Author: Ishiyama, Miya

Annotation: This paper focuses on discussions regarding Tajik people in the Turkistan Communist Party's official newspaper, "Turkiston," and the Samarkand Regional Communist Party's official newspaper, "Zarafshon," conducted between August and September 1924. Starting in early 1924, debates aimed at the National-Territorial Delimitation were underway in Soviet Central Asia. Concrete proposals for the delimitation were centered around the Central Asian Bureau, ultimately leading to the decision in October of the same year to establish the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast. The National-Territorial Delimitation in Central Asia was not a unilateral reform imposed by the Soviet regime. Instead, it was shaped by the intentions of the Russian Communist Central Government and the activities of Central Asian national elites. The discourse on national issues by intellectuals, particularly national elites in Central Asia at the time had a significant impact on the establishment of national republics. In this paper, I examine Communist Party newspapers published in Arabic-script Uzbek to explore what kinds of discussions regarding national and territorial issues were conducted within these publications. The discussions about the National-Territorial Delimitation within the Communist Party organization, centered around the Central Asian Bureau, differed in both purpose and role from those taking place in the national-language Communist Party newspapers. Based on the above, this paper analyzes the role of national-language Communist Party’s official newspapers in Central Asian national formation by focusing on the discussions regarding national and territorial issues concerning the Tajik people in "Turkiston" and "Zarafshon" during the period from August to September, when concrete proposals for the National-Territorial Delimitation were nearing completion.

Keywords: Central Asian National Formation, Media, Nation, National Language, National-Territorial Delimitation, Communist Party’s Newspaper, Turkistan Communist Party, Tajik, “Turkiston”, Uzbek, “Zarafshon”.

Pages in journal: 187 - 196