Canals, cotton, and the limits of de-colonization in Soviet Uzbekistan, 1924–1941

Abstract

Why were cotton monoculture and megalomaniac irrigation projects the outcome of the Soviet modernization policies in Uzbekistan? How were economic development and nationality policy related? Which results did policy implementation produce on the ground and within the Uzbek ruling elite? The article argues that these questions can be seen in a new light when interpreting the early Soviet policies in Central Asia as de-colonization. In the Bolshevik view, national ‘liberation’ and economic ‘modernization’ were at the heart of a process to mitigate the consequences of ‘imperialism’ and ‘colonialism’ in the region. On the basis of archival evidence, the article demonstrates how de-colonization worked in Uzbekistan's irrigation sector which brought together conflicting visions of nationality policy and economic development. Limits quickly became visible as central interference, collectivization, and continuous state violence obstructed the original agenda of de-colonization.

Research for this paper was made possible by financial support of Volkswagenstiftung (Hannover), Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (Bonn), and The Hoover Institution and Archives (Stanford). The author received many insightful comments from Adrienne Edgar (University of California, Santa Barbara) and the other participants in the 2006 AAASS panel discussion entitled ‘Interwar Economic Development in Central Asia’. Thanks are due to all the readers of earlier versions of this paper for their suggestions and encouragement. Especially, the author is indebted to Julia Obertreis (Freiburg University), Igor Narskii (Cheliabinsk State University), Stephan Malinowski (Free University Berlin), Marianne Kamp (University of Wyoming), Klaus Gestwa (Tübingen University) and the anonymous reviewer of this journal. Particular thanks are due to Benjamin H. Loring (Brandeis University).

Notes

1. Vladimir I. Lenin, ‘Doklad komissii Kominterna po natsional'nomu i kolonial'nomu voprosam’, 26.07.1920', Pol'noe sobranie socheninii, Vol 41, 1963, pp 241–247.

2. Iosas Vareikis and Isaak Zelenskii, Natsional'no-territorial'noe razmezhevanie Srednei Azii (Tashkent: Sredne-Aziatskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1924), p 15.

3. ‘Vareikis to Stalin, 27.03.1924’, in TsK RKP(b)-VKP(b) i natsional'nyi vopros, Vol 1, 1918–1933 gg. (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2005), pp 189–190.

4. Vladimir Genis, ‘S Bukharoi nado konchat’ …': K istorii butaforskikh revoliutsii (Moscow: MNPI, 2001); B. A. Koshchanov and M. S. Seitnazarov, Revoliutsiia? Vtorzhenie? Sobytiia v khivinskom khanstve (1919–1920 gg.) (Nukus: Bilim, 1997).

5. Vladimir Genis, ‘Deportatsiia russkikh iz Turkestana v 1921 godu (“Delo Safarova”)’, Voprosy istorii, 1998, No 1, pp 44–58. For an analogous example of singling out a national group viewed by the Bolsheviks as supporters of the Old regime order see Peter Holquist, ‘“Conduct merciless mass terror”: decossakization on the Don, 1919’, Cahiers du monde russe, Vol 28, No 1–2, 1997, pp 127–162.

6. Stalin made these remarks in a secret speech on 12 June 1923. See Tainy natsional'noi politiki TsK RKP: Stenograficheskii otchet sekretnogo IV soveshchaniia TsK RKP, 1923 g. (Moscow: INSAN, 1992), pp 260–261.

7. Alexandre Bennigsen, ‘Colonization and decolonization in the Soviet Union’, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol 4, No 1, 1969, pp 141–151.

8. A better understanding of this group is greatly obstructed by the dearth of biographical data as a result of restricted archival access and nonexistent biographical encyclopaedias across Central Asia, but with the exception of Kazakhstan. See e.g. Narkomy Kazakhstana 1920–1946 gg.: Biograficheskii spravochnik (Almaty: Arys, 2007). The latest Uzbek publication in this field was Revoliutsiei prizvannye: Biograficheskie ocherki, Vol 1–2 (Tashkent: Uzbekistan, 1987–1991). One of the few biographical studies of an Uzbek official remains Roger Kangas, ‘Faizulla Khodzhaev: national communism in Bukhara and Soviet Uzbekistan, 1896–1938’, PhD dissertation, Indiana University, 1992.

