Of squirrels and men: being Soviet in Frunze’s green spaces

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article considers green spaces in late Soviet Frunze as ‘shared texts’ co-written by the local authorities and the city’s inhabitants. It argues that through ongoing negotiations and debates, these various actors created a locally grounded iteration of the Soviet project using a dual ideologically inspired discourse that emphasized both collective and individual responsibility. By the early 1980s, the latter view had gained prominence to the extent that an entitlement to plentiful green spaces had become a defining feature of life in the Kirghiz capital. By investigating both official documents related to parks and popular letters sent to the Vecherniy Frunze newspaper, this paper shows that green spaces were increasingly seen not in utilitarian terms, but as opportunities for individuals’ romanticized contact with nature, while their management was placed on the administration’s shoulders: they became a crucible where citizens and authorities forged a distinct Soviet subjectivity.