Trade Pioneers, Middlemen, New Entrepreneurs: Kyrgyzstan’s First Capitalists along Translocal Value Chains between ‘Home’, Russia and China

The thesis aspires to understand the evolution of a post-Socialist capitalism from the vantage point of ethnic Kyrgyz economic actors earning and living in-between Russia, China and their ‘fatherland’. Covering a period from the late Soviet era until today, it follows the ‘commercial journeys’ of traders in Novosibirsk, middlemen in Guangzhou and entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan. The theoretical framework draws on translocality as a concept that takes acts of place-making and multiple situatedness as seriously as it does physical, social or occupational mobilities which transgress state borders and other relevant boundaries. Specifically, the thesis presents ‘translocal livelihoods’ and ‘translocal value chains’ as research perspectives that allow to capture the ways in which my interlocutors’ efforts to upgrade their positions of profitability align or conflict with non-material matters of their everyday lives, such as ethnicity or gender. The empirical evidence for the thesis was gathered during ethnographic fieldwork between 2013 and 2018, mainly in Guangzhou, Novosibirsk and across Kyrgyzstan. Part I of the thesis focuses on Kyrgyz bazaar traders in Novosibirsk. It documents the hardships and hope for ‘great profits’ that merchant ‘pioneers’ encountered during the early post-Soviet transformation of ‘wild capitalism’. As to present-day trading, the thesis details the acquisition and re-sale of China-made goods, the relevance of trust and gender in these operations, and the changes emanating from the recent relocation of Novosibirsk’s open-air bazaar to ‘civilized’ trade centers. Also, this part examines the articulation of ‘Kyrgyzness’ within the local diaspora and ethnic in- or exclusion in reference to intergenerational relations or a specific regional origin. In Part II, I look at Kyrgyz middlemen in Guangzhou. Contrasting their occupational biographies with those of the pioneering traders from Part I indicates that the middlemen enjoyed a comparatively ‘softer market entry’, but also that their future in China was limited. The part furthermore depicts the work routines of Kyrgyz middlemen, who earned from arranging deals between clients from across the former Soviet-space and Chinese manufacturers. In that capacity, they performed essential services as translators between the informal and formal domains of these translocal value chains. Finally, I identify Guangzhou as a temporary destination for male Kyrgyz middlemen, who already prepared for a soon-to-come, post-China livelihood back ‘at home’. Part III examines recent trends in entrepreneurship across Kyrgyzstan, notably in regards to the country’s 2015 entry into a customs and economic union with Russia and Kazakhstan. Following various commercial journeys in agriculture, manufacturing and the apparel industry demonstrates that ‘localizing capital’, i.e. investments in production-sites and human resources, coincided with an ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ that enabled a positive relatedness to ‘people and country’, and a more self-confident stance vis-a-vis non-supportive government authorities. This part also follows how ‘Kyrgyzness’ and a new kind of ‘servicification’ play into local and translocal business-making. The Conclusion situates the thesis’ insights within recent debates on capitalist accumulation and middle-classness. Reviewing the ways in which a Kyrgyz ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ is gendered, ethnicized and otherwise ‘enframed’ in quotidian livelihoods, and highlighting the emergent relevance of formalization, diversification and professionalization in China-Russia-Kyrgyzstan value chains, illustrates the conceptual merit of a translocal perspective from yet another angle