I got a few notes from people who read my post about languages heard in and around Osh and Kyrgyzstan who were surprised to hear that German is, in fact, spoken in some places in Kyrgyzstan. It’s surprising at first, but when I began to take a look at the larger history of populations of Central Asia, I learned a ton about some unexpected groups that have sizeable populations here.
To understand this situation, we’ve got to wind the clock back to Stalin. Stalin’s efforts to unite the Central Asian states under Soviet rule are legendary. In an effort to organize the region, his administration categorized Central Asia’s diverse range of ethnicities into five major groups: Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, and Tajiks. This, of course, ignores the existence of other groups (like Karakalpaks), or that Kazakhs and Kyrgyz are very similar culturally and that Uzbeks and Tajiks are very closely related but differ in their languages (obviously, these are MASSIVE generalizations, but it illustrates some of the artificiality of the divisions). They decided to divide “Turkestan” as it was previously known into the five regions used today approximately along these lines.
But, creating monolithic ethnically-defined states in an area where ethnicities all lived together in many places (like Osh) was not a simple process. Stalin being the paranoid megalomaniac that he was, also decided to draw the lines in such a way as to prevent large single-ethnicity majorities in each of the countries, in the hopes that this would stifle any effort at revolt. The result of this was that less than half of Kyrgyzstan’s population was actually Kyrgyz (at that time – today about 75% is Kyrgyz), and to this day, the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara still speak Tajik in pockets. Some of the linguistic diversity of Osh comes from this.
This fear of revolt also created another curious phenomenon in Central Asia: the resettlement of many populations from fringe areas of the Soviet Union during World War II. Many Germans lived in parts of the Soviet Union after immigrating there during the 18th and 19th centuries, but much like the US had suspiciouns of its Japanese population at that same time, the USSR was also concerned about its German population. Thus, they forcibly relocated them to Central Asia. According to EurasiaNet, in 1989 100,000 Germans lived in Kyrgyzstan, descended from the original relocated families.
Other ethnic groups were forcibly moved around the same time; About 170,000 Koreans were relocated from 1930-1937 to modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan over concerns about Japanese espionage. At the time they made up something near a quarter of the population of some cities in the Russian Far East. In 1989, 439,000 Koreans lived in the USSR, primarily in Kazakhstan, and about 100,000 remain, many of whom are integrated and intermarried.
Other notable relocations to Central Asia’s 5 republics included Kulaks, Finns, Poles, Kurds, Chinese, Azeris, Persian Jews, Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, Turks, Lazes, Basmachis, and political exiles. Outside of Central Asia, there was forced relocation of many religious groups and other border peoples.
Overall, from 1941-8, an estimated 3.3 million people were exiled or deported to Siberia and Central Asia. Another figure I saw cited 1943-44 including 1.9 forced relocations. Some of the figures said that up to 40 or 50% of those deported died from disease or in transit. As with most numbers from that era of the USSR, it’s hard to know what the specifics are, but the point is that a lot of people were forcibly moved, a lot of people died, and those who did settle and stay have played a role in shaping the social fabric of modern Centrla Asia.
The program has since been condemned by most Soviet leaders (notably, Khrushchev called it a violation of Leninist principles), and probably most people with a conscience. Germany has run cultural programs and a repatriation program for Germans here in Kyrgyzstan, while South Korea runs language and culture centers in southern Kazakhstan.
Today, Kyrgyzstan boasts something like 80 ethnicities, with notable populations of Uzbeks, Russians, Dungans, Uighurs, Tajiks, Turks, Kazakhs, Tatars, Ukrainians, Koreans, Azeris, Kurds, Germans, Chechens, and Belarussians. Each of these has had a particular influence on the culture and what people like and enjoy – the Dungan dish ashlyam-fu is the most popular food in Issyk-Kul oblast, while Uzbek-style samsas and plov are the food of choice in Osh. Uighur restaurants are ubiquitous across the country. There is a town called Luxembourg in Chui Oblast, where many Germans once lived, and German was once taught more frequently than English in schools here. It’s cool to me to see how each of these has contributed to the nation.
The German population here is small and shrinking, but it’s an insight into an significant if sad part of Soviet history that has shaped Central Asia in a very interesting way. Just another reason that I love Kyrgyzstan!
If you want to learn more, a simple Google Search for “Germans in Kyrgyzstan” turns up a ton of interesting articles and Wikipedia pages (that I used when putting this together).
Got any other “wait, what?!” or “why that?” history questions? Ask below in the comments and I’ll go do some research!