7. Reluctant Sovereigns? Central Asian States’ Path to Independence

Suyarkulova, Mohira

doi:10.1515/9780748647545-009

Cited by 6 publications

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“…31 The oppositional groups, general population, and political elites in Soviet Tajikistan did not aspire to sovereignty understood as independence, but rather sovereignty as greater autonomy of Tajikistan within a renewed Soviet framework. 32 While it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the nuances of Soviet-era governance, the aim of the first section was to explain that, although to a large extent ambiguous, Tajikistan's 24 Botakoz Kassymbekova, Despite Cultures: Early Soviet Rule in Tajikistan (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, Soviet past clearly differed from the 'classical' colonial experience relying on settler colonialism and capitalist extraction. Recognising that Soviet precedents of relations between Tajikistan and Russia cannot be categorised as clear-cut colonial provides an important starting point to understand that post-1991 postcolonialism does not result from Soviet-era colonialism.…”

Section: A Simultaneously Colonial and Modernising Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Soviet power hierarchies in the making: Postcolonialism in Tajikistan’s relations with Russia

Kluczewska

2024

Rev. Int. Stud.

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This article explores post-Soviet power hierarchies which constitute a unique system of vertical stratification in world politics. It does so by analysing relations between two former Soviet states, Tajikistan and Russia, in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. The article investigates the underlying reasons for power asymmetries between the two countries, the ways hierarchies are sustained and enforced, as well as perceived and navigated at political and social levels. It is argued that Tajikistan’s relations with Russia are explicitly postcolonial without clear-cut colonial precedents in Soviet times. Postcolonialism did not automatically result from the Soviet breakdown. Rather, it has gradually emerged because of the two countries’ very different paths of integration into the global capitalist economy, which subordinated Tajikistan to Russia. In this way, new economic asymmetries exacerbated Soviet-era legacies and reinvented them in a new, hierarchical manner. Overall, the article contributes to the debate on the nature of post-Soviet legacies and what it means to be post-Soviet.

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Section: A Simultaneously Colonial and Modernising Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Soviet power hierarchies in the making: Postcolonialism in Tajikistan’s relations with Russia

Kluczewska

2024

Rev. Int. Stud.

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State Identities in Post-Soviet Foreign Policy: Theories and Cases in Central Asia

Hanova¹

2018

Theorizing Central Asian Politics

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Defining the Borderlands: Sino-Soviet Border Talks and the Nationalities Issue (1987–1991)

Tagirova

2022

Nationalities Papers

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In the 1980s, the Soviet Union and China resurveyed their border in order to restart their long-stalemated border negotiations. These negotiations resulted in only a partial border settlement: the agreement was signed in 1991. By the end of 1989, nationalities openly expressing their wish to secede from the Soviet Union caused the Soviet government to slow down the negotiation process, and Moscow insisted on setting aside the most contentious sections. China’s nationalities issue had the opposite effect on Zhongnanhai: Chinese leaders wished to settle the entire Sino-Soviet border as quickly as possible. However, once the collapse of the Soviet Union became imminent, the Chinese saw advantages of delaying the negotiations on the disputed sections of the border. They calculated that would allow for China to negotiate with weaker, newly independent countries.

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7. Reluctant Sovereigns? Central Asian States’ Path to Independence

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Post-Soviet power hierarchies in the making: Postcolonialism in Tajikistan’s relations with Russia

Post-Soviet power hierarchies in the making: Postcolonialism in Tajikistan’s relations with Russia

State Identities in Post-Soviet Foreign Policy: Theories and Cases in Central Asia

Defining the Borderlands: Sino-Soviet Border Talks and the Nationalities Issue (1987–1991)

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