Vladimir Pachkov, SJ

In his book on Central Asia’s golden age, Lost Enlightenment, Stephen Frederick Starr recounts an event that occurred during the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s.[1] One day, in Dushanbe, the country’s capital, Starr was crossing one of the city’s central streets when he saw some government soldiers with a brand new flag. He… Read the full article

There has been a change of power recently in the main countries of former Soviet Central Asia. In effect, power has been transferred from the people who led these countries when they were still presidents of local communist parties to a new generation of leaders. Nursultan Nazarbaev, Kazakhstan’s first president, has resigned; in Uzbekistan, a… Read the full article

Kazakhstan is the largest country in Central Asia (2,724,900 square kilometers) and the second most populous, with about 18 million inhabitants.[1] It bridges Europe and Asia, not only because of its geographical position, but also by reason of its ethnic composition. In addition to hosting various ethnic groups of Central Asian origin (such as the… Read the full article

After the end of the Soviet Union, both the pro-Western Russian elite and the vast majority of the population had the hope of becoming part of the Western community, or rather, of becoming once again part of Europe after having travelled a different path since the October Revolution. It was thought that Russia would naturally… Read the full article

Seven years ago, when living in Southern Kyrgyzstan, I met a German tourist who had tried to cycle south through the mountains from the capital city, Bishkek. He had taken the Eastern road leading from Issyk Kul to Jalalabad. The road was marked on the map, but it was actually a secondary track paved in… Read the full article

Christianity on the Silk Road Although Christianity was born in Asia – and until the Arab conquests of the seventh century the center of Christianity remained in Asia – today it is more commonly considered a continent that is characterized by Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. When it comes to religions few people know that, even… Read the full article

Is the Russian secret service the proud heir of the Cheka? On February 25, 1956, in a closed door meeting of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR, after much hesitation and argument with the head of the party, Nikita Khrushchev gave his famous speech “on Stalin’s personality cult and its consequences,”… Read the full article

Four hundred kilometers east of Moscow lies one of the most beautiful and wealthiest cities of Russia: Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, the largest Muslim enclave in the Russian Federation. Currently, a high-speed train line between Moscow and Kazan is under construction, the second planned after the one connecting Moscow and St…. Read the full article