Abstract:

This paper focuses on the Soviet authorities' attempts to introduce class policies in Kyrgyz nomadic society in the 1920s. At the time of the Soviet regime's takeover of Kyrgyz society after the Russian Revolution, the predominant identification marker among Kyrgyz was still lineage-based affiliation. In line with their class-based worldview, the Soviet authorities attempted to break down the lineage-based identity marker and supplement it with class consciousness. Focusing on the local elections in Soviet Kyrgyzstan in the 1920s, this paper argues that in a situation where the Bolshevik state lacked an industrial proletariat and an overall working class, they adopted an unconventional approach by exploiting pre-existing lineage tensions. That was achieved by supporting weaker (bukara) lineages against dominant descent groups (manap lineages) in local elections. Using archival materials related to the local elections and Sovietization policies from Bishkek and Moscow, this paper shows that increased intra-lineage tensions in the 1920s were not only the result of raised higher stakes for power competition as previous studies have argued, but instead, it was a competition between the weak bukara lineages supported by the legal provisions of the state and party and the officially castigated strong manap lineages. Aware that weaker lineage groups did not correspond to proper classes nevertheless, the Soviet authorities openly supported them as the lineage equivalent of the “oppressed” classes in the Kyrgyz nomadic context. The objective of elevating weaker lineages was to wrest power from dominant lineages by exploiting pre-existing tensions. To achieve this goal, the Soviet authorities adopted a two-pronged approach, employing both repressive measures against the most influential lineage chieftains and simultaneously promoting marginalized descent groups in Soviet elections. In the long run, the attempts to create lineage proletariats had lasting effects on the Soviet project in Central Asia. The fact that a self-proclaimed socialist regime promoted lineage stratification by exploiting the pre-existing hierarchies to further its cause ultimately contributed to the conservation of lineage identities in the region.