Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
emir conspired with White (anti-Bolshevik) Russians and even British
political agents, while the Reds concentrated on strengthening party
cells within the city.
In December 1918 a counter revolution broke out, apparently or-
ganised from within Tashkent jail by a shadowy White Russian agent
named Paul Nazaroff. Several districts and cities fell back into the hands
of the Whites. The bells of the cathedral church in Tashkent were rung
in joy, but it was short-lived. The Bolsheviks defeated the insurrection,
snatched back power, and kept it. Nazaroff, freed from jail, was forced to
hide and flee across the Tian Shan to Xinjiang, always one step ahead of
the dreaded secret police.
The end came swiftly after the arrival in Tashkent of the Red Army
commander Mikhail Frunze. Khiva went out with barely a whimper,
quietly transforming into the Khorezm People's Republic in February
1920. In September, Mikhail Frunze's fresh, disciplined army captured
Bukhara after a four-day siege of the Ark (citadel). The emir fled to
Afghanistan, taking with him his company of dancing boys but abandon-
ing his harem to the Bolshevik soldiers.
Mission to
Tashkent
by FM
Bailey recounts
the exploits of
this British intel-
ligence officer
in 1918 Soviet
Tashkent. At one
stage, under an
assumed identity,
he was employed
as a Bolshevik
agent and given
the task to track
himself down!
The Soviet Era
From the start the Bolsheviks changed the face of Central Asia. Alongside
ambitious goals to emancipate women, redistribute land and carry out
mass literacy campaigns, the revolutionaries levied grievous requisitions
of food, livestock, cotton, land and forced farm labour. Trade and agri-
cultural output in the once-thriving colonies plummeted. The ensuing
famines claimed nearly a million lives; some say many more.
Forced Collectivisation
Forced collectivisation was the 'definite stage of development' implicit
in time-warping the entire population of Central Asia from feudalism to
communism. This occurred during the USSR's grand First Five Year Plan
(1928-32). The intent of collectivisation was first to eliminate private
property and second, in the case of the nomadic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, to
put an end to their wandering lifestyle.
The effect was disastrous. When the orders arrived, most people sim-
ply slaughtered their herds and ate what they could rather than give
them up. This led to famine in subsequent years, and widespread dis-
ease. Resisters were executed and imprisoned. Evidence exists that dur-
ing this period Stalin had a personal hand in tinkering with meagre food
supplies in order to induce famines. His aims seem to have been to sub-
jugate the people's will and to depopulate Kazakhstan, which was good
real estate for Russian expansion.
The collapse of
the Soviet Union
sent the Central
Asian republics
into an economic
collapse esti-
mated at three
times greater
than the Great
Depression of
1930s America.
1924
The Uzbek SSR (com-
prising modern Uz-
bekistan and Tajikistan)
and the Turkmen SSR
are created out of the
Turkestan SSR.
1928-30
latin script replaces
Arabic script in Central
Asia, divorcing the
region from its Muslim
heritage and rendering
millions illiterate over-
night. latin is replaced
by Cyrillic script in
1939-40.
1929
Tajik SSR created after
borders are rejigged
and redrawn to create
the new republic's
requisite minimum
one-million population.
1930s
Stalin's genocidal col-
lectivisation programs
strike the inal blow to
nomadic life. Around
20% of Kazakhs leave
the country with their
locks and a similar
number die in the
ensuing famine.
