Soviet Central Asia

Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible Eurasian boundaries for the region

Soviet Central Asia (SCA) is a reference to the five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan that were part of the Soviet Union from 1924-1991.

Geography

The climate

File:Central Asia climate.jpg

A climate map of Central Asia. From the northwest, the mountain climate (purple) extends from the Caucasus, through Iranian Azerbaijan, along the Iranian border, through Afghanistan, and into Tibet in the southeast. The steppe climate (peach) extends from the North Caucasus in the northwest, over the Caspian Sea, through Kazakhstan, and around Mongolia in the northeast. The arid climates of the Fergana Valley, Takla Makan and Gobi deserts are also prominently visible.

While most of SCA was either in the Kirgiz steppe to the north, Urs-Urt pateau to the north west, the Karakum Desert to the west, the Chotkal mountains near the center, or various mountain ranges to the south and east; the Fergana Valley provided an oasis in the otherwise unforgiving landscape. Since Central Asia is not surrounded by a large sea or inland body of water, temperature fluctuations are more severe and are much colder in the mountains than in either the desert or the steppe.

There are several major bodies of water scattered around the region.

• Lake Issyk Kull in Kyrgystan
• Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan
• Aral Sea
• Caspian Sea
• Lake Kara-Kul in Tajikistan
• Kara Bogaz Bay / Gol Bay in Turkmenistan
• Lake Ozero Zaysan in the far northeast of Kazakhstan
• Lake Ozero Tengiz in Kazakhstan

Source - The Philip's World Factbook (1995 UK edition).

The Fergana Valley

The Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley (Uzbek: Farg‘ona vodiysi, Kyrgyz: Фергана өрөөнү, Tajik: водии Фaрғонa, Russian: Ферганская долина, Persian: دشت فرغانه) is a region in the Tian Shan mountain ranges of Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

The Tomb of Ali at Shakhimardan, on the edge of the valley formed the nucleus of an independent khanate, whilst later under Russian rule in the 19th century Ferghana was a province to itself, with large areas of the Pamirs included. It is the most fertile and most densely-populated region in the whole of Central Asia. The most important part of the province is a rich and fertile valley, in an altitude of 1200 to 1500 ft (400 to 500 m), opening towards the southwest. The valley owes its fertility to two rivers, the Naryn and the Kara Darya, which unite in the valley, near Namangan, to form the Syr Darya.The climate of this valley is dry and warm. In March the temperature reaches 20 °C (68 °F), and then rapidly rises to 35 °C (95 °F) in June, July and August. During the five months following April no rain falls, but it begins again in October. Snow and frost, down to -20 °C (-4 °F) occur in December and January. The Tadjik town of Khodzenta is one of many situated in the valley.

[1] [2]

The Caspian Sea

As captured by the MODIS on the orbiting Terra satellite.

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The Soviets had exploited this sea for conventional weapons testing as well as heavily overfishing it through the years. Lake Profile: Caspian Sea. The sea has begun to dry up buy the Mangyshlak Peninsula in Kazakhstan due to over irrigation of near by farmland.

Aktau, in Kazakhstan, was once the site of a nuclear power station between went online 1973 and 1999. The BN-350 FBR provided power for the city and the local desalination works to supply fresh water to the city amongst ther things. Aktau had a poulation of 154,500 in 2004.

Atyrau / Guryev was founded in 1645 and is Kazakhstan's main harbour city on the Caspian Sea. It has 142,500 inhabitants (1999 census), almost 80% ethnic Kazakhs, the rest being mostly Russians and other ethnic groups such as Ukranians, Koreans and Bulgars.

Lake Balkhash

Lake Balqash as seen from space, April 1991

(Kazakh: Балқаш Көлі [kk] Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: Balķaš Kôli (help), also Balkhash from the Russian Озеро Балхаш [ru] Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: Ozero Balhaš (help)) is a lake in southeastern Kazakhstan, the second largest in Central Asia after the Aral Sea.Balkhash itself serves as a vital fishery.

The Syr Darya and Amu Darya

The Syr Darya river (Kazakh: Сырдария; Tajik: Сирдарё; Uzbek: Sirdaryo; Persian: سيردريا, also transliterated Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name ὁ Ιαξάρτης. The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta ("Great Pearly"), a reference to the color of the river's water. In medieval Islamic writings, the river is uniformly known as Sayhoun (سيحون) - after one of the four rivers of Paradise. (Amu Darya was likewise known as Jayhoun, the name of another one of the four).

