Friendship under lock and key: The Soviet Central Asian border, 1918-34

Charles Shaw*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to general interest publication typesArticle

Abstract (may include machine translation)

This paper addresses early Soviet efforts to secure under lock and key its over-5000-km-long Central Asian border with Iran, Afghanistan and Xinjiang. The state sought to build relations of trust and friendship between border dwellers and guards - the pogranichnye voiska - to increase security and to demonstrate the emancipatory nature of the Soviet Union. However, these goals were compromised by the region's geographic extremity, basmachi raids and existing flows of people, goods and flocks across the state border. As a result, the early state pursued a contradictory set of policies in order to discourage indiscriminate crossings and to project an image of friendship - however limited in practice - across the border. Secret police circulars and reports from the Communist Party's Central Asian bureau testify to the difficulty and contradictions of crafting friendship on the border in the Soviet Union's first two decades.

Original languageEnglish
Pages331-348
Number of pages18
Volume30
No3-4
Specialist publicationCentral Asian Survey
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Soviet Central Asian border
  • Soviet-Afghan relations
  • border troops

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