Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Map of Central Asia
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration
- 1 An Introduction to Political Development and Transition in Central Asia
- 2 Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia: A Framework for Understanding Politics in Clan-Based Societies
- 3 Colonialism to Stalinism: The Dynamic between Clans and the State
- 4 The Informal Politics of Central Asia: From Brezhnev through Gorbachev
- 5 Transition from Above or Below? (1990–1991)
- 6 Central Asia's Transition (1991–1995)
- 7 Central Asia's Regime Transformation (1995–2004): Part I
- 8 Central Asia's Regime Transformation (1995–2004): Part II
- 9 Positive and Negative Political Trajectories in Clan-Based Societies
- 10 Conclusions
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- Index
4 - The Informal Politics of Central Asia: From Brezhnev through Gorbachev
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Map of Central Asia
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Transliteration
- 1 An Introduction to Political Development and Transition in Central Asia
- 2 Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia: A Framework for Understanding Politics in Clan-Based Societies
- 3 Colonialism to Stalinism: The Dynamic between Clans and the State
- 4 The Informal Politics of Central Asia: From Brezhnev through Gorbachev
- 5 Transition from Above or Below? (1990–1991)
- 6 Central Asia's Transition (1991–1995)
- 7 Central Asia's Regime Transformation (1995–2004): Part I
- 8 Central Asia's Regime Transformation (1995–2004): Part II
- 9 Positive and Negative Political Trajectories in Clan-Based Societies
- 10 Conclusions
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- Index
Summary
“Which leaders were the best for your country?”
“Brezhnev and Rashidov.”
Conversation with a former kolkhoz chairman, Andijan, 2000In the mid-1990s, I was surprised to learn from Central Asian colleagues that Leonid Brezhnev, the stolid-faced Soviet leader known for sending political prisoners to psychiatric wards even long after the death of Stalin, was actually quite popular in these republics. This was not because he had converted most Kyrgyz or Tajiks to Leninism and scientific atheism, but because he more or less left them alone. And leaving them alone allowed many in these republics to prosper.
So what happened to clans under the later decades of Soviet rule, when mature socialism allegedly finished the task of modernizing Central Asia and therefore should have eradicated clan identities and networks? Not only Brezhnev, but also many Western scholars and policy makers and Central Asians themselves, argued that the Soviet Union had successfully modernized the USSR. First, this chapter, building on Chapter 3, argues instead that despite, or perhaps because of, the contradictions of Soviet modernization, clans adapted and survived. Brezhnev's policies reinforced and further entrenched the clan networks that had persisted during the very early decades of Soviet rule. Thus, Soviet policies “modernized” clans, by driving them underground and linking them with corruption, mafioso activities, and the second economy, but did not seriously attempt to eradicate them. Soviet policies furthermore gave some clans greater access to state and party resources.
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- Information
- Clan Politics and Regime Transition in Central Asia , pp. 102 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006