History of Civilizations of Central Asia
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Contents Political history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Economic and social development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 Culture and science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 The earliest inhabitants of Central Asia – the Tajiks and their forebears (the Bactrians, Sogdians and Khwarazmians) – were the founders of the region’s first organized states. But as fate would have it, they had to endure a multitude of trials and tribulations virtually throughout their history. The fall of the Samanid state (ninth–tenth centuries), which they established after the Arab invasion, was a great tragedy for the Tajik people. Thereafter they were deprived of a national state for a thousand years, living under the rule of a variety of foreign states. Political history Only after the triumph of the October revolution in Russia (1917) did conditions ripen for the establishment of a sovereign Tajik state within the framework of the USSR: the Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) (1924), 1 which then became the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (1929). * See Maps 1 and
2 . 1 The ASSRs were viewed not as sovereign states but as self-governing regions, often with specific ethnic affiliations, within a Union Republic. The 15 Union Republics were the major administrative divisions in the USSR, where they were viewed as equal sovereign states, each representing a significant nationality (Russians, Ukrainians, Tajiks, Uzbeks, etc.) and all voluntarily united in the USSR. [Trans.] 282 Contents
Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Political history The establishment of the Turkistan ASSR (1918) as part of the Russian Soviet Fed- erative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) 2 was the first step towards creating Soviet national statehood for the Central Asian peoples. The establishment of the Khwarazm and Bukhara People’s Soviet Republics (1920) 3 showed that the national and territorial dispersion of the peoples was creating difficulties for the consolidation of Soviet power in the region and hampering the peoples’ economic and cultural development. Further, nationalistf deviations and tendencies had already arisen which could only exacerbate national dis- cord and tensions or – worse – enmity. In these circumstances, to divide Central Asia into national states was thought to be the only true solution to the region’s national question. 4 Thus, after the appropriate steps had been taken, a session of the USSR National Execu- tive Committee (NEC) on 27 October 1924 adopted a decision dividing Central Asia into national states. On the basis of this decision, the Tajik ASSR was formed as part of the Uzbek SSR, and a number of regions of Turkistan and Bukhara solidly populated by Tajiks were included in it. Although this act was of great importance for the Tajiks’ destiny, the powerful influence of Pan-Turkism – whose partisans refused to recognize the Tajiks as a nation in their own right – led to a crude and drastic national and territorial segregation. The Tajiks were arti- ficially deprived of their historical cultural centres, which in the Middle Ages had played a decisive role in the region’s civilization. Not a single major city or administrative and cultural centre was included in the Tajik ASSR. A small mountain republic, with just 7 per cent of its total area suitable for cultivation, was set up in the most backward and sparsely populated mountains of the former emirate of Bukhara and the Pamirs. Nonetheless, the establishment of the Tajik ASSR was of huge historical significance for a people deprived of an independent national state since the fall of the Samanids in 999. The Revolutionary Committee was the supreme organ of state power in the republic. People’s Commissariats were set up to lead the different areas of public life. Locally, kishlak (village or settlement) revolutionary committees were active; they remained in existence until early December 1926. As of 12 December, power was handed over to the Central Executive Committee (CEC). In those years there was an upsurge in the political activity among the masses. The ranks of the Communist Party of Tajikistan were swollen: by October 1927 party members num- bered more than 1,147, and the trade unions had more than 5,000 members. The essential conditions were in place for the Tajik ASSR to become the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. 2 The RSFSR was the largest of the 15 Union Republics, embracing European Russia and Siberia. [Trans.] 3 See Istoriya Bukharskoy i Khorezmskoy Narodnoy Sovetskoy Respubliki, 1971 .