The Aral Sea (Kazakh: Арал Теңізі, Aral Tengizi, Uzbek: Orol dengizi, Russian: Аральскοе мοре), Tajik/Persian "Daryocha-i Khorazm" (Lake Khwarazm) is a landlocked endorheic sea in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to more than 1,500 islands of one hectare or more that dotted its waters.

Along its course, the Syr Darya irrigates the most fertile cotton-growing region in the whole of Central Asia, together with the towns of Kokand, Khujand, Kyzylorda and Turkestan. An extensive system of canals, many built in the 18th century by the Uzbek Khanate of Kokand, spans the regions the river flows through towards the Aral Sea.

[3] [4] [5]

The River Irtyash runs through north east Kazakhstan and the River Emba runs through north western Kazakhstan. The Atrek River runs along the Turkmenistan / Iranian border. The Ishim River passes through the Kazakh city of Astana.

Aral Sea and environmental decline

Since the 1960s the Aral Sea has been shrinking, as the rivers that feed it (the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya) were diverted by the Soviet Union for irrigation. The Aral Sea is heavily polluted and most fish stocks have recently died out, largely as the result of- reduced water levels, nuclear weapons testing (like in other parts of Kazakhstan and Siberia), industrial projects, and fertilizer runoff! [6]

Kazakhstan gave up its arsenal in the mid 1990s as did the Ukraine and Belorussia.

[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Pamir Mountains

The Pamir mountains in Tajikistan.

Historically and politically, the Pamir mountains were considered a strategic trade route between Kashgar and Kokand on the Silk Route and have been subject to numerous territorial conquests. In the 20th century, they have been the setting for Tajikistan Civil War, border disputes between China and Soviet Union, establishment of USA, Russian, and Indian military bases. The Soviet Union took the defence of these mountains very seriously, as they made both a good geographic barrier against China and then later Afghanistan too.

A photograph of Ismail Samani Peak then known as Peak Communism) taken in 1989 when was Tajikistan still in the Soviet Union.

[16]

The Kyrgiz Turugat Pass make passage through the Tian Shan mountains and over the border into China's north western Xinjiang province. The Kazakhstani Dzungarian Pass dose like wise further to the north.

Mount Communisum/Somoni (Samanid) stands at the height of 7,495 m (23,400 ft) and is Tadjikistan's highest peak.[17]

Both landslides and avalanches are fairly common. An avalanche killed 40 Soviet and Chinese climbers as they climbed Tajikistan's Peak Lenin in 1990. [18]

Former Bolshevik states

Turkestan ASSR

File:SovietCentralAsia1922.png

Map of Soviet Central Asia in 1922 with the Turkestan ASSR and the Kyrgyz ASSR (present-day Kazakhstan).

The beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little Horde participated in the 1723 - 1730 war against the Dzungars, following their "Great Disaster" invasion of Kazakh territories. Under the leadership of Abul Khair Khan the Kazakhs won major victories over the Dzungar at the Bulanty River (1726) and at the Battle of Anrakay in 1729.In the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire began to expand, and spread into Central Asia.

The Anglo-Russian colonialist "Great Game" period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 a second less intensive phase followed. The tsars effectively ruled over most of the territory belonging to what is now the Republic of Kazakhstan and Kirgystan. Russia anexed Lake Issyk Kul in north east Kazakhstan of off China in the 1860s.

'Emerging from the Russian Empire following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War of 1918 – 1921, the USSR was a union of several Soviet republics, but the synecdoche Russia — after its largest and dominant constituent state — continued to be commonly used throughout the state's existence. Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic' (initially Turkestan Socialist Federative Republic) (April 30, 1918 – October 27, 1924) was created from the Turkestan Krai of Imperial Russia. Its capital was Tashkent, population about 5,000,000.

British and Persian forces breafly tryed to liberate Baku in Azerbijan and the Turkmen port of Krasnovodsk. Bokhora, Kiva, Samarkand, Kokand, Dushambe and the former Trans-Caspian province would see variose anti-Bolshavick risings over the next few years.

In 1924 it was split into Tajik ASSR (now Tajikistan), Turkmen SSR (now Turkmenistan), Uzbek SSR (now Uzbekistan), Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast (now Kyrgyzstan), and Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast (now Karakalpakstan).

Bukharan PSR

In March 1918 activists of the Young Bukharan Movement informed the Bolsheviks that the Bukharans were ready for the revolution and that the people were awaiting liberation. The Red Army marched to the gates of Bukhara and demanded that the emir surrender the city to the Young Bukharans. As Russian sources report, the emir responded by murdering the Bolshevik delegation, along with several hundred Russian inhabitants of Bukhara and the surrounding territories. The majority of Bukharans did not support an invasion and the ill-equipped and ill-disciplined Bolshevik army fled back to the Soviet stronghold at Tashkent.

