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Turkmenistan
Sovereignty and Independence
Beginning in the 1930s, Moscow kept the republic under firm
control. The nationalities policy of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union (CPSU) fostered the development of a Turkmen political
elite and promoted Russification. Slavs, both in Moscow and Turkmenistan,
closely supervised the national cadre of government officials
and bureaucrats; generally, the Turkmen leadership staunchly supported
Soviet policies. Moscow initiated nearly all political activity
in the republic, and, except for a corruption scandal in the mid-1980s,
Turkmenistan remained a quiet Soviet republic. Mikhail S. Gorbachev's
policies of glasnost (see Glossary) and perestroika
(see Glossary) did not have a significant impact on Turkmenistan.
The republic found itself rather unprepared for the dissolution
of the Soviet Union and the independence that followed in 1991.
When other constituent republics of the Soviet Union advanced
claims to sovereignty in 1988 and 1989, Turkmenistan's leadership
also began to criticize Moscow's economic and political policies
as exploitative and detrimental to the well-being and pride of
the Turkmen. By a unanimous vote of its Supreme Soviet, Turkmenistan
declared its sovereignty in August 1990. After the August 1991
coup attempt against the Gorbachev regime in Moscow, Turkmenistan's
communist leader Saparmyrat Niyazov called for a popular referendum
on independence. The official result of the referendum was 94
percent in favor of independence. The republic's Supreme Soviet
had little choice other than to declare Turkmenistan's independence
from the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Republic of
Turkmenistan on October 27, 1991.
Data as of March 1996
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