The Establishment of National Republics in Central Asia [Hardcover]

Arne Haugen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403915717 | ISBN-13: 978-1403915719 | Publication Date: January 17, 2004

After almost four centuries of expansion the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century covered vast territories on the Eurasian continent and included an immensely diverse population. How was the new Russian regime to deal with the complexity of its population? This book examines the role of nation and nationality in the Soviet Union and analyzes the establishment of national republics in Soviet Central Asia. It argues that the originally nationally minded Soviet communists with their anti-nationalist attitudes came to view nation and national identity as valuable and constructive tools in state constructions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Arne Haugen is a researched ar the Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies, Bergen, Norway.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (January 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403915717
• ISBN-13: 978-1403915719
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,486,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Corrects a glaring error, September 20, 2011

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Thomas Hale III - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Establishment of National Republics in Central Asia (Hardcover)

The Establishment of National Republics in Central Asia corrects a serious error in Western scholarship about the formation of the Soviet republics. Previous works have reduced the process to simply a "fabrication of nations" (Roy 2007:vii--originally written in 2001). This included the assertion that the history of the nations in question was also fabricated by Soviet historians and ethnographers. While there were certainly instances of just such fabrication, the full story is more complex, and local elites had more to do with the creation of "nations" and republics (or Autonomous Oblasts or ASSR, as the case may be) than has previously been recognized in the West. Haugen's thorough research of the archives of the Central Asian Bureau of the Russian (and later All-Union) Communist Party's Central Committee conclusively demonstrates the role of local elites in the process.
There is one significant omission in this book, namely the 1922 attempt by Kyrgyz leaders to create an autonomous oblast for the Kyrgyz. Given the limitations of Haugen's sources (centralized Soviet records), it is not surprising that this event passed unnoticed by him. It both supports and challenges his thesis: it supports in that it is clear evidence of an attempt by local elites to take initiative in the formation of national entities in Central Asia; it challenges it in that this local attempt was quashed by higher authorities, and when the same authorities decided in 1924 to create a Kyrgyz oblast, they declared that in 1922 the conditions had not been suitable. Even with this omission, Haugen's work stands as a significant contribution, so I still give it four stars.
Haugen's work is important because it will help to bring Western scholarship more in line with the views of local scholars in the former Soviet republics.
Finally, The Establishment of National Republics in Central Asia is well organized, clearly written and pleasant to read.