The main objective of the project is to create a multicultural informative association, capable of uniting all former citizens of Ferghana and all those interested in Russian cultural developments on the Asian soil.

        The city of Ferghana (formerly known as Novy Margilan and then Skobelev) was established by the Russian imperial army in 1876 during the period of intensifying influence of Russia in the remote parts of Central Asia. The city is unique in this part of Asia for its European-styled architecture.

        The later part of last century witnessed an intensive exodus to Ferghana of ethnic Russians as well as people of other nationalities, such as ethnic Germans, Koreans, Turko-Meshetins and Crimean Tatars.

        The newcomers' active participation in local city life brought into everyday living elements of European and other cultures. Ferghana's rich and culture on the other hand had a positive and cultivating influence on the new ethnic groups.

        During the period of ideological censure and state pressure intellectuals of Ferghana who had by then organised themselves into groups such as the movement of adherents of the Museum of regional studies, the regional department of the Union of Artists and the Soti literature group were able to organise quasi-legal arts exhibitions, conduct literal readings, concerts, seminars and discussions to which they invited local artists as well as artists from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Examples of this kind of events were the All-union jazz festivals held in 1977, 1979 and 1988 and attended by more than 50 artists from all over the USSR, the creation in 1983 of a film club under the patronage of the city's Kosmos cinema hall, the creation of permanent galleries of Ferghana arts in the city's Cultural Centre No1 and the Museum of regional studies and many more.

        The long process of aesthetics interaction between the people of Ferghana led to the emergence in the city of a historically unique ethnic-cultural and social group whose various social manifestations need detail description and study.

        The Ferghana cultural phenomenon started to fall apart with the breakdown of the Soviet Union and gaining of independence by Uzbekistan. The republic of Uzbekistan is being deserted by Russian ethnic minorities as well as local skilled specialists who can not fit into the new historical and cultural environment. Ferghana artworks which number up to several thousands of unique pieces are almost not exhibited in the Museum of Regional Studies any more. The historical and architectural parts of the city which remind of the era of Russian colonial rule are partly or totally destroyed. A suitable epigraph to this particular project could be taken from the word of James Joyce who said that if Dublin is totally destroyed and wiped off the face of earth it would be possible to rebuild it using the novel "Ulysis". The authors of this project hope to revive and "reanimate" Ferghana at least in cyberspace.

        Ferghana's intellectuals, now displaced all over the world from Montreal to Jerusalem, Amsterdam and Moscow, are bearers of the Ferghana cultural spirit. Many of them have at their disposal unique historical and cultural documents.

The literal section of the web-site will display electronic versions of literal works of Ferghana novelists published in the Tashkent journal Zvezda Vostoka (Star of the East) from 1991 through 1996, and making the journal one of the top ten Russian language literal publications of the early 1990s.

        Also to be in placed in this section are electronic versions of books and magazine articles, and unpublished works of Ferghana authors. In the "Preference Library" we intend to publish literal works which have either influenced Ferghana writers or played an important role in the development of Ferghana's cultural and artistic process.

        We plan to engage in researches, scanning and presentation of digital video materials from the Ferghana museum of regional studies. They will depict photographs of the architecture of the early 20th century in areas demonstrating the European and Asian views of the city as well as other cultural exhibits.

        In early 1998 the group made a 12-hour video film about Ferghana. The most interesting part of the film will soon be made available on the web-site.

        The Ferghana group invites all interested parties to participate in creating the home page: "Ferghana: History and Poetry".