The Turkmen Students of the Leningrad Oriental Institute: Details of Biographies

Abstract

This article focuses on the personal files of the Turkmen students educated at the Leningrad Oriental Institute in the 1920s — 1930s. This article discusses the methods of biography formulation used by the Turkmen students after their admission to the higher education facility. Further, this admission occurred during significant methodological and cultural changes in the USSR. Therefore, this text concentrates on the issues of social networking, the creation of a community. This process was based on both individual processes of “re-considering Self” in the new conditions and the development of group identity. This study is a contribution to the history of Asian studies. It aims to supplement data on the development of the methodological transition by academia in Central Asia in the early 1930s. According to this research, the political agenda and specific admission conditions forced Turkmen students to “adapt” their biographies to the academic and ideological frameworks. After their admission to the Institute, despite the initial intention to be the regional studies specialists, they considered themselves to be a part of academia.