Scope and arrangement
The Edward Allworth papers, spanning 1934 to 2012, document his interest in and research on ethnic minority groups and the question of nationality in Soviet Central Asia and on the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan, as well as the drama and theater of Central Asian cultures. Populations represented in the collection are Crimean Tatars, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Bukharan Jews.
Most of the collection is arranged by ethnic group. It consists of correspondence, writings, interview transcripts, research notes, citations, statistical analyses, photographs, biographical scrapbooks, printed matter, artifacts, and sound recordings of oral histories and interviews.
Series I, Afghan Files, contains newspaper clippings and other printed matter on the Soviet conflict, and undated Arabic manuscripts, obtained by Professor Allworth from a dealer operating in the country.
Series II, Crimean Tatar Files, focuses on the Tatar experiences of deportation to Central Asia in 1944, activist movements beginning in the 1960s, and their push for the right of return to the Crimea in the 1980s. A significant amount of material was received from activist and author Reshat Djemilev, including an extensive oral history, in Russian.
Series III, Tajik Files, the smallest in the collection, consists of writings by Mordekhay Bachaev; interviews in Hebrew of members of the small ethnic and religious minority of Bukharan Jews; newspaper clippings on the resurgence of a Muslim identity in Dushanbe following the fall of the Soviet Union; and other printed matter.
Series IV, Uzbek and Supreme Soviet Project Research Files, consists of the "Uzbek Intelligentsia Project," which looked at the integration of ethnic Uzbeks into the Uzbek Soviet and larger USSR Supreme Soviet. These materials consist of selected research files compiled on members of both Soviets, and statistical printouts analyzing Allworth's collected data. There are also files related to Allworth's translation work of Abdalrauf Fitrat.
Series V, Central Asian Drama and Theater Research Files, holds Allworth's research on the theater of multiple ethnic groups in Central Asia, as well as materials for a course he taught on the subject at Columbia University.
Series VI, Miscellany, includes biographical information for Allworth; correspondence and interviews with Central Asian individuals and scholars; and research notes and writings on various topics in Central Asian history, identity, and politics.
Series VII, Sound Recordings, holds an interview and radio programming by Uzbek writer Fayz Allāh Aymāq; a recording of folk songs sung by the Uighur People's Republic Group, and a series of interviews with Crimean Tatar activist Reshat Djemilev.
The Edward Allworth papers are arranged in seven series:
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1977-19930.42 linear feet (1 box)
The Afghanistan files do not focus on a particular ethnic group. Rather, they are a small collection of disparate materials about, and from, that country. The files consist of manuscripts in Arabic and Cyrillic script, correspondence related to their provenance, transcripts of an interview with author Fayz Allāh Aymāq on Kabul radio, and collected printed matter on Afghanistan.
The older manuscripts are of unknown date, and several appear to have been purchased through a manuscripts dealer working with sources in Afghanistan. Related correspondence indicates two of the documents are in Arabic, and one in an unidentified language thought to be similar to the Chaghatay language spoken by Chinese Turkestanis.
The transcript (in Uzbek, written in Cyrillic) of a 1976 radio interview with Fayz Allāh Aymāq is located in box 1, folder 2. It is also available as digital sound files; see Series VII.
Also included amongst the Afghan materials are several folders of printed matter, consisting of various article clippings on Afghanistan, a 1981 copy of the Pushto language newspaper Zeray, and newspaper clippings on the Soviet-Afghan conflict.
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1944-20042.08 linear feet (5 boxes)
The Crimean Tatar files focus on members of this ethnic group's 1944 deportation under Stalin's order to Central Asia, and their efforts, beginning in the 1960s, to obtain the right of return. Allworth's support for Crimean Tatar activism is documented in this collection of materials, as are his efforts to record deportees' personal experiences. Among the items present are correspondence and photographs; manuscripts, autobiographies and diaries; a recorded oral history; Allworth's own research and writings; and papers from the Ismail Gaspirali Fund at Columbia University.
Correspondence consists of letters regarding research, Allworth's attempts to assist in publishing a samizdat manuscript, general exchanges with contacts in the Soviet Union, information on Reshat Djemilev and Mustapha Cemilev, publications from the Organization of Crimean Tatars Nationalist Movement, and photographs of Crimean Tatar protests in the Soviet Union in 1988.
Among the manuscripts included is a photocopy of the samizdat text of the Tashkent Trial, a 1969 trial of Crimean Tatar dissidents which galvanized the Tatar population in the USSR and abroad. Also included are a biographical scrapbook on Eskender Ganeevich Umerov, manuscripts of Reshat Djemilev's Reflections and Short Analysis of Events During the Moscow Summer, and miscellaneous documents and photographs obtained from Djemilev. See Series VI for a lengthy oral history given by Djemilev in Russian.
