ABSTRACT
Winters are harsh in the four Central Asian republics and in Kazakhstan, where temperatures in mountain areas can drop below -40 degrees Fahrenheit and bitter winds scour the vast deserts and steppes. Such conditions have intensified the severe consequences of the transition for the area's 23 million children. Many schools are forced to close for want of heating fuel, and some children stay home for lack of warm clothes and shoes. Despite new hotels, nightclubs, and growing numbers of luxury cars for the wealthy few in the capital cities, most families are poorer than they were at the beginning of the decade, when the lands they lived in were still part of the former Soviet Union. Economically marginalized toward the end of the Soviet era, these new States were not prepared for independence. They have now suffered through years of major economic problems caused by the transition, which has proved far more complex than predicted. Especially disadvantaged have been large families in rural areas, the unemployed, and pensioners and others on fixed incomes of dwindling value. In Tajikistan, civil strife has intensified economic distress and has delayed progress toward economic stability and a viable market economy.
