Soviet policy in Xinjiang: Stalin and the national movement in Eastern Turkistan

Abstract

view. The Soviet system worked on dual tracks, celebrating diversity while embedding Russian superiority. The structural embedding was the stronger force. Edgar is more concerned with the messiness of lives lived than with theory, which is a great strength of the book. Her informants span generations, from those whomet in the chaos of the Second World War to the children of perestroika. Marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims were rare, and when they occurred they were almost always between Muslim men and Slavic women. Edgar considers the minefields of relations with the in-laws, cultural identity and language as well as marriages that were happy or unhappy in general. While Edgar stresses that the data are not systematic enough to support rigorous analysis, broad patterns do emerge. Families tended to be hostile to the idea of mixed marriage, except for the most dedicated communists. The appearance of grandchildren usually fixed that problem, but not always. A major concern for Kazakh and especially Tajik families was that the Slavic bride would not fulfil expected duties to her in-laws with the appropriate deference. While some brides did indeed chafe at the model of the selfless ‘Eastern woman’, others embraced it as providing a more supportive network than Soviet Russian family dysfunction. Meanwhile the few Central Asian women who married Slavs were attracted to their husbands’ less patriarchal demeanour. Raising children posed many dilemmas: What to name them? Whose language should they speak? Whose nationality should they claim on their passports when they turned 16? Like mixed couples everywhere, parents made choices depending on practical considerations and family and personal opinions. However, the Soviet insistence on distinct, stable national categories forced particular choices. While few multi-ethnic children reported being harassed by their peers, a child with an Islamic name and a Slavic appearance, or vice versa, caused consternation. Parents tried to match names with physiognomy. Many of these children were raised with Russian as their first language, but if neither of their parents were Russian they could not claim ‘Russian’ on their passports, no matter how much Pushkin they had imbibed. If they did not identify with the nationality of either parent, or if they believed they were Soviet citizens first and foremost, the state did not allow them to choose ‘both’ or ‘none’. The Communist Party said it was working toward a world without nations, but underneath its actions were driven by older ideas of fixed racial and gender hierarchies that permeated Soviet society. Edgar’s study provides a fascinating window into these contradictions.