Istoriya Bukharskoy i Khorezmskoy Narodnoy Sovetskoy Respubliki , 1971 , pp. 223–4. 283
Contents ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Political history On 16 October 1929 the Third Extraordinary Congress of Soviets of Tajikistan adopted a declaration on the establishment of the Tajik SSR. The congress delegates unanimously declared that the republic voluntarily joined the USSR with full membership rights. 5 Two factors were decisive in the transformation of the Tajik ASSR into a Union Repub- lic. The first was the country’s great success in economic, social and political affairs over the five years since its creation. In that period the Basmachis (Muslim insurgents opposing the introduction of Soviet rule in Central Asia) had been almost completely routed and major successes had been achieved in rebuilding the wrecked economy and in developing culture. The second factor was that, on the basis of a decision by Khujand okrug (adminis- trative division roughly corresponding to a region) soviet to include Khujand okrug (until then part of the Uzbek SSR) in the Tajik ASSR, and a decision by the Third Congress of Soviets of the Uzbek SSR on 10 May 1929 to transfer Khujand okrug to the Tajik repub- lic – as confirmed by the CEC of the soviets of the Uzbek SSR (7 September 1929) and the Tajik ASSR (2 October 1929) – Khujand okrug was included in the Tajik ASSR. In practice, this act of justice sealed the transformation of the Tajik ASSR into the Tajik SSR. At that time, Khujand okrug was economically and culturally more advanced than other parts of Tajikistan. Soviet rule had been installed earlier there, significant socialist change had been brought about and a large working class had been formed, together with a progres- sive intelligentsia and, indeed, the appropriate political leadership, which naturally could not fail to exert a decisive influence on accelerating economic growth and on the solution of social problems and cultural change. For Tajikistan to receive Union Republic status within the USSR was an outstanding event in the history of the Tajik people. Essentially, it signalled the rebirth of Tajik statehood. The uniting of some if not all Tajiks in a single state, a single family, considerably accelerated their development into a nation. After the Tajik SSR was formed, the state apparatus was significantly strengthened. To train the necessary staff, six-monthly courses for Soviet and party activists were held in Stalinabad (now Dushanbe), Khujand, Khorog and some other okrug centres in 1930 and permanent Soviet and party schools were opened. An important part in improving the work of the state apparatus was played by the People’s Commissariat of Worker and Dehq¯an [peasant] Intelligentsia (NKRDI). The departments of this commissariat fought implaca- bly against bureaucracy, condescension to the working masses and mismanagement in the Soviet apparatus. To simplify the administrative system, in July 1930 the CEC of the Sovi- ets of Tajikistan adopted a decree abolishing okrugs in the republic and making the rayon the basic administrative unit, to be led by rayon executive committees directly subordinate to the CEC of the soviets of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. 5 Fanyan, 1940 , pp. 141–3. 284 Contents
Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Political history The establishment of the Tajik SSR was legislatively enshrined in its constitution, adopted on 24 February 1931 at the Fourth Congress of the Republic’s Soviets. The con- stitution specified the political, economic, social and ideological foundation of the new socialist society in the newly established Tajik state, and also the rights and freedoms of the citizen and the individual. In December 1936, with the completion of the transitional period from capitalism to socialism, the Eighth Extraordinary Congress of Soviets of the USSR adopted a new con- stitution of the USSR. In Tajikistan, as in all other republics of the Union, work commenced on preparing and adopting a new constitution. The Sixth Extraordinary Congress of Sovi- ets of Tajikistan adopted the republic’s new constitution on 1 March 1937, in what was an historic event. The new constitution affirmed the political and economic foundations of the Tajik SSR as a new nation-state within the USSR. On the basis of that constitution, exec- utive, legislative and judicial authority was formed. Despite its totalitarian nature and the institution of party dictatorship over the state and society, the constitution played a signifi- cant role in establishing democratic norms and legality and in expanding secular processes in society. The 1978 constitutional reform also played a significant role in the political devel- opment of the Tajik SSR. The constitution of the Tajik SSR, elaborated in the spirit of the 1977 USSR constitution and adopted by the republic’s Supreme Soviet (parliament) on 14 April 1978, encapsulated Tajikistan’s history over the 60 years of Soviet rule and determined the foundations of the political, economic, social, cultural and education sys- tems of Soviet Socialist Tajikistan. Summarizing the experience of the building of social- ism in the republic, it established that the Tajik SSR was a socialist state of the entire people, proceeding in its action on the basis of democratic centralism. The basis of its economic system was socialist ownership of the means of production in the shape of state (national) or cooperative ownership; its social foundation was an inviolable union of workers, peasants and the intelligentsia; the highest body of state authority was the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR and the republic’s Council of Ministers. However, the constitution affirmed that the leading and guiding force in Soviet society, the core of its political system and its state and public organizations, was the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) (Article 6). That meant that the constitution imposed a party and state political system in which the decisive role was played by the party appara- tus, without whose sanction no state or public decision of the slightest importance could be adopted or implemented. Given the single-party state, the non-separation of powers, the lack of pluralism of opinion, and the subordination to the CPSU of all public organizations 285
Contents Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development and structures of power, this article of the constitution opened a highway for the further consolidation of totalitarianism and the imposition of the party leader’s personal rule. But regardless of all that (and perhaps despite what has been said), the 1978 constitution of the Tajik SSR considerably expanded the citizens’ rights, responsibilities and freedoms. It particularly emphasized the equality of all the republic’s citizens, regardless of their ori- gin, social and property status, language, religious and racial affiliation, gender and so on. The new constitution established – alongside freedom of speech, the press, conscience and religion – that each citizen had the right to work, leisure, health care, material provision for old age and during unemployment, disability or loss of the breadwinner, the right to accommodation, to avail oneself of cultural achievements, freedom of scientific, techno- logical and literary creativity, to participate in the running of the state, etc. On that basis, it may be said that despite the generally totalitarian nature of its political system, the Tajik SSR had achieved considerable success in proclaiming the democratic principles of public life.
