Central Asia - current history

 

At the beginning of the 20^th century the Tsar-regime in Moscow assumed the central Asian countries as the outer boundaries and there was almost no government control. This area was only good to supply cheap Russian goods, a production area for cotton grain and a supplier of cannon ammunition in the First World War.

 

The Russion communist revolution

Just after the Russian communist revolution of 1917, a Russian worker organized the first Soviet meeting in Tashkent; the Muslims were not invited. The leaders of the Muslim community tried in this period to create an independent republic of Turkestan, but this was stopped in 1918 by the Bolsheviks, they slaughtered almost the total inhabitants of Kokand (now: Uzbekistan). Lenin sent his general Envir Pasja to Central Asia to solve the problems with the Muslims. After his arrival he was inspired by idea of creating an independent Turkmenistan, but it was never realised.

The Soviet ideology was never "made" for Asians. In Central Asia family and tribes play a big role in daily life, the inhabitants are mainly Islamic and most live as ‘free’ nomads. In the beginning of the Soviet republic this became a serious problem for the government in Moscow, but Josef Stalin (1879-1953) had a simple as dramatic solution for this. In 1924 the area was divided into five republics, an Uzbek, Turkmeni, Kazakh, Kirzig and Tadjiki Soviet republic. The borders were drawn straight across various ethnic groups. Where these borders were drawn people had to choose which ethnic group was printed on his/her identity card. Then Stalin made the ethnic groups play themselves out against each other. Then ethnic conflicts started that were unthinkable before this change.

Decennia before the Second World War Stalin executed or deported various intellectuals and religious leaders. Mosques were closed and every resistance was defeated...

The civil war between 1918-1920 and the Stalinist terror afterwards has cost 2 million Central Asians. In the year after this approximately 2 million people died due to starvation between 1932 and 1933.

 

1960-1990, Laissez-faire

In the 60’s and 70’s there was a period of stagnation. The central Party in Moscow did not involve so much during these year with central Asia. During the plan economy every republic got it’s own tasks. It did not matter if this was good for these republics or not, results needed to be met even if it was on paper. During 1985 and 1990 Micheal Gorbatjov tried to reform the Soviet Republic with ‘Perestroika’ and ‘Glasnost’. Short for the communist coupe in August 1991, Gorbatjov tried to unite the various Soviet republics but failed due to the coupe.

 

1991 - unexpected independency for Central Asian republics
Christmas 1991 a treaty was signed in the Kazakh capital of Almaty. From that date the republics were independent. For all five republics the independency came very unexpected. There was no preparation time or independence struggle. Any independency from the Soviet Union was unthinkable before, all countries ex-communists are still in power and don't want to lose it, reforms of the government are being delayed or not done at all. The industry is quite old and competitive production is not yet possible. With the plan economy there was always demand for products, but in the new situation the organizations need to produce by demand. Lots of factories needed to be closed because of unemployment. Moscow always determined which goods came from which country an this has led to a minimum variety of products. These products, cotton or grain, depleted the soil and the chemical fertilizers and pesticides polluted the ground.

As the borders of the central Asian countries are once set by the Soviet authorities, a lot of inhabitants don't like the name given to them from the country they live in. A lot of ethnical Russians went back to Russia and took their knowledge with them. This knowledge depletion is the main cause of the economy slackening. And how about the conflict with the Moslim population under Lenin? For decennia the Muslim population were not allowed to profess their religion in public but now it is possible, but in some area's the Islam is connected to Nationalism. This doesn't give the ex-communists a stable feeling.