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In 1991 the ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking communities, who had migrated to and been resident in the non-Russian regions of both the tsarist empire and Soviet Union, found themselves located beyond the borders of the newly independent Russian Federation. Despite an absence of actual, physical movement, the communities experienced a form of stationary or figurative displacement as the Soviet Union broke up and political borders demarcating their homelands moved over them. This displacement was furthered in subsequent years due to the nature and security of the environment where they lived and their often secure sense of ethnocultural and socio-economic identity being challenged through processes of political and economic transformation and increased levels of instability and uncertainty. This article focuses on members of those Russian communities who are living in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Through an analysis of narratives of their everyday lives it explores how they perceive and understand the "displacement" which has occurred, and how they are responding and actively renegotiating relationships with both their physical homeland—Uzbekistan—and their "historical" homeland—Russia. Furthermore, the article assesses how through these processes of displacement and renegotiation they are reshaping their own identities in the post-Soviet period.

In this paper we explore, through the narratives and perspectives of "old residents" in post-Soviet Bishkek, the dominant discourse which has emerged towards rural migrants arriving to the city from other areas of Kyrgyzstan from the late Soviet period onwards. We investigate the existence of a primarily "antagonistic" discourse in relation to the migrants and analyze this in detail to understand how it illuminates wider concerns amongst residents about what is occurring in their city, and about wider processes of social change in Kyrgyzstan. The paper provides a revealing insight into the processes of urban change in post-Soviet Central Asia, and demonstrates the ways in which confrontation with the everyday harsh realities of post-Soviet transformation can lead to the negative "othering" of one group of urban residents by another. We also demonstrate how the "old residents"' perceptions of migrants reveal important insights into emerging notions and constructions of identity in the post-Soviet period, related in this case to understandings of "North" and "South'1 and related concepts of what is "urban" and what is "Kyrgyz".

The need to examine critically existing understandings of processes of societal change in Russia & Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) has formed a key area of debate in recent years. Suggested means for furthering this debate include an examination of the meaning & usefulness of the post-socialist category, a critique of the conceptual & practical divides between East & West, attention to the various impacts of change at the local level, & an active engagement with a wide range of actors (academics, policymakers & practitioners) working both in the UK & in the regions in question. Adapted from the source document.