Central Asian History, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The year 1979 did not mark the beginning of a new era in Central Asian history. The five states in Central Asian region maintained their earlier trends in place of the foreign cultures that the Soviet Union had strongly emphasized until then. The five include Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Historically, when Soviet Union seized the region, they instantly started the process of Sovietization of Central Asia. The legacies had significant ramifications for the five nations. The soviet influence was felt across Central Asia in areas of education, architecture, politics, religion and nearly everything ushered by industrialization. The impacts came at the expense of suppressing nomadic and tribal communities. However, following the demise of the Soviet Union, the countries gained their independence and reverted to old trends. Despite the fact that elements of the Soviet Union are traceable because of its long historical presence in Central Asia, after the fall of Soviet Union under the Tsarist Empire, the Central Asian states found their liberations and rediscovered their earlier trends (Ewans 203). This essay shows that the 70-year Soviet domination in the region did little to change the cultural heritage of Central Asia, which found freedom once it was granted autonomy.

Despite the fact that the Soviet Union made attempts to introduce Christianity in places such as Kazakhstan, where Russian Orthodox Church was introduced, Central Asian reverted to their original religions. Initially, Islam played a fundamental role in Central Asian cultural make up. The first processes towards Sovietization included countering the Islamic faith. The Soviet Union suppressed Mullahs (or progressive religious leaders). Additionally, the Soviet Union initiated a system of religion controlled in Moscow under the domain of the Minister of Interior (Haase 40-45). The logic was to oversee Muslim citizenry. Islam was the dominant religion in Central Asia before the Russian invasion. Indeed, in the 19th century, many historians from the West pointed out that Islamic fundamentalism would spread after the Central Asian states found liberation. Since 1979, the newly independent states pursued their religion practices despite the Russian Orthodox practices imposed by the Soviet leadership. Today, Islam is the dominant religion in Central Asian states such as Xinjiang, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Central Asian Muslims are mostly Sunni, with some Shia minorities in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Conversely, Hinduism is common in Iran while Buddhism is prevalent in Mongolia, Tibet and Siberia (Ewans 203).

As a reflection of Sovietization, European fine arts such as sculpture, painting and graphics prevailed in Central Asia after 1979. The initial years of the Soviet regime witnessed the spread of modernism, which drew inspiration from the Russian avant-garde movement. Indeed, in the 1980s, Central Asian arts had emanated accompanied with general attributes of the Soviet Arts (Haase 4-12). Towards the late 1990s, the region went through some major changes with some fields of art gaining recognition in Europe. Today, many Central Asian arts with European aspects are represented in European museums leading to the Creation of Central Asian Pavilion at Venice Biennale in Venice in 2005. Some historians have argued that Central Asia is a region where many people are unaware of, and which is greatly stigmatized as a former imperial subject that only became recognized because of the European legacies, after the fall of the former Soviet Union in 1979.

Central Asian states continued with their initial languages. The Turkic languages were originally spoken in Central Asia before the Russian invasion (Haase 41-47). From 1979, the dominant language of most of inhabitants of Central Asia has originated from Turkic language, with Turkmen predominantly spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Another subgroup of Turkic languages is Kypchak, which is spoken in Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.  On the other hand, since 1979, the Russian language has continued to be spoken in Central Asia to a smaller extent. Today, it is a lingua franca across the former Soviet Central Asian statutes, and is spoken by some 6 million people in Central Asia. Despite this, most Central Asians reverted to their initial languages before the Soviet invasion. For instance, Mandarin Chinese is largely spoken in Xinjiang and Mongolia. When the region fell entirely under Russian domination, it was greatly impacted by Russian Sovietization, several revolutionary movements such as Alash movement and Jadid movement sprang up, which sought the autonomy and development of Central Asia. Alikhan Bokeikhanov consisted of people who fought for autonomous Kazakhstan, by advocating for Central Asian cultures (Haase 43-46).

Although Soviet Union promoted diversity in Central Asia, the region reverted to their homogenous structures characterized by tribal and kinship heritage. This was a dominant theme throughout Soviet Union’s 70-year rule in the region. Despite this, Central Asian countries reverted to their old ways of homogenization. Most Central Asian states are divided along tribal lines, and promote kinship and clan heritage, such as in Kyrgyzstan, which has been led by Bakiev kinship heritage. Bakiev is a clan from the Southern community (Jin 2-6).