The BSPR's flag

However, the emir had won only a temporary respite. As the civil war in Russia wound down, Moscow sent reinforcements to Central Asia. On 2 September 1920, an army of well-disciplined and well equipped Red Army troops under the command of Bolshevik general Mikhail Frunze attacked the city. After four days of fighting, the emir's citadel (Arc) was destroyed, the Red flag was raised from the top of Kalyan Minaret, and the Emir Alim Khan was forced to flee to his base at Dushanbe in Eastern Bukharan, and finally to Kabul, Afghanistan.

A nearby anti-Bolshevik stronghold in the Tadjik/Moslem village of Khangir (qingir) declared its independence shortly afterwards, but soon surrendered after a 14 day siege by Russian and Bokhkori Bolsheviks. It was then quickly re-integrated back into Communist Bokhorah.

The Bukharan People's Republic was proclaimed on 8 October 1920 under Faizullah Khojaev. The overthrow of the Emir was the impetus for the Basmachi Revolt, a conservative anti-communist rebellion. In 1922, most of the territory of the republic was controlled by Basmachi, surrounding the city of Bukhara. Joseph Stalin would later purge and exile many of the local Bukhori people as well as most of the local Jewish community from the former Bukharan People's Soviet Republic.

Prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, the Bukharian Jews were one of the most isolated Jewish communities in the world.

With the establishment of Soviet rule on the territory in 1917, Jewish life seriously deteriorated. Throughout 1920s and 1930s, thousands of Jews, fleeing religious oppression, confiscation of property, summary arrests, and repressions, fled to Palestine.

Khorezm SSR

The Khorezm SSR only survived until 17 February 1925, when it was divided between Uzbek SSR, Turkmen SSR, and Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast as part of the reorganization of Central Asia by Moscow according to nationalities.

Flag of Khorezm People's Soviet Republic

Khorezm People's Soviet Republic (Russian: Хорезмская Народная Советская Республика) was created as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva in February 1920 and officially declared on 26 April 1920. On 20 October 1923, it was transformed into the Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic (Russian: Хорезмская Социалистическая Советская Республика).

[19] [20]

Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast

The Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast (Кара-Киргизская АО) was created on 14 October 1924 within the Russian SFSR from the predominantly Kazakh and Kyrgyz parts of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. On 15 May 1925 it was renamed into the Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast. On 11 February 1926 it was reorganized into the Kyrgyz ASSR. On 5 December 1936 it became the Kyrgyz SSR, one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union.

Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast

Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast was created on February 19, 1925 by separating lands of the ethnic Karakalpaks from the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Khoresm People's Soviet Republic.

Initially located within the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Karakalpak A.O. was transferred to the RSFSR from July 20, 1930 to March 20, 1932, at which time it was elevated to the Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ("Karakalpak ASSR"). The Karakalpak ASSR was joined to the Uzbek SSR from December 5, 1936.

www.karakalpak.com

Kazakh ASSR

The Kazakh ASSR was an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union. It became the Kazakh SSR on August 26, 1920.

Oddly enough, its original name was actually the Kirgiz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (not to be confused with Soviet Kirghizia, a Central Asian territory which is now the independent state of Kyrgyzstan). This ASSR was established on 26 August 1920, and was a part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) In 1925 it was renamed the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1929 the city of Almaty (Alma-Ata) was designated as the capital of the ASSR.

Former Soviet states

Tadjik SSR

The Tadjik SSR's flag.

The Tajik SSR was one of the new states created in Central Asia in 1924 was Uzbekistan, which had the status of a Soviet socialist republic. In 1929 Tajikistan was detached from Uzbekistan and given full status as a Soviet socialist republic. The city of Dushanbe would becom a important regonal hub on the border with Afghanistan.

The post-Communist flag of Tadjikistan.

Tajikistan has 3 exclaves, all of them located in the Fergana Valley region where Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan meet. The largest is Vorukh (with an area between 95 – 130 km²/37 – 50 sq mi, population estimated between 23,000 and 29,000, 95% Tajiks and 5% Kyrgyz, distributed among 17 villages), located 45 kilometres (28 miles) south of Isfara on the right bank of the Karafshin river, in Kyrgyz territory. Another exclave in Kyrgyzstan is a small settlement near the Kyrgyz railway station of Kairagach. The last is the village of Sarvan, which includes a narrow, long strip of land (about 15 km (9 mi) long by 1 km (over ½ mi) wide) alongside the road from Angren to Kokand; it is surrounded by Uzbek territory. There are no foreign enclaves within Tajikistan.

