ABSTRACT
Cotton is the product most frequently associated with Central Asia. A level of specialisation amounting to a monoculture has been singled out for criticism both in the West and in the region itself. It has been argued that, in addition to causing extreme dependence on the rest of the USSR, it was highly labourintensive, caused periodic disruptions to the labour force, and was both agronomically unsound and ecologically dangerous.13 Cotton specialisation has an almost symbolic significance in the debate on Soviet Central Asia.