Still, it can be argued that “1979” could have marked the beginning of a new period in Central Asian History, since the region did witness a number of transitions from their past, after they adopted new cultures.

First, the states of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan adopted governments that were suggestive of the Soviet Union. Simply, they preserved the political systems of the Soviet Union.  From 1979, the Central Asian political structures have continued to be ruled by individuals, rather than democratic parliamentary systems. Continued autocratic leadership describes another form of autocratic government, which subsisted for centuries. Stalin and Lenin’s communist dictatorship that dominated the Soviet Union gained acceptance in the Central Asian states. Today, they continue to be practiced in the independent states, with few capitalizing on the democratic or parliamentary systems (Reuveny 695-681). In fact, majority of the leaders in these states have been left over communist leaders who found their way into positions of authority in the newly liberated states. The states have followed the traditional autocracy rule that characterized the states before Soviet colonization. The autocracy rule that was deeply embedded in the Central Asian culture continues to be practiced (Noga 1-3). Before the Soviet domination, Islamic reformism and Pan-Turkism were the two major ideological elements that shaped the political environments between 1914 and 1921. However, because of the strict rule by the Soviet Union, which got rid of autonomous national governments, the Central Asian autocratic leaderships had little control. After the fall of Soviet Union, the states reverted to their old autocratic systems (Ewans 203). Despite this, some countries, such Kyrgyzstan have to a small extent shifted towards principles that characterize liberation democracy, even as the authoritarian governments still dominate as they did in the past (Morozova  10-14). In addition, Central Asian communities have taken authoritarian leadership from the past, which related to the Stalin and Lenin presidency, such as Ghengis Khan, who reflected iron fist rule. Additionally, Kazakhstan, which gained independence in 1991, elected Supreme Soviet leader Nursultan Nazarbayev as president. Despite a bicameral parliament, consisting of Mazilis and Senate, Nazarbayev is considered the supreme head and has the power over the parliament (Haase 44-52).

Conclusion

To a greater extent, the year 1979 did not mark the beginning of a new era in the region’s history. The five states in Central Asian region maintained their earlier trends in place of the foreign cultures that the Soviet Union introduced. Despite the introduction of the Russian Orthodox Church, Central Asian reverted to Islam and Buddhism. In addition, as a reflection of Sovietization, European fine arts such as sculpture, painting and graphics prevailed in Central Asia after 1979. Although Soviet Union promoted diversity in Central Asia, the region reverted to its homogenous structures characterized by tribal and kinship heritage. Central Asian states also continued with their initial Turkic languages. To a small extent, the region did witness a number of transitions from their past after they adopted new cultures. For instance, the five states adopted autocratic governments that were suggestive of the Soviet Union.

Works Cited

Ewans, Martin. Afghanistan: A Short History of its People and Politics. HarperCollins: New York, 2002, p. 203.

Haase, Scott. Central Asia: A Study of History, Society, Culture and its Effects on the Current Political and Economic Ideologies of Today’s Leaders, 2008. 1 April 2014, <http://www.hpu.edu/CHSS/History/GraduateDegree/MADMSTheses/files/HaaseScott_completed_madms_professional_paper_09182009.pdf>

Jin, Lee. Russian/Soviet Central Asia in Political Transition, 1800-1945. Term Paper, AP World History Class, 2012. 1 April 2014 <http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sp/1314/hyejin/lhj2.html>

Noga, Magdalene.”Comparing the Tsarist Russian and Soviet Empires.” International Student Journal 3.12 (2011):1-2

Morozova, Irina. Elites, Reforms and Power Institutions in Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Outer Mongolia in the 1920-1940s: a comparative historical analysis. Conference on Eurasian Empire: Literary, Historical, and Political Responses to Russian Rule in the Twentieth Century October 26-29, 2006

Reuveny, Rafael and Prakash, Aseem. “The Afghanistan war and the breakdown of the Soviet Union.” Review of International Studies 25, (1999): 693–708