[21] [22]

A picture of Dushanbe city.

Dushanbe's coat of arms.

In 1929 Dushanbe it was renamed "Stalinabad", after Joseph Stalin; as part of Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization initiative, the city was renamed "Dushanbe" in 1961. The Soviets transformed the area into a centre for cotton and silk production, and relocated tens of thousands of people to the city from around the Soviet Union. The population also increased with thousands of ethnic Tajiks migrating to Tajikistan following the transfer of Bukhara and Samarkand to the Uzbek SSR. Dushanbe later became the home to a university and the Tajik Academy of Sciences. Severe Tadjik nationalist rioting occurred in 1990, rumor said that Moscow had planned to relocate tens of thousands of Armenian refugees to Tajikistan. Dushanbe also had a relatively high military population during the war with Afghanistan.

Kazakh SSR

The flag of the Kazakh SSR.

The Kazakh SSR Established on December 5, 1936. It was initially called Kyrgyz ASSR (Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) and was a part of the Russian SFSR. On April 15-19, 1925, it was renamed Kazakh ASSR and on December 5, 1936 it became a Union Republic of the USSR called Kazakh SSR in the culminating act of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union. During the 1950s and 1960s Soviet citizens were urged to settle in the "Virgin Lands" of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The influx of immigrants (mostly Russians and Ukrainians, but also some forcibly resettled ethnic minorities, such as the Volga Germans and the Chechens) skewed the ethnic mixture and enabled non-Kazakhs to outnumber natives.

Coat of arms of the Kazakh SSR! The wheat sheafs reflect the bountiful harvests the region had between 1969 and 1999!

In 1924, the borders of political units in Central Asia were changed along ethnic lines determined by Lenin's Commissar for Nationalities, Joseph Stalin. The Turkestan ASSR, the Bukharan People's Republic, and the Khorezm People's Republic were abolished and their territories were divided into eventually five separate Soviet Socialist Republics, one of which was the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR). The next year the Uzbek SSR became one of the republics of the Soviet Union.

Almaty' / Alma-Ata, / Verniy, (Верный)) is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,226,000 (as of 1 August 2005) [23]. The Ethnic groups in a 2003 census were: Kazakh 43.6%, Russian 40.2%, Uyghur 5.7%, Tatar 2.1%, Korean 1.8%, Ukrainian 1.7%, German 0.7%.

The name "Astana", which means "Capital city" in Kazakh, was allegedly chosen because it is easily pronounced in many languages. In 1999, the city had a population of 281,000. The ethnic mix was about 60% Kazakh and 30% Russian, Ukrainian, and German. [24][25]

Kzyl Orda / Kyzylorda was founded in 1820 as a Kokand fortress of Ak-Mechet (also spelt Aq Masjid, Aq Mechet, 'white mosque'). The name comes from the Kazakh for ' Red center'.

Uralsk / Oral was founded in 1613 by Cossacks, was originally named Yaitsk, after the Yaik river. The city was put under siege imposed by Cossaks during the Russian Civil War lead by Mikhail Frunze and other leading Boshaviks. It has a population of 210,600. It is the capital of the West Kazakhstan Province. Ethnic composition is dominated by Russians (54%), Kazakhs (34%), along with a few Ukranians and Germans.

Uzbek SSR

Flag of the Uzbek SSR

In 1924 the new national boundaries separating the Uzbek and Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republics cut off the eastern end of the Fergana Valley, as well as the slopes surrounding it. This was compounded in 1928 when the Tajik ASSR became a fully-fledged republic, the Tajik SSR, and the area around Khodjend was made a part of it. This blocked the valley's natural outlet and the routes to Samarkand and Bukhara, but none of these borders was of any great significance so long as Soviet rule lasted.

The Uzbek SSR included the Tajik ASSR until 1929, when the Tajik ASSR was upgraded to an equal status. In 1930, the Uzbek SSR capital was relocated from Samarkand to Tashkent. In 1936, the Uzbek SSR was enlarged with the addition of the Karakalpak ASSR taken from the Kazakh SSR in the last stages of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union. Further bits and pieces of territory were transferred several times between the Kazakh SSR and the Uzbek SSR after World War II. During the Great purges of Joseph Stalin, many thousands of Chechens, Koreans and Crimean Tatars were exiled to the Uzbeg SSR.

