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Soviets in Central Asia Soviets in Central Asia By W.P & Zelda K. Coates Originally printed in London in 1951 Reprinted in New York in 2017 Red Star Publishers www.RedStarPublishers.org Mechanisation invades the cotton-fields of Soviet Asia. A tractor at work sowing cotton at the “Bolshevik” Collective Farm, Tadzhikistan. The driver, Brigade-Leader D. Artykov. ii FOREWORD This book is the outcome of an extremely Interesting journey made by the authors recently in the Central Asian Republics of the U.S.S.R. The first part deals with the ancient history of the peoples of Central Asia, the conquest of these lands by the Tsarist Government and their liberation in November 1917. The second part gives a description of life in the Soviet Central Asian Republics and shows what the Soviet national policy has ac- complished. In view of the awakening of the peoples of the East, particularly in Asia, and indeed of all colonial peoples, the question of how to deal with these more backward nationalities is of the utmost impor- tance not only to the colonial peoples themselves, but also to us Europeans, Whatever may be thought of the Soviet system, whether one likes or dislikes it, no one can deny that the Soviet national pol- icy—a policy well thought out by Lenin and Stalin and their col- leagues long before the revolution—has been an outstanding suc- cess. The U.S.S.R. has made an important contribution to the study, theory and practice of this important question. The lessons to be derived from the Soviet experience may be of invaluable help to the rest of the world in dealing with national minorities, and it is the hope of the authors that this book will be of some service in spread- ing information of what has been done in the Central Asian Soviet Socialist Republics and in pointing to the lessons to be learnt there- from. We would add that we give the figures of the Post-War Five Year Plan (due to be completed on December 31, 1950) for each of the Central Asian Republics. As this book is going to press before the end of 1950, the complete results have not yet been published. But all the indications are that the Plans, in the main, will be ful- filled and in the case of some enterprises even over-fulfilled. iii “We want a voluntary union of nations—a union which would permit of no oppression of one nation by another—such a union as would be based on the most complete confidence, on a clear under- standing of fraternal unity, on entirely voluntary consent.” Lenin. iv CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD iii EXPLANATION OF TERMS vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii PART I HISTORICAL CHAP. I. INTRODUCTION 9 II. THE EVOLUTION OF THE CENTRAL ASIAN STATES 20 III. THE RUSSIAN CONQUEST OF THE CENTRAL ASIAN 37 KHAATES IV. How THE TSARIST GOVERNMENT RULED THE 48 CENTRAL ASIAN PROVINCES V. AFTER THE MARCH AND NOVEMBER (1917) 65 REVOLUTIONS PART II THE SOVIET CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS TODAY VI. CENTRAL ASIA UNDER THE SOVIETS 95 VII. THE KAZAKH SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC 117 (KAZAKHSTAN) VIII. THE KIRGHIZ SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC 153 (KIRGHIZIA) IX. THE TADZHIK SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC 178 (TADZHIKISTAN) X. THE TURKMENIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC 215 (TURKMENISTAN) XI. THE UZBEK SOVIET Socialist REPUBLIC 240 (UZBEKISTAN) XII. CONCLUSION 292 v EXPLANATION OF TERMS CENTNER (the Russian Centner is what is = 220.46 lb. generally known as a double centner) CUBIC METRE = 35.315 cubic feet KILOGRAM = 2.2046 lb. KILOMETRE = 0.621 mile METRE = 39.37 inches HECTARE = 2.471 acres SQUARE METRE = 10 76 square feet SQUARE KILOMETRE = 0.39 square miles KOLKHOZ Collective Farm KOLKHOZY Collective Farms SOVKHOZ Soviet State Farm SOVKHOZY Soviet State Farms vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES Mechanisation invades the cotton-fields of Soviet Asia ii An Uzbek girl research worker at an industrial laboratory in 63 Tashkent Travelling libraries satisfy the growing demand for books 64 Collective farmers v. “Spartak”. A match at a village football 64 ground The old crafts are kept alive in the co-operatives 93 Great irrigation projects are transforming the plains 94 Valuable mineral deposits are worked in the mountains 94 Children grow up healthy and happy 115 An electric tractor at work on the cotton-fields in Uzbekistan 116 A typical Kazakh collective farm woman 151 A new Soviet giant at work—the mechanised cotton picker 151 Kazakhstan’s national bard, Dzhambul 152 English is taught in Tashkent schools. The authors are 152 present at an English lesson Breakfast served on the terrace at a Children’s Sanatorium in 176 Kirghizia Modern-looking villages are being built 177 Kirghiz horsewomen participate in a collective farm festival 177 A Tadzhik coal-miner 