The Role of Russian-language Web sites in Media Space of Uzbekistan

INDEPENDENT ONLINE MEDIA OF UZBEKISTAN: VIRTUALLY EXILED AND STILL DOMINATED BY RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

After twelve years of independence Uzbekistan, the most populated country of former Soviet Central Asia, has not succeeded in ensuring freedom of speech and press, which makes online media the only source of true and uncensored information on political and economic life of Uzbekistan and Central Asia region.

The most independent and competent Web resources on political life of Uzbekistan are physically located outside of the country being in a state of virtual exile and are predominantly in Russian language.

The present paper discusses the current situation with online media in the country, government censorship and attempts to filter or limit access to "undesirable" Web resources; the reasons of continuing dominance of Russian language in online mass media.

It also covers activities of Ferghana.ru, one of the most popular and interesting Web sites on Uzbekistan and Central Asia.

Mansur Mirovalev
San Jose State University
Prof. Richard Craig, MCOM 210
December 4, 2003

Introduction

Uzbekistan is a dry doubly landlocked country in Central Asia with an area of 447,400 square kilometers, which makes it slightly larger than California. Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan and four former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

The country's population in 2000 approached 25 million, of which over 60% lives in densely populated rural communities. Tashkent is the capital and the largest city (about 2.5 million), big urban centers include Samarkand and Bukhara, the ancient cities of the Silk Road. Intensely cultivated and irrigated river valleys consist one tenth of country's territory.

Uzbekistan is the world's third largest cotton exporter, a major producer of gold and natural gas, and a regionally significant producer of chemicals and machinery. However, after twelve years of independence the economy remains stagnant due to lack of reforms and tight government control. [CIA World Fact book, 2000. Uzbekistan. ]

Currently Uzbekistan is an authoritarian state with limited civil rights and poor human rights record. Islam Karimov, president since 1990, and the centralized executive branch that serves him, dominate political life and exercise nearly complete control over legislative and judicial branches of power. In the early 1990s government harassment of the Birlik and Erk opposition political parties drove their leaders into voluntary exile. [U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Uzbekistan - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2002. ]

In 1995 about 71 per cent of Uzbekistan's population was Uzbek. The chief minority groups were Russians (8 per cent), Tajiks (officially almost 5 percent, but believed to be much higher), Kazakhs (4 per cent), Tatars (2.5 per cent), and Karakalpaks (2 per cent).

In the mid-1990s, Uzbekistan was becoming increasingly homogeneous, as the outflow of Russians and other minorities like Jews and Germans continues to increase. Between 1985 and 1991 the number of non-indigenous individuals in Uzbekistan declined from 2.4 to 1.6 million.[Library of Congress Web site, Uzbekistan Ethnic Composition, ]

Linguistic Situation in Central Asia Before the Arrival of Russians

Central Asia was referred to as Turkestan, "Land of the Turks," since most of the inhabitants are of Turkic origin. Before the arrival of Russians Central Asia was relatively homogeneous due to the unifying effects of the Muslim religion, the common Arabo-Perso-Turkic cultural heritage, and the close similarity (phonetically, syntactically, and lexically speaking) among the various Turkic languages in the area.

Arabs reached Central Asia in 673 AD, and by the tenth century, Islam was established as the religion of the general population. Arabic became the language of religion and higher education, and the Arabic script was employed in all writing. Besides, classical Persian was also utilized in academic circles.

Central Asian cities of Bukhara, Khiva, and later Samarkand, located in modern Uzbekistan, became elite centers of learning in the Islamic world, and a large body of literature developed in Arabic, Persian, and Chagatai, a Turkic literary language named after one of the sons of Chingiz Khan. However, despite the great accomplishments of the scholars, most Turkestanis remained illiterate.

