Maidan in Asia. Kazakhs and Arabs. Almaz Braev
along with total market urbanization, when millions of rural residents were forced to flee to the cities, everyone seemed to forget about the honest name of any property. The past honesty was connected with the past communist ideology. Therefore, even the usual integrity has become unnecessary. All the former provincials just wanted to stay in the city and live. And for speculation in the goods market, honesty is even harmful since speculation in everything has become the population’s main occupation. No one was interested in what the local authorities were doing; people were engaged in speculation and resale of goods – initial accumulation, as economists would say about it. (With one amendment: it is impossible to demand integrity from rural people who have known need. Can you not require women to give birth in four months?)
Traditional peoples have also forgotten pity. Although, pity for former nomads is also not peculiar to nomads. The nomads always had the support of relatives in the first place. Relatives should support relatives. And no else. So it was in the past. How did it become now?
The reforms were the very disaster on which the real folklore nepotism flourished. This cultural quality was bound to lead to total corruption. Corruption has even become an informal ideology in the new state (everyone knows this situation was in all republics, not only in our country. Although we are still in Asia). This primal passion initially crept in at the very core of the new regime. What else could the ideology be supported on? After all, no one was ready for independence, including the top. Officially, the top declared their commitment to democracy and market values, but this is all for the public. The whole system was built on kinship (ruling family) principles. In each region, over time, a ruling family was to appear. These relatives appeared everywhere. Relatives pulled relatives with them. People of the same kind had to appear in all institutions headed by relatives. The same picture was all over the republic. The Republican tribal elite had to form alliances with regional and district elites. They can’t just walk away from culture, age-old practice, and age-old experience.
As for the unusual callousness of traditional people, so traditional people did not need to be taught how to survive. For relatives, other people, especially people of another ethnic group, are strangers. Therefore, such people, the Zerefs, are the best executors of orders. Moreover, the administrative apparatus’s second market quality and kinship have become Asian performance. In any army in the world, reasoning and obstinate soldiers are not needed. Therefore, the so-called market reforms painlessly took place for the population. Everyone quickly forgot everything. Propaganda focused on the famine caused by the Communists during Soviet modernization in the 30s of the last century. Everyone forgot the losses from market reforms as if on command. What is beautiful about Zeref’s low-reflexive memory is rapid forgetfulness. In general, the entire memory of the people was now in charge of the authorities. It recommended, taught, and even ordered us to remember only the miscalculations, stupidity, and cruelty of the bloody communists. Although it looked strange, the former communists who were in power in the USSR became adherents of the democratic and blamed their teachers for all their sins. But now is independence! It was necessary to carry out privatization faster. In other words, to rewrite the former Soviet property for themselves.
Here, we will present only one example of how rigidly economic reforms were carried out in the former republic of the USSR. This example is taken from a provincial newspaper. Here, at first, there was a strong regression. It was difficult to call the irresponsibility and selfishness of officials reforms because reforms are always understood as some progress. Probably, all peoples have had reforms, and probably, all peoples have had reformers of all ages. You can recall, for example, the English King Edward V, who drove the peasants from the family lands in the name of the nation. None of the local patriots would even think of accusing Edward V of communism or dictatorship. However, almost as many English peasants died under him as Kazakhs died under Stalin.
“Grandfather Anatoly from room 29 died in the summer. Once he had debts of his apartment it had to be given away for debts. Grandfather was brought to the dorm by young people and left lying in the corridor, where he lived out his last days. Sometimes, the neighborhood boys fed him what to eat. After a month and a half, he was gone. The old man was found dead there, in the corridor.
Then Rakhimzhan Ata ( grandfather Kazakh) died on New Year’s Eve. He couldn’t hear well and almost couldn’t see. He lived in the hostel for only three months. They said he also gave up his apartment for debts. Rahimzhan ata rarely left the room to take boiling water from the neighbors. He was last seen on December 31. Three days later, he was found frozen in his room under the bed.
On January 10, Ermek from the 9th room died. The 13-year-old daughter of a single father was taken to a special school.
The last to die was Zhenya from room 59. The former PMK painter has two small children left. Now they live with the neighbors.
The stories of the residents of the hostel on Skulkin Street, 5a, resemble entries from the diary of Tanya Savicheva from besieged Leningrad. Only here, the war and the blockade have nothing to do with it. The events take place in absolutely peaceful times. Just a few minutes walk from the sparkling lights of the central avenue.
– And how do you bury the dead? – I asked Muratbek, who invited me to the hostel, to tell me about his and his neighbors’ problems.
“Is nothing way,” he says. – We call the police. A car arrives and picks the corpse up. Last year, 13 people died here.
We are standing on the dormitory’s first floor, with no windows or doors. Instead, there are huge empty openings. Someone’sSomeone’s barbaric hand broke the partitions. The dirt and stench are unbearable all around…
In a five-minute walk from the central avenue of Aktobe, as in the besieged Leningrad, they die of cold and exhaustion. 26 families remain in the house, where there is still no heating. The light was cut off long ago, and there has never been gas here.”
Newspaper “Diapazon” Aktobe city, 1999.
The events described in the local newspaper took place during the reforms of the 90s). This shows how market reforms were carried out in the former USSR on its periphery. What was the crisis, and how did the residents survive it.
Chapter 6
The reason for Asian autocracy
Autocracy is only among traditional peoples. Moreover, they are prolific; more than five children have in every family.
Imagine a family without a father, where there are ten children. What will happen?
Autocracy is not like a loving father. No. Autocracy is the limit of what is permissible. Autocracy, its people seize everything by rank. This serves as a signal to others to live within their means. If the population increases to the limit, the local elite will have to lead the crowd “on a hike” or just open the borders so that the extra population attacks, for example, Russia with migrant workers. So, the elite captures everything. It means more and more that they are the elite. This is the restriction mechanism. It leads to a crisis of a narrow and rich top and numerous fertile bottom.
Today, everyone can shout about democracy.
But the whole meaning and actions will be the same. Some seize everything, and others multiply and, as it were, create poverty. The reason for fertility is very ancient. People must reproduce faster, faster than neighboring tribes; this is a guarantee of future victory and dominance over other tribes. The weak and the few are removed to unfavorable places. Fathers fulfill their duty to the leader and the people (although today, it seems too much and just biological selfishness).
So. Today, we see clearly the leader and his people. There can be no other way. With the new democracy, the crowd wants to be led to capture (what?). If the leader does not give or lead somewhere on a campaign to get trophies, the crowd either attacks itself (like guest workers) or is dissatisfied with something. This