Subject: Re: Shakhrimardan, Sokh and Vorukh
From: Bruno De Cordier (bc@undp.bishkek.su)
Date: Tue Jun 01 1999 - 07:10:27 EDT
Dear Nick Megoran,
Thanks a lot for your feedback. I am curious to collect some information on those
three Ferghana-enclaves, as my data reveal the following explanation, which I
would like to check. In the 1920s and 30s, the conservative, agricultural pockets
of Shakrimardan, Sokh and Vorukh were among the hotbeds of the anti-Communist
Basmachi guerilla, which was particularly fierce there. After the Red Army
‘pacified’ the region, these ‘politically unreliable’ areas went under direct
military administration from Tashkent, the Soviet stronghold in Central Asia. It
is during this period that the present-day enclaves got oriented more towards
Tashkent in terms of transport and telecommunication links and economic activity
than to its immediate surrounding area. In 1936, Shakrimardan, Sokh and Vorukh
(all agricultural enclaves in a quite arid area) were integrated in the newly
created Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikikstan, for one considered that
the Uzbeks and Tajiks (sedentary farmers) would need more agricultural area than
the far less numerous Kyrgyz (mountain nomads).
Do you think this makes sense ?
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