Soviet Central Asia: The Failed Transformation

The A-team of Western specialists on Central Asia provides a reader on Central Asia in that region's last moments under Moscow's rule. Several of the chapters (Nancy Lubin on demography, Boris Z. Rumer on economics, Donald S. Carlisle and James Critchlow on Uzbekistan politics) conveniently summarize the contents of longer studies. Others offer fresh information. Ronald Wixman writes up his first-hand impressions of relations between Slavs and Muslims in Uzbek cities, and what he discovers are enduring patterns of the Muslim world replicated anew. In other words, their relations closely resemble the not very happy ones between Muslims and non-Muslims in Nigeria, Israel, and India. Azade-Ayse Rorlich documents the unsuccessful campaign to promote atheism among Central Asians, while Isabelle Kreindler reports on the parallel efforts to Russify, concluding that efforts to impose Russian ended up solidifying a determination not to abandon the traditional languages. Martha Brill Olcott exposes the disastrous conditions in which the women of Central Asia live. Fierman explains that Central Asians have not migrated to factories in Russia-unlike their counterparts in Turkey migrating by the millions to Germany-because they prefer the life in their own region, even if that keeps their incomes down.

In short, "failed transformation" puts it mildly. As in other parts of the Union, the Soviet touch in Central Asia turned all to dross. Fierman's collection serves as a fitting epitaph. For its part, Westview Press wins kudos for publishing this and so many other fine studies on Central Asia over the years.

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