A Comparative Study of the Role of Intellectuals in the Modernization of Central Eurasia

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This study was based on materials from archives of Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The aim of this study was to analyze the role of intellectuals in the modernization of Central Eurasia, as well as the nationality policy of the Russian Empire.The nationality policy of the Russian Empire was characterized by its particularism : although Russianization was an idea generally accepted inside the government, the policies actually carried out varied according to regions and ethnic groups. This tendency derived from the government's distrust of citizens and Orientalism. Particularism created differences in the setting of intellectuals' activities, and intellectuals themselves often tried to make use of particularistic discourses.With the help of Prof.Adeeb Khalid (USA) and Prof.Mambet Koigeldiev (Kazakhstan), we also analyzed the relationship between Central Eurasian intellectuals and the Soviet government. Intellectuals in Bukhara and Turkestan radicalized after the October Revolution and … More the capitulation of the Ottoman Empire, and sympathized with anti-colonialism. Kazakh intellectuals joined the Soviet government after the fall of the Alash-Orda, but always had tensions with the Bolsheviks.Intellectuals of various nationalities had different networks (some had close relations with intellectuals in the Ottoman Empire, and others had closer relations with Russian intellectuals) and different levels of development of literature. These conditions produced differences in their attitudes toward the Bolsheviks and, subsequently, their behavior during the process of national-territorial delimitation in Central Asia in 1924.We organized an international symposium "Regional and Transregional Dynamism in Central Eurasia : Empires, Islam and Politics," which included such panels as "Modern Intellectuals in Central Eurasia" and "The Russian Empire and Central Eurasia," in July 2005. A part of the research results was also presented at the annual conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society at Indiana University in October 2004. Less