SUMMARY:

The national delimitation of Soviet Central Asia in 1924 embedded a particular interpretation of nationhood into the constitutional structures of the Soviet Union. Pastoral nomadism was still common, and the dichotomy between sedentary and nonsedentary peoples became important in dividing nationalities: Uzbek versus Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Turkmen. But the decision to build territorial national autonomies enhanced the importance of borders, and the logic of internal borders became insensitive to nomadic interests. The eventual project of national delimitation sidelined alternative viable scenarios for rearranging the region’s populations and territories, such as a Central Asian Federation, economic raionirovanie, or embracing a nomadic perspective on space.