Economic and social development Formed in eastern Bukhara, Tajikistan inherited an extremely backward economy. The mere fact that in 1924–5 the area under crops (not including Khujand okrug) was 46.12 per cent of the 1914 level, the wheat harvest 51.8 per cent, the cotton harvest 50.2 per cent and the numbers of livestock 51.1 per cent is indicative of the reborn country’s colossal backwardness. The government took a number of priority steps aimed at stimulating the country’s economic development: it exempted the population of former eastern Bukhara and the Pamirs from agricultural taxes for two years (1925–7) and from interest on loans issued by it in 1924–5; it organized the return of civil war refugees to their homes; it carried out preparatory work for moving some inhabitants from the mountains to the lowlands; it allocated large sums to setting up irrigation installations, etc. This action helped to bring about a rapid upturn in the country’s economy. In 1924–9 the first large-scale industrial enterprises were built. Specifically, in 1926–8 cotton-cleaning mills were built in Jillikul, Kurgan-tepe, Kulab, Shahrtuz, Farhar, Khujand, Sarai-Kamar, Regar and Dushanbe. Craft industries were stimulated. The republic was preparing for major industrialization. Unlike the rest of the USSR, where priority was given to heavy industry, Tajikistan’s socio-economic situation and its weak technical base gave industrialization certain specific features. Here the establishment of light industry was considered the key. Thanks to a grant from the Union Government, 82,900,000 roubles 6 6 Sharipov, 1960
, p. 20. 286
Contents Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development were allocated to industrial construction in the republic during the first five-year plan. Specialists from the fraternal republics 7 of the Union were sent to Tajikistan. With this support, 17 large-scale industrial enterprises were built in the republic in 1928–32. 8 Existing fuel industry enterprises were reconstructed, resulting in a significant increase in oil and coal extraction. 9 A poly-metallic ore-processing industry came into being. Build- ing work started on the first metal-working enterprises, the hydroelectric station on the Varzab, and the Shurabad, Panjikent and other power stations. A printing industry was successfully established and developed. In 1931 the construction of a press centre was started in Dushanbe and eight regional printing presses were established. Tajikistan’s nat- ural resources were studied intensively. An expedition to the Pamir mountains by the USSR Academy of Sciences discovered a number of new deposits of various minerals. New railways were laid during the five-year-plan period. In early 1930 the Termez–Dushanbe railway was extended to Yangi-Bazar (now Vakhdat). Considerable progress was made in building railways and roads and developing communications. 10 All this led to the intensive training of local young people as workers through the fac- tory apprenticeship (FZU) and factory educational schools (FZO) systems. A special role in this training was played by workers and specialists from Russia and other more advanced regions of the USSR. For example, in 1931 the Moscow ‘Stroiob’edineniye’ 11 Trust trained 47 building materials production specialists, textile factories trained 109 spinners and weavers, and engineering factories trained 40 fitters, turners and foundry workers. 12 Dur-
ing the first five-year plan the number of industrial workers in Tajikistan rose to 5,600, and the number of workers in construction companies also rose. One requirement for the socialist reconstruction of the economy was the collectivization of agriculture. Because of Tajikistan’s economic backwardness and the preservation of feu- dal patriarchal and tribal relationships, collectivization fell well behind the more advanced republics and proceeded slowly. In the enforced collectivization, significant oversights and crude mistakes were permitted, resulting in excessive administrative meddling in the col- lectivization process and an ill-considered policy of destroying the kulaks (rich peasant farmers). 13 7 Meaning the other Union Republics such as Russia or Uzbekistan. [Trans.] 8
, 1965
, Vol. 3, Book 1, p. 244. 9
., 1957
p. 22. 10
, 1964
, Vol. 1, Book 1, pp. 227–8. 11 Abbreviated Russian term meaning construction association. [Trans.] 12 Istoriya Tajikskogo naroda , 1964 , Vol. 1, Book 1, p. 230. 13 Throughout the USSR the Russian word kulak – literally a fist – was the term given to richer peasant farmers who were considered to exploit poorer peasants and to oppose collectivization. [Trans.] 287
