Correspondents' Correspondence

...And in a move clearly intended to exacerbate the situation, China, which has a common border with the Moslem Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Kirghizia and Kazakhstan, has been conducting a massive propaganda campaign in recent years designed to stir up dissension among fellow Asians under Soviet rule...

...Moreover, visitors to Moslem areas report that the new university-trained professional classes, including Communist Party members, not only retain their mother tongues but cling to a way of life that differs from the model prescribed by the Kremlin...

...For example, an Uzbek historian, in an article printed in his native tongue, wrote about the "national-liberation movement of the Uzbek people" and cited the Russians among various oppressors...

...The majority lives in six Moslem republics located on the periphery of the USSR, in Central Asia and the Caucasus...

...It is perhaps not surprising that Islamic traditions, if not actual religious practices, remain strong in the USSR...

...Some of those involved were said to be the offspring of high-ranking Uzbek Communists...

...Unfortunately, Western universities and government bureaus are poorly equipped linguistically to systematically investigate such sources: Russian remains the standard language of the Sovietologist...

...Indeed, Soviet Central Asia's historic ties with the Middle East and South Asia can be traced back even further, to the time when part of the present Communist territory was ruled by Alexander the Great...

...Ever since the Soviet Party Congress of 1956, the Moscow leadership has sought to exploit these ancient ties in its efforts to woo the nations of the Third World...

...They have their own official tongues—although Russian is promoted as a second language—and the circulation of indigenous publications is currently outstripping that of Russian books and periodicals...

...Today one Soviet citizen in eight is a Moslem, making a total of more than 30 million, and they constitute the country's fastest growing group...

...Information of this kind is difficult to come by, but materials published in the Islamic languages sometimes elude the Russian censors, providing the Western analyst with occasional political and social insights...

...Moslems have succeeded in carving out a considerable measure of independence for themselves since Stalin's death, particularly in the areas of education and cultural activity...

...Soviet Moslems United Nations—During a heated debate in the Security Council last December, Pakistan's President (then the foreign minister) Zul-fiqar Ali Bhutto issued a warning to the Soviet delegate: "Bangla Desh will come to Uzbekistan...

...The one report of major violence to come out so far, however, concerned a series of incidents between Russians and Uzbeks at soccer matches held in Tashkent during the spring of 1969...

...A number of "hooligans"—all with Moslem names—were listed as having been given prison terms...

...Western knowledge of these clashes is still based mainly on unverified rumors, but there have been persistent claims that an unspecified number of Russians were killed, that Russian women were assaulted by Uzbek males, and that troops had to be called in to quell the disturbances...

...It told of a two-day trial that took place in the auditorium of the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute, and referred specifically to events at soccer matches when Russian teams were in town to play the local "Pakhtakor" squad...

...But this exposure has had its price, for the opening of Moslem regions long isolated from outside influences made their inhabitants aware that neighboring countries like Turkey and Afghanistan, though economically backward, nevertheless enjoy sovereignty and freedom from European domination...

...Soviet policy, after all, has undergone quite a shift from the even-handed 1966 "Spirit of Tashkent," named after the city where Premier Kosygin convened the conference that ended the India-Pakistan war over Kashmir...

...In the 11 years between the last two Soviet censuses their number increased by roughly one-half, while the overall Soviet growth rate was only 13 per cent...

...Given their growing nationalist sentiment, though, it seems a safe assumption that Soviet Moslems were shaken by the Kremlin's support for India in its recent war with Pakistan...

...These native intellectuals are now competing with Russians and other Europeans for key bureaucratic posts...

...While Russian hegemony dates to the last century, for more than a thousand years the ancestors of the Uzbeks, Tajiks and other Soviet Moslems were part of the same cultural and religious stream as the Arabs, Turks, Persians, and Islamic peoples of the Indian subcontinent...

...At the very least, in the wake of the India-Pakistan War, an additional issue has been raised to complicate Moscow's relations with its Islamic subjects...

...Smaller Islamic enclaves also exist elsewhere, such as the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Republic in Siberia...

...Of these, Uzbekistan, whose territory zigzags eastward from the Aral Sea almost to the Chinese border, is the most populous...

...He was referring to a phenomenon that has of late been intriguing observers of the Soviet scene: the rise of nationalism among the USSR's Islamic population...

...An item in the pages of an Uzbek newspaper (printed in the Uzbek language only) subsequently gave credence to the rumors...

...Certainly Islamic peoples living outside of Moscow's control, like the Arabs, were sharply critical of the USSR, and the gingerly handling of the hostilities by the official Soviet press in the Moslem republics appears to have reflected native sensitivities on the subject...

...And meanwhile, the growth of this bloc of nationalities, with its burgeoning native elites ready to provide leadership, will continue to increase the pressures for change in a little-known part of the Soviet Union.—James Critchlow...

...One can only speculate at this point about the effect the Egyptian-Soviet rupture may have in the Moslem republics...

...At that time, indigenous press coverage displayed a strong affinity for Pakistan: When Ayub Khan, then Pakistan's President and leader of his country's delegation, attended prayers in one of the few functioning Uzbekistan mosques, the news was given front-page treatment, despite the campaign being waged against the Islamic religion by the Communist propaganda apparatus...

...Countless delegations from the emerging states of Asia and Africa have been brought to places like Tashkent and Alma Ata to admire their economic and social progress...