The State Anthem of the Uzbek SSR (Uzbek: Ўзбекистон ССР давлат мадхияси) was the national anthem of Uzbekistan when it was a republic of the Soviet Union and known as the Uzbek SSR.

The city of Tashkent (Uzbek: Toshkent, Тошкент, Russian: Ташкент) began to industrialize in the 1920s and 1930s, but industry increased tremendously during World War II, with the relocation of factories from western Russia to preserve the Soviet industrial capacity from the evil invading Nazis. The Russian population increased dramatically as well, with evacuees from the war zones increasing the population to well over a million. (The Russian community would eventually comprise nearly half of the total residents of Tashkent. On April 26, 1966, Tashkent was destroyed by a huge earthquake (7.5 on the Richter scale) and over 300,000 were left homeless. [[26]] At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tashkent was the fourth largest city in the country and a center of learning in the science and engineering fields.

Tashkent is a fairly prosporus city and dthe capital of Uzbekistan anmd has a population of the city in 2006 was 2.1 million. As capital of the nation, it has also been the target of several since Uzbekistan gained independence, which the government has attributed as well as a coupel of minor insodents during the Agahan-Soivet war of the 1970's/1980's.

Samarkand (Uzbek: Samarqand) is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, prospering from its location on the trade route between China and Europe (Silk Road). In 1370, Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane, decided to make Samarkand the capital of his empire, which extended from India to Turkey. Despite its status as the second city of Uzbekistan, the majority of the city's inhabitants are Persian-speaking Tajiks. The city is most noted for its central position on the Asian Silk Road between China and the west.

Kyrgyz SSR

The flag of the Kyrgyz SSR

The Kyrgyz SSR, formally known as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic (alternative transliteration: Kirghiz), also known as Kirgizia, was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Established on 14 October 1924 as the Kara-Kyrgyz AO (Autonomous Oblast) of the Russian SFSR, it was transformed into the Kyrgyz ASSR (Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) on 1 February 1926, still being a part of the Russian SFSR. Today it is the independent state of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Kyrgyz ASSR) was the both the name of two different national entities within Russian SFSR, in the territories of modern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

On 5 December 1936 it became a separate constituent republic of the USSR as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic during the final stages of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union.

Bishkek was both the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan ant the Kirghiz ASSR, with a population of approximately 900,000 in 2005. In 1862 Tsarist Russia destroyed the local fort and began to settle the area with Russian migrants. Over the years many fertile black soil farms were developed by the Tzarists and, later, the process carried on by the USSR. In 1926, the city became the capital of the newly established Kirghiz ASSR and was renamed Frunze after the Bolshevek hero, Mikhail Frunze, who was one of Lenin's close associates, who was born in Bishkek until Kirghiz independence in 1991.

Turkmen SSR

The flag of the Turkmen SSR!

The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen: Türkmienistan Soviet Socialistik Riespublikasy) was one of fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It was initially established on August 7 1921 as Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR. On May 13 1925 it was transformed into Turkmen SSR and became a separate republic of the Soviet Union. Today it is the independent state of Turkmenistan in Central Asia.

The Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR was the ruling communist party of the Turkmen SSR, and a part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1985 it was led by Mr Saparmurat Niyazov (AKA- " Turkmenbaşı (Turkmenbashi in English) the Great! "), who in 1991 renamed the party to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which is no longer a communist party . The current Communist Party of Turkmenistan is illegal. [27]

Ashgabat' (Aşgabat in Turkmen)/ (Ashkabad in English) has a population of 695,300 (2001 census estimate) and has a primarily Turkmen population, with minorities of ethnic Russians, Armenians, and Azeris. It is 920 km from the second largest city in Iran, Mashhad. The principal industries are cotton textiles and metal working.

Merv / Mary is an ancient city with a Its population was 123,000 in 1999. It has interesting Regional Museum and lies near the remains of the ancient city of Merv, which in corrupted form gives its name to the modern town. Carpets from the region of Merv are sometimes considered superior to the Persian ones.

Tannu-Tuva PR

The Tuvan flag from 1933 to 1941.

This short-lived, rural state 1924 – 1944 is some times included both in Central Asia and Soviet Central Asia. The Tuvinian People's Republic (People's Republic of Tannu Tuva; Tuvan Latin: Tьвa Arat Respublik, Cyrillic: Тыва Арат Республик) (1921 – 1944) was a state in the territory of the former Tuvan protectorate of Imperial Russia, also known as Uryankhaisky Krai (Урянхайский край). The Tuvinian People's Republic is now formally known as Tyva Republic within the Russian Federation.

