Borders in Central Asia Not Only among Republics but Within Them have Been Changed Frequently, Ashimbayev Documents

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 3 – This month marks the centenary of the national delimitation of Central Asia during which Russian and non-Russian officials and experts not only divided up the region into national republics but divided each of the latter into new subdivisions, extending a process that began in tsarist times and continued until the end of Soviet ones.

            In a new article, Kazakh historian Daniyar Ashimbayev details the changes that were made in 1924, showing how they represented the continuation of earlier moves and also how they continued for decades thereafter and stressing that many of the conflicts in the region today reflect that tradition (nomad.su/?a=15-202410030035).

            If the changes in borders and status of union and autonomous republics is well known (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/05/borders-in-post-soviet-space-were.html), changes in the sub-republic units including oblasts, districts and the like is not. And Ashimbayev makes a signal contribution by detailing these across time throughout Central Asia.

            What makes his article so important is that these changes below the level of republic ones often have become the basis for subsequent disputes about the borders between the republics and even about the status of the republic, union or autonomous, that have continued to mar the landscape of the region.

            The specific changes he cites may be of interest only to specialists, but the totality of his article highlights something that still tends to be forgotten: borders in this region as in other parts of the former Soviet and Russian Empire were anything but eternal whatever any current politician or observers chooses to say.