Geographic Perspectives on Soviet Central Asia (Studies of the Harriman Institute)

In a unique survey, based on new census data, Geographic Perspectives on Soviet Central Asia highlights the region's geographic, economic and ecological problems since 1945. Painting a grim picture, this book investigates how the combination of rapid population growth and declining per capita investment is causing economic conditions to slide in rural areas and encouraging an ecological catastrophe. The authors discuss the effects of low rural out-migration, and show that at current growth rates the rural working-age population will double with each generation. Unprecedented in a developed country, this is causing the region to become more rather than less rural. Soviet Central Asia is an area of low productivity, and the book considers the lack of support from Soviet central government to the region. Wishing to maximise their return to capital and labour, the government is concentrating its investment in the European West and directing insufficient funds for a growing workforce in Central Asia. Soviet Central Asia also faces grave ecological problems; the declining level of the Aral Sea, extensive soil salinization and water pollution, all largely due to past attempts at irrigation. The authors consider the effect of these disasters on the area, and look to future possibilities in this very important region of the world. In a unique survey based on an array of new census data, Geographic Perspectives on Soviet Central Asia highlights the region's geographic, economic and ecological problems since 1945. Painting a grim picture, the book investigates how the combination of rapid population growth and declining per capita investment is causing economic conditions to slide in rural areas and encouraging an ecological catastrophe. The authors discuss the effects of low rural out-migration, and show that at current growth rates the rural working-age population will double with each generation. Unprecedented in a developed country, this is causing the region to become more rather than less rural. Soviet Central Asia is an area of low productivity, and the book considers the lack of support from Soviet central government to the region. Wishing to maximize their return to capital and labor, the government is concentrating its investment in the European West and directing insufficient funds for a growing workforce in Central Asia. Soviet Central Asia also faces grave ecological problems; the declining level of the Aral Sea, extensive soil salinization and water pollution, all largely due to past attempts at irrigation. The authors consider the effect of these disasters on the area, and look to future possibilities in this very important region of the world. Geographic Perspectives on Soviet Central Asia is essential reading for students and researchers of human geography, and will be particularly useful to those interested in Soviet nationalities This book surveys the geography of Soviet Central Asia in the postwar period and highlights geographic issues in the region. Geographic Perspectives on Soviet Central Asia is organized around the unifying themes of integration and the prospects for outmigration of the indigenous population to other parts of the former Soviet Union. The book also covers major geographic issues: regional population growth; the declining level of the Aral Sea; the extent to which investment in Central Asia has been equalized relative to other parts of the former Soviet Union; imperialist tendencies in political integration; geographic segregation by ethnic group and its effect on ethnic processes; the effect of the dominance of investment in primary activities; and the demographic effect of agricultural mechanization. In a unique survey, based on new census data, this book highlights the region's geographic, economic and ecological problems since 1945.