviet 1920s, aspirations for international freedom and anti-colonial solidarity coalesced into the concept of an “anticolonial empire” (Kirasirova 2024), a vision that gradually gave way to the isolationist and rigid ideologies of the 1930s (Paperny 1996). Yet, literary and artistic productions from Soviet border regions tell a more nuanced story, revealing the tensions between central Soviet ideology and local cultural identities (Skakov 2020). This paper examines how early Russophone travel literature acted as a bridge between political centers and peripheries amid the disruptive aftermath of revolution and civil war. These travelogues reactivated Orientalist tropes of Russian imperial literature while simultaneously shaping Soviet multinational literary projects (Dobrenko, Smola 2022).

Focusing on 1920s travelogues from Soviet Uzbekistan in Krasnaya Nov’, Novy Mir, and Krasnaya niva, this study investigates the ocherk (short literary sketch) as an evolving medium. Dmitry Stonov’s portrayal of Tashkent (1925) evokes Orientalist tropes while incorporating folklore mythologizing Lenin, symbolizing Soviet attempts at unity. Georgy Gaydovsky’s travelogue (1925) reflects Tashkent’s Sovietization while highlighting imperial differences, while Adelina Adalis’s later sketch (1929) conveys an impending cultural disruption in the Soviet Orient through the metaphor of an earthquake. These works, largely by correspondents with pre-revolutionary literary ties, mediated between periphery and center, fostering a simulated dialogue while often veiling centralization under cultural exchange. Thus, the disruption of imperial rule generated a new fragmented depictions of Uzbekistan, albeit rooted in a new Soviet, yet still imperial, mindset.