Akhunbabaev was a central figure of the Uzbek SSR and Communist Party from its founding until his death in 1943. Born to a poor Uzbek and Uyghur peasant family, he was involved in the 1916 anti-Russian Central Asian rising, joining the Communist Party in 1921, playing many regional in roles until reorganization into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1924, after which he led the Uzbek SSR, whose boundaries he helped define. Here, he speaks to the Soviet transformation of the country.

‘The Socialist Soviet Republic of Usbekistan’ by Achun Babajew (Yuldash Akhunbabaev) from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 6 No. 71. November 4, 1926.

A Typical Example of the National Policy of the Soviet Union.

The Socialist Soviet Republic of Usbekistan, which came into being as one of the republics in the former colonial territory of the Czarist Empire in Central Asia, is the best evidence as to how the Czarist State carries out its declarations and principles and solves the national question.

In the family of nations of the republics which belong to the Soviet Union, the Republic of Usbekistan is the youngest off-shoot. It is only three years since the period of peaceful economic construction began in this Republic. Until 1923 the fields and open country of Usbekistan were swept by the flames of turbulent war and the vassals of the Czar the Emir of Bokhara and the Khan of Khiva who had been driven from their thrones, organised, with the help of their accomplices, the lackeys and agents of world capital, the robber bands (Basmatshes) who terrorised the whole country for five years. These bands of robbers consisted mainly of the rich aristocracy (Beys), traders and corrupted elements, former officials of the Emirs who for many years had exploited the millions of inhabitants of the country, and enormous sacrifices and efforts were required on the part of the workers in the country in order to get rid of this brigandage.

When the civil war came to an end, the fields of Usbekistan were to a large extent in an untilled condition, the irrigation plants were destroyed and the economic life had come to a standstill. The success which the young Republic has achieved in the last two or three years is all the more surprising and deserving of admiration.

The economic life of Usbekistan depends’ greatly on agriculture. The main occupation of Usbekistan is the cultivation of cotton, to which aim the efforts of the Czarist colonisers were formerly chiefly devoted. The latter clung obstinately to the possession of the cotton-plantations which were worked by the indentured labour of the Dechkanin (the Usbekistan peasants), who had been deprived of their rights; the plantation owners scooped in fabulous profits by the sale of the cotton.

The Soviet Government freed the Dechkanin from the tentacles of the blood-thirsty colonisers. The State undertook to grant credit in the form of money, seed and agricultural equipment to the Dechkanin who cultivated corn, at the same time undertaking the responsibility for the water supply and for the irrigation of the fields. In the economic year 1925/26 alone, the peasants who cultivate grain received credit advances from the State to the amount of more than 29 million roubles, and that without counting the seed-corn, the draught-animals and the agricultural equipment supplied them in advance. The outlay for the water supply increases, from year to year. For this purpose, 5,926,000 roubles were spent in the economic year 1924/25 and 7,895,000 roubles in the current economic year.

The land-reform carried out by the Soviet Government in the current year is of quite special significance for the life of the Republic. The land belonging to the rich aristocracy (the feudal landowners), the large merchants and the clergy was divided amongst those who work the land with their own hands. In connection with this land reform, 56,830 new farms were apportioned to peasants who had never previously owned land. In addition to allocating land to these peasants, the State provided them with the necessary means of production, the equipment, draught-animals etc., on credit.

The Czarist colonisers had no interest whatever in introducing any advanced methods of agriculture into the cultivation, of the soil of Usbekistan. The Soviet State on the contrary is doing everything in its power to lighten the arduous labour of the peasants and to provide them with all modern technical equipments. Under the colonisers, the Dechkanin did not even dream of the existence of a mechanical plough, whereas this year more than 1000 tractors are already working in Usbekistan. The introduction of modern agricultural machinery increases from year to year by many millions of roubles.

For Czarist Russia and the colonisers, Usbekistan was merely a source of raw materials. They never troubled of course, to establish any local industry.

The Soviet Government is following quite a different path. In the former Czarist colony, it is calling into being native industry and building works and factories. In this country which, until now, did not even know what a factory chimney looked like, chimney after chimney is springing up, and the ranks of the proletariat, formed from the native population, are growing and consolidating. Gigantic sums are being allocated for the electrification of the country and about 18 large electric power stations are being built, the best of which and one of the largest in the Social Union, the power station of Bos-Duisk, has started working this year.

