the Modern History of Soviet Central Asia (Four Stars)

This interesting book looks not just at the Soviet states of Central Asia but also at Tsarist Russia's conquest of this territory in the 18th and 19th centuries and the imperial administration of the Muslim peoples in this part of the world. It then moves on to the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, which spilled over into Central Asia. Despite claims of being anti-imperialist the communists made a point of absorbing this territory into the USSR, primarily by establishing nations where none had existed before. The Soviet Union chose to create Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan and Turkmenistan, states which had never existed historically but rather were based upon linguistic, ethnic and cultural lines. The communists turned these states into economic units without the political consciousness which would have naturally resulted. Political will came from Moscow.

This study can be a bit dry at times but it does answer important questions about how Islam was treated in these SSRs, how centralized planning attempted to reorganize Central Asia to provide raw material or simple products for USSR factories and how the borders of these states were drawn. Includes photos.