Wigwam as a reason to analysis

"Wigwam" as the name was given to the courtyard of the building with the store "Thousands of Little Things" located in the area of Dzerzhinsky-Soviet-International-October streets in Soviet Alma-Ata (former name of Almaty). In the 80s, there was a playground with various structures in the yard, which was quite unusual for Alma-Ata at that time. The creators built an amazing little world for children then using stone, concrete mortar, and wooden structures. Among these structures was a wigwam, designed to resemble a Native American's tent, constructed with wooden parts. Two islands of improvised fortress walls filled with their creativity a large common courtyard of five-storey buildings.

Photo: The photo studio near the former "Thousands of Little Things" building

It was strange that memes and interests in relation to Native Americans were often promoted through decorative elements and literature in the country of yurts and Central-Asian nomads. I myself remember how ethnic Kazakh children suggested me to play with them as Native Americans, and never Genghis Khan's Mongols. It's obvious because of TV content and popular literature for children at that Soviet time where the main position was busy by James Fennimore Cooper and O. Henry with content on the Native Americans.

During that time, one of the few photo studios in Alma-Ata was also located in that house, capturing the essence of the Soviet era. After arriving there on the 32nd bus from Peace Street and going through the necessary procedures in front of a mirror and a photographer, I was receiving a ticket for better times. I walk then through the yards of that area towards the Kazakhstan cinema on Seifulina-Oktyabrskaya Street. Afterward, I'd been waiting for the 7th trolley bus to take me home. Therefore, every time the Soviet routine required my photo, I would consider that wigwam.

It is evident that the children who lived in that yard and the surrounding micro-section area with and no less famous topographical landmarks such as the bureau of the city information and public baths likely attended School 39. Perhaps, peers, like me, from different parts of the city would come to see their Native American-inspired gathering spot. As children of that yard grew up and entered their youth, they formed a community with the same name what was known to others Alma-Ata inhabitants. Thus, the wigwam, as a topographic landmark, became the self-designated name of that youth community. These teams were more than just groups; they were not the "informal youth gangs" as described in official posters or reports by district inspectors.

To be honest, there was no formal «permit system» in Alma-Ata's yards or blocks during the early to mid-80s. All the troublemakers and miscreants were concentrated in schools and its yards, where there was social interest and total control of them according to the rules of the Soviet system. After many years, it becomes clear that all the discreteness of the youth environment of the city was in the hands of special structures, which, according to the experience of previous milestones, permanently prepared new and new generations for guerrilla warfare in case of clashes with external opponents. Thus, the underground communication of population groups outside the official channels was honed.

It was paradoxical that before the Yevgenia Dotsuk's publication of the article “Lads” in 1987 in the largest Kazakhstani print edition for youth "Leninskaya Smena", no one talked about real social processes in that youth environment outside the official ideological rhetoric. It all came down to the statistics of delinquency among the youth, but there was no question of the background. Neither the police, nor the school officials, nor the nomenclature employees of the educational authorities publicize the existence of the discreteness of the youth environment outside of ideological guidelines. As if someone invisible had instructed to look at all this aspect through the fingers despite killings, suicides and a lot of crimes what were connected with this phenomenon. Taking into account the fact that literally every person in the USSR was registered much more pedantically than any citizen of the GDR at the Stasi.

At the same time, the children's environments of the schools, by inertia, served as a hotbed of district concepts and influences. However, the heroic epics that some storytellers and myth designers depict now were impossible. Everything was ordinary and dull, occasionally brightened up during holidays with typical agitprop movies for children and youth, broadcasted on the limited selection of four television channels. Even that legend wigwam image not preserved because of wide public didn’t have cameras and films to use it everywhere at that time. Only one or two pupils had been interested by photo hobby at a school class, but traditionally they were just nerds without interests to the topography of informal youth relations. Only when the discos with foreign music started at schools in the mid-80s and the country got some foreign garments, the intensity of emotions increased with manifestos and declarations of district statuses and as well as increased the percentage of property crimes. But, probably, no one of inhabitant with a camera there thought on local history for the future. Because the basic part of photos from that period were made for school photo-albums, on sports or on boozes.
 
On the other hand, "Wigwam" is just one of several semantic-topographical phenomena in the city. The name of this landmark became associated with the community, and it spread through School 39 and local discos, almost becoming a brand then. It is clear enough that a comfortable yard with playgrounds and benches can be attractive not only for mothers with babies and preschoolers. Any minimal convenience is the key to a backstage environment. Unfortunately this construction for children was demolished in general about 20-25 years ago. It is clear that this is a natural process in the city development because of structural needs. The phenomenon of the Wigwam community has been preserved only in the memory of the indigenous Almaty residents of the 80s generation in the context of that area and the school. It’s important to notice that even contemporary graffiti on walls of the yard are different principally then at previous epochs.

Photos: Transformer booth built on the remains of a playground / the remains of those stone walls / different contemporary graffiti on walls of the location

For instance, other yard communities in the city also gathered in various locations within the blocks. These communities had their own small informal platforms or cramped spaces, such as "gymnastic beams stylized as crocodiles," "tennis tables," "horizontal bars," and later on, "video salons" and "billiards". However, they did not have the same level of significance as serious labels like that "wigwam". We had a territorial name that represented a line of generations – Paranoid – which was displayed on a house of our area since the 70s, inspired by the song by Ozzy Osbourne.

Whether it was Wigwam, Snowflake, Dram (Dramatic Theater), or other branded names; they were either chosen by the communities themselves or given by their neighbors based on a specific location. There were also names that emerged without being tied to a particular narrow topographic location. These communities created their own names, were not associated with a specific school or coalition of schools, and chose names such as Aktiv, Aruakh, Ertek, Sphere, States and a lot of others.

Last of this local youth activity began to die in the last 90s when paradigm formation for the economic relations in the society was changed by global processes. Finally, all these relationships disappeared at all from the social environment when social networking appeared. Of course, the degree of myth design online is still maintained, but, obviously, with the disappearance of the apologists of that subculture, those legends will be understandable only to narrow specialists. And, only very few of them will be able to separate fact from fiction.

P.S. By the way, the name "Thousands of Little Things" for that building with the Wigwam yard further were transformed to a typical status for small or big shops with goods for house holding. But at that time there was only one shop with such a unique name in Alma-Ata.