Dear Friend,
This book is about Turkmenistan, one of the most closed countries in the world, a country which for forty years now has had no scholars to study its history. It is a state where history, instead of serving as a point of 'departed.
I hope that the first Turkmen historical dictionary will, to some degree, help rectify this situation. In genre, it is close to the Bol'shava Entsiklopediya TSSR. But twenty-five years have elapsed since the publication of that work. In addition, the official encyclopaedia was rather sparse on information about historical figures and specific individuals.
The title, The Russian-Turkmen Historical Encyclopaedia, was chosen at the last minute when it became incontrovertibly clear that the Turkmen people have not really had their own history in the twentieth century, there being only the history of Russia in Turkmenistan and the history of Turkmenistan as part of Russia and the USSR And, strange as it may sound, the very Turkmen people only came into being during that time. The Russian presence in Turkmenistan continues virtually to this day, for the undeclared war against the re-establishment of Russian influence is the cornerstone of Turkmen domestic and foreign policy.
Although the first volume of the Dictionary deals primarily with the topic, «Who's Who,» no small number of pages are dedicated to 'deciphering' ethnonyms, toponyms and other historical names mentioned in the specialized literature about Turkmenistan and in the international press. This aspect of the Dictionary encompasses several thousand entries. The second volume (not yet out) consists mostly of articles on specific topics and will also continue with the publication of articles, chronologies and documents begun in the first volume.
A large part of the historical materials are presented here in article form for the first time ever, while others have been taken from materials published long ago which have been to varying degrees updated ad supplemented. Titles and names are given in alphabetical order. In additional to the alphabetical organizing principle, however, the asterisk sign «*» (the typographical equivalent of the word «see» or «see also») is used to point the reader to articles in the Dictionary containing additional information and to group articles according to subject. In the same way, articles are linked with the names and titles contained in the «Chronicle,» the «Introduction,» and also in the section entitled «Documents and Recollections,» at the back of the book. Source and bibliographical references allow the reader to continue his search. The reader will also find the «Literature» section valuable, containing as it does a list of reference works and also a list of well-organized bibliographic indices.
The biographies of medieval, modern and contemporary political and cultural figures include: full name, date and place of birth, education, career path, the subject's contributions to the country's history, honorary and scientific degrees and titles awarded, and biographical details having to do with specific aspects of the national and political history of the period when the subject lived. The people whose biographies are included in the Dictionary are not necessarily prominent, but they are all figures who have played a significant role in the history of Turkmenistan. Frequently they come from the higher echelons of government, or from the Party functionary classes, a group also known as the nomenclature. But one thing is indisputable: all of them represent the elite of Turkmenistan, whether old or new, official or opposition, bureaucratic or cultural, an elite which, in one way or another, will continue to shape the future of Turkmenistan.
Sincerely yours,
