Fifty years ago, two mayors took vodka shots atop the Space Needle — inspiring a sister-city connection that has outlasted the Soviet Union.
In 1973, Seattle and Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, formed an unlikely association: They created the first sister-city bond between U.S. and Soviet cities during the depth of the Cold War.
That bond outlived the Soviet Union, and to this day connects the two cities. Through more than 100 exchange programs, doctors, technologists, dancers, chefs, farmers, orphanage workers, alpinists, teachers and professors, students, business representatives and traders, dentists, poets and writers and even zoo animals have traveled between the cities.
The significance of Seattle and Tashkent’s bond, and others like it, is more than symbolic. Through the decades of shifting and complicated relations between the U.S. and former Soviet states, citizen-level organizations counter the us-vs.-them thinking that takes over during times of war or animosity.
Last week, a delegation from Seattle traveled to the Central Asian city to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Association. This trip aligns with Uzbek Independence Day, Sept. 1, a celebration marked by concerts, military parades and a fireworks show in the evening in Tashkent’s Mustakillik Square.
From the beginning, the anti-war spirit has been a driving force for the Seattle/Tashkent bond, said Dan Peterson of Seattle, who recalls those concerns growing up during the Cold War.
“I remember my family being sent by our government plans for how to build a bomb shelter in our home, emphasizing we could survive a nuclear blast. Of course, that was not true,” said Peterson, co-president of the Association for seven years and a board member for several more. “It spurred us on who are older to work to reduce the possibility of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.”
Though the Soviet Union is long gone, the Seattle/Tashkent relationship is still active. Last year an Uzbek agricultural scientist came to Seattle to discuss how the country has adapted to Soviet-era environmental damage and climate change, and hundreds of people in the Seattle area join the group’s annual celebration of Navruz, the Persian New Year on the spring equinox.
Lola Zakharova, who moved to Seattle from Tashkent in 2006 and was co-president of the Association from 2017 to 2018, said that the Uzbek community in Seattle sees the Association as their “connection with home.”
“This is an opportunity for them — especially people who feel homesick, but people who just want to maintain ties to their culture,” Zakharova said. “It’s always a very warm feeling in my heart after those delegations because it reminds me of home very much, and the people.”
Ilhom Miliyev, a linguist who lives in Tashkent and has been with the Association for 16 years, called it “one of the best parts of my life.”
Source: Crosscut