Contents Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development While just 14 collective farms had been organized in the republic in 1928, by 1932 their number had risen to 1,848 14 and included 41.9 per cent of all dehq¯an farms. In total, 65.3 per cent of the sown area belonged to collective farms. 15 For cotton-growing districts that figure stood at 70.2 per cent. The construction of state farms also gathered pace. From 1929 to 1932 the number of state farms in the republic rose from 5 to 26. 16 Collectivization also called for the technical re-equipping of agriculture and the exten- sive use of machinery in working the land. Starting in 1930, machinery and tractor stations (MTS) were set up: by the end of 1932 there were 18 of them, with a total fleet of 1,085 tractors and other farm machines. In general, collectivization strengthened the economic foundations of Soviet rule in the countryside. In this way, the foundations were laid for Tajikistan’s further political, socio-economic and cultural development. Between 1933 and 1937 the volume of capital investment in the economy almost dou- bled in comparison with the previous period. Investments were distributed as follows: 32 per cent to agriculture, over 25 per cent to industry, 19 per cent on building schools, hospitals, communal enterprises and housing, and 16 per cent on building roads and pur- chasing transport. Spending almost quadrupled on education and doubled on industry. 17 Analysing the geographical distribution of industry, it can readily be observed that the first major industrial enterprises began to be built in the republic’s capital, Dushanbe (renamed Stalinabad in 1929 and given back its name of Dushanbe in 1961). Consequently, by the start of the Great Patriotic War (1941–5) 18 Stalinabad had become a major indus- trial centre, with 44 per cent of industrial enterprises concentrated in it and the surrounding area. Of the remaining volume of industrial output, in 1942, 32 per cent was produced in Leninabad oblast’ (province), 19 14 per cent in the Vakhsh valley and 6 per cent in Kulab oblast’ . In 1949 the industry of Garm oblast’ amounted to some 2.5 per cent of the repub- lic’s total industry, while that of mountainous Badakhshan (Badakhshan-i Kuhi in Tajik, Gorny Badakhshan in Russian) oblast’ amounted to some 1.5 per cent. This imbalance in the geographical distribution of industry was probably initially caused by the need to make use of the most convenient opportunities for developing it quickly (taking account of the proximity to the main railway, the availability of a workforce, the adequacy of raw material resources, etc.). It was then entrenched by the chronic economic 14 Yakhyayev, 1956 , Vol. 15, Issue 2, p. 34. 15
., 1939 , p. 189. 16
, 21 Aug. 1933
. 17
, 1949
, p. 15. 18 The Great Patriotic War is the Russian and Soviet term for those parts of the Second World War in which the USSR was directly engaged to liberate its territory and help to overthrow Nazi Germany. [Trans.] 19 The oblast’, or province, was the basic administrative unit into which the Union Republics were divided. [Trans.] 288
Contents Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development and social backwardness of the mountain regions. This very lack of balance in the coun- try’s economic development and the distribution of industry became one of the causes of the political crisis in the republic in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The increasing tempo of the republic’s industrial development before the war is evi- denced by the fact that while the average annual increment in the volume of industrial output prior to Tajikistan’s transformation into a Union Republic was 360,000 roubles, in the following 11 years – up to 1940 – it amounted to 26.3 million roubles. 20 This rapid rate of development could be seen in all branches of industry and agriculture. This is confirmed by the results 21 achieved: under Soviet rule and until 1940, 8 cotton- cleaning plants were built and 1 was reconstructed. On that foundation, cotton fibre output rose more than 13.5-fold (1,250 per cent) from 1928, and in comparison with the pre- revolutionary period it rose 97-fold (9,600 per cent). Labour productivity over the same period rose more than 10-fold (900 per cent). In 1940, as compared with 1933, as the first state enterprises came fully on line, the silk-processing industry increased its overall volume of output almost 5-fold (400 per cent), output of raw cotton 3.8-fold (280 per cent) and output of silk fabrics almost 12-fold (1,100 per cent), while labour productivity rose 2.6-fold (160 per cent). Coal production rose almost 16-fold (1,500 per cent), oil production 2.8-fold (180 per cent), and in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period those indicators rose 41-fold (4,000 per cent) and 3.6-fold (260 per cent) respectively. In comparison with 1913, the building materials industry’s output rose 5.5-fold (450 per cent) in 1940. In that period a large number of non-ferrous and precious metal deposits were discovered, ore extraction commenced and the construction of mines and processing plants was started. Prior to the revolution, there was no light industry other than an embryonic textile production: by 1933 several enterprises had been built (two sewing factories, a leather works and a footwear factory in Stalinabad, a knitwear factory and a footwear factory in Leninabad, etc.) and by 1940 their number had tripled. The gross output of the food industry, including the meat and dairy branch, expressed in value terms, rose more than 940-fold (93,900 per cent) from 1927 to 1940. Production of confectionery products rose 81.5-fold (8,050 per cent) from 1933 to 1940, and that of wines rose 375.5-fold (37,450 per cent). Available data suggest that in pre-revolutionary Tajikistan the overall numbers of craft workers were no higher than 9,000. Under Soviet rule they came together into a cooperative system which increased almost 50-fold (4,900 per cent) between 1928 and 20
