‘Tajikistan’s Turksib’: infrastructure and improvisation in economic growth of the Vakhsh River valley.
This article analyses the paradoxically central role of a railroad in Soviet economic growth in southern Tajikistan’s Vakhsh River valley during the 1930s. Constructed as a secondary service road of the Vakhshstroi agro-industrial complex, it was not meant to support enterprises throughout the regio...
| Published in: | Central Asian Survey Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 19 - 37 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Mar2017
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=120669586&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 120669586 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 02634937 55K jtl: Central Asian Survey issn: 02634937 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2017 vid: 36 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 120669586 10.1080/02634937.2016.1204533 ppf: 19 ppct: 18 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 120669586 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 120669586 tig: atl: ‘Tajikistan’s Turksib’: infrastructure and improvisation in economic growth of the Vakhsh River valley. aug: au: Reid, Patryk affil: Department of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA su: Vakhsh River Valley (Tajikistan) Central Asia Economic development Consumption (Economics) History of Tajikistan Commodity chains sug: subj: Economic development Consumption (Economics) Vakhsh River Valley (Tajikistan) Central Asia History of Tajikistan Commodity chains keyword: commodity chains economic history infrastructure materialism USSR commodity chains economic history infrastructure materialism USSR ab: This article analyses the paradoxically central role of a railroad in Soviet economic growth in southern Tajikistan’s Vakhsh River valley during the 1930s. Constructed as a secondary service road of the Vakhshstroi agro-industrial complex, it was not meant to support enterprises throughout the region. Because of the republic’s lack of roads, however, unrelated freightage operations gravitated to the Vakhsh Railroad and made it the unintended mediator of the developing geography of Soviet movement. By examining how the narrow gauge line was used in unplanned ways, I find that state building under Stalin was characterized by improvisation in labour and mobility. Furthermore, the material conditions of transportation limited the locations of economic possibility in unanticipated ways. This case demonstrates that studying the use of infrastructure can further historical understanding of causes, effects and chronologies of economic life in the Stalin era. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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