File:Tuva gerb.gif

The Tuvan coat of arms.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Communist troops took Tuva in January 1920. The chaos accompanying this era and the ensuing Russian Civil War of 1918 – 1921, allowed the Tuvans to again proclaim their independence. On 14 August 1921 the Bolsheviks (supported by Russia) established a Tuvinian People's Republic, called Tannu Tuva until 1926. The capital Belotsarsk (Белоцарск) was eventually renamed to Kyzyl (‘Red’, in Turkic languages; Russian transliteration: 'Кызыл'). A treaty between the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic in 1926 affirmed the country's independence. No other countries formally recognized it. Tuva entered World War II with the Allies on 25 June 1941, three days after the USSR. On 11 October 1944, with the approval of Tuva's Little Khural (parliament), Tuva was included into the USSR as Tuvan Autonomous Oblast, although there was no Tuva-wide vote on the question. Toka was given the title of First Secretary of the Tuvan Communist Party. Tuva was an autonomous republic (Tuva ASSR within the Russian SFSR) from 10 October 1961] until 1992.

The Tuvinian People's Republic is now formally known as Tyva Republic within the Russian Federation. While there have been talks about restoration of the sovereignty of Tuva (which is formally possible), they have had no impact to date. This has been due to various reasons, including the heavy national dependence on the Russian economy and the Russification of the population (although over 75% are ethnic Tuvinians).

Kyzyl (Tuvan and Russian: Кызы́л) is a city, and is the capital of the Tuva Republic, Russia. The name of the city means "red" in Tuvan (as well as in many other Turkic languages). Population: 105,931 (2004 est.); 104,105 (2002 Census). Kyzyl is served by Kyzyl Airport. Kyzyl is located where the Yenisei River meets the Little Yenisey River to form the Upper Yenisey.[1] Most development is south of the river and follow the curves of the river, with the highest development centered where the two headstreams of the Yenisei, the Bolshoi Yenisei and the Malyy Yenisei, meet. A monument was built in 1964 on the river bank to mark this.Kyzyl claims to be located exactly in the geographical center of Asia (coordinates 51°43′11″N 94°26′18″E / 51.71972, 94.43833 Coordinates: 51°43′11″N 94°26′18″E / 51.71972, 94.43833). Whether these coordinates are in fact the center of Asia is disputed. However, there is a monument labelled "Centre of Asia" in English, Russian, and Tuvan which asserts this claim. Tos-Bulak is the area of open fields and mineral springs which lies immediately south of Kyzyl.

Anti-Communist rebellions

Kokand Autonomy

Flag of Kokand Autonomy 1917-1918

Kokand (alternative spellings: Khokand, Khoqand; Uzbek: Quqon; Russian: Коканд; Template:Ta/PA:Куканд/کوکند ;Chagatai: خوقند) is a city in Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southwestern edge of the Fergana Valley. It has a population of 192,500 bu 1999. Kokand is 228 km southeast of Tashkent, 115 km west of Andijan, and 88 km west of Fergana. It is nicknamed “City of Winds”, or sometimes “Town of the Boar". It is at an altitude of 409 meters.

Khan's Palace.

Kokand is on the crossroads of the ancient trade routes, at the junction of two main routes into the Fergana Valley, one leading northwest over the mountains to Tashkent, and the other west through Khujand. As a result, Kokand is the main transportation junction in the Fergana Valley.

Russian imperial forces under Mikhail Skobelev captured the city in 1876 which then became part of Russian Turkistan. With the fall of the Russian Empire, a provisional government attempted to maintain control in Tashkent. It was quickly overthrown and local Muslim opposition crushed. In April 1918, Tashkent became the capital of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkestan ASSR). It was the capital of the short-lived (1917 – 18) anti-Bolshevik Provisional Government of Autonomous Turkistan (also known as Kokand Autonomy). Source- The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform, Jadidism in Central Asia, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Basmachi revolt

