Who Gets Hired for What?

Abstract

The political implications of the labour situation described above constitute an extremely important issue in Soviet Central Asia, but there is some debate as to just how. As suggested, several Western observers have drawn three main conclusions from Uzbekistan’s labour situation. The first is that in order for this situation to be the case, the indigenous nationalities in Soviet Uzbekistan must undoubtedly be discriminated against in their own republic. These writers feel that the relative failures of Soviet policies to date indicate that these efforts are only verbiage to conceal an overall discriminatory policy against the Central Asians. Because of their implicit strategic nature, it is assumed, most industrial and technical enterprises in Uzbekistan are staffed primarily with Russians and Slays, to ensure greater political reliability and efficiency. Similarly, most of the new industrial cities and regions springing up in Soviet Asia are built along Russian and European lines, dramatically different and alien from the traditions and culture of the local nationalities. Thus, despite the fact that the non-working population may be rising among the indigenous nationalities, these writers feel that entry of the local nationalities into the more modern and labour-deficient sectors is impeded by both blatant and subtle discrimination.