Now that we have a little bit of time between us and the Janaozen events, I’m hoping to prepare a little more in depth post. This is hopefully going to also be the start to a more regular course of writing from myself. Writing is work and deserving of criticism, so I accept and hope for constructive criticism. I’m sure that a non-Kazakh who ostensibly is preparing to be a Kazakh historian is always going to be having issues of motivation and trust with informants and readers alike.
I’m curious if any of Registan’s readers is from the Aktau/Janaozen area. Your input on the events and the real shape of the town is valued here. Let me say that I’m typing “Janaozen” out of laziness more than anything else – if one wants to make a case for Zhangauzen [Жаңаөзен] or some other transliteration, I’m all ears. I’m also curious as to the history and import of the name. Is it “New River?” My slightly-educated guess is for “Fresh River,” as in, there’s a river there that provided (still provides?) drinkable water, something pretty valuable on the Mangyshlaq plateau and the Caspian shore. Wikipedia states that it means new river, but I assumed that was merely a translation of the Russian, which would not necessarily clear up whether it’s a new river, a fresh river, or something else. Plus there’s the fact that the city was Новый Узень during the Soviet Union and is claimed to have been founded in the 1960s without mention of any previous settlements.
In the upcoming post, the etymology of the town’s name is unlikely to come up, so I’m not planning on digging any deeper than this 5 minute search around the Russ-net. Instead I’ll be trying to find a little context and parse out the continuities and incontinuities that lie between December 1986 (Jeltoqsan riots) and December 2011. I’ll do my best to include copies or links to primary sources that are informing the post.
This post was written by...
Michael Hancock-Parmer – author of 159 posts on Registan.net.
Michael earned an MA in Central Eurasian Studies in 2011 and remains a student at Indiana University pursuing a dual PhD in Russian History and Central Eurasian Studies. He served 6 months in the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan in 2005. After the events in Andijan and the subsequent closure of the program, he served 2 years in southern Kazakhstan, returning to the Midwest in 2007. His general area of interest is on post-Timur Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, centered on the Syr Darya river valley.
For information on reproducing this article, see our Terms of Use
{ 5 comments }
We’ll be eager to find our your discoveries about the etymology of the town. At least I will!
I look forward to the next article.
Michael…is this some kind of vanity post..?
Really this would be best saved for when you “talk to yourself.”
But it begs the question…if you don’t even know anything about the place, never been there, and trying to connect (illogically) events in two distinct places 25 years apart, what is up with you?
Worker revolt in 2011 and 1986 might have similiarities and differences, but what does that really say? Not much.
I was there in 1997, the name was told to me to be “Sweet Water,” and the “Young Water”- but what is the deep significance of this, and your even more illogical idea for a post? The river is there, and so is a big factory. It is a factory town-with one main production center with Workers. (very similiar to other products of central planning in the past)
Happy New Year-looking forward to post.!!
I will do my best, Don, to show that it’s not illogical to connect these riots, and that others are doing this, though with mixed results – in my opinion. I think they are very different events, of course, and I’m certainly not a fan of such statements as “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I don’t think History repeats itself, but History is a very deep toolbox from which people can drag out little pieces of legitimization and rationalization at will or whim.
If it’s public information, I’m very curious to hear how you landed in Janaozen – oil work? NGO or GONGO connection?
Fair enough. Relationship of disparate events in different eras is interesting, not sure of the practicality, but fire away.
For my trip there now 15 years ago(in another era also it now dawns on me) it was working on “business” with the oil infrastructure, as it existed at the time. While I doubt the structure of the “worker-management” system changed very much over time, I would suggest the current strife reflects as it does elsewhere, both economic and political overtones, which were not in the main forefront issues in 1997.