Russian Empire began the process of colonizing Central Asia in the eighteenth century and completed it by 1884. [Mark Dickens (1988). Soviet Language Policy in Central Asia. ]

One of the reasons of Russian conquest was cotton. When the United States Civil War prevented cotton delivery from Russia's primary supplier, the southern United States, Central Asian cotton assumed much greater importance for Russia. [Library of Congress. Uzbekistan, Uzbek Language. ]

Russian Colonization

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, published in 1912, "Russian Central Asia includes the two khanates under Russian protection, Bokhara and Khiva, and the Turkestan region with its five provinces. It extends from the Caspian Sea to China, and from Siberia to Persia and Afghanistan." [Henri Cordier. Russian Central Asia. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XV, Nihil Obstat, 10/ 1/1912. Online Edition 2003 by K. Knight. ]

The traditional system of Islamic education was augmented by the network of Russian and Russo-native schools set up in Central Asia, where a limited number of promising Central Asian students were able to study. In addition, Muslim children were taught about the Russian culture in their native language at special Russian-native schools.

Russian was the official language of the Empire and the Tsarist regime pursued an active policy of Russification. However, the native intelligentsia that emerged was by and large extremely nationalistic. Books and periodicals began to appear in Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek, which were all in varying stages of becoming literary languages.

On the eve of the Russian Revolution, Tsarist Russia was still a largely illiterate nation with literacy rate for the general population was 28.4% (1897), the lowest of any European state. Among the Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Tajiks, Turkmen, and Uzbeks the literacy rates were 1.0%, 0.6%, 3.9%, 0.7%, and 1.9%, respectively. [Mark Dickens (1988). Soviet Language Policy in Central Asia. ]

Uzbek is a Turkic language of the Qarluq family, closely related to Uyghur and Kazak. Although numerous local dialects and variations of the language are in use, the Tashkent dialect is the basis of the official written language.

Uzbek has a relatively short history as a language distinct from other Turkic dialects. Until the establishment of the Soviet republic's boundaries in the 1920s, Uzbek was not considered a language belonging to a distinct nationality. It was simply a Turkic dialect spoken by a certain segment of the Turkic population of Central Asia.

The various regional dialects spoken in Uzbekistan today reflect the fact that the Turkic population of Southern Central Asia has always been a mixture of various Turkic tribal groups. [Library of Congress. Uzbekistan, Uzbek Language. ]

Seventy Four Years of Russification and Twelve Years of Independence

Russian language has a long history of coexistence with Turkic languages, as Russia from the very beginning of its history in the ninth century AD has been bordered nomadic Turkic tribes: Khazars, Pechenegs and Tatars. Oljas Suleimenov in his book "Az I Ya" discovered a strong presence of Turkic words in the text of the ancient Russian poem "Slovo o Pulku Igoreve" ("The Song of Igor's Campaign") written in 1189 AD. [Oljas Suliemenov, Az I Ya], [The Song of Igor's Campaign translated into English by Vladimir Nabokov: ]

One of the greatest Russian historians Lev Gumilev in his fundamental book "Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe," published in 1989, discusses the role of Tatar and Mongol elements in formation of the Moscow state and rebirth of Russian ethnicity after the Mongol Yoke in Russia of 13^th - 15^th centuries.

He provides a list of famous aristocratic families of Turkic origin in Russia, including composer Rakhmaninov's forbear, a Tatar warlord Rakhman. [Gumilevica: Online Library of Lev Gumilev. . English page of the site ]

"Some of the most common Russian words are originally Turkic: "dengi" (money), "kazna" (treasury) and "bogatyr" (giant, strong man)," says Shamshad Abdullaev, a writer and poet from the Uzbek city of Ferghana. "Many Muslim Tatars moved from Russian Siberia to Turkestan and became a bridge between Russians and the people of Central Asia."

After the October revolution of 1917 Bolsheviks, believing that literacy was the key to the future Communist utopia, took drastic measures to promote literacy. The 1919 decree, On the Eradication of Illiteracy Among the Population of the Russian Federation, declared: "All illiterate citizens of the Soviet Republic aged between 8 and 50 years are required to learn to read and write in their native language, or in the Russian language, as they prefer".

By 1939 the literacy rate in Uzbek SSR was 78.7%, and in 1950's near universal literacy was achieved in Soviet Central Asia. Nothing like this has ever been achieved in any other Muslim country in Asia. [Mark Dickens (1988). Soviet Language Policy in Central Asia. ]

"There is a gap between colloquial Uzbek and literary Uzbek. The literary language is full of Arabic and Persian words, and native Uzbek speakers have difficulty understanding the content of a newspaper," says Abdullaev.

