After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a popular Western attitude characterized the inevitable changes within the post-Soviet constituent republics as leading toward transition from Communism to Capitalism. The transition to the latter would take place over the course of several years and be accompanied by a transition to more liberal-democratic governments. This thesis argues against such ideas, and claims rather that significant changes are occurring, but that they are hardly uniform throughout Eurasia, and that in the Uzbek case they may be shown to have caused a profound downturn in the socio-economic situation of the rural masses.; Taking a micro-level perspective based on two stints of fieldwork (1993–1994 and 1996) in Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley, the author posits a trend toward repeasantization based on the study of a collective farm (kolkhoz) village. The argument in favor of repeasantization asserts that a process of de-professionalization, or, even, de-modernization, is now replacing the state-controlled development model. More and more people in the cotton-growing rural sector rely on small plots of land as well as petty trade in cheap imported goods to make up for the lack of money and wages once provided by the socialist state. Without significant changes in rural villagers' abilities to secure loans or credit, to say nothing of larger parcels of lands and other needed agrarian inputs, a transformation to Western-style farming seems to be out of the question in near future. Repeasantization, then, signifies a difficulty for rural people to develop profitable, independent activities, even as the state attempts to cut them loose from the social welfare system of collective farm society.; By comparing modern historical vicissitudes, the ways in which socio-cultural life (including demographic features, holidays and life-cycle celebrations) has altered from a decade ago, and the decline of key food resources over the same period, the author provides readers with a number of comparisons as well as instances of repeasantization at the local level. Important parallels and contrasts are drawn between Uzbekistan and other socialist/postsocialist settings, such as China, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Repeasantization is a process whereby the focus of economic activity in villages becomes further centered on households and the pooling of family resources drawn from working the land and engaging in non-productive and non-professional types of work. The work comprises six chapters with an introduction and conclusion.
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