SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA

- a Chronology -

1890s - 1910s Pan-Turkic and other reformist (jadid) intellectuals emerge to contest political authority of Muslim clerics and Tsarism

June-July 1916 rebellion among Turkestan's Muslims in response to repeal by Tsarist government of their exemption from military service.

1917 regional political power divided between Turkestan Muslim Central Council and Russian-dominated Tashkent Soviet of Workers' Deputies.

Nov. 28, 1917 Third Regional Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies meeting in Tashkent declares Soviet rule in Turkestan

Dec. 16, 1917 Council of People's Commissars issues call to "All Muslim Toilers of Russia and the East" promising self-determination and respect for national traditions

Apr. 30, 1918 Formation of Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR)

Oct. 8, 1919 RSFSR government and Communist Party appoint Commission for Turkestan Affairs (later, Central Asian Bureau)

1919-22 Red Army combats nationalist Basmachi ("bandit") movement, led by former Emir of Bukhara and from 1921 Enver Pasha

1920 Formation of Khorezm People's Soviet Republic and Bukhara People's Soviet Republic

Oct. 27, 1924 Formation of Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR, the latter containing the Tajik ASSR until 1929

May 1925 Formation of Kazakh ASSR within RSFSR

Feb. 1926 Formation of Kyrgyz ASSR within RSFSR

1926-29 Latinization of Turkic-language scripts replacing Arabic and Persian alphabets

Mar. 8, 1927 In celebration of International Women's Day, the Central Asian Bureau and the Women's Section of the Communist Party's Central Committee organize mass burnings of veils by a reported 10,000 Uzbek women.

1929-31 Construction of 1452-km. Turksib railway connecting cotton-growing region of Kazakhstan with grain- and timber-producing areas of Siberia

1929-32 Mass collectivization and "denomadization" leading to devastation of sheep and livestock herds throughout Soviet Central Asia

Dec. 5, 1936 Formation of Kazakh SSR and Kyrgyz SSR

1936-38 Purges of Communist Party throughout the Soviet Union including Central Asian republics where Communist Party officials were accused inter alia of "bourgeois nationalism."

Aug.-Sept. 1939 Construction of Great Fergana Canal drawing water from Syr'-Darya River to irrigate cotton fields of Uzbek and Tajik SSRs.

1940 Cyrillicization of Turkic languages replacing Latin alphabet

1941-45 Great Patriotic War. Relocation of factories and institutes from Russia to Central Asia. Deportation of western borderland and Transcaucasian "collaborationist" peoples (e.g., Chechens, Meskhetian Turks) to Kazakh and Uzbek SSRs.

1954 Launching of Virgin Lands program in northern Kazakhstan and southern Siberia with aim of bringing 3.5 million hectares of grazing land under grain cultivation via colonization by Russian and Ukrainian settlers.

Late 1950s First scientific confirmation of desiccation of Aral Sea

1960 Construction begins on 850 km. Lenin Karakum Canal in Turkmenistan

Apr. 26, 1966 Earthquake destroys much of Tashkent

1960s-80s Rule of Communist "satraps": Usubaliyev in Kyrgyzstan (1960-85); Kunaev in Kazakhstan (1964-86); Gapusov in Turkmenistan (1970-85); Rashidov in Uzbekistan (1959-83); Rasulov in Tajikistan (1961-82)

Dec. 1986 Replacement of Kunaev as First Secretary of Communist Party in Kazakhstan by Gennadi Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, provokes demonstrations by Kazakh students in Alma Ata.

June 1989 Uzbeks carry out pogroms against Meskhetian Turks in the Fergana Valley

1991 Declarations of sovereignty and independence following failed coup of August and formation of Commonwealth of Independent States in December.