"There is a huge difference between Uzbek dialects," continues Abdullaev. "If I speak to an Uzbek from Urgench [city in Western part of Uzbekistan], and we both speak our native dialects, we will hardly understand each other.

One of the chief linguistic tasks of the Soviet government was to develop a separate literary language for each significant ethnic group in the Soviet Union. Each Central Asian Group chosen to constitute a nation was given a literary language, which was artificially differentiated from those of neighboring nations which were often linguistically similar (as, for instance, with the Kazakh and the Kirghiz).

The linguistic unity of the area was broken up while differences between the languages were emphasized. This process of separation was helped further by the National Delimitation of 1924, which fixed the boundaries of the five Central Asian republics, primarily along ethnic and linguistic lines. [Mark Dickens (1988). Soviet Language Policy in Central Asia. ]

During linguistic reforms in 1928-30 the Arabic alphabet was replaced with the Latin alphabet. Then in 1940, Cyrillic was made the official alphabet with the rationale that sharing the Latin alphabet with Turkey might lead to common literature and hence a resumption of the Turkish threat to Russian control in the region.

As a result, the ancient literature of the region became inaccessible to all but specialists. Instead, the use of Russian and Russian borrowings into Uzbek was strongly encouraged, and the study of Russian became compulsory in all schools. The emphasis on the study of Russian varied at various times in the Soviet period. Increasingly, Russian became the language of higher education and of the military. [Library of Congress. Uzbekistan, Uzbek Language.]

An essay published in 2001 in Druzhba Narodov (Friendship of Peoples), a popular Soviet and Russian literary magazine, mentions that Soviet times marked the emergence and development of bilingual literature, when a whole generation of writers who were not Russians ethnically wrote either in two languages or in Russian only.

These were Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov, Moldavian writer Ion Drutse, Kazakh poet Oljas Suleimenov and Uzbek writer and poet Sabit Madaliev.

Tajik poet Timur Zulfikarov wrote lengthy poems, using elements of ancient Russian and Muslim Sufi poetry. In 2000 he was nominated for a Nobel Prize for literature.

Uzbek writer Sabit Madaliev published "Rubai," in which the complicated and very rigid canon of Muslim poetry was expressed by means of Russian language. [Yuri Podporenko. Russian Language in Uzbekistan: Rightness, But Needed. Druzba Narodov, December 2001. ]

"I can hardly understand Tajik language," says Abdullaev, "It is an Indo-European language. But I cannot communicate with Tajik people in Uzbek. Therefore Russian remains a lingua franca in Central Asia, much like English is still used in India."

Since achieving independence, Uzbekistan's foreign policy toward Russia has fluctuated widely between cooperation and public condemnation of Russia for exacerbating Uzbekistan's internal problems. [Library of Congress, Federal Research Division )

The number of Russian classes in the new educational system of Uzbekistan has been reduced dramatically. The Government prohibited the use of Russian textbooks on history, literature and social sciences in early '90s, and books on natural sciences from March 2001 as "morally obsolete." Special inspectors visit schools to search students and school premises in order to find and destroy textbooks in Russian. [Vladimir Avdeev, The Racial Sense of the Russian Idea. ]

Currently the language law makes Uzbekistan one of the most aggressive countries in the region in terms of stripping Russian language from the public discourse, while in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russian enjoys equal status with the indigenous language. [Taras Kuzio. Soviet-Era Uzbek Elites Erase Russia From National Identity. EurasiaNet, . 4/20/02. ]

In September 1993, two years after proclamation of independence, Uzbekistan announced plans to switch its alphabet from Cyrillic to a script based on a modified Latin alphabet similar to that used in Turkey, following similar decisions in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

The transition should have been completed by the year 2000, but due to the slow pace of the reform it was extended until September 1, 2005.

A major project is under way to eradicate Russian words from the language and replace these words with "pure" Turkic words. [Library of Congress. Uzbekistan, Uzbek Language.]

Print Mass Media in Uzbekistan

The Soviet Uzbekistan had a developed print mass media network at the level of the republic, region, city and district. Newspapers and magazines were affiliated with appropriate party committees, trade unions, and educational institutions.

The position of journalists in society was prestigious and their financial position was stable and comfortable, chief editors were incorporated into the administrative bodies of the party, trade unions, and young communist league committees.

