Oral History Research Projects

Oral History of Tajikistan.
In 2006 - 2008, OSCE Academy implemented a long-term research project on Oral History of Tajikistan. Major endeavor, this project involved an important planning and preparation phase, as well as an extensive phase of interviews.  As results of the project constitute a solid research database and must comply with all ethical and legal regulations, they are not yet available for wider usage.

We would like to thank all the researchers, interviewers, interviewees, translators and other persons from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, but also other countries, who contributed their time and effort to making this project possible.

Oral History of Tajikistan Time Table

Training Workshop for interviewers    December 2006

Tajik Conference                                 February 2007

Follow up Training                               March 2007

Beginning of Interviews                      March 2007

End of Interviews                               November 2007

Oral History of Kyrgyzstan Pilot Project 2009

Oral history is a new method for post Soviet countries, but is slowly gaining its legitimacy among researchers in Kyrgyzstan.  OSCE Academy's previous work with the Tajik Oral History project allowed us to move further: a pilot project on "Oral History of Kyrgyzstan: Social, Personal and Political Perspectives from a Generational Angle" was initiated by the Academy in June 2009. This project attempted to learn the histories of different families through their life stories - their stories as the story of Kyrgyzstan.

There have been 19 interviews conducted overall with 7 different families living mostly in Bishkek and some of them in nearby villages. The main idea was to see the differences in perspectives of different generations living in one family and thus sharing a similar habitus.

Oral History of Kyrgyzstan Project 2010

Successful implementation of the pilot project conditioned launch of a larger research aimed at preserving a piece of history as told by people of different ethnic groups, backgrounds, financial and social standings.  The project was launched in Spring 2010, documenting memories of individuals who have lived through the early years of Kyrgyzstan independence. This project will enrich our understanding of the history of Kyrgyzstan by collecting personal accounts of individuals who played major roles or were eyewitnesses of important political events in late Soviet and post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan.

One of the important features of the project will be that it will retain the perspectives towards the political and social transformations in the country of different generations living in one family.

1 A, Botanichesky pereulok, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
Tel: +996 (312) 54-32-00. 54-12-00 Fax: +996 (312) 54-23-13
info@osce-academy.net