9. Edward Shils, ‘On the comparative study of the new states’, in Clifford Geertz (ed.), Old Societies and New States: The Quest for Modernity in Asia and Africa (London: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1963), pp 1–26, esp. pp 2–3.

10. ‘Doklad OGPU v CK VKP(b) o politicheskikh nastroeniiakh v Uzbekistane, 31.05.1928’, in TsK RKP(b)-VKP(b) i natsional'nyi vopros, op cit, Ref 3, pp 574–592.

11. Jörg Baberowski, Der Feind ist überall: Stalinismus im Kaukasus (München: DVA, 2003), pp 184–214.

12. Douglas Northrop, Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004), pp 102–138, 209–241.

13. Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp 31–74, 125–181.

14. For a recent discussion on Soviet modernization see David L. Hoffmann, ‘Was there a “great retreat” from Soviet socialism?’ vs Evgeny Dobrenko, ‘Socialism as will and representation, or what legacy are we rejecting?’, both in Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Vol 5, No 4, 2004, pp 651–674 and pp 675–708 respectively. A general analysis of the modernization debate is provided by Michael David-Fox, ‘Multiple modernities vs. neo-traditionalism: on recent debates in Russian and Soviet history’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Vol 54, No 4, 2006, pp 535–555. For the discussion in Germany see Jörg Baberowski (ed.), Moderne Zeiten? Krieg, Revolution und Gewalt im 20. Jahrhundert (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006) vs Stefan Plaggenborg, Experiment Moderne: Der sowjetische Weg (Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2006). For the ambivalences of discussing ‘modernization’ and ‘post-colonialism’ in the Soviet context, see Deniz Kandiyoti, ‘Post-colonialism compared: potentials and limitations in the Middle East and Central Asia’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol 34, No 2, 2002, pp 279–297, especially pp 286–289.

15. Georgii Safarov, Kolonial'naia revoliutsiia: Opyt Turkestana (Moscow: Gosizdat RSFSR, 1921), p 9.

16. James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), pp 4–6.

17. See e.g. ‘Sovershenno sekretno.’ Lubianka—Stalinu o polozhenii v strane (1922–1934 gg.), Vol 7, 1929 (Moscow: IRI RAN, 2004), pp 475, 519–520, 556–557.

18. On irrigation management in the post-World War II era see Julia Obertreis, ‘Infrastrukturen im Sozialismus: Das Beispiel der Bewässerungssysteme in Zentralasien’, Saeculum: Jahrbuch für Universalgeschichte, Vol 58, No 1, 2007, pp 151–182, and Klaus Gestwa, Die ‘Stalinschen Großbauten des Kommunismus’: Technik- und Umweltgeschichte der Sowjetunion, 1948–1967 (Habilitationsschrift Tübingen University, 2007).

19. A detailed description of the different irrigation techniques used along the 2500 kilometres of the Amu Daria river provides V. V. Tsinzerling, Oroshenie na Amu-Dar'e (Moscow: Izdanie Upravleniia Vodnogo Khoziaistva Srednei Azii, 1927), pp 85–224.

20. Anthony J. Heywood, ‘War destruction and remedial work in the early Soviet economy: myth and reality on the railroads’, Russian Review, Vol 64, No 3, 2005, pp 456–479.

21. Vladimir I. Lenin, ‘Pis'mo kommunistam Azerbaidzhana, 14.04.1921’, in Pol'noe sobranie socheninii, Vol 43 (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Politicheskoi Literatury, 1963), p 200.

22. Cited in Ali Mamedov, Russkie uchenye i razvitie irrigatsii Srednei Azii (Tashkent: Uzbekistan, 1965), p 50. See also Ian M. Matley, ‘The Golodnaya Steppe: a Russian irrigation venture in Central Asia’, Geographical Review, Vol 60, No 3, 1970, pp. 328–346, and E. Kh. Khodzhiev, Istoriia orosheniia i osvoeniia Golodnoi Stepi (1917–1970 gg.) (Tashkent: Fan, 1975).

23. Francine Hirsch, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), pp 62–98.

24. James Heinzen, Inventing a Soviet Countryside: State Power and the Transformation of Rural Russia, 1917–1929 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004), p 102.

25. ‘Postanovlenie STO SSSR, 26.03.1927’, Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (GARF), f. 3292, op. 1, d. 10, ll. 184–184ob.

