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Compassion and hospitality
Many Tajiks really feel compassion in direction of Russians who fled their nation to keep away from being despatched to battle in Ukraine.
“I perceive that these are extraordinary individuals. They don’t need to kill and be killed,” a younger feminine journalist from Dushanbe instructed me. Tajik ladies with grownup sons can see the parallel with their very own youngsters. One lady in her 50s instructed me: “I really feel sorry for these boys. Additionally they have moms, and so they needed to depart them behind. Who is aware of when, and if, they may have the ability to return dwelling?”
This optimistic angle in direction of Russian draft evaders might sound shocking, given the Tajik individuals’s normal pro-Russian stance even within the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
These attitudes may additionally partially be a legacy of the Soviet period. At a roundtable dialogue in early October on employment procedures for Russian residents, I heard the moderator passionately evaluating the current arrivals to, first, the enlargement of the Russian Empire after which the institution of the Soviet Union in Tajikistan.
“100 years in the past, the same story occurred,” the moderator mused. “The sunshine of Russia got here to us.” Later, when a younger Russian IT specialist requested whether or not he may attend any Tajik language programs, the moderator laughed, saying: “It’s higher if we use you to show us Russian as an alternative!”
Sentiments reminiscent of these might have their roots in a long time of Russian imperial after which Soviet dominance in Tajikistan, which embedded what may very well be seen as white supremacist attitudes in components of Tajik society. As one activist instructed me: “For our individuals, Russians are a greater kind of people. Nobody makes a distinction between totally different political positions inside Russia; that some Russians are pro-Putin and people who come listed below are navy deserters. All of them are Russians for us. They’re white individuals.”
This help for Russia manifests itself in a number of initiatives taken by activists and volunteers in Dushanbe. Social media teams sprang up on Telegram and Fb as quickly as the primary Russians began arriving. By mid October, the preferred one, ‘Relocation in Tajikistan’, had greater than 4,000 members and practically 1,000 messages a day.
In these teams, Tajiks reply – in Russian – to questions on lodging, sim playing cards, how you can register within the nation or open a checking account with a Visa card (worldwide monetary providers have suspended their operations in Russia).
Locals created a information to Dushanbe specifically for his or her “Russian pals”, from utilizing public transport to ordering meals deliveries. Others have provided to point out town to newcomers or to take them, freed from cost, to Khujand within the north or to the Uzbek border. Native media says that some Dushanbe residents paid for purchases made by Russians in markets and retailers, or supplied free lodging of their houses.
These initiatives are introduced as acts of hospitality – an vital component of Tajik tradition. Nonetheless, there is a component of performativity hooked up. Many individuals I spoke to felt obliged to point out generosity and kindness to Russians. As one professor in her 50s put it to me: “Let the Russians see what sort of individuals we’re. A lot of them, once they come right here, count on to see a village with donkeys and uneducated individuals. Allow them to see how hospitable we’re.”
There may be additionally hope that if the newcomers really feel welcome in Tajikistan, in the long term this will change discriminatory attitudes in direction of Tajik labour migrants in Russia. “If 20,000 Russians come right here and every of them tells one other ten individuals how good we’re, think about what impact this may have on the lives of Tajiks in Russia,” a 35-year-old accountant instructed me.
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