Central Asia, incorporated into the Soviet Union in the 1920s, underwent major changes under the communist system for the next seventy years. Changes that shaped the region’s present form included the establishment of national republics, collectivization of agriculture, large-scale cotton cultivation, and the spread of the Russian language.
Soviet “National Delimitation”
- 1924–36: The Soviet Union divided Central Asia into five republics: Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Turkmen, and Tajik.
- “Divide and rule”: It is analyzed that the Soviet Union intentionally drew ethnic and linguistic boundaries ambiguously in order to use conflict among ethnic groups to prevent unified anti Soviet movements.
- Many borders did not correspond to historical ethnic distributions, such as incorporating Samarkand and Bukhara, Uzbek speaking cities, into Uzbekistan rather than Tajikistan.
Cotton Cultivation and the Aral Sea Tragedy
- The Soviet Union forced monoculture, or single crop cotton farming, through large-scale irrigation in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
- Massive diversion of water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya caused the Aral Sea, the world’s fourth largest lake after the Caspian Sea, to shrink rapidly.
- From the 1960s to the 2000s, the area of the Aral Sea fell to less than one tenth of its original size. It is called the “greatest environmental disaster of the 20th century.”
- Increased salinity, pesticide pollution, desertification, the disappearance of the fishing industry, and health problems severely affected nearby residents.
Key Point
The Current Condition of the Shrinking Aral Sea: On the Kazakhstan side, water levels in the North Aral Sea have been recovering since the Kokaral Dam was built in 2005. On the Uzbekistan side, the South Aral Sea has nearly dried up and become the “Aralkum Desert.” The former lakebed has become a desert covered with salt and pesticides, and boats are scattered around former fishing ports left inland in the desert.
The Current Condition of the Shrinking Aral Sea: On the Kazakhstan side, water levels in the North Aral Sea have been recovering since the Kokaral Dam was built in 2005. On the Uzbekistan side, the South Aral Sea has nearly dried up and become the “Aralkum Desert.” The former lakebed has become a desert covered with salt and pesticides, and boats are scattered around former fishing ports left inland in the desert.
Forced Migration and Ethnic Mixing
During the Stalin era, from the 1930s to the 1950s, peoples considered “untrustworthy,” including Koreans, Chechens, and Crimean Tatars, were forcibly relocated to Central Asia. This is one reason for the complex ethnic composition of the Central Asian countries today.
Practice
- State the political purpose behind the Soviet division of Central Asia into five republics.
- Explain the causes of the shrinking Aral Sea and the environmental and social problems it caused.
- Give two examples of peoples forcibly relocated to Central Asia during the Stalin era.