Qazaqs and Qaraqalpaqs of the Aral Sea Region from 1930 to 1934: the Great Famine and the Benefits of Marginality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69567/3007-0236.2025.1.99.120Keywords:
Qazaqs, Qaraqalpaqs, Aral Sea Region, famine collectivization, sedentarization, Karakalpak region, Kazalinsky district, Aralsky districtAbstract
The article, based on Kazakhstani and Russian archival documents, provides a comparative analysis of the policy and economy of the Soviet state in relation to the Qaraqalpaqs (Karakalpaks) and Qazaqs, as well as the causes of the mass famine of 1931–1933 among the Qazaqs using the example of a specific historical region around the Aral Sea (Aral Sea Region). The author shows the different approaches of the Soviet government in relation to the two parts of the Aral Sea Region – the southern part, populated mainly by Qaraqalpaqs, and the northern part, populated by Qazaqs. As a result, the Qazaqs of the Northern Aral Sea Region faced mass famine, while the Qaraqalpaqs of the Southern Aral Sea Region avoided a great tragedy. It is emphasized that the main reason for the different consequences of the Soviet policy in one region is the presence of transport infrastructure connecting Central Asia with the European Russia in the northern (Qazaq) part of the Aral Sea and its absence in the southern (Qaraqalpaq) region, which was the Orenburg-Tashkent railway. The presence of the railway passing through the Qazaq part of the Aral Sea Region contributed to the mass confiscation of cattle and grain from the Qazaqs. This led to famine among the Qazaqs of the Aral Sea Region. In the southern part, there was no reliable transport route connecting it with the Soviet industrial centers and, accordingly, the Qaraqalpaq economy was left without massive food reserves, which saved the Qaraqalpaqs from starvation. The article also discusses the effects of the Great Famine on the fisheries of the Aral Sea Region. Famine led to an inversion of the relative economic importance of the northern and southern parts of the sea. If before the famine, fishing was concentrated in the former, then after the famine it moved to the latter. Finally, the article places the administrative separation of Karakalpakstan from Kazakhstan in 1930 in the context of Stalin's economic policies in Central Asia
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