Themes and chapters
Before the twentieth century, central Asia was inhabited mainly by the nomadic
people of the steppes and deserts, and by settled people living in the oases and
river valleys. For thousands of years, the region was a crossroad for the intermingling
of populations, cultures and religions, with a long history of successive
invasions by powerful neighbours, including Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks
and Russians. Central Asia is perhaps best known in the West as the setting for
the ‘Silk Road’ over which trade was conducted between Europe and China
before the inception of the sea route to the east.
During the eighteenth century, the khanates of Bukhara, Kokand and Khiva
retreated into isolation in the face of pressure from Russia and Britain, who
waged a long, largely covert campaign, the ‘Great Game’ (Hopkirk 1990), to
control this region and thus the land route to India. By the late nineteenth
century, however, central Asia had been annexed by the Russian Empire. From
1918 on, Soviet rule brought fundamental social and economic changes. Largescale
movements of population, including the imposition of a ruling Russian
elite and the forced migration of minorities (coupled with rapid urbanization
and collectivization), transformed the region. The present-day borders were
drawn in 1924, when Joseph Stalin divided the region into several nominally
independent republics.
In Chapter 2, on the history and politics in central Asia, Akiner outlines the
massive social engineering undertaken by the Soviet regime, which changed
most aspects of life for people in the region. Although this involved political
and cultural oppression, it also produced substantial benefits, such as the
establishment of a comprehensive health care system. Throughout the Soviet
era, the region continued to be isolated from the outside world, with all contacts
tightly controlled – in part, because it was the location of many elements of
the military–industrial complex. One result of this isolation was to cut these
countries off from developments in medical research, education and clinical
practice in the rest of the world. The removal of central control, following the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, allowed these countries, albeit very
cautiously, to open up to outside ideas and contacts.
To the existing ethnic diversity of the peoples of the region was added huge
numbers of Russian settlers in the nineteenth century, followed in the Stalinist
period with the forced migration of minorities, such as Meshketian Turks, Volga
Germans and Chechens. It so changed the ethnic mix that, by the 1990s, most
of the population of Kazakhstan was non-Kazakh. Although the borders drawn
in 1924 sought to create homogeneous entities, they nonetheless cut across
ethnic groups (Sabol 1995). For example, present-day Uzbekistan contains two
ethnically imbalanced neighbouring cities: Tashkent, which is largely populated
by Uzbeks, and Samarkand, which is largely populated by Tajiks, and the two
are divided by countryside that is largely populated by Kazakhs. Also, the
division of the fertile and densely populated Fergana Valley between Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan remains particularly problematic. Although much
political effort has gone into developing national identities since independence
(Atkin 1993), independence has exposed pre-existing ethnic, regional, religious
and political tensions; in Tajikistan, this has led to outright civil war. The disintegration
of the Soviet Union also led to further population movements, as
many of the people relocated during the Soviet era returned to their places of
origin.
Traditionally, nomadic or pastoral groups in central Asia were organized
according to clan, tribal and regional affiliations, with a clearly defined hierarchy
from the family upwards to the khan (the ruler). During the Soviet era, these
links formed the basis of a parallel system of power, with the purges of the
1930s enabling some groups to eliminate others, thus achieving positions of
power that they have largely retained throughout the political changes. These
clan and regional ties have been extended to encompass other shared experiences.
The pyramid form of societal organization largely remains, however,
whereby loyalty extends upwards to a particular patron or leader and patronage
extends downwards, which has important implications for political and social
institutions and the growth of civil societies.
After independence the republics developed a formal policy of building
more democratic societies. The central Asian states are typified by a governmental
culture of strong presidential rule supported by family and clan ties.
Reference is often made to ancient or mythical leaders such as Genghis
Khan in Kazakhstan, Manas in Kyrgyzstan and Tamerlane in Uzbekistan. In
most republics, the existing leadership has remained in power, albeit with
some relabelling and changes in ideology. Most of the current generation of
political leaders, except for the President of Kyrgyzstan, held high office
during the Soviet era, but nevertheless are seen as the ‘founding fathers’ of
independence. Opposition parties are either weak or, as in Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan, banned. In each republic there was a revival of Islamic beliefs
during the period of perestroika. This revival has continued, although largely
under political control, ostensibly, as in Uzbekistan, to prevent the emergence
of fundamentalism. New constitutions have been drafted and parliamentary and judiciary systems
established in each country, but authority resides mainly with the presidents (Dawisha and Parrott 1997). At the sub-national level, each republic is divided
into oblasts (regions) and rayons (districts), called velayats and etraps, respectively,
in Turkmenistan. Each level has its own elected administration. The president
appoints the governor (hakim) in each oblast; this person wields considerable
power and typically reinforces presidential authority. Any significant changes
to the health care system, therefore, require the backing of the president and
his nominees at the regional level.