, 1949 , p. 22. 21 Facts cited according to State Planning Committee data. See ibid., pp. 24 et seq. 289 Contents
Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development 1940. Its share of the overall volume of industrial production stood at 9.6 per cent. Craft cooperatives employed 18.8 per cent of the total number of industrial workers. Together with these indicators of industrial development came a growth in the numbers of the working class: from 1928 to 1940 alone the number of workers rose 64-fold (6,300 per cent). Twenty-seven per cent of the total were managerial staff, and they included women. Young people from the local ethnic groups learned complex worker professions with great enthusiasm. The socialist restructuring of agriculture in the republic was complete by 1940, by when there were 3,093 collective farms (bringing together 195,800 farms). In 1940 the basic assets of the machinery and tractor stations had risen 4.5-fold (350 per cent). The numbers of industrial staff in agriculture also rose. Particular attention was paid to building irrigation installations. By late 1939 the republic’s irrigation network comprised some 4,000 km of main canals and 1,200 km of distribution network. The number of structures in the irrigation system exceeded 4,000. The change to these new ways of farming ensured a constant increase in animal farming. Similar success was to be observed in the development of silk farming, fruit- and wine-growing, plant-growing and other sectors. Industrialization led to a large increase in the urban population. Together with the cap- ital, Dushanbe, cities such as Leninabad, Kurgan-tepe, Kulab, Kanibadam, Ura-tepe and Khorog also grew and developed. Great success was achieved in developing transport, roads and communications. Until Soviet rule was established, Tajikistan had not a single kilometre of railway outside Leninabad oblast’. In 1929 the first train reached Dushanbe station. A year later the railway was extended to Yangi-Bazar station (Orjonikidzeabad – now Vakhdat). By 1936 the overall length of the broad-gauge railway network in Tajik- istan was 253 km. Construction of narrow-gauge railways for internal use also developed: by 1941 the overall length of the narrow-gauge railway network was 314 km. 22 Prior to 1926 Tajikistan, except in its northern districts, had no transport roads other than pack-animal tracks. By the start of 1928 it had 1,644 km of motor roads, and by 1933 the overall length was 4,004 km, of which 182 km were surfaced. In 1935 traffic opened on the Stalinabad–Ura-tepe road. In 1937 the building of the Pamir road was completed, with the help of 24,000 collective farm workers who executed a total volume of 5 million m 3
km long. In 1929 only 29 goods vehicles were in use in the republic (there were no pas- senger cars). By the start of 1941 the republic already had thousands of vehicles which carried both goods and passengers. Large vehicle factories had sprung up and staff had 22 The broad-gauge (1.5 m as distinct from the standard 1.435 m) track was adopted by the Russian imperial railway system and later used for inter-Republic rail communication throughout the USSR. [Trans.] 290
Contents Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development been trained. Communications also grew at a rapid pace. By 1940 there were 259 commu- nication enterprises and several thousand radio-relay points and inter-urban telephone and telegraph communications serving the needs of the population. But this peaceful creative work by the people of Tajikistan – like that of the other peo- ples of the Soviet Union – was interrupted by the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in 1941. And yet the republic’s economic development did not stop. During the war 20 new enterprises and workshops came on line. Industry employed 42,400 blue- and white-collar workers and the volume of production rose by all indicators. 23 During this period the sown area increased by 16,400 ha. In view of the need for food at the front, the area sown to cereal crops was increased at the expense of cotton. More than 2.2 million poods (1 pood = 16.38 kg) of meat were handed over to the state, and 151 railway wagonloads of food products were sent off to help meet the needs of the front. More than 75 million roubles and 40,750 poods of grain were collected for the defence fund. More than 84 million roubles came in to build the ‘Tajikistan Collective Farmer’ tank column, 35,200,000 roubles to build the ‘Soviet Tajikistan’ squadron, and so on. During the war the republic’s working people purchased state loan bonds to the tune of 584 million roubles and lottery tickets worth a total of 130 million roubles. 