State-building in the Soviet Union and the Idea of the Uyghurs in Central Asia

Nationalists usually emphasise the timeless and primordialist origins of the nation, but states also make conscious efforts to construct nations. Drawing on the case of the Uyghurs, this article shows how states support certain nationalist tendencies and use them - with varying degrees of success - to advance particular ideologies. In the 1930s, as a consequence of Soviet national policy, different ethnicities joined a new Uyghur nation. The state therefore constructed the Uyghurs (together with other ethnic groups) through a political decision. In doing so the state emphasised the primordial aspect of Uyghurdom, however, whereby the nation should have existed from time immemorial and its attributes should be stable and firm. After World War II, both the Chinese government and Uyghur leaders in Xinjiang fighting against that government adopted this Soviet-inspired concept of a united Uyghur nation, and it was also adopted by Uyghurs in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. States have the capacity to construct new nations, but other factors (geographic, political, cultural and intercommunal) can nullify or amplify these efforts. This is evident in southern Kyrgyzstan, where coexistence with Uzbeks has led to the assimilation of the Uyghurs, while in the north the Uyghurs have maintained their cultural characteristics.