In 1897 the railway reached Tashkent, and finally in 1906 a direct rail link with European Russia was opened across the steppe from Orenburg to Tashkent. This led to much larger numbers of Slavic settlers flowing into Turkestan than had hitherto been the case, and their settlement was overseen by a specially created Migration Department in St. Petersburg (Переселенческое Управление). This caused considerable discontent amongst the local population, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs and Sarts, as these settlers took scarce land and water resources away from them. In 1916 discontent boiled over in the Basmachi Revolt, sparked by a decree conscripting the natives into Labour battalions (they had previously been exempt from military service). Thousands of settlers were killed, and this was matched by Russian reprisals, particularly against the nomadic population. The competition for land and water which ensued between the Kazakhs and the newcomers caused great resentment against colonial rule during the final years of Tsarist Russia, with the most serious uprising, the Central Asian Revolt, occurring in 1916. The Kazakhs attacked Russian and Cossack villages, killing indiscriminately. The Russians' revenge was merciless. A military force drove 300,000 Kazakhs to flee into the mountains or to China. When approximately 80,000 of them returned the next year, many of them were slaughtered by Tsarist forces. Order had not really been restored by the time the February Revolution took place in 1917. This would usher in a still bloodier chapter in Turkestan's history, as the Bolsheviks of the Tashkent Soviet (made up entirely of Russian soldiers and railway workers, with no Muslim members) launched an attack on the autonomous Jadid government in Kokand early in 1918, which sadly left 14,000 dead! Resistance to the Bolsheviks by the local population (dismissed as 'Basmachi' or 'Banditry' by Soviet historians) continued well into the 1920s!

During the 1921-22 famine, another million Kazakhs died from starvation. Today, the estimates suggest that the population of Kazakhstan would be closer to 20 million if there had been no starvation or massacre of Kazakhs.

Gulags and Kengir Uprising

During the Soviet era, the Gulags once spread over the Kazakhstan steppe like a thick wreath. The city of Dzhezkazgan was the site of a Gulag labour camp, Kengir, mentioned in Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's book, The Gulag Archipelago. Russian actor Oleg Yankovsky is the most famous of the city's natives. A notoriouse political prison labour camp of Steplag division of the Gulag system of Kazakhstan was set up adjacent to the village of Kengir, near the River Kengir in central Kazakhstan. There was a heroic prison revolt in 1954, by brutally abused political prisoners, criminals and other victims of the Soviet repression. [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33]

Industry

Oil and gas

After World War II the Soviet Union rapidly industrialized Kazakhstan, and stared prospecting for oil in the whole of Soviet Central Asia. Oil was found in Uzbekistan and both oil and gas were found in Turkmenistan. These fuel supplies would prove invaluable to the region over the coming years.

The central part of the Fergana Valley's geological depression that forms the valley is characterized by block subsidence, originally to depths estimated at 6-7 km, largely filled with sediments that range in age as far as the Permian-Triassic boundary. Some of the sediments are marine carbonates and clays. The faults are upthrusts and over thrusts. Anticlines associated with these faults form traps for petroleum and natural gas, which has been discovered in 52 small fields. [34] Kazakhstan's Mangystau Province has an area of 165,600 square kilometers and a population of 316,847. It is a major oil and gas produceing region. The city of Aktau was biult in Kazakhstan's Mangyshlak Peninsula a small village to house the region's oil workers in 1961. Over the years an inevitabley large influx of Russian and Ukranian oil and chemical workers flowed. Engineers discovered after large amounts of crude oil and petroleum in the area in the days of the Soviet Union and when drilling commenced, much of the area was built up around the industry is country's only seaport on the Caspian Sea.

From 1964 to 1991, the by then city was named Shevchenko to honour the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, who was once sadly sent away to this remote location because of his political bealifs. The average temperature on January is -3°C, on July +26°C. Average annual rainfall - 150mm.Aktau had a poulation of 154,500 in 2004.

Metallurgy

Kazakhstan had started to produce and refine sizable amounts of tin and uranium by the early 1970s. Vanadium and cobalt were, and still are also mined in the south of the country. Uranium was also first produced in Uzbekistan in the 1970s.

Location of Dzhezkazgan/Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

The city of Zhezkazgan/Dzhezkazgan was created in 1938 in connection with the exploitation of the rich local copper deposits. In 1973 a large mining and metallurgical complex was constructed to the southeast to smelt the copper that until then had been sent elsewhere for processing. Other metal ores mined and processed locally are manganese, iron and gold.It is on a reservoir of the Kara-Kengir River andt has a population of 90,000 (1999 census).

Its urban area includes the neighbouring mining town of Satpayev, total population 148,700. 55% of the population are Kazakhs, 30% Russians, with smaller minorities of Ukrainians, Germans, Chechens and Koreans. Dzhezkazgan has an extreme continental climate. The average temperature ranges from +24°C (75°F) in July to -16°C (3°F) in January.

Today the city is the headquarters of the copper conglomerate Kazakhmys, the city's main employer. The company has subsidiaries in China, Russia, France and the UK and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Cement

Cement was a major product in both the citys of Chimkent / Shymkent (Kazakh: Шымкент) and Dushanbe in the south of the region.