The many visible manifestations of change in these countries since independence,
however, range from the newly acquired freedom to travel to
massive advertising campaigns by Western tobacco companies. The isolation
imposed by the Soviet Union gave way to a situation in which visitors from
western Europe are able to fly directly to most capital cities in central Asia.
Some other things have not changed. The earlier rivalry over the land route
to India has given way to a new Great Game, in which a larger constellation
of powers, including China, India, Pakistan, Turkey, the Russian Federation and
the United States, vie with one another for political and commercial clout. This
is mostly driven by the desire for access to the large reserves of natural resources,
such as oil, gas and precious metals.
In Chapter 3, Pomfret outlines the role of central Asia as a producer of raw
material in the Soviet Union division of labour. As the least developed parts
of the Soviet Union (Akhtar 1993), the central Asian republic economies were
based on the production of a few commodities, such as grain, gas and oil in
Kazakhstan, agricultural produce in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, cotton and natural
gas in Turkmenistan, and cotton and gold in Uzbekistan. This lack of diversification
had many adverse consequences, of which the best known is the serious
environmental degradation around the Aral Sea. Moreover, the collapse of the
interlocked Soviet production system brought down the economies of each of
the republics. These countries experienced severe economic depression and
rapid inflation, with negative economic growth until 1995, followed by gradual
improvement, although production is still below pre-independence levels.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, both facing serious balance of payments problems
after independence, soon introduced austerity programmes. Uzbekistan, which
is somewhat better endowed with natural resources than the other central
Asian republics, has pursued a more gradual programme of stabilization.
Tajikistan, beset by civil war for most of this period, was for several years
unable to tackle its serious financial problems, and there has been little attempt
to do so in Turkmenistan. In the first half of the 1990s, real public spending in
these countries declined by about 50–70 per cent. In all five countries, real
economic output, in 1999, remains lower than a decade earlier.
Since independence, poverty has increased dramatically in the five republics.
In Chapter 4, Falkingham shows that over a third of the population of
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are living below the poverty line, based on World
Bank Living Standard Measurement Surveys, with an even higher proportion
in the struggling economies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Because of shrinking
government health budgets, households now pay much more for health care
services (previously virtually free), both in official charges and under-the-table
payments. There is growing evidence that many poor people can no longer
afford access to ‘free’ health care. In Chapter 5, McKee and Chenet analyse patterns of health and disease in
the region. While cautioning that the validity of much of the data is questionable,
they note that life expectancy is similar to that of other countries of the
former Soviet Union, but 10 years less than that in European Union (EU)
countries. The region exhibits some of the worst features of both developed
and developing countries, with high rates of heart disease and childhood
infections. This pattern indicates the importance of strengthening health promotion
and primary health care.
