The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic (International Library of Central Asia Studies) [Hardcover]

Paul Bergne (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1845112830 | ISBN-13: 978-1845112837 | Publication Date: August 7, 2007 | Edition: Carrol & Graf a

A vivid history of the birth of a nation. When the Russian Revolution broke out in October 1917, much of Central Asia was still ruled by autonomous rulers such as the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva. By 1920 the khanates had been transformed into People's Republics, and, in 1924, Stalin re-drew the frontiers on ethno-linguistic lines creating, amongst other statelets, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan - the land of the Uzbeks. But the Uzbeks were not the only significant ethnic group within the new Uzbekistan's frontiers. An older people, the Tajiks, formed a considerable part of the population. This book describes how, often in the teeth of Uzbek opposition, the Tajiks gained, first an autonomous oblast within Uzbekistan, then an autonomous republic, and finally, in 1929, the status of a full Soviet Union Republic. Once the Tajiks had acquired their own republic, they began to acquire a national identity and national pride. The new government had not only to survive the civil war that followed the revolution but then to build an entirely new country in an immensely inhospitable terrain. New frontiers had to be wrested from neighbours, and a new cultural identity, "national in form but socialist in content", had to be created. This book is the first documentation of how the idea of a Tajik state came into being.

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About the Author

Paul Bergne teaches and researches the history and politics of Central Asia at St Antony's College, Oxford. In 2001 he was the personal representative of the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in Afghanistan. Before that he served for nearly forty years as a British diplomat and his last overseas posting was as ambassador to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. He has travelled widely in the South Caucasus and Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, and in Afghanistan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris; Carrol & Graf a edition (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845112830
• ISBN-13: 978-1845112837
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,467,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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