Abstract:

This paper explores the history of cotton ginning during a period of intensification of cotton monoculture in the Tajik SSR, roughly from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. While growing high yields of cotton during these decades in the arid climate of Soviet Central Asia required specific and very detail-oriented forms of labor, water management, and industrial inputs, the work was not complete once the cotton had been harvested. Following the story of the cotton as it left the fields to be ginned (the first step of processing raw cotton where the seeds and fibers are separated), this paper is an exploration of the Soviet state’s attempts to control the procurement and transportation of cotton, while also assuring the quality of the finished cotton fiber and protect the cotton from contamination and fire, which were all too common given the material nature of the product. By looking at these processes and the individuals and institutions involved, this paper argues that the procurement sites and the ginning factories were crucial spaces for the state to manage space and resources, but they also created room for small pockets of professional and industrial experts to receive material and social benefits through their involvement in this stage of the supply chain. Finally, this paper demonstrates how the value of raw cotton and its unique material properties shaped relations between center and periphery in the control of quality and transportation of the raw fiber produced in the Republic.