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Gafurjon Shakirov, who is Tajik, was born in 1953 in Uchkurgan, a village in the Batken province of Kyrgyzstan, not far from Tajikistan. After graduating from university he became a teacher, and later, a school principal. “I am not a very religious person because I graduated from a university of Marxism-Leninism and all my life has been devoted to that science. Still, I am a Muslim,” he says. Nazarbegim Muzaffarova interviewed him in Uchkurgan on March 13, 2009.

In Uchkurgan, the collectivization policy was very strict. If any one refused to collectivize, he was called a kulak [1] . Earlier, there was a proletarian dictatorship, and it dictated to take away everything from rich men [bays] and distribute it to the people. There was no place for rich men among ordinary people – rich men were the minority.

The Second World War was the cruelest war that has ever happened in the world. In that war, 50 million people died. During the war, of course, life was very bad and there were many difficulties. Women worked from morning until night and there was a slogan: “everything for the front.” We lost our two grandfathers during this war. It wasn’t until 5-6 years after the war that quality of life began to rise again.

Hunger was a big problem during the war. In the Uchkurgan orphanage, children were so hungry that they ate grass and, as a result they died. If even two pieces of grain were stolen, the person who stole them might be arrested. In Uchkurgan, there was a military camp, which is why there were many Russians here and that had a big effect on the development of our village after the war The effect of the Russians was very positive. We learned their culture and they learned ours. Many dance clubs and skating-rinks and other good things opened.

I was born into a family of collective farmers [kokhozniki]. We raised cotton. Since the end of the Soviet era, agriculture has changed. During the Soviet period, we raised cotton but, since 1990, [2] there is tobacco and now everyone who wants to grow anything is growing tobacco. Also, some agricultural professions have disappeared. There isn’t an agronomist in our village now, or a veterinarian. And now there is a lack of equipment.

I went to school in my own village, at the Secondary School No. 22. We studied in the Tajik language. I graduated in 1970. When I was in the first grade, we studied in an old school, which was like a mosque. Starting in the first grade, there was a lot of competition among students. Even our parents used to compete over whose child was more intelligent. Unfortunately, now there is no longer such a tradition – it was very good. We started to study at 9 a.m. and finished at 2 p.m. The teachers were well qualified and, even now, I can remember biology, I can solve mathematical and chemistry problems. My favorite subject was history.

Women have played a big role in my life, because I was raised by my mother – my father died when I was very young. My mom got up early in the morning, went to work and stayed there until the evening. Because of my mother – seeing that she was very worn out and it was hard for her to raise four children alone – we tried hard to study and graduate from school with honor. I know that my mother heroically played the role both of our mother and our father. These days, the number of men who are employed is very small and most men emigrate to Russia. They send money from there. Women are primarily responsible for raising the children.

The role of men here was very strong until the 60s and 70s. After 1970, the number of educated women was much higher than the number of educated men. During those years, after graduating from universities and getting jobs, women in Uchkurgan took on the same roles as men in families and in society. The role of children always was – and still is – the most important in every family. And you know, the more children there are in a family, the happier the family will be and the less conflicts it will have.

I got my higher education in Tajikistan. I graduated from the Tajik Pedagogical Institute in Leninabad. While I was there, I got a Kalinin Scholarship. Out of 15,000 students, only five of us got this scholarship. I was also in the Komsomol and was a member of the municipal committee of the Komsomol.

During university, I was very active in helping those who were not very good at studying. I helped them with philosophy, political economy, history of the KPSS [Communist Party of the Soviet Union], and scientific communism. Those classes were very hard to understand and I tried to help them. During the Soviet era, to be uneducated was a big tragedy. There were situations when people who didn’t pass their exams at universities committed suicide. To get a higher education was everyone’s dream.

After graduation, the Ministry of Education sent me to my own village to work as a teacher at Secondary School No. 22. In 1976, I was sent to study at the Marxism-Leninism University of the Kyrgyz Communist Party. I graduated in 1980 and became a propagandist for the District Committee. For 35 years, I worked in the pedagogical system. During my pedagogical career, I worked as an assistant principal and a principal, and – for three or four sessions – I was a deputy in the local kenesh [city council].

I am not a very religious person because I graduated from a university of Marxism-Leninism and all my life has been devoted to that science. Still, I am a Muslim. During the Soviet era, the propaganda about atheism was very strong. At that time, we were taught to be godless. Still, there are more than a few religious people. During Islamic holidays like Ramadan or Kurman Ait, [3] people always remembered their dead relatives.

Kurman Ait was celebrated even during the Soviet times. The only difference was that the state did not celebrate the holiday and it was not a “red day” on the calendar, so people worked that day. No one had the right not to come to work on that day. If any worker – even a chief – didn’t come to work, he was immediately called in by the district committee and discharged. But now [Kurman Ait] is a red day on the calendar and all the people of our republic have that day off. I don’t read namaz [pray], but I know it. During the Soviet times, there were mosques, but they were visited only by pensioners. People under 60 years old were not allowed to visit mosques. Moreover, they didn’t have time to go there – they were very busy with their work.

There is a ritual called hijrat Mecca. This is one of five things that a really religious person must do. Hijrat Mecca means making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Unfortunately, not all people are able to go there, because of financial limitations. But if a Muslim has an opportunity to visit that place, he must make the pilgrimage. Also, there is a ritual called hanta. If there is a son in the family, then this has to happen – it is a circumcision ritual. Such rituals bring people together.

I got married in a very ordinary way, just like all my friends. I became acquainted with my wife in a usual way: I had a friend, Abdurahman Sydykov. I often visited him in his house and it was there that I met her – she was his sister. We didn’t communicate much, but we knew that we liked each other and she wanted to marry me, as at that time I was very solid – I was a sportsman and was a cute guy and she was the niece of the first public prosecutor of the Tajik SSR. Now I have three children and one grandson.

I love poetry, I like to read books, and sometimes I write poems. When I was young the most popular type of entertainment was sports. Television appeared in our community in [19]59-[19]60, and there was only one channel that was shown – it was the Tashkent channel. Before television appeared, people often went to the cinema.

My first language is Tajik. I speak Uzbek, Russian, Afghan and Iranian. I learned all of those languages in my village. At school, I studied Russian and Uzbek. At home, we speak Tajik and, at work, I use Uzbek and Tajik. Of course, some languages are more prestigious than others. Nowadays, if a person wants to be well-educated, he has to know at least Russian or English. My favorite language, in which I prefer to speak all the time, is of course, Tajik. But with every representative of any nationality, I try to speak in the language of the nationality the person represents.

My favorite food is plov. [4] The way we make plov hasn’t changed completely, but different recipes for making it have appeared. I eat a lot of food with meat. I know that it hurts [my health], but I eat it anyway. When a person becomes older, even eating habits change. For example, when I was young, I ate a huge amount of plov and fatty foods, but now I am afraid to eat it. The doctors do not allow me to eat it, because of my heart. Now, the word “cholesterol” has appeared in my vocabulary. When I was young, I never knew what that word meant.