24 Although Tajikistan was far from the front line, the war caused its economy a tangible loss. The building of some facilities was curtailed, the area sown to cotton was reduced and its yield dropped, while some irrigation structures fell into disrepair. These tasks had to be resolved in a very short period. In the course of the five-year plan for the reconstruction of the economy (1945–50), all these tasks were resolved ahead of target. The level of industrial production exceeded the pre-war level by 1.5-fold (50 per cent). The area sown to cotton rose by 31 per cent and the gross yield 3.3-fold (230 per cent). Very good results were achieved in animal farming. In 1950, as compared with 1940, the yield of cereal crops had risen by 38 per cent and the gross harvest by 34 per cent. 25 All this led to a growth in the people’s welfare. In 1947 the rationing system was ended. In 1948–50 prices for foodstuffs and industrial goods were reduced three times. Social security for the working people was improved. But Tajikistan achieved its greatest economic development in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, around 200 modern enterprises and workshops were built and brought into service, including the Golovnaya hydroelectric station, new phases of the Dushanbe heat and power station, a cement and slate combine and a meat combine in Leninabad, an oil 23 Sechkina, 1984 , pp. 120–1. 24 Ibid., p. 122. 25 Sultanov and Akhmedov, 1984 , p. 123. 291 Contents
Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development extraction factory and a canning factory in Kurgan-tepe and many others. This is when con- struction of the Nurek hydro-power station, that giant of the power industry, the Vakhsh nitrogenous fertilizer factory, the Regar aluminium works and other such facilities was started. New industries – mechanical engineering and electrical engineering – were founded. From a strictly importing republic, Tajikistan started to become an exporting republic, with its industrial products being exported to more than 35 countries. The material and technical infrastructure of agriculture strengthened considerably dur- ing those years. Electricity consumption increased more than 9-fold (800 per cent), from 69.5 million kWh in 1958 to 643.9 million kWh in 1965. From 1959 to 1970, 200,000 ha of irrigated land were brought into service. 26 The establishment in 1971–5 of the South Tajik Regional Production Complex, which in its scale and importance was an All-Union project, 27 was an important milestone in the republic’s economic development. It had a radical influence on the infrastructure of the entire Central Asian region. In the 1970s and 1980s the complex, which included more than one third of Tajikistan’s territory and a population of 2.6 million people, accounted for two-thirds of the republic’s entire economic product. As part of the complex, 150 new industrial enterprises were built. Its kernel was the Nurek hydro-power station, the start-up of which increased electricity output several times over. Despite all these successes, even by the start of the 1980s a clear trend towards stagna- tion had set in both in the USSR as a whole and in Tajikistan in particular. For instance, during the eleventh five-year-plan period (1981–5), 25 per cent of the basic assets remained uncommissioned, and this had a detrimental effect on output growth rates. Almost one enterprise in seven failed to fulfil its plan for output volume and product marketing. As a result, labour productivity growth rates fell by two-thirds in comparison with the eighth five-year plan. Incremental national income was obtained only by increasing the workforce – i.e. without any element of intensification. 28 In the 1960s and 1970s much attention was paid to the development of agriculture. Gradually, the technical equipment of agricultural production was raised to the same level as industry. Collective and state farms were essentially turned into agro-enterprises with advanced industrial standards and production skills. A good deal of attention was given to bringing new lands into use through mechanical irrigation. In 1970, 109,200 ha of farm- land were irrigated in this way, whereas 218,700 ha were mechanically irrigated in 1985. The supply of electricity to rural areas was increased at a rapid pace. This was helped 26 Marsakov, 1984 , p. 127. 27 In other words, a project recognized by the Soviet authorities as important to the whole of the USSR rather than just to Tajikistan or Central Asia. [Trans.] 28 Khaidarov, n.d. , pp. 288–9. 292 Contents
Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Economic and social development by increased electricity production, which rose by 12 billion kWh between 1965 and 1980.
