American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
6
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajsshr
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue07 2025
PAGE NO.
6-8
10.37547/ajsshr/Volume05Issue07-02
24
Translation of Political Taboos in the 20th Century
Uzbek Literature
Madina Tukhtamurodova
PhD student of Tashkent State University of Uzbek Language and Literature, Uzbekistan
Received:
11 May 2025;
Accepted:
07 June 2025;
Published:
09 July 2025
Abstract:
This article investigates the Political taboos during the Soviet colonial regime that was governed by
Russians in Uzbekistan, and how the government managed the tabooed literature and its translation. Abdullah
Kadiri’s “O‘tkan kunlar”(“Bygone Days”) was chosen as the main example and research object
.
Keywords:
Political taboo, Jadids, translation.
Introduction:
The language of the novels written in the
past can be understood by the readers most of the
time, but decoding the cultural, historical, and social
aspects related to that time and place can be
challenging.
R.Yusupov makes this point in his article “Taboo” and
states that, from a politico-theological perspective, the
taboo does not merely prohibit; it constitutes the
political itself by creating distinctions such as 'us' and
'other,' or 'the law' and 'the exception,' which in turn
structure the religious a
nd political spheres” .
Uzbek historical novels of the 20th century often
include the challenges and problems created by the
governments, but in order to avoid censorship and to
achieve the allowance for the publication, they had to
mask it with other social problems and direct the
attention to the other side.
Before studying the 20th century Uzbek literature and
its taboos, their cultural and social aspects, it is
necessary to first divide them by period.
1. Jadid literature (late 19th century - early 20th
century)
2. Soviet literature (1920-1990s)
3. Independence period literature (from 1991 to the
present)
The beginning of the 20th century is marked by the rise
of the Jadids in Uzbekistan in the era of the Tsar's
colonial period. The word jadid was derived from the
“usul
-
i jadid”
(“new method”). It depicts the way of
trials and hard work, the intelligent and clerical layer of
the nation put into waking up the illiterate Uzbek
people of the time, who knew nothing about the world,
development, and literacy.
According to V. Mahmud, the Jadids worked in two
stages. “The first stage is enlightenment, the second
stage is socio-
political.” B. Kasimov also puts forward
similar ideas: “To transform Turkestan into a literate
and enlightened, well-fed and prosperous and free
homeland, first of all, to achieve independence, to get
rid of the oppression of colonialism, was the main goal
and task of the Jadid movement.”
Speaking about the poetry of the 20th century, B.
Qosimov says, “The new Uzbek poetry of the 1910s is,
first of all, socio-
political poetry.” For example,
Muhsiniy brings up the themes of injustice and
oppression of the time in his work. In this, his pen raises
pressing social issues such as the oppression and
oppression committed by the “Russians”, as a result of
which the people lost their faith and morals were
corrupted.
The main political taboo of Soviet Uzbekistan was
nationalism and the striving for independence. Any
mention of a distinct Uzbek identity, or any suggestion
of sovereignty, was branded as "bourgeois
nationalism". It was even considered a serious crime.
The Jadidist dream of an independent Turkestan was
fundamentally incompatible with the Soviet Union’s
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
7
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American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research (ISSN: 2771-2141)
structure and ideology.
The colonists' response to the Jadidist challenge was
brutal: during the Great Purge of the 1930s, the
intellectual elite of the nation was systematically
eliminated.
Writers like Kadiri, Cho‘lpon, and Fitrat
were arrested on fabricated charges of nationalism and
counter-revolutionary activity and executed in 1938.
However, the death of these authors presented the
state with a new difficult problem of what to do with
their literary legacy. Their works, particularly Kadiri's
novel O‘tkan Kunlar, were already immensely popular
and could not simply be erased from public memory.
METHODOLOGY
This study used a qualitative, historical-comparative
methodology to conduct an investigation into how
communist state censorship affected the translation of
Jadid’s literature.
RESULTS
The results of the research reveal mainly 2 points: a)
the strength of the control apparatus of the colonial
government held; b) the resistance and sophisticated
strategies of Uzbek jadids carried out during the
oppression.
At the formal level, the key institution was the Main
Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs
(Glavlit), established in 1922. Glavlit was the official
state censor, responsible for purging any material
deemed harmful to the Soviet order .
Abdullah Kadiri’s “O’tkan kunlar” (“Bygone Days”) is
officially the first novel of Uzbekistan and was
published as a whole novel in 1926. At first sight, it can
be seen as a historical romantic novel chronicling the
tragic love between Otabek and his wife Kumush.
However, its true purpose, as Kadiri himself revealed,
was to use the past as an allegory to critique the
present. This historical setting was a transparent
metaphor for the state of Turkestan in the 1920s,
caught between its own internal weaknesses and the
encroaching power of a new colonial force, the Soviets.
The Russian translation of “O‘tkan kunlar” was
produced in the following years, but it was a shadow of
the original. Multiple sources confirm that the
translation was heavily censored, with "significant
portions of the text... cut". The translation strategy was
a systematic process of ideological neutralization. The
goal was to keep the novel’s romantic plot and its
status as a classic work of a national literature while
removing every trace of its political and nationalist
critique.
Table 1.
Original
Soviet-Era Russian
Translation
English Translation
by Mark Reese
“...agar biz shu holda
ketadirgan, bir-
birimizning tegimizga
suv quyadirg‘an bo‘lsaq
yaqindirki, o‘rus istibdodi
Turkistonimizni
bulg‘atar...”
The entire passage,
with its explicit mention
of the "Russian yoke"
(O’rus istibdodi), is
omitted. The focus is
shifted to a generic
critique of internal
"feudal" problems.
“If we continue on
this path of ceaseless
internecine conflict, just
over our horizon, Russian
oppression will trample
us with impure feet and
sully the sacred soil of
Turkistan.”
The English translation is chosen as a comparison to the
Russian translation. The Russian translation was done
in 1958, in the Soviet Era. The English Translation was
done and published in the Independence Era in 2020.
As can be seen from the table, the Russian translation
done in 1958 entirely omitted the whole passage as it
was considered political taboo, and ignoring it would
cause at least censorship or prison.
The part where Otabek reflects on the need for
enlightened leadership and reform to save the nation
from decay, echoing the core tenets of Jadidism, was
removed. This monologue was a strong call for political
and social reforms. It is translated to appear as a
personal reflection on morality or romantic despair.
Here, the translator used strategies as Omission and
Substitution.
DISCUSSION
The results of this investigation demonstrate that the
translation of Uzbek literature in the Soviet period was
far from a neutral process of cultural exchange. It was
a primary site of ideological struggle, where the state
deployed a range of strategies to manage, contain, and
neutralize politically taboo content. The analysis of this
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research
8
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajsshr
American Journal Of Social Sciences And Humanity Research (ISSN: 2771-2141)
process reveals deeper truths about the nature of
Soviet cultural policy, the function of the Soviet
translation school, and the enduring legacy of this
censorship in post-Soviet Central Asia.
REFERENCES
Analysis of Russian translation of 'O'tkan kunlar'. ;
Boytemirova, S.S. and O'ktamov, M. (2025). 'The
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2023.
Qodiriy, Abdulla. O
‘tkan kunlar. Toshkent, 1926.
(Original Uzbek Edition).
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Reese, Academic Studies Press, 2019. (English
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Кадыри, Абдулла. Минувшие дни (Minuvshiye dni).
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https://mgjxu.uz/en/menu/dzhadidys
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