26. ‘OGPU report, February 1928’, Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Social'no-Politicheskoi Istorii (RGASPI), f. 62, op. 2, d. 1349, ll. 7–7ob, 10.

27. ‘Spravka Infstatotdela Sredazbiuro, 1929’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1868, ll. 2ob–5.

28. ‘Report on mirab elections 1928/29’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1675, ll. 13–14.

29. ‘Spravka Glavnogo Kontrolera Maduneva, 20.03.1928’, O'zbekiston Respublikasi Markaziy Davlat Arxivi (ORMDA), f. R-756, op. 1, d. 1750, l. 35; ‘Telegram on the insufficient payment of mirabs, 17.03.1928’, ibid. 38.

30. ‘Doklad nachal'nika Kashka-Dar'inskogo okrvodchoza N. G. Ottendorf, 24.02.1929’, ORMDA f. 218, op. 7, d. 8, ll. 17ob–18. On local conflicts concerning the distribution of government-sponsored jobs see Adrienne Edgar, Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004), pp 184–190.

31. ‘Podnek to Zelenskii, 21.03.1928’, RGASPI f. 121, op. 2, d. 121, ll. 43–43ob.

32. ‘Konobeev at a closed party session of the Uzbek SNK, 2.04.1928’, ORMDA f. R-837, op. 26, d. 289, l. 128. For an overview on the land and water reform see Gerard O'Neill, ‘Land and water “reform” in the 1920s’, in Tom Everett-Heath (ed.), Central Asia: Aspects of Transition (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp 57–79. For an exemplary case study see Edgar, op cit, Ref 30, pp 175–182.

33. ‘Proekt postanovleniia STO SSSR, March 1926’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 500, l. 6; E. Kh. Khodzhiev, op cit, Ref 22, p 81; ‘Struktura Sredazvodkhoza’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1289, l. 113. In 1925/26, 106 million roubles were assigned for the development of Uzbek industry. In that year, the value of Uzbek cotton production equalled 100 million gold roubles: Istoriia Uzbekskoi SSR s drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei (Tashkent: FAN, 1974), p 352. Soviet cotton imports from the USA and Egypt were tantamount to this sum: In the third quarter of 1926 the central government spent 25.8 million roubles on imports (GARF f. 5446, op. 71, d. 47, l. 10).

34. ‘Zhemchuzhin to Tashkent Control Commission, 14.07.1926’, RGASPI f. 121, op. 2, d. 19, l. 7; ‘Rykunov to Zelenskii and Ter, 28.07.1926’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 500, l. 121. Originally, Zelenskii wanted to appoint Rykunov as head of the Turkestan STO (RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 86, l. 4).

35. ‘Aitakov to Kalinin, 15.02.1925’, RGASPI f. 78, op. 1, d. 151, ll. 77–79; ‘Zasedanie komissii po razmezhevaniiu pri Sredazbiuro, 7.08.1924’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 106, ll. 23–25. Arguments against the institutionalization of the Central Asian Economic Union (Sredne-Aziatskii Ekonomicheskii Sovet) went similarly unheard.

36. ‘Zelenskii to Rudzutak, 21.01.1927’, GARF f. 5446, op. 71, d. 74, ll. 8, 5.

37. David Shearer, ‘Wheeling and dealing in Soviet industry: syndicates, trade, and political economy at the end of the 1920’s', Cahiers du monde russe, Vol 36, No 1–2, 1995, pp 139–159.

38. Terry Martin, ‘Interpreting the new archival signals: nationalities policy and the nature of the Soviet bureaucracy’, Cahiers du monde russe, Vol 40, No 1–2, 1999, pp 113–124.

39. ‘Spravka, 1928’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1289, l. 13–13ob.

40. ‘Privlechennye k sledstvie v kachestve obvinyaemykh, obvineniia’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1289, ll. 189–189ob.

41. ‘Spravka GPU pri SNK UzSSR, 7.02.1928’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1288, ll. 9–9ob; Pravda Vostoka, 5.04.1928, p 2.

42. ‘Fel'dman to Zelenskii, Manzhara and Makeev, 26.03.1928’, RGASPI f. 121, op. 2, d. 121, ll. 38–38ob.

43. ‘Zelenskii to Ordzhonikidze and Krzhizhanovskii, February 1928’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1671, l. 6.