Print media served communist ideals and had wide possibilities to criticize managers, party functionaries, and workers of executive bodies.

Every critical article immediately became the topic of discussion in party committees, and very often decisions were made based on these articles. Newspapers are affordable to everybody - the price of a newspaper was 2-3 kopecks (3-4 cents). [Erkin Ozod. Independence Day in Uzbekistan: Ten Years Of Decline For The Uzbek Media. CIMERA.]

The current Uzbek government "inherited" most Soviet print editions, changed their names and supports them. However, government funding is insufficient, these media are poorly illustrated, their staff is underpaid, and they cannot attract attention of advertisers due to strictly censored content.

Since Soviet times the circulation of newspapers and magazines decreased 10 - 20 times, while prices of annual subscription exceed the average wage in the country. Officially, there was no censorship, but the Inspection on Protection of State Secrets in Press under the State Committee for Publishing controlled the content of print outlets. [Erkin Ozod, 2001. Independence Day In Uzbekistan: Ten Years Of Decline For The Uzbek Media. CIMERA, 2001]

The government also establishes and sponsors new media of cultural and ideological orientation, like newspaper Halk Suzi/Narodnoye Slovo (People's Word), one of the two daily newspapers in the country (the second one is an old newspaper Pravda Vostoka - The Truth of the Orient). They are issued in Uzbek and Russian five times a week.

Regional newspapers are usually issued twice or once a week.

Ideologically oriented magazines like Tafakkur ("Thinking") or Jahon Adabieti (World Literature) are published only in Uzbek.

Commercial outlets - BVV (Business Messenger of Uzbekistan), Manager and Darakchi publish easy reading and entertaining information and much advertising.

These editions are business enterprises aimed at the widest audience possible, which is the main reason they are published in Russian, as Uzbek versions prove to be financially unprofitable. [Yuri Podpodenko. Russian Language in Uzbekistan: Rightness, But Needed. Druzba Narodov, December 2001.]

Halk Suzi has a Web site (in Russian only) at http://hc.uzpak.uz. Its design looks obsolete, and the never changing headline says, "Uzbekistan is the Country With the Great Future."

Headlines in the news section on December 3, 2003 were:

"The Award of the Motherland Is the Sign of Great Honor for Khoresm Region. Speech of President Karimov at the Ceremony of Awarding Khoresm Region with the Medal of Jaloliddin Manguberdy."
"Reception at the Ok-Saroy Residence: President Karimov Received the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation."
"Uzbekistan is Our Common House."
"Constructive Dialogue: The 4th Meeting of Uzbekistan and representatives of the European Union."
"Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan on Further Improvement of Urgent Medical Services to the Population."
"Laws Are the Mind of the Country. After Gaining Independence Uzbekistan's Main Priority is Establishment of a Democratic Society. As Architect of the Uzbek State Islam Karimov Said"
[http://hc.uzpak.uz/news.html]

According to Report on the media situation in Uzbekistan, released by CIMERA, a Geneva-based media development NGO, "in ten years since independence, the Uzbek media has degenerated to an appalling extent.

Despite the large number of newspapers and a relatively developed electronic media network, there is not a single independent newspaper, television or radio station that can offer an alternative view to that of official news and analysis. The media is subject to strict controls by state-sponsored censorship." [C. Abdullaeva and T. Ikromov, Uzbek Media Develops According to its Country Laws. CIMERA, 2002. ]

A secretary of a popular Uzbek newspaper remarked: "I am glad there is censorship. It gives you a comforting sense of safety. Your are aware it will surely censor any material that might anger officials." [Maksum Elbekov, Uzbekistani Mass Media Free of Censorship: First Impressions. CIMERA, Media Insight Central Asia, June 2002. ]

Journalists themselves complain about the poor quality of Uzbek language in mass media. "Even the most authoritative newspaper is no orthography standard anymore," says Abdukayum Yuldashev, editor-in-chief of Tashkent-based Mokhiyat newspaper. "This is particularly notable in Uzbek translations from Russian and other languages. Sometimes it is impossible to understand what is meant. Sentence structure is distorted; grammar rules are not observed. The most terrible thing is that this is becoming a norm." [C. Abdullaeva and T. Ikromov, Uzbek Media Develops According to its Country Laws. CIMERA, 2002. ]

Internet and Online Media

Internet and the .uz domain appeared in Uzbekistan in 1995. Now Uzbek Internet is popularly known as "Uznet" - a neologism similar to "Runet" that stands for Russian Internet.

