Modern Central Asia: A Primary Source Reader

Description

Modern Central Asia: A Primary Source Reader is an academic resource that discusses the basic political, social, and economic evolution of Central Asian civilization in its colonial (1731-1991) and post-colonial (1991-present) periods. Among other aspects of Central Asian history, this source reader discusses resistance and accommodation of native societies to the policies of the imperial center, the transformation of Central Asian societies under Tsarist and Soviet rule, and the history of Islam in Central Asia and its role in nation and state-building processes. This primary source book will be instrumental for familiarizing students with the nationality policies of imperial Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet governments as well as the effects produced by these policies on the natives of the region. The documents collected in this reader challenge the traditional approach, which has viewed Central Asians as passive recipients of the policies imposed on them by central authorities. Modern Central Asia: A Primary Source Reader demonstrates the active participation of the indigenous peoples in contact with other peoples by examining the natives' ways of organizing societies, their pre-colonial experience of contact with outsiders, and the structure of their subsistence systems. The source book will also help students situate the major events and activities of Central Asia in a global context. In addition to the value of this collection to the Central Asian historical record, many of the included texts will be essential for comparative analyses and cross-disciplinary approaches in the study of world history. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Tsarist Central Asia 1. Precolonial Central Asia: Nomads and People of Oases 2. Russian Policies and Steppe Realities in the Eighteenth Century 3. Speranskii’s Reform and Kenesary Kasymov’s Rebellion 4. Tsarist Policies in Central Asia in the Late Imperial Period 5. Jadidism and Central Asian Nationalism 6. The Central Asian Rebellions of 1898 and 1916 Part II. Soviet Central Asia 7. Revolutions and War Communism in Central Asia 8. Basmachi Movement 9. Soviet Policies toward Islam and Education 10. Women’s Question and Criminalization of Traditions 11. Soviet Nationalities Policies: Nativization, National Delimitation, and Deportation 12. Soviet Economic Policies in Central Asia: Cotton Growing and Collectivization 13. Central Asia under “Developed Socialism” 14. Perestroika and the Rise of Central Asian Nationalism 15. Post-Soviet Central Asia Glossary Bibliography Index