In Chapter 6, Field examines the legacy of the Soviet health care system that
was implemented in all the republics. Although the central Asian countries
share many similarities, some differences have emerged since independence,
รูปแบบและบทก่อนศตวรรษที่ยี่สิบ เอเชียกลางอาศัยอยู่ส่วนใหญ่ โดยที่ nomadicคน steppes และทะเลทราย และคนจ่ายเงินใน oases แห่งนี้ และโด่ง พัน ๆ ปี ภูมิภาคครอสโรดสำหรับการ interminglingวัฒนธรรม และ ศาสนา มีประวัติยาวนานของต่อเนื่องรุกราน โดยเพื่อนที่มีประสิทธิภาพ Persians กรีก อาหรับ เติร์กรวมทั้งและนี่ เอเชียกลางเป็นทีรู้จักกันดีในการตั้งค่า'บอ' ที่วิธีทางการค้าระหว่างยุโรปและจีนก่อนที่จะเริ่มจากเส้นทางทะเลฝั่งตะวันออกในช่วงศตวรรษ eighteenth, khanates Bukhara โกกันด์ และ Khivaถอยกรูดอย่างเข้าแยกหน้าความดันจากรัสเซียและสหราชอาณาจักร ที่แคมเปญยาว ส่วนใหญ่แอบแฝง 'ดีเกม' (Hopkirk 1990), ต่อสู้กับควบคุมภูมิภาคนี้ และเส้นทางแผ่นดินอินเดีย โดยปั้นจั่นสายเซ็นจูรี่ ไร เอเชียกลางได้ถูก annexed โดยจักรวรรดิรัสเซีย จาก1918 บน กฎสหภาพโซเวียตนำการเปลี่ยนแปลงทางสังคม และเศรษฐกิจพื้นฐาน Largescaleความเคลื่อนไหวของประชากร การรวมของหุรัสเซียอีลิทและโยกย้ายประชากรของคมิ (ควบคู่กับความเป็นเมืองอย่างรวดเร็วและโจเซฟ), เปลี่ยนภูมิภาค ขอบเหตุการณ์ได้วาดใน 1924 เมื่อโจเซฟสตาลินแบ่งออกเป็นภูมิภาคต่าง ๆ เมื่อชาติอิสระในบทที่ 2 ประวัติศาสตร์และการเมืองในเอเชียกลาง Akiner สรุปการวิศวกรรมสังคมขนาดใหญ่ที่ดำเนินการ โดยระบอบโซเวียต การเปลี่ยนแปลงลักษณะส่วนใหญ่ของชีวิตสำหรับคนในภูมิภาค ถึงแม้ว่านี้เกี่ยวข้องกับการเมืองและกดขี่ทางวัฒนธรรม มันยังผลิตประโยชน์ เช่นการจัดระบบดูแลสุขภาพครอบคลุม ตลอดโซเวียตยุค ภูมิภาคต่อการถูกแยกจากโลกภายนอก กับผู้ติดต่อทั้งหมดควบคุมอย่างเข้มงวด – บางส่วน เนื่องจากเป็นที่ตั้งขององค์ประกอบต่าง ๆ ของทหาร – อุตสาหกรรมคอมเพล็กซ์ ผลหนึ่งแยกนี้ถูกตัดเหล่านี้ประเทศออกจากการพัฒนาวิจัยทางการแพทย์ การศึกษา และวิจัยทางคลินิกปฏิบัติในส่วนเหลือของโลก การกำจัดควบคุม ตามการล่มสลายของสหภาพโซเวียตในพ.ศ. 2534 อนุญาตให้ประเทศเหล่านี้ แม้ว่ามากเดิน เปิดขึ้นไปภายนอกความคิดและติดต่อหลากหลายชนเผ่าที่มีอยู่ของชนชาติของภูมิภาคที่เพิ่มมากหมายเลขของรัสเซียตั้งถิ่นฐานในศตวรรษที่ผ่านมา ตามใน Stalinist ที่รอบระยะเวลา มีการย้ายที่บังคับของคมิ เช่น Meshketian เติร์ก วอลกาชาวเยอรมันและ Chechens มันเปลี่ยนแปลงดังนั้นชาติพันธุ์ผสมที่ โดยปี 1990 ที่สุดประชากรของประเทศคาซัคสถานไม่ใช่คาซัค แม้ว่าเส้นขอบวาดในการสร้างเอนทิตีเหมือน 1924 พวกเขากระนั้นตัดข้ามกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ (Sabol 1995) ตัวอย่าง อุซเบกิสถานเหตุการณ์ประกอบด้วยสองเมืองมัก imbalanced เพื่อน: ทาชเคนต์ ซึ่งเป็นประชากรส่วนใหญ่by Uzbeks, and Samarkand, which is largely populated by Tajiks, and the twoare divided by countryside that is largely populated by Kazakhs. Also, thedivision of the fertile and densely populated Fergana Valley between Uzbekistan,Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan remains particularly problematic. Although muchpolitical effort has gone into developing national identities since independence(Atkin 1993), independence has exposed pre-existing ethnic, regional, religiousand political tensions; in Tajikistan, this has led to outright civil war. The disintegrationof the Soviet Union also led to further population movements, asmany of the people relocated during the Soviet era returned to their places oforigin.Traditionally, nomadic or pastoral groups in central Asia were organizedaccording to clan, tribal and regional affiliations, with a clearly defined hierarchyfrom the family upwards to the khan (the ruler). During the Soviet era, theselinks formed the basis of a parallel system of power, with the purges of the1930s enabling some groups to eliminate others, thus achieving positions ofpower that they have largely retained throughout the political changes. Theseclan and regional ties have been extended to encompass other shared experiences.The pyramid form of societal organization largely remains, however,whereby loyalty extends upwards to a particular patron or leader and patronageextends downwards, which has important implications for political and socialinstitutions and the growth of civil societies.After independence the republics developed a formal policy of buildingmore democratic societies. The central Asian states are typified by a governmentalculture of strong presidential rule supported by family and clan ties.Reference is often made to ancient or mythical leaders such as GenghisKhan in Kazakhstan, Manas in Kyrgyzstan and Tamerlane in Uzbekistan. Inmost republics, the existing leadership has remained in power, albeit withsome relabelling and changes in ideology. Most of the current generation ofpolitical leaders, except for the President of Kyrgyzstan, held high officeduring the Soviet era, but nevertheless are seen as the ‘founding fathers’ ofindependence. Opposition parties are either weak or, as in Turkmenistan andUzbekistan, banned. In each republic there was a revival of Islamic beliefsduring the