29 By the late 1980s more than 33,000 tractors, over 4,000 cotton-harvesters and many other machines were employed in Tajikistan’s agriculture. As well as successes there were shortcomings, however. They appeared in the failure to secure a rapid increase of capacity through technical re-equipment of enterprises, in irrational use of equipment, in the long replacement cycle of the engineering machine-tool stock, in the inefficient use of transport rolling stock and in the poor quality of the training given to skilled workers. These inadequacies were to be seen to a greater degree in the agrarian sector, where production was mainly developed extensively – i.e. chiefly by bringing new lands into use and establishing new agricultural enterprises. Many upland farms remained unprofitable. But all these inadequacies appeared insignificant against the background of the grandiose achievements discussed above: they were not taken into account and were not dealt with. As a result, they piled up and were the cause of stagnation in all spheres of the Soviet system. The economy was chiefly developed extensively, and a fall in labour productivity was to be seen. National income fell year on year (for instance, while it rose 50 per cent in the 1960s, in the first half of the 1970s it rose 17 per cent, in the second half of the 1970s it rose 5 per cent, and in 1981–5 it rose 3 per cent), lagging behind population growth. These trends were seen in the economic development of all republics in the USSR. In Tajikistan, for example, gross social product in 1988–9 stood at 98.9 per cent, national income at 97 per cent, agricultural output at 89 per cent, labour productivity at 94.9 per cent, etc. 30 This is also noticeable in the average yearly growth rates for the basic socio- economic development indicators of the Tajik SSR. For instance, while the growth rate of the gross social product was 5 per cent in 1976–80 and 3.1 per cent in 1981–5, it was only 2.5 per cent in 1986–9. A fall in indicator level could also be seen in produced national income, in the basic production assets of all sectors of the economy, in industrial and agricultural output, in real per capita income, etc. 31 The mere fact that by the end of the 1980s almost 40 million of the USSR’s population were below the poverty line speaks volumes not just about the ineffectiveness of perestroika (restructuring), but also about a profound crisis within the Soviet system. 29 Khaidarov, n.d. , pp. 290–1. 30
., 1991 , p. 6. 31 Ibid., pp. 7–8. 293 Contents
Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Culture and science Culture and science During Soviet rule, Tajikistan took energetic steps to lay the foundations of socialist cul- ture. The republic started with the creation of a new education system and the eradication of illiteracy. As a result of setting up the new type of schools, by 1926 the population of the Tajik SSR had achieved a 20 per cent literacy rate. In the 1927/8 school year, 328 primary schools, 4 seven-year schools, 3 secondary schools and 9 boarding schools were already operating in the republic, with 14,000 children studying there. There was also an exten- sive network of adult literacy schools. In the 1928/9 school year, there were 318 literacy schools, teaching 9,400 people, including 100 women. During the 1930s an extensive net- work of schools and higher education establishments was set up, and secondary and higher teacher education was also developed. In 1940 teaching staff were trained at 2 teacher- training institutes, 3 teacher institutes and 11 teacher-training colleges. The opening of the Tajik State University in 1948 and the development of a network of higher education establishments marked a significant development in the country’s cultural life. From the 1960s to the 1980s, as many as 60,000 students were educated at the country’s dozens of modern higher education establishments. From the 1920s to the 1980s, a solid foundation was laid in Tajikistan for the establish- ment and development of science. The forebear of the republic’s scientific establishments was considered to be the Society for the Study of Tajikistan and the Iranian Ethnic Groups outside its Borders (1925). A decisive role in its establishment was played by the famous Russian orientalists V. V. Bartol’d, A. A. Semyonov, M. S. Andreev, N. L. Korzhenevsky, et al. Such world-famous academics as A. E. Fersman, D. I. Shcherbakov, V. M. Vernad- sky, E. N. Pavlovsky, B. N. Nasledov, B. A. Fedchenko, N. P. Gorbunov and others, sent to Tajikistan at the initiative of the USSR Academy of Sciences, not only did much work in their own specialist research fields but went out of their way to attract young local nationals into scientific careers. The establishment in March 1932 of the Tajik base of the USSR Academy of Sciences (led by Academician S. F. Oldenburg) was a hugely impor- tant event in the history of science in the republic. It brought together the 14 established research establishments into a single centre. The Tajik base made an inestimable contribu- tion to the establishment and further development of science and shaped its priority lines of orientation. In 1934 a history, language and literature section was set up in the Tajik base of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in 1941, when the base was reorganized as the Tajik branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the section became the Institute of History, Lan- guage and Literature. In 1937 a geology section was organized, which in 1941 became the 294