44. ‘Zelenskii to Ordzhonikidze, 14.03.1928’, RGASPI f. 85, op. 27, d. 457, l. 1.

45. ‘Lebed’ to Ordzhonikidze, 6.09.1928', RGASPI f. 85, op. 27, d. 210, ll. 6–7.

46. Michael Thurman, The ‘Command-Administrative System’ in Cotton Farming in Uzbekistan, 1920s to Present (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1999). On collectivization in Uzbekistan, see also Tragediia sredneaziatskogo kishlaka: kollektivizatsiia, raskulachivanie, ssylka 1929–1955 gg. (Tashkent: Shark, 2006), Vol 1–3; Askar Dzhumashev, ‘Kazakhstan—Karakalpakstan. Problemy vzaimootnoshenii’, in Rossiia i Kazakhstan: Problemy istorii (XX—nachalo XXI v.) (Moscow: IRI RAN, 2006), pp 133–158; Nadeshda Ozerova, ‘Collectivization and socialization of agricultural production in Uzbekistan: the Soviet policy in 1930’s', Journal of Central Asian Studies, Vol 15, No 1, 2005, pp 1–14; Reinhard Eisener, Konterrevolution auf dem Lande: Zur inneren Sicherheitslage in Mittelasien 1929/30 aus der Sicht der OGPU (Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 1999); R. Kh. Aminova, ‘Iz istorii kollektivizatsii v Uzbekistane’, Istoriia SSSR, 1991, No 4, pp 42–53.

47. ‘Stenogramma zasedaniia 3-go plenuma KPK pri TsK VKP(b), 7.03.1936’, Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Noveishei Istorii (RGANI), f. 6, op. 1, d. 13, ll. 109-154, here ll. pp 141, 122.

48. Ibid, ll. pp 120–122.

49. Ibid, ll. pp 109–111.

50. See Gabor Rittersporn, Stalinist Simplifications and Soviet Complications: Social Tensions and Political Conflicts in the USSR, 1933–1953 (Chur: Harwood, 1991).

51. On the geographical logics of the Soviet economy, see Vladimir Kaganskii, Kul'turnyi landshaft i sovetskoe obitaemoe prostranstvo: Sbornik statei (Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2001), pp 137–149.

52. For the centre's indifference in the Uzbek ‘women question’ during the later 1930s see Douglas Northrop, op cit, Ref 12, pp 284–313. On korenizatsiia and ethnic conflict see Terry Martin, op cit, Ref 13, pp 376–379, 387–392.

53. ‘Manzhara to Ikramov and Shkiriatov, 1931’, GARF f. 372, op. 27, d. 1976, ll. 2–6. During Kuibyshev's visit to Central Asia in November and December 1934, a troika consisting of Kuibyshev, Ikramov and Faizulla Khodjaev was operating in Uzbekistan. The Politburo had granted it permission to pass death sentences. See Oleg Khlevniuk, Politbiuro: Mekhanizmy politicheskoi vlasti v 1930-e gody (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1996), p 134.

54. ‘Stalin to Zelenskii and Ikramov, 26.04.1930’, RGASPI f. 558, op. 11, d. 38, l. 103; ‘Stenogramma soveshchaniia pri Sredazbiuro TsK VKP(b), 22.06.1934’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 3270, l. 2; ‘Andreev and Zhdanov to Yusupov, 5.10.1939’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 662, l. 51. See also Stalin i Kaganovich: Perepiska 1931–1936 gg. (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2001), pp 460–461 (28.08.1934), 544 (31.08.1935), 553–555 (5.09.1935), 678–679 (16.09.1936).

55. ‘Ikramov to Stalin, 12.06.1935’, RGASPI f. 558, op. 11, d. 737, l. 65; ‘Ikramov to Stalin, 4.07.1936’, RGASPI f. 558, op. 11, d. 65, l. 14.

56. On the case of cotton storehouses catching fire in June 1935, see Tragediia sovetskoi derevni, Vol 4, 1934–1936 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2002), p 527.

57. All these charges were made by I. M. Bekker in his 1936 speech, op cit, Ref 47–49.

58. Jörg Baberowski, ‘Auf der Suche nach Eindeutigkeit: Kolonialismus und zivilisatorische Mission im Zarenreich und in der Sowjetunion’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Vol 47, No 4, 1999, pp 482–503, p 502.