Hydro-electricity

By the early 1970s, the Soviets had started to build some of their hydroelectric power stations in Easter Kazakhstan, Kirgystan and Tadjikistan as part of an overall development strategy. The waters of the Ili River and of Lake Balkhash are considered to be of a vital economic importance to Kazakhstan. The Ili river is dammed for hydroelectric power at Kaptchagayskoye, and the river waters are heavily diverted for agricultural irrigation and for industrial purposes.

[35] [36] [37] [38]

Cotton

The Soviets began to grow cotton in Uzbekistan after the Virgin Lands project and the mass use of the isolated and now shrinking Aral Sea for desert irrigation in the early 1950s. A massive expansion of irrigation canals during the Soviet period, to irrigate cotton fields, wrought ecological carnage to the area, with the river drying up long before reaching the Aral Sea which, as a result, has shrunk to a small remnant of its former size. With millions of people now settled in these cotton areas (and politically repressive post-Soviet regimes in power in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan), it is not clear how the situation can be rectified..

The Baikonur Cosmodrome

File:Baikonur verticalization2.jpg

Photograph showing the "verticalization" of a Proton rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Map showing the location of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The world famous Baikonur Cosmodrome was founded in Kazakhstan on June 2, 1955, during the Cold War, as one of many long-range nuclear missile bases in the region, but diverged into space travel.

On June 8, 2005 the Russian Federation Council ratified an agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan extending Russia's rent term of the spaceport until 2050.

Culture, creed and ethnicity

Most of the inhabitants were either nomadic Turkic speakers like the Kazakhs or settled Turkic speakers like the Uzbeks. There were also some settled farming and urban Iranic communities like the Tadjiks and Bohkori in the south, and nomadic Mongollic Kyrgiz on the order with China. The Slavic community was would grow very rapidly under communism and Russians would eventuly become a major ethnic group in the region. The Slavic belaved in Orthodox Christians, while the rest were mostly Sunni Muslims. Various nationality, such as the Meshketian Turks and Volga Germans would get banished to the region's gulag network. The Bolsheviks would quickly set about closing mosques and churches through out the former USSR. This became particularly bad in the 1930s, but had been fully abandoned by the 1980s. Neither Christianity or Islam would give in to the intolerant Communist ideology. Uralsk / Oral is now Russians (54%) and Kazakhs (34%), while it's Kazakh 43.6% and Russian 40.2% in Almaty!

The Ethnic and liguistic patchworks of Central Asia.

In Kazah [qɑzɑqtɑr]; Russian: Казахи; the English name 'Kazakh' is transliterated from Russian) are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia (largely Kazakhstan, but also found in parts of Uzbekistan, China, Russia, and Mongolia).

According to Robert G. Gordon, Jr., editor of the Ethnologue: Languages of the World, classifies Kalmyk-Oirat under the Oirat-Khalkha group, since he contends that Kalmyk-Oirat is related to Khalkha Mongolian – the national language of Mongolia. The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed on the other hand by recent genetic studies.[1] Remarkably, 63% of modern Kyrgyz men share Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) with Tajiks (64%), Ukrainians (54%[citation needed]), Poles and Hungarians (~60%), and even Icelanders (25%). Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) is believed to be a marker of the Proto-Indo-European language speakers.

See also

• Mr Islom Karimov, the 1st President of Uzbekistan.
• The 1st Kazakhstani President, Mr Nursultan Nazarbayev
• The Fergana regions of Uzbekistan
• The Osh region of Kyrgyzstan
• The greater region of Central Asia
• The anti-Soviet Basmachi rebels
• Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
• Political prisoners
• Independent states
• Siberia's Lake Baikal
• The 1949-1989 Cold War
• The Bolshivek Far Eastern Republic
• The Western Siberian Intervention
• The Tsarist Green Ukraineian state
• The Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
• Natural gas
• Crude oil
• Steppe
• Desert
• Atom bomb

Multi-media

Kazach S.S.R. anthem omn You-tube-[39]!

The Kazak anthem on You-tube-[40]

The Soviet Union's flag!

The Soviet coat of arms.

External links

File:USSR Ethnic Groups 1974.jpg

This map shows the 1974 geographic location of various ethnic groups within the Soviet Union

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• Soviet Calculators Collection — a big collection of Soviet technology goods: calculators, computers, electronic watches, etc

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• [-/-://www.russianfootage.com/history/soviet_parade Soviet Parade video. Red Square,November 1987]
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