Contents Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Independence Geology Institute. In 1951 the Tajik branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences became the Academy of Sciences of the Tajik SSR. From the 1950s to the 1980s, its 20 institutes car- ried out research into contemporary problems of physics, mathematics, technology, chem- istry, geology, biology, medicine, philosophy, economics, sociology, the humanities and philology. Together
with academic
science, Soviet
Tajikistan gave
particular encouragement to the development of science in higher education institutes and agencies. Extensive agricultural research was carried out by the Tajik Agricultural Academy. As science and scientific establishments grew in Tajikistan, so did a pleiad of highly qualified academics. By the mid-1980s, 5,000 candidates and doctors of science in a range of specialist subjects were at work in the country’s research establishments. The birth and development of Tajik Soviet literature, of which Sadriddin Aini was the originator, must be viewed as a major cultural achievement. Aini produced the first works in genres such as the short story and the novel, which were new to Tajik literature. His
, Slaves and Reminiscences played a decisive role in establishing the genre in Tajik literature. Tajik socialist realism was well developed in the works of A. Lahuti, Jalal Ikromi, Hakim Karim, Rahim Jalil, Tursunzoda, Mirshakar, Ulughzoda, Foteh Niyozi and others. The works of all these authors and poets have great artistic merit but suffer from a heavy dose of ‘political commitment’. A new phase in the development of Tajik Soviet literature is linked with the names of Mu’min Qana’at, Loiq Sherali, Gulrukhsor and others who entered the literary scene in the 1960s. A particular feature of their creative works is a marked retreat from political commitment. As well as science and literature, extensive encouragement was given in Soviet Tajikistan to architecture, art, theatre, radio and television broadcasting, the press, health care, physical culture and sport. Independence Despite the fact that the Soviet Republics were considered as sovereign and independent within the USSR, they nonetheless acquired genuine independence only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tajikistan declared independence on 9 September 1991 and formed the Republic of Tajikistan. That independence was, however, threatened by the civil war of 1992–7, as a result of which the country found itself on the brink of a national catastrophe – the loss of its statehood and the complete ruin of its economy and its political and cultural life. Peace and national accord negotiations between the Government of Tajikistan and the United Tajik opposition started in 1993 and ended on 27 June 1997 with the signing of a joint protocol on the principles for establishing peace in Tajikistan. The long-awaited 295 Contents
Copyrights ISBN 92-3-103985-7 Independence peace was achieved thanks to the efforts of Tajikistan’s government, the goodwill of the opposition and the support of the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and friendly countries. These authoritative organizations recom- mended the inter-Tajik peace-building experience as a model for solving similar conflicts in other countries. The 1992–7 civil war caused major damage to Tajikistan’s economy. The country slid back on all economic indicators to the level of the 1950s, as the result of a massive flight of specialists from the economy and the stoppage of factories, plants and other industrial and agricultural enterprises. The people’s welfare also fell sharply: up to 85 per cent of the population were below the poverty line, which indicates the profound economic and social crisis that had gripped Tajikistan. The crisis in the economy and society inevitably had a negative influence on the state of science, education, the arts, health care, physical culture and sport. The funding of these activities fell sharply, their staffing and equipment were reduced and their established way of functioning was destroyed. The solution was thought to be not only to end the civil war as soon as possible, but also to transform radically the entire previous social system. Consequently, especially after national peace had been achieved, a policy was adopted of building up civil society. As part of that strategic policy, state property was privatized on both the small and the large scale, and the systems of education, science and health care were reorganized in line with international standards. All these measures were designed to take Tajikistan out of its systemic crisis and to ensure its stable and durable development within the next decade. 296
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