Episode 47: Does Central Asia need left-wing politics?

Hi all, I’ve been working as a journalist for over a decade and before that I was an NGO worker, and a student in several different countries. In all of them, left-wing movements, activists, including Marxist groups, were presents in different shapes and forms. I met them regularly during protests, conferences and they were part of my social circles. This is not the case in Central Asia. When I moved to Tashkent in 2018, I wondered where the radical youth is today and why they are not visible. Not as registered groups of course, because we all know how strictly controlled politics in places like Uzbekistan is, but as informal, semi-underground gatherings. I wondered, does Central Asia not need left-wing politics? To talk about Marxism and the left in Central Asia, I am joined by Georgy Mamedov, an independent curator, writer, and activist originally from Dushanbe. His work focuses on critical reinterpretation of Soviet socialism in Central Asia and the broader post-Soviet space. Georgy co-authored and co-edited several books, including *A Book on Happiness for Young (and not so) LGBT (and not only) People* (Bishkek, 2020), *Queer Communism is Ethics* (Moscow, 2016), *Concepts of the Soviet in Central Asia* (Bishkek, 2016), and *Bishkek Utopian* (Bishkek, 2015). Until recently, Georgy served as an assistant professor of film and media arts at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek. In 2025, he joined the University of Melbourne’s Research Initiative on Post-Soviet Space (RIPSS) as a graduate scholar. In this role, he is working on the research project “Towards a Communist Ideal: Marxism and Marxists under Soviet Socialism.” I hope you will enjoy this one as much as I did. Have a lovely end of the week, — Agnieszka Get full access to Turan Tales at turantales.substack.com/subscribe