Admin says:

I'm sorry for any inconvenience it might have caused that I disabled "anonymous" comments here for a few days. It turns out that it apparently also made it so that the "open ID" users without WordPress, LJ etc. identities also were not accepted, and I think that's the majority of our commenting visitors.

Sorry! m (_ _) m

The reason why I disabled it was that I got tired of some very stupid anonymous comments on another of my blogs (blogofswine.blogspot.com), and went berserk and banned anonymous comments on all the blogs I admin. But that hasn't really been much of a problem here.

Sultan Galiyev

How could we miss this guy? I once photographed an entire Tatarstan ASSR history book in search of Chirayliq candidates, even before this blog was created... and he wasn't there.
It's all Stalin's fault, of course. In this interesting speech from 1923 (source in German), Stalin accuses officials of the "national republics and areas" (mostly Turkestan) of both rightist and leftist leanings, the former being too nationalist, the latter too internationalist - implying that only certain great leaders are able to find the golden middle road, and everybody else better shut up.
Tatar Bolshevik Mirsäyet Xäydärğäli ulı Soltanğäliev (1892-1940?), aka Mirza Sultan-Galiev, was purged from the party in 1923 and finally executed in 1939 or 1940 for "nationalist tendencies". Today, Soltanğäliev's memory lives both in Tatarstan and Turkey, and some rare European socialists consider him a "forgotten precursor". Why this surge of attention? Well, I suppose it is his particular mix of socialism, Islam and national solidarity, sometimes called sultangalievism, which grew in the fertile soil of the jadidist movement of the 1800's in Bashkiria and Tataria (his parents were teachers). Already jadidism had sought to combine Islam, modernization and nationalization ("national revival") among the Muslim minorities of the Russian empire. Throughout most of Russia's history, religion, not ethnicity, was the defining category for most of the population. By promoting literacy, modern communications, and education, the jadidists wanted to reform Islam from the roots, while staying faithful to what they defined as core values of the Tatars and other Turkic peoples in Central Asia: freedom, social equality, diversity. Oppressed by the Tsarist regime, they turned to the Bolsheviks for support.

Soltanğäliev joined the Bolshevik Party in November 1917. At that time, he became a protégé of Stalin, as president of the Central Muslim Commissariat. He founded a Muslim Communist Party, and raised a military force of Tatars and other Muslims, which played a key role in the battles with Kolchak at the Volga. Interestingly, in the face of Russian opposition, he made public plans to create a Tatar-Bashkir Republic along the Middle Volga and the South Urals, with five to six million inhabitants. His view of Bolshevism was a worldwide anti-colonial struggle. (Source: Maxime Rodinson)

For Soltanğäliev, there was no contradiction in working for the advancement of Tatar and Bashkir culture while translating the works of Tolstoy into these languages and collaborating with people of other ethnicities for world revolution. It seems ironic that Dzhugashvili the Georgian, in the name of Great Russian supremacy, would crush Soltanğäliev the Tatar.

Eurovision goes Chirayliq

Anyone who has been following, however half-heartedly, the Eurovision Song Contest through the last three or two decades, has noticed certain changes. Self-declared West European media pundits are feeling conflicted about it. The French, the Swedes, the Brits bemoan the changes. Some people are being sensible about it, but most apostles of Western civilization are perturbed by the new face of the contest.
But we needn't worry, because the face is Chirayliq.

Today, the results of the first semifinals confirmed that Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia (and Israel, Chirayliq territory by special permission - see below) will represent their countries in the final. (We might as well include Finland for Teräsbetoni's inspired Genghis Khan tribute.) On Thursday, we'll find out how Turkey's loveable alternative rockers Mor ve Ötesi fare in hot competition with Georgia (I haven't checked out all the participants, so there might be some ladies in the mix - but maybe with fine male dancers?). Personally, I hope the Eurovision Drang nach Osten won't stop until we reach the Bering Strait.

Let's have a little Chirayliq song contest here. We'll post videos from the official Eurovision YouTube channel, and you'll give your points to the sweetest guys. For starters, here's my fresh discovery, Boaz Mauda (a.k.a "the Yemenite Nightingale"), rehearsing his song The Fire in Your Eyes and complimenting his hosts. Check out the boys' adorable dance at 02:22!



Bonus video: Azerbaijan's Elnur & Samir demonstrate traditional Mugham singing style. I did not know that musical traditions were protected by UNESCO, too. Mugham is one of them - it's considered a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage.

Vyacheslav Tikhonov

Vyacheslav Tikhonov (Вячеслав Тихонов, *1928) in his breakthrough film, It Happened in Penkovo (Дело было в Пенькове, 1958), singing a beautiful song, as the village intrigue tightens around him. I love the expressions!



Tikhonov is Russian, but I found this interesting quote about his early career at the Russia Info-Centre.

Lots of film directors wanted to film Vyacheslav Tikhonov, yet Mosfilm Studio turned to be inaccessible for the actor for many years (almost all his creative life is associated with M. Gorky Film Studio). It was all due to Ivan Pyryev, who was the director of Mosfilm and looked all the screen tests through: he believed that Tikhonov did not look like a Russian. To him the actor was either an Azerbaijani or an Armenian but no way a Russian.

In short: Pyryev thought the man was too good-looking to be a "real" Russian! How insulting to the national image... Tikhonov was clearly a victim of anti-Chirayliqism.
Fortunately, more sensible people understood that Tikhonov's good looks were a boon to Soviet cinema, and he embarked on a long and successful career, creating such iconic characters as Stirlitz, the Soviet super spy. (For more Tikhonov on YouTube, check out this clip with him in uniform, at the piano, singing, whistling (!) and making ladies' eyes twinkle.)

Hope for Turkmenistan?

The President of Turkmenistan, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, is currently dismantling the personality cult of former president Saparmurat Niyazov. Although Western analysts remain sceptical of the new regime, I hope the citizens of Turkmenistan will be able to breath a little bit more freely now. (The photo is from the presidential inauguration ceremony, February 14th 2007.)

Chiko

Just a small note: Der Spiegel has a positive review of the Hamburg gangster film Chiko, with our favourite German-Turkish-Italian actor Denis Moschitto and German-Turkish actor Fahri Ogün Yardim. Tinet wrote more about them.

More Cute Singing Russians

From the adventure film Bumbarash (Бумбараш, 1971). Aleksandr Khochinsky sings (as the character Levka Demchenko). I don't know much about the film, but it's set in the Civil War period and the main character Bumbarash is returning home from a POW camp in Austria after the First World War. It's based on the works of Arkady Gaidar. I get the feeling there's an Ukrainian thing going on here.