Поэтесса Анна Алматинская и раскрепощение мусульманок советского Туркестана

Восточный архив. 2023. № 2(48). С. 42–49.

Мелентьев Д. В.

This article is an interesting ego-document publication – a letter from the Turkestan poetess A.V. Almatinskaya party leader I.A. Zelensky. In the letter, the poetess refers to such acute problems as disrespect for Soviet legislation on the part of Muslim communists, women oppression, ignoring emancipation by the courts, the prosecutor's office and the police, and many other topics. Personal case of A.V. Almatinskaya, reflected in the published source, brings us to the broader problems of Muslim women emancipation history in Soviet Turkestan. The letter also touched upon general issues that were direct relevance to Bolshevik gender politics, such as attitudes towards Western European feminism. In addition, the information from the letter supplements our knowledge not only about of the Muslim women emancipation history in the USSR and the women's departments activities in the 1920s, but also about the biography of A.V. Almatinskaya. During the analysis of the letter, it was concluded that it may have been intended for publication in the Tashkent press, as indicated by the letter style and other features. At the same time, the poetess used orientalist cliches in her speech when she expressed her attitude to the Muslim women emancipation in Turkestan. I also found other local European intelligentsia opinions of the early Soviet period, which describe the regional indigenous inhabitants with similar orientalist categories. Introduction to the scientific circulation A.V. Almatinskaya’s letter is a step forward to rethinking the Soviet narrative about the success project of the Muslim women emancipation in the Central Asian region.

Keywords: эмансипация, культурная история, гендерные исследования, cultural history, emancipation, Туркестан, Gender studies, Soviet Turkestan