A 2001 report states that the majority of the Uzbek Web sites usually render Russian content, however there was a slight increase in Uzbek language alternatives.

Over 250 web sites were in Russian, only 10 per cent contained Uzbek in Cyrillic type, and a handful of them used Uzbek with Roman type. Multilingual Web sites in Uzbek, Russian and English encompassed less than 15 per cent of the Web sites.

The total number of Web sites in .uz domain did not exceed 350. [U.S. Department of State. Uzbekistan's Internet Infrastructure: Development Trends. 2001.]

As of beginning of 2003, more than 130 Internet service providers operated in the country, being predominantly concentrated in Tashkent. The number of hosts registered in the .uz domain, as of 1 January 2003, is over 570, which is 22.3 per cent more than at the beginning of 2002. [Internews. EIM Media Report From the CIS., January 2003. ]

The number of regularly updated online resources in Uznet is only about 150, according to the 'Catalogue of Internet Resources in Central Asia' of Ferghana.ru. On December 3, 2003 the catalogue included 710 Web sites in the catalogue with 257 of them in the .uz domain. [http://www.catalog.ferghana.ru]

"Over the last years Uznet was developing very slowly compared to the boom in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan," says Daniil Kislov, owner of Ferghana.ru. "There is practically no fresh information resources, and the most interesting sites are located outside of Uzbekistan due to trivial "internal" censorship in the country."

"Internet develops when there is a free market, convertibility of national currency, investors into information technologies, foreign companies and the market for online trade," says Odil Ruzaliev, a prominent journalist, owner and Web master of popular Uzland.uz. "Uzbekistan can't boast with these. Internet comes through the acquisition of computers. Very few organizations in Uzbekistan have computers, not to mention individuals."

However, by October 1, 2003 the number of Internet users in Uzbekistan totaled 407,500, while in January 2003 the number reached 275,000, Uza.uz reported quoting the figures mentioned during the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan on the issues of communication and information technologies. [Uzbek government information agency Uza.uz. Number of Internet users in Uzbekistan reaches 407,500. 13/10/ 2003. ]

Over the last years Internet cafes emerged in urban areas as a cheap and increasingly popular means of Web access.

"They joke that there are more Internet cafes in Uzbekistan than there are supermarkets in New York," says an article titled "Uzbek Internet Something of An Anomaly," published by Global Internet Initiative fund in Uzbekistan. Visitors of Internet cafes pay 50 cents to $1 an hour to check their e-mail accounts, skim the news and chat online. Ferghana.ru was mentioned as one of the most popular news sites.

"I remember two years ago the UN was doing feasibility studies on whether an Internet cafe could even exist here. Now they're popping up everywhere," Director of Internews Josh Machleder is quoted as saying. [Matt Bivens. Uzbek Internet Something of An Anomaly. Internews, 2003. ]

Russian in Uznet

"The major reason of domination of Russian language is its unofficial status as the language of the most educated part of the population," says Kislov. "These are people that have been or are being educated in Russian, as well as businessmen, various specialists that still use Russian as the language of business communication and literature."

"Russian language is very practical," says Ruzaliev. "Compare the number of Russian-speakers in the world to the number of Uzbek speakers. There is no huge demand for publications in Uzbek. Who will read them? People in the villages? Do they have Internet? Do they know what Internet is? They need their salaries on time."

"There is a technical problem with encoding of Web pages," says Azamat Matkarimov, head of the Simus, the biggest Internet provider in Ferghana valley of Uzbekistan. "There are four types of encoding Cyrillic type, recognizable for most types of browsers. Uzbek Cyrillic has four letters/signs that are not present in the Russian alphabet. Only very young people have no difficulty reading Roman type, as they have studied it in school."

"A young generation not familiar with Russian language and culture is growing in Uzbekistan," says Kislov. "We should expect the increase in number of Uzbek-language Web sites, including business online media."

