Communism in Central
PICTURE of the Soviet Union's ` monolithic' strength, slab, chinkless, and unassailable, is a favourite theme f of Soviet propaganda. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Not to mention other conflicts, the note of under- lying concern in this year's tercentenary celebrations of the union of the Ukraine with Muscovy, like the troubles which 'recur repeatedly in Transcaucasia, shows that all is not well 'among the non-Russian nationalities under Soviet rule. The most disaffected include the peoples of Soviet Central Asia, a region of immense economic and strategic importance. The reasons are explained in Sir Olaf Caroe's full and authoritative study* written with a rare combination of spiritual insight and intellectual power by a distinguished public servant who, as Secretary of the External Relations Department of the Govern- ment of India (the equivalent of Foreign Secretary in Britain) throughout the years of the Second World War, and a former Governor of the North-West Frontier Province, had continuous, responsible, and informed concern with the Soviet Moslem peoples almost on the other side of the Indian frontier.
Soviet Central Asia comprises five ' republics '—Kazakstan, Kirghizia, Turkmenia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikstan—all of them artificial political creations, with a combined area larger than Europe west of the Iron Curtain and more than half the size of the United States, and a population numbering about 16 million, of whom about I I million are indigenous peoples. The economic resources include the wide pasture lands of Kazak Stan, the bulk of the cotton and raw silk produced in the Soviet Union, the great Karaganda coalfield (the third most productive in the Union) and lesser deposits elsewhere, impor- tant oilfields in three areas (the Second Baku, which is larger, lies farther west), the largest Soviet copper workings and smelting-plants, the largest lead centre smelting ores from many parts, and, among other rare metals, major deposits of chrome, as well as tungsten, molybdenum and uranium.
Of the indigenous peoples of Soviet Central Asia the great majority (known loosely as Uzbeks, Kazaks, Karakalpaks, Kirghiz, and Turk mens) belong to Eastern Turkish (or Turkic) stocks, while a minority—the Tajiks—a re Iranians. Their lands have been under Russian rule for less than a century. The conquest was carried out with great cruelty. Kaufmann, the conqueror of Khiva, issued campaign orders in writing "to give over the [Turkmen] settlements, and their families, to complete destruction," and later ordered the least resistance to be punished by extermination; Skobelev, who finally overcame Turkmen resistance at GU Tepe in January, 1881, ordered the retreating enemy to be pursued without quarter and had all who remained within the fort slaughtered to a man. Commissars signed by Lenin and Stalin promised equality a/ sovereignty to the nations of Russia and acknowledged th right " to free self-determination, including the right to secs and form independent states;" while a manifesto special') addressed to " all toiling Muhammadans in Russia and in WI East," said categorically : " Henceforth your faith and custoini your national and cultural institutions, are proclaimed free 50', inviolable. Build up your national life freely and unhindered' This is your right." But these were mere words. The realitx, were stated by Stalin in 1920 (at a time, it should be noted when Lenin still enjoyed his full strength and power): We are in favour of the separation of India, ArabiA Egypt, Morocco, and the other colonies from the Ententa for here separation implies . . . undermining the positiC4 of imperialism and strengthening the position of the revolution. We are against the separation of the bordP regions from Russia since separation would here involVi undermining the revolutionary power of Rus01 (Italics Stalin's.) This view set the lines which Soviet policy followed. Pr! longed Moslem efforts to free Central Asia from Russia vie" put down with great harshness. (Ruins seen by the Poll Army and reported by General Anders still testified in 194, to the violence of the struggle twenty years earlier.) IP' Russianisation which had begun under the Tsars—and am other things even before the Revolution had confined alm entirely to Russians the administrative, technical, and railwai positions without which a modern community is paralysed' went on apace. Collectivisation of agriculture at once del' troyed small-holdings and provided the uprooted MosieP peasants whom armed police drove off for rough and haw work in the new mines and factories. Nomadism was put doval, by indiscriminately rounding up the nomads and their animacij many of the men and women were also driven into for labour, while three quarters of the flocks and herds were slaughtered or perished uncared for on the steppe. SO measures resulted in the death, whether by mass starvation Sub by violence, of one in three of the Kazak population; what happened (Sir Olaf Caroe states) is known in Turkistan PI " Katl-i-awn, meaning a general massacre." The fierce hattv, produced by all this cruelty and horror—which was inflicted incidentally, in the name of social progress and human better ment—found expression during the Second World War, Whet war prisoners and deserters from Turkistan were formed IV the Germans into an army 180,000 strong, of whom sod 50,000 died in combat and 12,000 were disabled while fightIfl to overthrow their Soviet oppressors. In a new volume'' which rounds off his study of Soviet colonial policy, Mr. Walter Kolarz points out that " Communism as materialistic teaching cannot aim at the preservation of nation groups and minorities. Their right to existence as separal political and cultural individualities depends on their contribru I tion to the communist cause. . . . If they are an obstacP., to Communism they may be exterminated." No one doub9 Soviet ruthlessness; but fortunately there are limits to Sovi9 power. The Turkmen, Uzbek, and Tajik Soviet `republic! are immediate neighbours of Persia and Afghanistan, while .: only a narrow strip of territory separates Tajikstan frOP Pakistan. Communist ambitions in the Moslem world therefor' impose at least a slight check on maltreatment of the Moslefl under Soviet rule. The Turks, moreover, are a singulaq tough, patient, and resilient people; and on evidence whicP though slender, should not be underrated Sir Olaf Carl reports that their best leaders are sustained by a spirit1141 vision which suffering can only strengthen. Western pcil,,,C1 should be shaped with these facts in mind. The Eastern Tur,P1 like the other non-Russian nationalities under Soviet rule, av,,1 not expendable. But, like Prometheus, they have the rig'', to hope and believe that one day the tyranny and oppressilw under which they live will end, and a better future davi Great and most ,difficult political problems must be sole before this is possible. . But the West cannot condemn such hopes, for the ultimate political and spiritual values for which It stands have meaning only in terms of the self-fulfilment in freedom of men and of peoples.
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