A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Soviet Central Asia 231
in Central Asia because of the Islamic institution of waqf (pious endowment),
was confiscated, and its institutions – mosques, madrasas, khangahs
– were closed, again except for the token cases of the
aforementioned Baraq Khan madrasa in Tashkent and Mir Arab
madrasa in Bukhara besides a scattering of mosques.Women were given
equal rights and opportunity of education and employment, and the
natives were not only welcomed but actively recruited to participate in
the political and administrative process.The separation of Russians and
natives, rulers and ruled, characteristic of the Tsarist and revolutionary
eras, gave way to a theoretical equality tempered by a carefully monitored
deference to the role played by the “Big Brother.”
One of the characteristic results of Russian rule – Tsarist but especially
Soviet – was population growth and urbanization.This was due
partly to the law and order installed by the colonial power which presented
a sharp contrast to the endemic warfare that used to plague the
area; and to the introduction of modern medicine, however rudimentary
it may have been (and remained) if judged by modern Western standards.Accurate
figures with vital statistics prior to the Soviet period are
lacking or of only limited use; before the conquest, censuses in the
modern sense did not exist, and before the Soviet period, the administrative
boundaries within Central Asia were too different from the
present ones to allow accurate comparison.This changed with the
National Delimitation of 1924.The first comprehensive census was
taken in 1926 and was repeated in 1939, 1959, 1979, and 1989.In 1926,
the total population was 13,671,000 souls; in 1989, it was 49,119,267.
Some of this increase was due to the aforementioned influx of immigrants
from other parts of the empire, chiefly from Russia and Ukraine,
which reached massive proportions in Kazakhstan and to some extent
also in Kyrgyzstan, and in administrative and industrial centers like
Tashkent, Almaty, and Bishkek.The main reason for the growth has
been, however, the high birthrate of the native population.Until
recently, this phenomenon was viewed as a positive element in the development
of Central Asia and was encouraged by the Soviet government.
These measures, goals, and accomplishments were based, however,
on principles and methods which beyond certain limits undermined the
system’s positive achievements and ultimate justification.The total
power enjoyed by the Communist elite created a new bureaucratic aristocracy
in the supposedly classless society, a paradox underlined by the
contradictory claim that Soviet rule was a rule of the working class.The
interests of the workers never lost a place of importance in the policies