ABSTRACT
In 1924, the Soviet regime redrew the map of Central Asia. Guided by the work of ethnographers and linguists, Soviet authorities dissolved the region’s three multiethnic political entities and created a handful of “national” republics, each named for a single ethnic group. Within each new republic, Soviet policy called for preferential treatment for the “titular nationality” and the promotion of the indigenous language and culture. Imagining that this revolutionary policy would put an end to ethnic antagonism and permit rapid progress toward socialist internationalism, the Soviet state instead unwittingly laid the basis for the eventual emergence of independent nation-states in Central Asia.1
