From Enemy Waves to Fading Signals: Radio Liberty’s Journey in Central Asia
I went to school in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in the 1970s. This period in the Soviet Union is now commonly referred to as the "Era of Stagnation." We felt its effects firsthand. We did not know what freedom of speech was. All media belonged to the state, and all were "party-affiliated." Since there was only one party in the USSR, the Communist Party, all information was exclusively communist. Naturally, the media spoke only of the incredible successes of the working class and the over-fulfillment of party and government plans. We found this completely uninteresting, so we searched for alternative sources of information. Radio broadcasting helped. Almost every home had a radio receiver capable of picking up various wave frequencies. That was when I first heard Voice of America, Radio Liberty, and the BBC. My father listened to these stations. Around the age of 14–15, I also began to listen to these "enemy voices," as they were called at the time. I was primarily interested in the news reports about events that the Soviet press did not cover. And, of course, music. Western radio stations were one of the few sources of information about Western music, which was largely ignored in the USSR. Yes, even music was under ideological pressure. Today, not everyone remembers, but back then, popular bands released new albums almost annually. It was an incredible time for the invention of new sounds — Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, 10cc, and many other artists who are now largely forgotten. But they were giants of their time. Thanks to musical radio programs, we were aware of what was happening. The first broadcasts of the Russian Service of Radio Liberty, originally called "Radio Liberation," went on air on March 1, 1953. On March 18 of the same year, the Turkestan editorial office was established, broadcasting in several languages, including Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Karakalpak, and Uyghur. Initially, broadcasts in Kazakh, known as "Bostandyk Radiosy" (Radio Liberation), aired four times a week for five minutes each. In the 1960s, the volume of Kazakh-language broadcasting increased to one hour per week, with a four-person team working on its production. By the late 1960s, the Turkestan editorial office was reorganized into "Northern" and "Southern" departments, with the Kazakh program included in the "Northern" department. Khasen Oraltai headed the Kazakh service. In 1971, the Turkestan Editorial Office was further divided into three separate editorial teams: "Turkestan-1," "Turkestan-2," and "Turkestan-3," with Kazakh-language broadcasts conducted through "Turkestan-3." By 1975, broadcast time had increased to half an hour in the morning and evening. Broadcasts were transmitted on shortwave from Munich. Radio Liberty had no correspondents within the Kazakh SSR. In the USSR, the station's broadcasts were jammed until 1988. In the foothills of Almaty, towers that housed jamming equipment for these broadcasts still stand today. In 1993, a Radio Liberty bureau was opened in Almaty, followed by a branch in Astana. However, after President Trump signed an...
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