ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Soviet Union caught the world by surprise. The people of Soviet Central Asia may have been just as unprepared for the collapse, if not more so, than the rest of the world. It was the developments in the western republics of the Soviet Union neighbouring Europe that eventually led to the collapse. The ‘Newly Independent Republics’ of Central Asia neither expected nor were ready for independence when they were catapulted to the international arena as new nation states.
