Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T07:34:54.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

National Sentiment and Migration in Soviet Central Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Gregory Gleason
Gregory Gleason*
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico (USA)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Program of the CPSU adopted at the 27th Party Congress (1986) included a guarded reference to the nationality question. It observed that the “nationality question, as it has been inheritedfrom the past, has been successfully solved.” This reference to nationality problems as a remnant of the fading capitalist past was not designed to suggest that problems of a national character have ceased to exist in the Soviet Union today. Gorbachev made this point to the Congress delegates noting: “Our achievements should not create the impression that there are no complications in nationality processes. The contradictions characteristic of all development are unavoidable in this sphere as well.” The violent outbursts of a national character in Kazakhstan in December 1986 provide fresh evidence that ethnic tensions lurk just beneath the surface. These tensions have been held in check largely by the threat of reprisals from central authorities who have regarded meaningful expressions of nationalism as treasonous.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Fall 1987 , pp. 228 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities of the USSR and Eastern Europe, Inc. 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

* This paper was prepared with assistance from the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

1. Literally the phrase reads: natsional'nyi vopros, ostavshiisia ot proshlogo, v Sovetskom Soiuze uspeshno reshen. See Kommunist, no. 4 (1968), p. 127.Google Scholar

2. For this quote and a discussion of the goals of contemporary national problems see Yuri Bromlei, “Sovershenstvovanie natsional'nykh otnoshenii v SSSR,” Kommunist, no. 8 (1986), pp. 78–86. See page 80 for the reference to Gorbachev.Google Scholar

3. A treatment of Russian nationalism may be found in Dunlop, John B., The Faces of Contemporary Russian Nationalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). A more recent treatment of the “Russian New Right” may be found in Alexander Yanov, The Russian Challenge (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987).Google Scholar

4. The basic work on nationalism is Kohn, Hans, The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in its Origins and Background (New York: Macmillan, 1944). For more recent treatment see especially Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Revival (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981); Walker Connor, The National Question in Marxist-Leninist Theory and Strategy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983); Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

5. Olcott, Martha Brill, “Yuri Adropov and the ‘National Question',” Soviet Studies, 37 (1985), 1:103–117. Quote from page 114. An earlier statement of this thesis can be found in Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone, “Dilemmas of Soviet Nationality Policy,” Problems of Communism. CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. Hass, Ernst B., “What is Nationalism and Why Should We Study It?” International Organization, 40, 3 (Summer, 1986), pp. 707–744. The citation is from p. 707. For a parallel argument see Arthur N. Waldron, “Theories of Nationalism and Historical Explanation,” World Politics 37 (April, 1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. The argument for making a distinction along these lines is articulated in Alexander Motyl, Will the Non-Russians Revolt? (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987).Google Scholar

8. Another way of observing this distinction is to emphasize ethnicity as opposed to nationalism. For a recent treatment of the subject from this analytical perspective see Rasma Karklins, Ethnic Relations in the USSR (Boston: Allen and Unwin, 1986).Google Scholar

9. Lewis, Robert, Rowland, Richard, and Clem, Ralph, Nationality and Population Change in Russia and the USSR (New York: Praeger, 1976).Google Scholar

10. See, for instance, Murray Feshbach, “The Soviet Union: Population Trends and Dilemmas.” Population Bulletin, no. 37 (1982); “Trends in the Soviet Muslim Population—Demographic Aspects,” The Soviet Economy in the 1980s: Problems and Prospects Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983).Google Scholar

11. The most influential exposition of the political and economic implications is Helene Carrere d'Encausse, L'Empire Eclate (Paris: Flammarion et Cie., 1978), trans. Martin Sokolinsky and Henry La Farge as Decline of an Empire: The Soviet Socialist Republics in Revolt (Newsweek Books, 1979). The changing composition of the Soviet armed forces is often noted in this connection. See for instance S. Enders Wimbush and Alex Alexiev, “The Ethnic Factor in the Soviet Armed Forces: Preliminary Findings,” N-1486 (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 1980).Google Scholar

12. Examples are Jeff Chinn, Manipulating Soviet Population Resources (London: MacMillan, 1977); Helen Desfosses, Soviet Population Policy: Conflicts and Constraints (New York: Pergamon, 1981).Google Scholar

