Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-250) and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 “The Wastelands”: The Jews of Central Asia -- 2 “We’ll Change Henceforth the Old Tradition”: The Bolshevik Revolution in Central Asia -- 3 “Workers of the World Unite!”: Central Asia and the Nationalities Question -- 4 The Hungry Steppe – The Plans -- 5 The Hungry Steppe (Mirzo-Chul): The Implementation -- 6 Not Only in the Steppes: Building an Urban Proletariat -- 7 Reclaiming the Cultural Wastelands -- End of an Era, and an Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index.

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Zeev Levin seeks to provide a comprehensive picture of government efforts to socialize the Jewish masses in Uzbekistan, a process in which the central Soviet government took part, together with the local, republican and regional administrations and Soviet Jewish activists. This research presents a chapter in the history of the Jews in Uzbekistan, as well as contributing to the study of the socialization process of the Jewish population in the USSR in general. It also contributes to the study of relations among political and government bodies and decision makers. The study is based on archival documents and provides a unique glance at the implementation of Soviet nationalities policy towards Bukharan Jews while comparing it to other national minority groups in Uzbekistan.

Translated from the Hebrew.