Paper short abstract:

The October Revolution and the creation of the USSR led to the emergence of a new Soviet national policy. The prosed paper will present and analyze the Soviet policy towards Central Asian Gypsies as a specific part of Soviet policy towards minorities.

Paper long abstract:

The October Revolution and the creation of the USSR led to the emergence of a new Soviet national policy, which reflected also on the so-called Central Asian Gypsies. The term Central Asian Gypsies is a cover designation for a heterogeneous set of communities which differs in their origins and identities. Local peoples in Central Asia label them most often as Lyuli or Jughi (in Tajikistan). In fact, the term Lyuli usually indicates from one side the “real” Central Asian Gypsies, whose endonym is Mughat), but also other Intermediate and Gypsy-like communities (such as Mazang, Tavoktarosh / Sogutarosh / Kosatarosh, Agha / Kashgar Lyuli, Kavol, Chistoni, Parya, Balyuj). In addition to these communities, in Central Asia during this period lived also Roma communities (called also European Gypsies). There are available studies of early Soviet policy toward Roma, which however completely neglect their Central Asian counter-part. The prosed paper will attempt to fill this gap. It will present and analyze the Soviet policy towards Central Asian Gypsies as a specific part of Soviet policy towards minorities.

The first steps of Soviet national policy toward the Gypsies (a general umbrella term at that time for both European and Central Asian Gypsies) in the mid-1920s were not met with the response from local authorities in Central Asia. They interpreted the term only as a designation of the Roma living in the region and de facto refused to pursue the policy of the sedentarization of nomads and land allocation in relation to Central Asian Gypsies. However, gradually the situation changed, and the local authorities started to consider also Central Asian Gypsies as a target of the common soviet policy towards Gypsies. As soon as in the 1930s a number of Gypsy kolkhozes were established as well as Gypsy artels in the cities. A new, Gypsy party elite is beginning to emerge, and even activities for Gypsy woman liberation begin to unfold. However, these first steps were discontinued in the late 1930s in view of the overall changes in Soviet nationalities’ policy. The outbreak of World War II finally put end to the Soviet state's affirmative policy on Central Asian Gypsies, and many returned to their old nomadic way of life and traditional occupations.