Access to Internet

Visitors of Internet cafes can access the sites of anti-government political and/or religious groups like Muslim fundamentalist organization Hizb-u-Tahrir, sites of Uzbek opposition parties Erka and Birlik and even Kavkaz.org, the news site of the Chechen fighters. [Matt Bivens. Uzbek Internet Something of An Anomaly. Internews, ]

"I think some sites are still blocked, but they are now smarter," says Ruzaliev. "They don't block the whole site, but individual pages where information is not desirable by the Uzbek government."

"The authorities are trying to control access to certain cites, though they have not developed an effective system of total filtering like in China," says Daniil Kislov, the founder and owner of Ferghana.ru, a Moscow-based Web site. "My correspondents found out that Internet cafes receive unofficial instructions from special services. Non-compliance might result in suspension of their license or even more severe consequences. In Uzbekistan it is possible to abuse a telegraph pole."

An Internet cafe owner in Tashkent said he'd been instructed by SNB (former KGB) to check whether his customers visited "forbidden" Web sites and that any customer looking at "forbidden" websites could be arrested and fined about 46 US dollars. Sometimes SNB officers posed as customers and looked at "untrustworthy" documents. If the Internet cafe staff did not react, they could expect serious consequences, including imprisonment. [Muslim Uzbekistan.com. Uzbekistan: Authorities Block Access To "Undesirable" Islamic Site. June 25, 2003]

The UN Commission on Human Rights reported that Azamat Mamankulov, a journalist gathering information on human rights violations, and Ruslan Sharipov, another journalist, were reportedly sitting in an Internet cafe in Tashkent on October 21, 2002 when Mamankulov was called by someone. Two people reportedly grabbed him, twisted his arms to his back and hit him on the head. Ruslan Sharipov was said to have been stopped from leaving the cafe and told that "his time would come and that he would be spitting blood." During the arrest, the two people reportedly told onlookers that they were from the 7th District SNB office in Uzbekistan. [United Nations. Civil and Political Rights, Including the Questions of Torture and Detention in Uzbekistan , 2003 ]

Ratings

Ratings of Uznet sites are based on estimations of separate rating sites at http://www.axiom.uz. On December 4, 2003 the Top 20 list was as follows:

Centrasia.ru (Kazakhstan) http://www.centrasia.ru

Ferghana.ru (Russia) http://www.ferghana.ru

Information analytical center Eurasia (Kazakhstan) http://eurasia.org.ru

SEXWORLD.FROMRU.COM

Your Own Site - It Is Easy. http://svoisait.ru

Arbuz - A Cage for Intellectuals http://arbuz.uz

Kyrgyz Information Agency Kabar http://www.kabar.kg

Show.uz - All About Showbusiness in Uzbekistan. News, Articles, Music. http://www.show.uz

Chat of Uzland.uz http://uzland.chatcity.ru

Arbuz.uz - Popular Computer Programming and Mathematics http://www.arbuz.narod.ru

VIP - Entertainingly Entertaining Web site http://www.vip.uz/

Dating in Europe http://euroloveliness.com

Unofficial site of the City of Angren http://www.angren.info

MP3.uz. The Biggest Archive of Mp3 files in Uznet.

Top Rating: Promotion of Sites! http://topsite.50free.org

Chat of Sarkor.uz - Real People Communicate Virtually

Your Assistant in Search for Jobs in Germany http://www.resume.koelnru.de

Sitash.uz - Information Portal on Goods and Services http://www.sitash.uz

ISP Texnoprosistem http://www.tps.uz

Economic Review Magazine http://www.review.uz

[http://www.axiom.uz/top/?s=20]

Only nine of these sites are in .uz domain, but they all are in Russian language.

Case Study: Ferghana.ru

Ferghana.ru is currently the second most popular Web site in Uzbekistan. Its founder Daniil Kislov, an ethnic Russian, was born and raised in the city of Ferghana in Uzbekistan.

In '80s Kislov joined the Ferghana School of Poetry - a circle of intellectuals, writers and artists strongly influenced by modernistic European, Russian and American literature. In 1991-1996 Shamshad Abdullaev and Kislov became editors of Zvezda Vostoka (The Oriental Star) - the last remaining literary magazine in Uzbekistan in Russian language.

Zvezda Vostoka quickly gained popularity among intellectuals all over the former Soviet Union and was nominated for the Booker Prize. However, after a government decree in 1996 the staff of Zvezda Vostoka was fired, and in 1996 Kislov moved to Moscow.

