The Golodnaya Steppe: A Russian Irrigation Venture in Central Asia

HE Golodnaya Steppe irrigation project in Soviet Central Asia shows a remarkable continuity in purpose and method from the midnineteenth century to the present. No discernible break was caused by the advent of Soviet power in 1917. On the contrary, Soviet policy has been simply an extension of Czarist policy, and the methods of achieving the aims of this policy have shown little change. The use of machinery has replaced the mass use of human labor, canals are now lined with concrete, and a drainage system has been constructed, but basically the enlargement of the irrigated area of the Golodnaya Steppe is being achieved by the development of the canal system begun by the Czarist authorities.

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