Connecting the two Easts: Central Asian cultural diplomats and Soviet Internationalism of the late Stalinist era, 1947–1950

Abstract

Central Asia’s interactions with regions outside the Soviet borders during the Cold War have been largely ignored, despite evidence of the vital role it played in Soviet engagement with decolonising nations in Asia, as a model for a developed, decolonized, socialist nation. Central Asia was essential to Soviet cultural diplomacy, as Moscow sought to establish an anti-imperialist alliance with decolonizing countries in Asia and Africa. This paper begins its discussion with the Soviet participation in the 1947 Asian Relations Conference held in Delhi, which marked the first post-WWII occasion in which the socialist republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus represented the Soviet Union abroad. The paper explores the implications of this encounter on the Soviet interpretation of post-WWII Asia and the role of Central Asia in promoting anti-imperialist solidarity domestically and internationally. It also focuses on travel accounts of Tursun-zade and Oybek (Musa Toshmuhammad oʻgʻli), two prominent Central Asian writers who visited India and Pakistan as a part of the Soviet cultural delegates abroad. The writers utilized historical, cultural, and religious symbolism that resonated with the Central Asian population to foster connections between Moscow and Asia, localizing Soviet internationalism and creating a unique identity for Central Asia as the mediator between the Soviet centre (Moscow) and (South) Asia beyond the Soviet borders. By examining how Asia beyond the borders were depicted and how post-WWII Soviet internationalism discourse were integrated into the late-Stalinist republican literature, this paper offers a deeper understanding of the roles Central Asian cultural and intellectual figures played in shaping post-war cultural and international relations.