In Moscow Kislov was feeling nostalgic about his native Ferghana that was them devastated by emigration and economic degradation. Being inspired by James Joyce's phrase about complete recreation of Dublin on the pages of Ulysses, Kislov decided to create his own virtual Ferghana and launched Ferghana.ru, first as an online library of the Ferghana School and publications of Zvezda Vostoka.

Meanwhile he became a senior manager of the Russian media monitoring agency WPS (www.wps.ru) and had access to electronic texts of most Russian print media. He started publishing some of the news pieces on Central Asia and Uzbekistan at Ferghana.ru, and eventually established his own information agency.

Together with WPS he launched a paid newsletter, which is also not very profitable. It is distributed to some Uzbek government institutions (one of the oldest newsletter subscribers is the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs), a number of international organizations like Internews and a handful of individuals.

To avoid unwanted attention from Uzbek authorities, as he regularly traveled to Uzbekistan, Kislov started using pen name Kurban-aka (Uncle Kurban) and soon invented an online character - a sad old Uzbek man with a beard.

"In Arabic Kurban means a "sacrificed animal, victim," and as I sacrificed all my time and resources for the sake of the Ferghana.ru, I thought it would be a good name for my online alter ego," says Kislov. "Now I publish articles under my real name, but Kurban-aka still runs a column and moderates some of my forums."

By 2000 Ferghana.ru became the most famous site in Uzbekistan. "People still don't believe that I am the only person running the site," says Kislov. "I even heard that I am sponsored by Ferghana mafia."

The site was awarded as the best foreign project on Uzbekistan at the 1^st Festival of Uznet (March 2001), as the best information site on Uzbekistan at the 2^nd Festival of Uznet (September 2001) according to the results of the online readers poll.

Recently Kislov established a network of journalists in Uzbekistan and some other Central Asian countries. He pays them from his pocket.

Kislov says he spends at least four hours of his personal time a day updating the site, moderating online forums, contacting his journalists and answering e-mails. He confesses that advertising on the site hardly brings any cash, though the price is very modest: 20 U.S. dollars for a banner placed at the front page for a week.

Currently he is supposed to receive a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

"2,500 visitors a day is nothing compared to ratings of Runet," says Kislov. "I'll give you just one example: Web site www.vladimir.vladimirovich.ru that publishes surreal and funny jokes about Russian president Putin and other famous characters whose first name is Vladimir, has over 5,000 visitors a day."

Articles Published at Ferghana.ru on December 3, 2003:

Russian Citizens in Uzbekistan Are Negative About Future Elections to the Russian Duma.
Ferghana.ru, by A. Kudrayshov in Tashkent.
The Comeback of Russians to Their Motherland from Former Soviet Republics is Clouded with Difficulties.
Selskaya Jizn (Russia)
Kazakhstan Prohibits Alcohol Advertising
Gudok (Russia)
On Teenage Crime Rates in the city of Chimkent in Kazakhstan
Parlamentskaya Gazeta (Kazakhstan)
Moscow is the Mecca of Restaurants: Uzbek Cuisine In Russian Plate
Delovoy Vtornik (Russia)
Recent Events in Georgia Worry Tajik President Rakhmonov
Kommersant (Russia)
President Karimov Signed A Decree About an Amnesty Dedicated to the Anniversary of the Constitution of Uzbekistan.
Uzbek Government Information Agency Uza.uz
There Is No Common Migration Policy and Understanding of Migration Issues in the Russian Government
Izvestia (Russia)
Online Medium Afghanistan.ru Launched Its Version in Farsi
Ferghana.ru, D. Kislov
Arts: A Festival of French Cinema to Be Held in Uzbekistan. Novosti (Russia)
Uzbekistanians Still Prefer Russian TV to Local TV Ferghana.ru, by N. Koshkin
Religious Life: 900^th Anniversary of Great Theologian Khoja Abdukhalik Gijduvani Celebrated in Bukhara
Ferghana.ru
Interview with Director of Tashkent Theater Ilkhom Mark Wile: Spheres of Influence
Kultura (Russia)
How President Karimov Makes "New Policy"
Rossiiskie Vesti (Russa)
Human Rights: For the First Time Russia Supported UN Resolution on Human Rights in Turkmenistan
Vremya Novostei (Russia)
One Can Buy Tajik Hashish and Heroin in Krasnoyarsk
Segodnyashnya Gazeta (Russia)

The forums of Ferghana.ru

"People like forums because they speak up there what they can't say otherwise in public," says Odil Ruzaliev. "The forums of Ferghana.ru are one of the most visited."

