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PRODID:talks.ox.ac.uk
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SUMMARY:Dr Matthias Battis (ONGC) | Stalinabad 1930: Aleksandr Semenov and
  the convergence of scholarship and politics at the Tajik language congres
 s - Dr Matthias Battis (ONGC)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240611T170000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20240611T180000
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/705cf106-1d98-442b-9cee-309590a0d855/
DESCRIPTION:Dr Matthias Battis (ONGC)\n\nStalinabad 1930: Aleksandr Semeno
 v and the convergence of scholarship and politics at the Tajik language co
 ngress\n\nAlphabets are at once highly technical and deeply symbolic cultu
 ral artefacts. As such\, they have attracted the attention of both linguis
 ts and political revolutionaries\, who have looked to their reform as an o
 pportunity for cultural and political change. Latinisation in early Soviet
  Central Asia is a case in point and the subject of this chapter. Hailed a
 s “a great revolution in the East” by Lenin\, it was part of wider lan
 guage reform that transformed Central Asian languages and writing systems\
 , including Persian\, which became known as Tajik in the process. It saw s
 cholarly knowledge and political power converge to make the case for the L
 atin alphabet and against the Perso-Arabic one. In parallel to development
 s in republican Turkey\, linguists and political actors joined forces to a
 ssociate the Perso-Arabic alphabet with backwardness\, Islam and the old o
 rder\, on the one hand\, and the Latin script with progress\, science and 
 the nation\, on the other. Unlike the Turkish experience\, however\, Latin
 isation in Soviet Central Asia was complicated by how it was negotiated wi
 thin the Soviet national republican context\, in particular against the ba
 ckdrop of a nascent Tajik emancipatory nationalism that was resentful and 
 suspicious of the real and imagined Turkist tendencies inherent in the Lat
 inisation project. Aleksandr Semenov played a crucial\, albeit somewhat re
 luctant\, role in articulating a scientifically underpinned Tajik national
 ist position in this negotiation. And he did so\, both in competition and 
 collaboration with Central Asian politicians\, writers and linguists\, suc
 h as Narzullo Bektosh or Abdurauf Fitrat.\nSpeakers:\nDr Matthias Battis (
 ONGC)
LOCATION:New College\, Holywell Street OX1 3BN
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/705cf106-1d98-442b-9cee-309590a0d855/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Dr Matthias Battis (ONGC) | Stalinabad 1930: Aleksandr Se
 menov and the convergence of scholarship and politics at the Tajik languag
 e congress - Dr Matthias Battis (ONGC)
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