ABSTRACT
Emotional issues related to cotton, like the drying of the Aral Sea or the rise in infant and maternal mortality—all caused ultimately by cotton-delivery plans imposed on the republics by Moscow—stirred Central Asians deeply. As new revelations burst forth nearly every day, once stealthy mutterings about the "cotton monoculture" grew into an open chorus of angry complaint. There is also outrage that in recent years, Moscow has been selling Central Asian cotton abroad-to countries like France and Germany-and keeping the hard-currency proceeds for its own purposes. Until perestroika, nationalism among the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union had tended to center on ethnic issues. The cotton monoculture, intended originally to serve the interests of the center, provided the Uzbek elites with a potent political and psychological weapon for use against that very center. As Moscow's power in Central Asia declined, there were few inhibitions on public vilification of the monoculture and those behind it.
