Back in the USSR?

My first student of English is a woman named Ailan-maa Xomushkuevna Kan-ool, a teacher of folk singing at the School of the Arts here in Kyzyl. I give her full name because it's a perfect example of a certain kind of Tuvan name, a memento of Soviet-era control. Ailan-maa's father was named Kar-ool Xomushku. Xomushku is one of the great clan names of Tuva, along with Ondar, Mongush, Tumat, Oorzhak, Saryglar, Khovalyg, and others. Once upon a time, nearly everyone in the country had one of those names, and they could tell you exactly where someone was from and which clan he was a part of.

The Soviets decided this was a bad thing. They wanted everyone loyal to Soviet social structures and not to an ancient clan system. So, when Tuva entered the USSR about 60 years ago and everyone got a Soviet passport, the bureaucrats in the passport offices did a very clever thing. They switched the first and last names of many Tuvans. Sundui Oorzhak would become Oorzhak Sundui. And his children would no longer be Oorzhaks, but would carry the new family name 'Sundui'.

In Ailan-maa's case, the passport office went one step further by accidentally misspelling her father's first name too. So he went from Kar-ool Xomushku to Xomushku Kan-ool. And his daughter carries the distinctive patronymic, 'Xomushkuevna', which is how most people refer to her now.

In a similar move, the Soviets devalued traditional Tuvan culture and pushed them towards the classical tradition of European Russia. In the place of the traditional two-stringed igil, they introduced a strange hybrid instrument. It was bigger, with four metal strings (instead of horsehair), with a wooden face (instead of skin), and f-holes (instead of a single resonator hole). Students studying in Tuva's arts schools had to (and still have to) learn this strange hybrid instrument, neither a true igil nor a western cello.

Many of these relics of the Soviet past still linger in Tuva. It almost seems like the Soviets were successful in convincing many Tuvans that their traditional culture was not a valuable thing. If you walk into a bookstore in Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva, you will find no books in Tuvan, and certainly no instructional materials for learning Tuvan. The rockstar touring folk ensembles-- Huun Huur Tu, Chirgilchin, Alash, Tyva Kyzy have more people listening to their music outside of Tuva than here at home. In large part, it's because you can't find their CDs for sale. You literally have to find the musicians themselves and ask if they have a copy they can sell you.

Sean is trying to start an NGO that will serve the dual purpose of helping foreigners who come to Tuva get what they need, and help Tuvans learn to value their traditional culture and help them travel and study abroad. As a coda, if any students of Russian want to apply for funding to spend a semester or a summer in Tuva, there's plenty of useful work to be done, and a desperate need for funding and manpower to do it. I’d be more than happy to help with such an application.