1 The proportion of Russians in the republics went down strongly between the last two censuses (in percent):Google Scholar

2 A.Z. Dadashev, “Socio-economic Developments of the Soviet Republics: Tendencies, Present Conditions, and Problems,” International Colloquium on Underdevelopment, Ethnic Conflicts, and Nationalism in the USSR, May 16–18, 1991, Corona, Italy, gives the following unemployment figures (as a percentage of total non-working population of working age, military included):Google Scholar

3 R.M. Masov, “The Development of Ethnic Conflicts and Nationalism in the Soviet Union,” ibid., mentions that hundreds of thousands of Tajiks were made to register as Uzbeks in Uzbek cities in the 1930s, and that the situation in the Fergana valley is frought with dangers of continued inter-ethnic conflicts.Google Scholar

4 Viktor Kozlov, “Natsionalizm, separatizm, ili kazhdomu svoe,” Moskva, November, 1991, p. 122, blames widespread hostility towards the Russians for their current exodus from Central Asia. He especially mentions the Dushanbe anti-Russian pogrom of February 1990 and the killing of five Russian soldiers in Namagan (Uzbekistan) in December of the same year. Viktor Perevedentsev, “Mezhrespublikanskie migratsii naseleniia SSSR,” International Colloquium on Underdevelopment…, op. cit., gives the following data on interrepublic migration for Central Asia (in thousands):Google Scholar

5 The list of deputies elected to the Uzbek Supreme Soviet on February 18, 1990 (Pravda Vostoka, February 20, 1990) looks as if it was published during the Stalin years.Google Scholar

6 Ovsey I. Shkaratan (with Lev S. Perepiolkin), “Perestroika and the Rise of Mass Nationalism in the USSR,” Conference on Nationalism in the Age of Perestroika, Columbia University, October 16–17, 1990, p.7, speaks of an “etacratic social system” dominant in the Central Asian republics, where power is held by Party and state apparatchiki and civil society is absent. Shkaratan underlines the ultra-conservativism of Central Asian deputies to Moscow Parliaments.Google Scholar

7 Kazakhstan was the last former Soviet republic to declare independence (December, 1991). Uzbekistan did so on August 31, 1991.Google Scholar

8 RFE/RL of February 14, 1992 and March 24, 1992 lists key office-holders in the Central Asian states, members of the CIS. Among them the following Russians appear:Google Scholar

In Tajikistan, Chairman, Committee for National Security, Lt. Col. Anatolii Stroikin (appointed prior to the failed Moscow putsch);Google Scholar

In Kazakhstan, Minister of Internal Affairs, Major General Mikhail Terent'vich Bersenev (also appointed prior to the putsch, in 1990), and Prime Minister Sergei Aleksandrovich Tereshchenko (a Ukrainian);Google Scholar

In Kirgizstan, Vice-President, German Serapionovich Kuznetsov, and Chairman, Council of Ministers, Andrei Andreevich Iordan.Google Scholar

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—none.Google Scholar

9 Bess Brown, “The Presidential Election in Uzbekistan,” RFE/RL Research Report, January 24, 1992, pp. 23–25, discusses the Uzbek presidential elections:Google Scholar

Islam Karimov (former Party boss) received 86% of the vote; while Muhammad Salik (Irk) received 12.3%. Abdruakhim Pulatov, head of Birlik and the only valid opposition candidate, was not allowed on the ballot.Google Scholar

Brown also questions the validity of the Uzbek returns in the independence referendum. In the voting which took place on August 31, 1991, the “Yes” position on independence was supported by 98.2% of those casting ballots, a figure almost equal to the March, 1991 referendum, which asked voters whether they wished to remain in a reformed Union.Google Scholar

Heads of oblast' and rayon adminsitrations in Uzbekistan have been routinely appointed by presidential ukaz. After all, Yeltsin does the same.Google Scholar