period of perestroika. This revival has continued, although largelyunder political control, ostensibly, as in Uzbekistan, to prevent the emergenceof fundamentalism. New constitutions have been drafted and parliamentary and judiciary systemsestablished in each country, but authority resides mainly with the presidents (Dawisha and Parrott 1997). At the sub-national level, each republic is dividedinto oblasts (regions) and rayons (districts), called velayats and etraps, respectively,in Turkmenistan. Each level has its own elected administration. The presidentappoints the governor (hakim) in each oblast; this person wields considerablepower and typically reinforces presidential authority. Any significant changesto the health care system, therefore, require the backing of the president andhis nominees at the regional level.The many visible manifestations of change in these countries since independence,however, range from the newly acquired freedom to travel tomassive advertising campaigns by Western tobacco companies. The isolationimposed by the Soviet Union gave way to a situation in which visitors fromwestern Europe are able to fly directly to most capital cities in central Asia.Some other things have not changed. The earlier rivalry over the land routeto India has given way to a new Great Game, in which a larger constellationof powers, including China, India, Pakistan, Turkey, the Russian Federation andthe United States, vie with one another for political and commercial clout. Thisis mostly driven by the desire for access to the large reserves of natural resources,such as oil, gas and precious metals.In Chapter 3, Pomfret outlines the role of central Asia as a producer of rawmaterial in the Soviet Union division of labour. As the least developed partsof the Soviet Union (Akhtar 1993), the central Asian republic economies werebased on the production of a few commodities, such as grain, gas and oil inKazakhstan, agricultural produce in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, cotton and naturalgas in Turkmenistan, and cotton and gold in Uzbekistan. This lack of diversification
had many adverse consequences, of which the best known is the serious
environmental degradation around the Aral Sea. Moreover, the collapse of the
interlocked Soviet production system brought down the economies of each of
the republics. These countries experienced severe economic depression and
rapid inflation, with negative economic growth until 1995, followed by gradual
improvement, although production is still below pre-independence levels.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, both facing serious balance of payments problems
after independence, soon introduced austerity programmes. Uzbekistan, which
is somewhat better endowed with natural resources than the other central
Asian republics, has pursued a more gradual programme of stabilization.
Tajikistan, beset by civil war for most of this period, was for several years
unable to tackle its serious financial problems, and there has been little attempt
to do so in Turkmenistan. In the first half of the 1990s, real public spending in
these countries declined by about 50–70 per cent. In all five countries, real
economic output, in 1999, remains lower than a decade earlier.
Since independence, poverty has increased dramatically in the five republics.
In Chapter 4, Falkingham shows that over a third of the population of
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are living below the poverty line, based on World
Bank Living Standard Measurement Surveys, with an even higher proportion
in the struggling economies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Because of shrinking
government health budgets, households now pay much more for health care
services (previously virtually free), both in official charges and under-the-table
payments. There is growing evidence that many poor people can no longer
afford access to ‘free’ health care. In Chapter 5, McKee and Chenet analyse patterns of health and disease in
the region. While cautioning that the validity of much of the data is questionable,
they note that life expectancy is similar to that of other countries of the
former Soviet Union, but 10 years less than that in European Union (EU)
countries. The region exhibits some of the worst features of both developed
and developing countries, with high rates of heart disease and childhood
infections. This pattern indicates the importance of strengthening health promotion
and primary health care.
In Chapter 6, Field examines the legacy of the Soviet health care system that
was implemented in all the republics. Although the central Asian countries
share many similarities, some differences have emerged since independence,
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