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The demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in new state-led nation-building projects in Central Asia. The emergence of independent republics spawned a renewed Western scholarly interest in the region's nationality issues. Presenting a detailed study, this book examines the state-led nation-building projects in the Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Exploring the degree, forms and ways of the Soviet state involvement in creating Kazakh and Uzbek nations, this book places the discussion within the theoretical literature on nationalism. The author argues that both Kazakh and Uzbek nations are artificial constructs of Moscow-based Soviet policy-makers of the 1920s and 1930s. This book challenges existing arguments in current scholarship by bringing some new and alternative insights into the role of indigenous Central Asian and Soviet officials in these nation-building projects. It goes on to critically examine post-Soviet official Kazakh and Uzbek historiographies, according to which Kazakh and Uzbek peoples had developed national collective identities and loyalties long before the Soviet era.
This book will be a useful contribution to Central Asian History and Politics, as well as studies of Nationalism and Soviet Politics.
List of contents
Introduction Part 1: Theory of Nationalism 1. Theorizing Modern Nationalism: General Paradigms and Concepts Part 2: Historical Framework 2. Central Asia Before the Russian Annexation: Ethno-Social Context 3. Tsarist Central Asia 4. Central Asia from the February Revolution until the Russian-Bolshevik Reoccupation Part 3: From Lenin to Gorbachev 5. The Formation of the Soviet Union: The Soviet Federal System 6. The National-Territorial Delimitation of Central Asia, 1924-36 7. Soviet Census and Passport Policies: Institutionalizing Kazakh and Uzbek National Identities 8. The Korenizatsiia Campaign and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan 9. Soviet Policy towards Islam in Central Asia 10. Soviet Emancipation of Kazakh and Uzbek Women: Conflicting Historical Interpretations 11. Economic Development of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan under Soviet Rule 12. Soviet Population Transfers: Changing Ethnolinguistic and Cultural Landscapes of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan 13. Soviet Construction of Kazakh and Uzbek National Histories 14. The Evolution of the Soviet Nationality Doctrine and Policies, 1917-91: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
About the author
Grigol Ubiria is a Research Associate at the Australian National University’s Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East & Central Asia), Australia.