By December 3, 2003 at http://forum.ferghana.ru 1,837 registered users sent 12,561 messages.

Table. Forums of Ferghana.ru:

Forum description

Number of topics

Number of messages

Discussions about Uzbekistan and Central Asia. Relations with Russia (limited to regional issues only). Please read the Rules before entering the forum.

78

10,997

Free private messages. Buys and sells, meetings and dating, proposals and inquiries.

25

312

The Tashkent Bazaar. Dedicated to the city of Tashkent. When was the last time you had a beer at the Zerafshan restaurant?

8

114

Regional news - discussion of events of Central Asia. Off-topics deleted immediately.

16

193

Our people worldwide!!! Correspondence of Central Asians scattered all over the world.

4

258

Ferghana Archive. Private Club. Trespassers Not Allowed.

3

52

Serious discussions on economy of Uzbekistan

4

181

As of December 3, 2003 the most popular topics were:

Corruption in Uzbekistan.
On Islam, Oriental Mysticism and Sufism.
Government and Opposition - Who, What and How?
The Party of Farmers and Businessmen of Uzbekistan
Mass media in Uzbekistan - Watchdogs or Ideological Prostitutes?
E-mail to President Karimov.
The Hopes That Never Came True...
New Democratic Party of Uzbekistan: Conception, Projects and Discussions.
Migration from Uzbekistan: Reasons and Consequences.
America Wants to Force Uzbekistan to Protect Human Rights.
Literature, Music and Cinema: What Are We Reading? Listening to? Watching?
Woman in Uzbekistan in XXI century: What Will She Be Like?
Recreation and Tourism in Uzbekistan.
The Environmental Problems of the Desiccating Aral Asea.
Jokes, Epigrams and Limericks on Political Leaders of Central Asia.
Again About Introduction of Latin Type in Uzbekistan.
Racism in Russia.
Arrests of Turkmen Opposition Leaders.
Immigration to Moscow.
Death of Actor Javad Abidov of the Ilkhom Theater.
Uzbek Journalist Mutabar Tajieva is Hiding From Cops.
[http://forum.ferghana.ru]

A New Rival

In January 2003 Centrasia.ru published a series of articles containing various allegations about President Islam Karimov's illicit activities and unflattering details about his past. After the publication Islam Karimov has mobilized mass media in Uzbekistan for a propaganda battle. [Eurasianet, Karimov Struggles to Protect Image in Uzbekistan Following Internet Attacks. 2/25/03. ]

"I received these articles [about President Karimov] by e-mail in December 2001," recalls Kislov, "but decided not to publish them, as they were of poor quality and contained bad reporting. Centrasia.ru thought they would make a sensation and decided to publish them."

In 2003 Centrasia.ru has become the number one visited Web site of Uznet. It has over 4000 unique visitors a day, while for Ferghana.ru the number is only 2500 unique visitors. [http://www.axiom.uz]
"Centrasia.ru, although somewhat provocative, still enjoys the popularity not less than Ferghana.ru," says Ruzaliev, "because it attracts users from the region and outside and updates its news several times a day."

Centrasia.ru is based in Kazakhstan. It publishes news, print media digests, analytical articles, biographies of politicians, a catalogue of Web sites, and a humor page.
Editors of the site are N. Junusov, T. Piotrovskaya and V. Khlupin. The site cooperates works with over 75 contributors in Russia, Caucasus and Central Asian republics.

"We are aimed at providing unbiased and interesting information, analyses, open discussions. We want to overcome anti-Asian stereotypes"... [http://www.centrasia.ru/about.php4]

"A friend of mine called me a media tycoon of Uznet," says Kislov. "And I find it ironic. I am a broke tycoon, I invest more money than I earn from advertising and subscription to the newsletter. On bad days I think I should quit and throw a great virtual funeral for Kurban-aka. But then I receive another hundred emails and simply forget about quitting."