Publisher: I.B.Tauris
ISBN: 9781845115524
Format: PDF, ePub, Docs
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During the anti-Gorbachev coup in August 1991, most communist leaders from Soviet Central Asia backed theplotters. Within weeks of the coup?s collapse, these very same leaders - now transformed into ardent nationalists - proclaimed the independence of their nations, designed new flags, invented new slogans and discovered a new patriotism. How were these new nations built, without any traditional nationalist reference points? According to Olivier Roy, Soviet practice had always been to build on local institutions and promote local elites. Thus Soviet administration - as opposed to Soviet policy making - was always surprisingly decentralized.With home-grown political leaders and administrative institutions, national identities in Central Asia emergedalmost by stealth. Roy?s compelling analysis of the new Central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan and Azerbaijan - makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the geopolitics of Central Asia.