Following the manuscripts are a number of notebooks of unknown provenance on various Crimean Tatar topics. These appear to be different from Allworth's own research and writing files, which focus on the growing national identity movement, Soviet policy towards the ethnic group, and the question of a Crimean Tatar "historical memory." These notebooks include materials in a number of languages, including Crimean Tatar.
The Crimean Tatar materials also contain papers related to the Ismail Gaspirali Fund. The fund, founded by Tatars in New York City, was established to make a small donation to Columbia University's Center for the Study of Central Asia for the purpose of obtaining and translating materials on current affairs in the region.
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1967-19931.54 linear feet (3 boxes)
The Tajik files consist of photocopies of writings by Mordekhay Bachaev, manuscripts of interviews with Bukharan Jews, and newspaper clippings and other miscellaneous printed matter.
The manuscript memoir by Mordekhay Bachaev, also known as 'Muhib,' consists of photocopies of handwritten pages in Tajik, written in Cyrillic, covering his life from 1920 to 1939. Also included with his writings is a Tajik-language publication, entitled Ghazaliet, written in Hebrew and Cyrillic scripts.
The documents related to Bukharan Jews, which were originally arranged with the Tajik materials, consist of Hebrew manuscripts of interviews about the Jewish community in Bukhara prior to and following Soviet rule, paired with English-language summaries of these interviews.
The miscellaneous printed matter pertains to the resurgence of a Muslim identity in the city of Dushanbe following the fall of the Soviet Union, and miscellaneous printed matter related to Bukharan Jews.
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1956-20008.08 linear feet (15 boxes); 679 kilobytes (11 computer files)
Allworth's materials related to Uzbeks and Uzbekistan stem from his project analyzing ethnic minority participation in the Supreme Soviet. The project was alternately referred to in his notes as the "Uzbek Intelligentsia Project."
The project analyzed Uzbek influence in the USSR through an examination of Uzbek members of the Supreme Soviet, compared with those in the Uzbek Soviet. Materials consist of selected "data sheets" on each member, statistical reports labeled "cross-tabulations" and "frequencies," project management materials, and other miscellany.
The "cross-tabulations" look at factors such as education, rural vs. urban origin, gender, locality (oblast, krai, etc.), and former employment. Also included are comparisons of Uzbek members with Azerbaijanis and Tajiks, and comparisons across gender, by birth year, committee, and doctorate vs. candidate degrees.
Also present in this series are essays, drafts, research notes, and professional correspondence related to Allworth's translation work and research on Uzbek literature and history, which focuses heavily on the writer and theorist Abdalrauf Fitrat. The Fitrat texts are Bidil, Debate Between a Teacher from Bokhara and a European in India About New Schools, Qiyamät, Satan's Mutiny Against the Lord, and The Judgment Day. Some of the translation work was funded by an NEH grant, and includes Allworth's progress reports on the project.
There is also an index to the Turki journal, Ayina, which was published from 1913 to 1915 and edited by Mahmud Khoja Behbudiy. This chronological index was compiled by Allworth and his graduate assistants, and contains extensive annotations.
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1950-20004.08 linear feet (7 boxes)
This series documents Allworth's research of the drama and theater of multiple Central Asian cultures. The files contain notes (on paper and in card files), annotated copies of scripts (most published), photographs, correspondence with scholars, programs, and clippings. Also present are files for Middle Eastern Drama, a Columbia University course on theater of the Central Asian territories of the former Soviet Union. The files hold notes, readings, syllabi, and other course material. Box 27, folder 4 contains photographs of Allworth in the former Soviet Union in the early 1980s.
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1934-201214.5 linear feet (18 boxes)
This series consists of biographical information on Allworth, as well as his correspondence with scholars; correspondence and transcripts of interviews with Central Asian individuals and researchers; research notes and writings; and pins related to Crimean Tatar repatriation and an Azerbaijani fraternal society.
The biographical files holds copies of passports, ID cards, letters of reference, photographs, acceptance letters, a typed memoir of Allworth's youth, a thesis he wrote at the University of Chicago, and other documentation of Allworth's career. The letters here are from students, colleagues, and friends.
The correspondence and interview transcript files document Allworth's network of researchers and Central Asian contacts. Clippings are also present in some folders, and in each case an inventory of items notes the name, the dates of letters or interviews, the languages of the material, and other information.
The research notes and writings include notes, citations, and typed articles and book chapters on topics such as The Cultural Identity of Central Asian Leaders; Dynastic Tendencies in Central Asia; History and Group Identity in Central Asia; and Soviet Nationality Problems. A large portion of this material is in the form of card files of notes and citations.
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1976, 198919 audio_files
This series consists of sound recordings of an interview and radio programming by Uzbek writer Fayz Allāh Aymāq, aired on Kabul Radio in August 1976; a recording of folk songs sung by the Uighur People's Republic Group; and a series of interviews with Crimean Tatar activist Reshat Djemilev, taped by Edward Allworth in April 1989.