National-territorial Delimitation in Central Asia in 1924: Causes and Influence on Ethnopolitical Processes in the Region

Abstract

The national policy of the Bolsheviks in the 1920s was characterized by a high degree of conjuncture, subordination of its principles to the tasks of Soviet power formation. In the context of the civil war and the struggle for power, the national territories creation in the form of Soviet Autonomous republics and regions within the RSFSR, along with the support of national languages, political elites and culture, was considered by the leadership of the RCP(b) as an effective political mechanism for solving the problems of strengthening Soviet power in national areas. However, the proclamation of the Turkestan ASSR in May 1918 did not lead to the neutralization of the national issue in the region as the Bolsheviks expected. Political motives for strengthening Soviet power in Central Asia, combined with a low level of national consciousness and political activity of the indigenous population, allowed Moscow to hold a new stage of national division. National-territorial delimitation in Central Asia in 1924 is an example of recoding the process of national self — determination and subsequent registration of national identity from the Turkic national project, perceived as a threat to Soviet power, on existing in the region other levels of national identity.