Dawn over Samarkand

Literature on the Soviet period is rich with works praising the communist project in Central Asia. Dawn over Samarkand, 1943 Calcutta, by Joshua Kunitz is one of the prominent examples. It was first published in Great Britain in in 1936 and a year earlier in the U.S.

This particular 1943 edition – as we can read on the verso of the title page – was prepared specially for the 26^th anniversary of the November Revolution. It starts with a poem:

‘No clouds! In a clear sky I see
The sun. No night to dim bright day!
No Czar! Our soil’s forever free!
Well done, O Bolshevik!

Kar-Molli (a blind seventy-year old Turkoman bard)’

This anniversary edition has been supplemented by a postscript: Chapter XIX Unity thru self-determination and Chapter XX Moslems as fighting patriots. Chapter XIX uncritically elaborates on the positive role of the Constitution of 1936: ‘The progress made in the formation of the national states of the Soviet federation is evident from the fact that at the time of the formation of the U.S.S.R. (December 1922) there were 4 Union Republics, 10 Autonomous Republics and 14 Autonomous Regions. In 1937, however, on the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Soviet State, the U.S.S.R. consisted of 11 Union Republics, 22 Autonomous Republics, 9 Autonomous Regions, and 10 National Areas.’

The extreme ideological leaning of the book seems to have escaped the attention of Foreign Affairs reviewers, who, in July 1935 edition summarized it simply as ‘An account of recent developments in the new republics of Central Asia under the Bolshevik régime.’

Khujand, 21st century

Batken, 21st century

Post office, Khujand, 21st century

Lt. Col. F.M. Bailey reports from the field

Central Asian states have been busy re-creating their historical imagery. The trend is to look much further back in history than the past ‘glory’ of the Soviet period. But – how the Soviets actually managed to establish themselves in Central Asia and how welcome were these developments? On the origins of the Basmachi movement : Lt. Col. F.M. Bailey reports from the field. The First World War in Central Asia.

Chapter IV Conditions in Tashkent: ‘South-east of here was a peasant rising in Semirechia, where the Government had about one thousand men engaged. South of this there was a serious Mohammedan rising in Ferghana, under a man named Irgash. They had been strongly reinforced when the Bolshevik Government has supressed the autonomous government at Kokhand in 1918. The directions of this movement had at times considerable success and large areas in Ferghana were under their control. But like many similar movements there was rivalry among the leaders who, one after another, fell. Irgash, the leader at the time I was in Turkestan, was killed in 1920. He was succeeded by Madamin Beg, who was treacherously murdered, when a guest at a meal, by his host.

At the time of our arrival Irgash was in command of about sixteen thousand men, among whom were White Russians and, it was rumoured, some Turkish officers. This movement was later taken on by various men in succession and developed into the Basmachi movement which survived up to present war in a latent form.’ Mission to Tashkent by F.M. Bailey, 1946, London