13. See Hodnett, Grey, “Technology and Social Change in Soviet Central Asia: The Politics of Cotton Growing,” in Henry Morton and Rudolf Tokes, eds., Soviet Politics and Society in the 1970s (New York: Free Press, 1974), pp. 60-117. Also see Murray Feshbach, “Prospects for Outmigration from Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the Next Decade,” Soviet Economy in a Time of Change: A Compendium of Papers (submitted to the joint Economic Committee, 96th Congress, 1st Session, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 656-709. Richard Rowland offers a “guarded forecast” that “there is still considerable potential for redistribution, particularly among the Turkic-Moslem peoples of Central Asia. Although still predominantly rural, the high fertility and rapid population growth of this area should generate substantial local rural outmigration. It can thus be expected that substantial urbanization will occur in this region, as well as in others that are currently not highly urbanized.” Richard Rowland, “Regional Population Redistribution in the USSR: 1979-84,” Soviet Geography, vol. 28 (March 1986) 3:158–181, p. 180.Google Scholar

14. Viktor Ivanovich Kozlov was one of the first Soviet demographers to discuss demographic trends in terms of ethnicity, a practice which has now become fashionable. See his National'nosti SSR: Etnodemograficheskiiobzor (Moscow: Statistika, 1975).Google Scholar

15. Lapidus, Gail Warshofsky, “Ethnonationalism and Political Stability: The Soviet Case,” World Politics 36, 4:555–580.Google Scholar

16. See Bromlei, Iu., “Sovershenstvovanie natsional'nykh otnoshenii v SSSR,” Kommunist 8 (1985) p. 84. Also see Roman Solchanyk, “Russian Language and Soviet Politics,” Soviet Studies, 34,1:23-42. For a recent treatment of the topic of language by a Soviet scholar see M. N. Guboglo, “Faktory i tendentsii razvitiia dvuiazychiia russkogo naseleniia prozhivaiushchego v soiuznykh respublikakh Istoriia SSSR, 2 (1987): 25-43.Google Scholar

17. See, for instance, Ro'i, Yaacov, “The Task of Creating the New Soviet Man: Atheistic Propaganda in the Soviet Muslim Areas,” Soviet Studies, 36 (January 1984): 26–44. Zvi Gitleman, “Are Nations Merging in the USSR?” Problems of Communism (July-August 1982), 32:41-43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18. Jones, Ellen and Grupp, Fred W., “Modernization and Traditionality in a Multiethnic Society: The Soviet Case,” American Political Science Review, 79 (1985) 2:1019–1039.Google Scholar

19. See for instance Alexandere Bennigsen, “Mullahs, Mujahidin, and Soviet Muslims,” Problems of Communism, 33, 6:28–44. See also Kemal Karpat, “Moscow and the ‘Muslim Question',” Problems of Communism (November-December 1983), pp. 71-79. For a Soviet view see T. S. Saidbaev, Islam: istoriia i soveremennost' (Moscow: Znanie, 1985). A review is available in The Central Asian Newsletter, vol. 5, no. 1. Copies may be obtained by writing to P.O. Box 131, Oxford OS1 2NJ, UKGoogle Scholar

20. See Daniel, Matuszewski, C., “The Turkic Past in the Soviet Future,” Problems of Communism (July-August, 1982), pp. 76–82.Google Scholar

21. Grey, Hodnett, Leadership in the Soviet National Republics: A Quantitative Study of Recruitment Policy (Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1978).Google Scholar

22. Karklins, Rasma, “Ethnic Politics and Access to Higher Education: The Soviet Case,” Comparative Politics, 16, 3:277–294. Also see Gregory Gleason, “Educating for Underdevelopment: The Soviet Educational System and its Central Asian Critics,” Central Asian Survey (1985).Google Scholar

23. Rowland, Richard H., “Regional Population Redistribution in the USSR: 1979-84,” Soviet Geography (March 1986). vol. 28, 3:158–181, p. 164.Google Scholar

24. Op. cit., p. 177.Google Scholar

25. Op. cit., p. 175, table 9.Google Scholar

26. Bedrintsev, K. and Kozlov, A., “Territorial'nye promyshlennye kompleksy Uzbekistana,” Kommunist Uzbekistana, no. 12 (1968), p. 26–31.Google Scholar

