The Aral Sea Disaster
摘要
This chapter examines how museums in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan present the Aral Sea disaster within their exhibitions. It focuses on institutions in Mo‘ynoq, Bukhara, Tashkent, and Aralsk, highlighting different approaches: from detailed displays of environmental destruction and social consequences to nostalgic accounts of the fishing industry or broader histories of water management. The Mo‘ynoq museum, together with the ship graveyard, illustrates the direct impact of the catastrophe on local communities, while other museums include it only as a smaller part of wider historical themes, such as political repression or irrigation practices. These varied interpretations show that the Aral Sea disaster is remembered mainly as a regional event, important for local identity, but not necessarily central to national narratives in Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan.