On February 25th, Connecticut College hosted Adeeb Khalid’s visit for his public lecture “Central Asia in the Soviet Union: The Intertwined Histories of Nation, Empire, and Revolution” in the Charles Chu Room. This event was sponsored by CISLA, Global Islamic Studies, the Cosponsorship Fund; the Departments of Slavic Studies, English, History, and Anthropology; and the Eastern European Alliance of Students. Adeeb Khalid, author of the book “Central Asia”, and professor at Carleton College, specializes in research on Central Asian societies from Russian conquest to the present. He speaks 6 languages, including Russian, and reads 8 additional languages, assisting in his use of Turkic materials. His research focuses on the intersection between Muslim and Russian/Soviet worlds. Professor Khalid is highly knowledgeable in nationhood and national identity, and the crossroads between culture and colonialism. Through “Central Asia”, Professor Khalid shows the history of Central Asia that has been neglected and undermined by the legacy of the Soviet Union that is still prevalent in today’s age.
Professor Khalid begins his lecture describing the empire of Central Asia. He defines the region of Central Asia as the present countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Their borders are a consequence of Soviet policies as the political map of Eurasia was produced from the USSR. This area of Central Asia is not homogeneous, as other Asian countries are, and were agrarian societies. Their land masses were mainly grasslands, supporting the nomadic populations that resided. The Soviet tactic was to create lines of fortification and create towns in Central Asia. This process was relatively fast due to the agricultural aspect of agrarian societies. As the Russian empire expanded through Central Asia, Turkestan, or “land of the Turks”, was the northern province, and later was established by the Russian empire to refer to the province that they established in 1865. The conquest of Turkestan was modeled by British colonization in India. The colonial nature in Central Asia had great significance as it dealt with every region on its own; relationships to surrounding areas such as Poland and Ukraine. The Russian imperial economy and trade with Afghanistan relied heavily on cotton. The Soviet Union implemented Russian policies through the overpopulation of Central Asian states, as the Russians lived in Central Asia during their conquests.
Professor Khalid continues his lecture with his section about nations, diving deeper into the Central Asian societies. During the conquest of Central Asia, there was a growth in intellect as Central Asian Muslims created questions against the empire. There was a need to modernize, springing the wake of Kazak poem and a general sense “to wake up”. This was a call to Kazakhs awakened from ignorance; intellectuals such as Abdurauf Fitrat were important public intellectuals and scholars. During the Russian empire, sons of Central Asian families would be sent to Russian schools. After the War of 1914, many bonds of the legitimacy of the Tsar started to break, leading the Russian monarchy to dissipate, becoming a republic. Professor Khalid reaffirms the distinction between the Russian Revolution and the Soviet State, as they are not the same. In Central Asia, there was a move for autonomy and radical parties began to take power, such as how the “Bolsheviks stole the Revolution”.
With the Soviet Union, Marxism served as the ideological basis. There was a desire for a utopian society, a world achieving perfection. Soviet construction was composed of creating a soviet society, different to a tsarist state, with a socialist and realist propaganda. A conflict of “vision (ambition) vs. achievement”. The Soviet Union utilized the policy of collectivization, or the “organization of all of a country’s production and industry into government ownership and management.” As peasants were forced to give up their farms and join collective farms, it resulted in 90% of Kazakhs’ livestock perishing and an unviable nomadic lifestyle. Territorial autonomy and linguistic boundaries went hand in hand as the republics were under one single economy. The structure of the Soviet Union was nationalist in form and socialist in content. Professor Khalid displayed images that the Soviet Union used to promote the “friendship of nations”, a collective friendship between states with Russia as the older brother. Stalin’s superiority was the mindset to move “forward to communism, under the great leadership of the Great Stalin.” The trade and farming of cotton from the Russian empire continued into the Soviet Union, as it was a key raw material for industries. Central Asia was crucial for cotton production, with Uzbekistan as a major producer. Cotton production increased to 8 million tons of cotton, dissolving the Aral Sea.