59. ‘Soveshchanie po provedeniiu plana chlopkovych posevov i vytesneniiu zernovych kul'tur, 29.09.1929’, ORMDA f. R-837, op. 26, d. 289, ll. 25ob, 26ob.

60. Biuleten' Sredazposevkoma, 25 March 1931, No 6, p 21; Tragediia sredneaziatskogo kishlaka, op cit, Ref 46, Vol 1, pp 246–247.

61. Tragediia sredneaziatskogo kishlaka, op cit, Ref 46, Vol 1, pp 342–343.

62. Nikolai A. Ivnitskii, Kollektivizatsiia i razkulachivanie (nachalo 30-kh godov) (Moscow: Magistr, 1996), p 126; Ozerova, op cit, Ref 46, pp 7–8.

63. ‘Reports of the Novo-Bukhara MTS politotdel, February–September 1934’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 3313, ll. 32–33, 46–47, 50, 64, 71, 75, 80, 113–114, 118–121, 132–136, 157–160, 163–164.

64. ‘Report of Filimonov to Andreev, 15.08.1939’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d 662, ll. 6–9. Irrigation engineers shared this critical assessment, see e.g. ‘Report of engineer V. F. Petrov, May 1935’, Qaraqalpaqstan Respublikasi Orayliq Ma'mleketlik Arxivi (QROMA) f. 322, op. 1, d. 227, ll. 2–7.

65. Thurman, op cit, Ref 46, p 34. This interpretation is based on the standard historical narrative of collectivization in Russia, see I. E. Zelenin, ‘Kul'minatsiia krest'ianskoi tragedii’, in Tragediia sovetskoi dereni, Vol 3, Konets 1930–1933 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2001), pp 7–47, esp. pp 36–40.

66. Ktaibek Sarybaev, Istoriia orosheniia Karakalpakstana: s kontsa XIX veka do nashikh dnei (Nukus: Karakalpakstan, 1995), pp 215–219.

67. Sovetskoe rukovodstvo: Perepiska 1928–1941 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1999), p 374; ‘Andreev to Stalin, 25.09.1937’, RGASPI f. 558, op. 11, d. 57, l. 95. On this see below, Ref 86.

68. A. G. Abdunabiev, Iz istorii razvitiia irrigatsii v Sovetskom Uzbekistane (Tashkent: Fan, 1971), pp 110–115.

69. ‘Aliev to Molotov, 29.08.1936’, ORMDA f. R-837, op. 32, d. 46, ll. 25–28; ‘Postanovlenie No. 291 SNK SSSR, 17.02.1937’, GARF f. 5446, op. 19, d. 4, ll. 199–200.

70. ‘Syromiatnikov to Uzvodchoz, 25.11.1937’, QROMA f. 322, op. 1, d. 509, ll. 35–37.

71. ‘Syromiatnikov to Glavvodchoz NKZem SSSR, 29.06.1937’, ORMDA f. R-837, op. 32, d. 46, ll. 168–176; ‘Khodjaev to Chernov, 25.3.1937 and 15.06.1937’, ibid, ll. 75, 159.

72. The ability of Russian engineers to work in a chaotic and improvized environment was stressed as a positive factor in their own memories. See on this Susanne Schattenberg, Stalins Ingenieure: Lebenswelten zwischen Technik und Terror in den 1930er Jahren (München: Oldenbourg, 2002), pp 181–208.

73. ‘Vystuplenie tov. Faizully Khodzhaeva na soveshchanii po voprosu Deigisha, Turtkul’ 23.03.1937', ORMDA f. R-837, op. 32, d. 46, ll. 85–90; ‘Besednov to Karakalpak SNK, Turtkul’ 13.01.1938', QROMA f. 322, op. 1, d. 509, ll. 6–7.

74. ‘Petrachuk to Kazakvodchoz, 15.01.1927’, GARF f. 3292, op. 1, d. 5, ll. 64–64ob; ‘Partiinoe soveshchanie po voprosam kolkhoznogo stroitel'stva, Tashkent 22.07.1929’, RGASPI f. 62, op. 2, d. 1817, ll. 100ob–101. See also M. V. Rykunov, ‘Blizhaishie zadachi po irrigatsii Srednei Azii’, Vestnik Irrigatsii, 1925, No 4, pp 3–13, esp. p 11.