The Czarist Government did not concern itself in the least with the cultural development off its colony and bequeathed to the Soviet Republic of Usbekistan a legacy consisting of a population, 96% of whom were illiterate. If individual inhabitants of Usbekistan have nevertheless succeeded in acquiring an education, it is exclusively on a religious basis, in the clerical schools, in which their clergy, with the help of the Koran have trained the Dechanin of Usbekistan into devoted slaves. Until the revolution in Usbekistan there were only isolated secular schools, especially such in which the instruction was in Russian.

At the present day the Republic spends a considerable part of its Budget on the education of the people. The network of schools spreads further and further from year to year. In 1925/26 alone, 508 elementary schools were established, 434 being in the “Kischlaki” (villages). In these schools 79,577 children are instructed in their native language. Apart from this, there are at present in Usbekistan 37 technical schools of the trade unions, 39 secondary schools and 2 institutions for higher education, in which 11,900 pupils are being instructed. More than 1000 citizens of Usbekistan are being educated at the Universities of the Soviet Union and other institutions, for higher education which were barred to them before the revolution. Moreover dozens of inhabitants of Usbekistan graduate at the Universities of Western Europe.

The Soviet Government is also making itself responsible for extending the network of hospitals, The Republic spends more than 2,5 million roubles per annum on the preservation of health as against 200,000 roubles allotted to this purpose by the colonisers. Let us then ask ourselves who is actually in control of this young Republic, the territory of which was until recently devastated under the despotic rule of Czarist officials and vassals of the Czar the Emir and the Khan with their dignitaries. In the interval between two Soviet Congresses, the highest authority in the Republic is the Central Executive Committee appointed by the Congress. At present the Central Executive Committee is composed of 29 workers, 152 of the Dechkanin and 17 intellectuals. The Soviet of the People’s Commissaries the executive body of the Government consists of 5 workers, 3 of the Dechkanin and 3 intellectuals. Of the leading personalities in the Soviet institutions of Usbekistan, 90% are natives of Usbekistan, 75% of them belonging to the Dechkanin, 20% being workers and 5% intellectuals.

Under Czarism, the natives of Usbekistan were absolutely excluded from the apparatus of State and the Government, and the official language was Russian and Russian alone. In the Soviet Republic of Usbekistan, the language of the prevailing nationality was introduced into the apparatus of State. The rights of the national minorities however (in Usbekistan there is, apart from the Usbekistans a considerable number almost 25% of other, smaller nationalities) are preserved throughout the country. Thus for instance, among the 1720 Soviets, 477 use the language of the national minority in question, all of them having the same rights as the Usbekistans to be taught in their native language and to other cultural and social institutions. In Usbekistan, which embraces so many nationalities, the national hatred and friction which had developed such intensity under the Czarist regime, have ceased altogether under the Soviet Government with its strict observation of the national rights of each individual national group.

The Soviet Government has freed Usbekistan from the yoke of nationalism. The workers of Usbekistan have, of their own free will and in accordance with their unanimous wish, joined the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics as a Republic possessing equal rights in every respect.

At the present time, the Soviet Republic of Usbekistan is still far behind the other Republics which belong to the Soviet Union. Even today however the brother peoples of the suppressed colonies can learn much from Usbekistan.

By the example of Usbekistan which, under the Soviet Government, has, in the course of three or four years, developed from a subjugated Czarist colony into a flourishing Soviet Republic, they can learn a practical lesson as to the only way which will lead them to freedom.

The New International began as the theoretical organ of the Communist League of America, formed in 1928 by supporters of The International Left Opposition in the Communist Party. The CLA merged with the American Workers Party led by AJ Muste to form the Workers Party of the U.S. in Dec 1935 before intervening in the Socialist Party, at which time this magazine was suspended. After leaving the SP, the main Trotskyist forces formed the Socialist Workers Party in 1938 and resumed publication. In the split of 1940, the State Capitalist/ Bureaucratic Collectivist faction left the Party and held on to the magazine; the SWP then produced ‘The Fourth International’ as their organ of theory.

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