The Results of Social and Economic Modernization of the Central Asian National Outskirts of the Russian Empire as a Resource for Forming Ethnic Identities

Abstract

The article considers the process of economic modernization of the Central Asian national outskirts of the Russian Empire (late 19th – early 20th centuries) as a resource for forming ethnic identities. “Social and religious identities” based on class, religion, economic and cultural, regional and local, kin and clan division were characteristic of this ethno-region before the given period of time. The ethno-confessional component identified as Islamic was the top component in the structure of ethnic identity of the region’s population. The way of economic modernization proposed by the Russian Empire significantly changed the economic structure of the traditional societies of the Central Asian region, expanded the industrial and agricultural production, and boosted urban development. Whereas this process objectively expedited the destruction of traditional social structures and relations, created conditions for growing mobility of the population, the development of national schools and mass media, thus forming ethnic self-consciousness and ethnic identity. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s4p119