75. ‘Vystuplenie tov. Faizully Khodzhaeva na soveshchanii po voprosu Deigisha, Turtkul’ 23.03.1937', ORMDA f. R-837, op. 32, d. 46, l. 90.

76. Report of Court Proceedings in the Case of the Anti-Soviet ‘Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites’ (Moscow: People's Commissariat of Justice of the USSR, 1938), pp 212–243 (morning session 4 March 1938).

77. R. Betin, Vtoraia molodost' Shumaiana (Turtkul': Karakalpakskoe gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1941), pp v, 3; V. Ja. Nepomnin, K istorii irrigatsii v Uzbekistane (Tashkent: Partizdat TsK KP(b) Uz, 1940).

78. ‘Yusupov and Segibaev to raikom and raiispolkom secretaries, 30.09.1937’, ORMDA f. R-837, op. 32, d. 576, l. 116. See also R. T. Shamsutdinov, N. F. Karimov and E. Yu. Yusupov (eds), Repressiia 1937–1938 gg.: Dokumenty i materialy (Tashkent: Shark, 2005).

79. ‘Report of Filimonov to Andreev, 13.10.1940’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 662, l. 254.

80. This pattern is described by a Kazakh whose father was deported as a kulak, see Mukhamet Shayakhmetov, The Silent Steppe: The Story of a Kazakh Nomad under Stalin (London: Stacey, 2006), pp 229–230, 251.

81. See Gestwa, op cit, Ref 18, pp 67–70.

82. ‘Report of Romanov to Andreev, 22.12.1939’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 666, ll. 42–43; ‘Reports of Filimonov to Andreev, 4.07.1940 and 13.10.1940’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 662, ll. 216–221, 254–266.

83. ‘Report of Romadanov to Andreev, 21.04.1941’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 665, l.130. Instead of the officially announced size of 68,000 to 70,000 hectares of newly irrigated land, Romanadov calculated 42,000 to 44,000 hectares.

84. This conflict is related in detailed reports, correspondence and materials of the plenipotentiary of the Party Control Commission (KPK) in Uzbekistan, from which the information on the events of 1939–1941 are drawn: ‘Yusupov to Shkiriatov, 27.03.1940’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 662, l. 197–199; ‘Protokol zasedaniia Biuro TsK UzSSR, 20.08.1940’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 662, l. 235; ‘Lomakin to Andreev, 7.08.1941’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 667, l. 41–52.

85. ‘Andreev to Stalin, 25.09.1937’, RGASPI f. 558, op. 11, d. 57, l. 95. In fact, Yusupov started to write denunciations against Akmal Ikramov after he was removed from the Uzbek Party leadership in 1930; see ‘Yusupov to Stalin, 25.01.1931’, RGASPI f. 82, op. 2, d. 154, l. 79–92.

86. ‘Stalin to Andreev, 25.09.1937’, RGASPI f. 558, op. 11, d. 57, l. 94. The two documents of 25 September 1937 (Refs 85–86) were not printed with the other letters that Andreev wrote to Stalin in September and October 1937 when purging the party and state leaderships in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, see Sovetskoe rukovodstvo, op cit, Ref 67, pp 371–380.

87. On this see ‘Andreev to KPK plenipotentiary in Uzbekistan Filimonov, 28.03.1941’, RGANI f. 6, op. 6, d. 665, ll. 46–50, and the sources cited in Ref 84. Andreev was present at the first three meetings between Yusupov and Stalin in the latter's Kremlin study on 20–21 October 1937 and 16 January 1938, see ‘Posetiteli kremlevskogo kabineta I. V. Stalina, 1924–1953 gg.’, Istoricheskii archiv, 1995, No 4, pp 67–68; 1995, No 5–6, p 6.

88. Pravda Vostoka, 28.01.1940, p 1.

89. Klaus Gestwa, ‘Technik als Kultur der Zukunft: Der Kult um die Stalinschen Großbauten des Kommunismus’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, Vol 30, No 1, 2004, pp 37–73, esp. p 49.

90. Pravda Vostoka, 4.02.1940, p 3.

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Christian Teichmann

Christian Teichmann is a research associate at the Chair of Eastern European History, Department of History, Humboldt University, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany (E-mail: [email protected] berlin.de). He is currently finishing his PhD dissertation, focusing on nationality policy and the economic development of Soviet Uzbekistan between 1924 and 1941.