212 Brigade-Leader Zhurayev makes his rounds on a motor-cycle 213 The brothers Dodobaev and their wives of the “Stalin” 213 Collective Farm A fine herd of goats in Tadzhikistan 214 Water-distributing centre of the “Bolshevik” Collective Farm 238 in Turkmenia Kazakh herdsman Bairev and Olga Muksreva, student from 239 Moscow, inspect two karakul lambs Newspaper-reading time for Turkmenian shepherds 239 A street in modern Tashkent 290 The Shir-Dar madrasah 290 A members’ meeting at the “Azad” Collective Farm in 291 Uzbekistan MAP Soviet Central Asia 302 vii PART I HISTORICAL CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The U.S.S.R. covers an immense area—in all, one-sixth of the world’s surface. Many visitors have been to European Russia, a smaller number have visited the new and the old industrial towns in the Urals in western Siberia, but relatively few have travelled to the Central Asiatic Republics of the Soviet Union. This is due partly to distance and partly to the fact that rail communications between these Republics and Moscow are roundabout, and consequently slow. Now, however, there is a good passenger air service between Moscow and these little-known Republics. Prior to the Tsarist conquest this part of Central Asia was very difficult of access to Europeans, and many of the few travellers never returned. Gustav Krist (who returned from Turkestan in 1922) in his Alone Through the Forbidden Land, stated: “Such Europeans as had visited Bukhara before the end of the nineteenth century were for the most part agents of the British, French and Russian Governments, who travelled either in disguise or under the pretext of scientific research. They seldom returned. They were usually discovered and executed, or compelled to serve as slaves. The few among them who got back to Europe confided little concerning their adventures or experiences to the public, since as military emissaries it was their business to furnish reports only to their respective Governments.” Yes, penetrating into these areas was then a risky business. The author continued: “During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a number of Russian spies were successful in penetrating the country, and a handful of Western Europeans, among whom were Vambéry, Schwarz, Lansdell and Chanikoff; finally the two Englishmen, Stoddart and Conolly, were executed in Bukhara in 1842. These were of course not the only travellers who attempted the jour- ney, but most of the others failed to reach their goal, for the ri- 9 vals Britain and Russia would inform the Amirs in time of the plucky adventurers’ intentions, and they were either detected and turned back at the frontiers, or taken prisoners to the capi- tal, whence they were repatriated, after lengthy negotiations, in return for a heavy ransom... without having been allowed to see anything of Bukhara itself. It is characteristic of the country and its Government that less than fifty years ago Russia had to redeem a number of her citizens out of Bukharan slavery.”1 And even after the Tsarist conquest conditions were not very much easier: “In the early twentieth century a few men, Russians and British for the most part, succeeded in gaining entry to the country and endeavoured mutually to supplant each other in the favour of the Amir; for the Governments of both countries looked on Bukhara as the heart of the Muslim world—which in fact it is today—and were seeking there a base for the penetra- tion and conquest of Central Asia. For the moment the Russians have won the round.”2 With further reference to the unfortunate Britishers, Stoddart and Conolly, Lieut.-Colonel R T. Etherton wrote in his In the Heart of Asia: “Conolly and Stoddart were sent to Bukhara in 1840, where they were treacherously seized and thrown into the dungeons by the Emir. There they remained on and off until the disaster to our arms in Afghanistan in 1842 sealed their fate, and they were taken out and beheaded, after refusing to embrace Islam as the price of their release. No retribution was ever exacted by us for this foul crime.” Even the British Empire, then the most mighty in the world, was powerless to penetrate effectively into these regions. What ap- plied to Bukhara also applied more or less to the other Khanates of Central Asia at that time. If one looks at a pre-1914 map of Tsarist Russia one sees an immense area—stretching from the lower Volga and the eastern 1 Alone Through the Forbidden Land. 2 Ibid. 10 shores of the Caspian Sea to the frontiers of western China, and from southern Siberia to the frontiers of Iran and Afghanistan— designated as Turkestan. Sometimes it was referred to as ‘‘western Turkestan” or Russian Turkestan, to distinguish it from “eastern” or Chinese Turkestan/ All this area was ruled by Imperialist Russia, but within it there were two semi-independent Khanates (Moslem principalities), i.e.
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