27. Ziuzin, D. I., “Prichiny nizkoi mobil'nosti korennogo naseleniia respublik Srednei Azii,” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, no. 1 (1983) p. 110.Google Scholar

28. Quote on 35 percent—Bedrintsev?Google Scholar

29. The title of the resolution is “O dal'neishem ukreplenii trudovoi distsipliny i sokrashchenii tekuchesti kadrov v narodnom khoziaistve,” See Kh. Umarov for a discussion, Ratsional'no ispol'zovat’ trudovye resursy,” Kommunist Uzbekistana, no. 9 (1985), pp. 12–22.Google Scholar

30. See Partinaia zhizn' (Tashkent, August 1979), p. 77.Google Scholar

31. Khodzhaev, E., “Srednee obrazovanie i rabochaia kvalifikatsiia,” Turkmenskaia iskra (3 April 1979). Also see Gudzhalova, L. V., “Puti snizheniia tekuchesti kadrov v promyshlennosti Turmenskoi SSSR,” Isvestiia Akademii Nauk Turkmenskoi SSR, Seriia obschchestvennykh nauk, no. 3 (1983), pp. 11–15; Gurshumov, I. P., “Motivy potentsial'noi tekuchesti kadrov,” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, no. 1 (1984), pp. 76–78.Google Scholar

32. Kharakhanov, M. Kh., “Regional'nyeproblemy razvitiia narodnoselneiia na sovremennom etape,” Obschestvennye nauki v Uzbekistane, no. 9 (1983), p. 35.Google Scholar

33. See, for instance, Todoro, Michael P., Internal Migration in Developing Countries (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1976).Google Scholar

34. Lee, E. S., “A Theory of Migration,” Demography, no. 1 (1966), pp. 47–57.Google Scholar

35. Umarov, , op. cit., p. 20.Google Scholar

36. Ziuzin, , op. cit., p. 111.Google Scholar

37. Lubin, Nancy, Labor and Nationality in Soviet Central Asia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).Google Scholar

38. Shister, Georgii, “Vazhnyi faktor rosta i sovershenstvovaniia struktury rabochego klassa Uzbekistana,” Kommunist Uzbekistana, no. 2 (1983) p. 39.Google Scholar

39. Ibid. Google Scholar

40. Ibid. Google Scholar

41. Shister, , op. cit., p. 37.Google Scholar

42. Ibid. Google Scholar

43. This is documented in the author's doctoral dissertation, “Between Moscow and Tashkent: The Politics of the Uzbek Cotton Production Complex” (The University of California, Davis, 1984). The data will soon be available in Between Moscow and Tashkent: Center and Periphery in Soviet Politics (forthcoming).Google Scholar

44. For a discussion see Richard Rhoda, “Rural Development and Urban Migration: Can We Keep Them Down on the Farm?” International Migration Review, vol. 17 (1984), pp. 34–68.Google Scholar

45. Ziuzin, , op. cit., p. 113.Google Scholar

46. Musaeva, T. B. and Khasanova, R. T., “K voprosu ratsional'nogo ispol'zovaniia trudovykh resursov molodezhi,” Obshchestvennye nauki v Uzbekistane, no. 10 (1977), p. 31.Google Scholar

47. Hodnett, Grey, “Technology and Social Change in Soviet Central Asia: The Politics of Cotton Growing,” in Henry Morton and Rudolf Tokes, eds., Soviet Politics and Society in the 1970s (New York: Free Press, 1974), pp. 60–177.Google Scholar

48. See Gleason, Gregory, “Educating for Underdevelopment: The Soviet Vocational Education System and its Central Asian Critics,” Central Asian Survey (Spring, 1985), pp. 39–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. See, for instance, Kharakhanov, M. K., “Regional'nye problemy razvitiia narodonaseleniia na sovremennom etape,” Obshchestvennye nauki v Uzbekistane no. 9 (1983), pp. 31–37.Google Scholar

50. For a discussion of the role of the elites in the national question see Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone, “The Nationalities Question,” in Wesson, Robert, pp. 145–147. Also see Steven L. Burg, “Muslim Cadres and Soviet Political Development,” in World Politics (1984), 37, 1: 24-47; for a detailed study of one particularly influential Central Asian leader see Gregory Gleason, “Sharaf Rashidov and the Dilemmas of National Leadership,” Central Asian Survey (1986).Google Scholar