Soviet Practices Of (B)Ordering: Mapping Blur Borders And Identity Crisis In Post-Soviet Fergana Valley, Central Asia

Abstract

Fergana Valley, inter-twined among Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, is an identity tinderbox wherein complex territorial (b)ordering have been igniting ethnic unrest, humanitarian crises, and marginalities for more than three decades. Historically, the valley was known for its openness. The research, therefore, investigates how did the conventional habitat of inclusiveness and identity harmony of the Fergana valley turned into ethnic intolerance in the post-independence period? The paper critically evaluates a century-long colonial process and identity policies of the Soviet Union towards its ‘near-abroad’ -Central Asia- with special reference to politics of (b)ordering in Fergana Valley and finds its snowball effects on the politico-economic and socio-cultural milieu of indigenous identities. The study contributes snowball modelling of Fergana conundrum under qualitative research design with hybrid-thematic analysis and concludes that the dynamics of the Fergana region cannot be fully explained by the traditional Westphalian model of nation-state bordering, which was (in-)advertently applied by Soviet political elites and contributed to prolonged identity crises among the Fergana valley states in the post-Soviet era.