Description: Despite Cultures examines the strategies and realities of the Soviet state-building project in Tajikistan during the 1920s and 1930s. As Kassymbekova reveals, the local ruling system was built upon an intricate network of individuals, whose stated loyalty to Communism was monitored through a chain of command that stretched from Moscow through Tashkent to Dushanbe/Stalinabad.
Review Quotes: Despite Cultures is a book that combats exceptionalism and exoticization in the study of Soviet Central Asia. By looking at the region without orientalizing prejudices, we learn something about the phenomenon of Soviet civilization as a whole rather than the peculiar ways of Central Asian inhabitants. . . . Kassymbekova's book helps us to see the flexibility and openness that characterized the early Soviet regime as such.-- "Ab Imperio"