Kazakhstan–Kyrgyzstan border

236:, or the various Turkmen/Uzbek tribes along the Amu Darya). Local national elites strongly argued (and in many cases overstated) their case and the Soviets were often forced to adjudicate between them, further hindered by a lack of expert knowledge and the paucity of accurate or up-to-date ethnographic data on the region. Furthermore, NTD also aimed to create ‘viable’ entities, with economic, geographical, agricultural and infrastructural matters also to be taken into account and frequently trumping those of ethnicity. The attempt to balance these contradictory aims within an overall nationalist framework proved exceedingly difficult and often impossible, resulting in the drawing of often tortuously convoluted borders, multiple enclaves and the unavoidable creation of large minorities who ended up living in the ‘wrong’ republic. Additionally the Soviets never intended for these borders to become international frontiers as they are today. 80: 514: 505: 598: 71: 193:, a deliberately Machiavellian attempt by Stalin to maintain Soviet hegemony over the region by artificially dividing its inhabitants into separate nations and with borders deliberately drawn so as to leave minorities within each state. The charge is so common as to have become almost the conventional wisdom within mainstream journalistic coverage of Central Asia, with Stalin himself often the one drawing the borders, see for example Stourton, E. in The Guardian, 2010 496: 240: 578: 566: 532: 262:(Kirghiz ASSR, Kirgizistan ASSR on the map), which was created on 26 August 1920 in the territory roughly coinciding with the northern part of today's Kazakhstan (at this time Kazakhs were referred to as ‘Kyrgyz’ and what are now the Kyrgyz were deemed a sub-group of the Kazakhs and referred to as ‘Kara-Kyrgyz’ i.e. mountain-dwelling ‘black-Kyrgyz’). There were also the two separate successor ‘republics’ of the 554: 544: 588: 294:

then exceedingly rapidly. There were initial plans to possibly keep the Khorezm and Bukhara PSRs, however it was eventually decided to partition them in April 1924, over the often vocal opposition of their Communist Parties (the Khorezm Communists in particular were reluctant to destroy their PSR and had to be strong-armed into voting for their own dissolution in July of that year).

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The creation of the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border was hampered by disputes over whether the Kyrgyz (then called ‘Kara-Kirghiz’) were a separate people from the Kazakhs (then called ‘Kirghiz’), or just Kazakhs who happened to be semi-nomadic dwellers of mountainous regions. It was decided that the Kara-Kirghiz

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of the Soviet Union announced that it would proceed with NTD in Central Asia. The process was to be overseen by a Special Committee of the Central Asian Bureau, with three sub-committees for each of what were deemed to be the main nationalities of the region (Kazakhs, Turkmen and Uzbeks), with work

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and the independence of its constituent republics. The two countries began work on demarcating their common boundary in the 1990s and 2000s in a spirit of cooperation that contrasts starkly with much of the other ex-Soviet Central Asian states. A final border treaty was signed on 15 December 2001,

311: 307: 290: 259: 184:“a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture” 286: 250:

NTD of the area along ethnic lines had been proposed as early as 1920. At this time Central Asia consisted of two Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics (ASSRs) within the

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to Aktobe railway crosses through Kyrgyzstan briefly, a legacy of the Soviet era where infrastructure was built without regard to what were then internal boundaries.

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in October 1924, with borders matching those of modern Kyrgyzstan. In 1925 it was renamed the Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast in May 1925, then became the

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of the 1920s, closer analysis informed by the primary sources paints a much more nuanced picture than is commonly presented.

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The Soviets aimed to create ethnically homogeneous republics, however many areas were ethnically mixed (e.g. the

232:) and it often proved difficult to assign a ‘correct’ ethnic label to some peoples (e.g. the mixed Tajik-Uzbek 62:(Kazakhstan's largest city and former capital) is situated just 29 kilometres (18 mi) to the north of it. 756: 79: 1177: 513: 1095: 435: 597: 504: 463: 425: 330:

entering into force in 2008, with the border being demarcated on the ground in the following years.

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Historical English-language maps of the Kazakh SSR–Kyrgyz SSR border, mid to late 20th century:

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it was decided to divide Central Asia into ethnically based republics in a process known as

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The NTD is commonly portrayed as being nothing more than a cynical exercise in

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was a necessary step on the path towards an eventually communist society, and

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and then proceeds in a north-eastwards direction, past Taraz and along the

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