Strategies of Sovietization in Central Asia

The book examines three cases of
sovietization as realized in Central Asia in the second half
of the 1920s. Showing how Moscow intended to transform the
region along the lines of Soviet ideology, the cases - which
draw extensively from previously unpublished archival
sources - represent the delicate intersection of soft- and
hard-line policies and bureaucratic control. Women, as a
surrogate of the proletariat and as communicators between
the population and the establishment, are the central
subjects that tie the three cases together. The discussion
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent breaks new ground in
highlighting the interconnections between a supposedly
neutral organization and party-state and Red Army
institutions. The treatment of gender policy, with
particular emphasis on the hujum, illustrates the reactions
among the indigenous population and the counter-reactions of
the establishment through the first stage of purges, leading
both chronologically and conceptually to an analysis of the
under-studied general purges of 1929-1930. The book
contributes mainly to Soviet, nationalities, colonial,
subaltern, gender, and public health studies, as well as the
history of medicine.