From tribes to modern nations : Soviet nation-building in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Abstract

This thesis is a detailed study of state-led nation-building projects in the Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In particular, it explores the degree, forms and ways of the Soviet state involvement in creating Kazakh and Uzbek nations, by placing the discussion within the theoretical literature on nationalism. The main argument of this thesis is that both Kazakh and Uzbek nations are artificial constructs of Moscow-based Soviet policy-makers of the 1920s and 1930s. Although this argument is not new, previous scholarship upholding this perspective neither adequately substantiated it nor did it provide in-depth individual or comparative case studies on how Soviet nation-makers forged these previously non-existent nations. Moreover, in recent years, the view that the process of the formation of Soviet Central Asian nations and their respective republics was entirely the Kremlin's endeavour has come under strong criticism from some revisionist scholars, who on their part have stressed the important role of indigenous Soviet officials in these nation-building projects. This thesis seeks to challenge this dominant revisionist view in current Western scholarship by bringing some new or alternative insights into the subject matter. In addition, the thesis also critically examines post-Soviet official Kazakh and Uzbek historiographies, according to which Kazakh and Uzbek peoples had developed national collective identities and loyalties long before the Soviet era. -- provided by Candidate.