Speaker: Markus Göransson, Swedish Defence University
Discussant: Oleg Antonov, CBEES, Södertörn University
Chair: Professor Joakim Ekman, CBEES, Södertörn University

Abstract of the presentation:

This presentation, based on interviews with Soviet-Afghan War veterans and archival research in Tajikistan, discusses the formative influence of the Great Patriotic War cult on the world views and self-identification of the Tajik soldiers who participated in the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Born mostly in the 1960s, the Afghan War soldiers grew up in the Brezhnev period when the Great Patriotic War cult reached its zenith in the Soviet Union. This was true also in Tajikistan where the rapid expansion of schooling, media outlets and state-backed mass organisations in the post-WWII period had given the Soviet state powerful instruments of political socialisation that were brought to bear mainly on the young Tajik generation. Exploring the importance of political socialisation in Tajikistan in the Brezhnev period helps us to understand not only the resonance of militarist discourses among the Afghan War soldiers, but also the considerable social transformation that took place in Tajikistan in the late Soviet period.

Bio:

Markus Göransson is an Assistant Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University. In 2016, he defended his PhD thesis about Tajik veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War at Aberystwyth University. He has interviewed Soviet-Afghan War veterans in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania and Ukraine and conducted interview-based research about conflicts in the Philippines, Lebanon and Burundi.