Abstract
THE part of Central Asia formerly known vaguely as Russian Turkestan and now comprising several autonomous republics of the Soviet Union is little known and is treated mainly in books which lack recent information. For the main part, it is an area of vast and somewhat arid plains extending southward from Siberia and eastward from the European plain, but it comprises also the mountainous little explored area in which lie much of the Pamirs and allied ranges. Formerly it was a land of sparse population and nomadic tribes, but all that is changing. Soviet influence has begun to develop its resources on a large scale. Irrigation, where possible, has led to agriculture, and the cotton output, not to say its manufacture, is already considerable. Public works, roads, railways and schools have been built, and even in the remoter mountain areas Russian influence is spreading. The author of this small but informative volume gives a clear record of the land and its progress, although his physical introduction is somewhat brief. There are simple but adequate maps and many references to authorities.
L'Asie centrale soviétique et le Kazakhstan
Charles
Steber
Par. Pp. 302. (Paris: Editions Sociales Internationales, 1939.) 35 francs.
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[Short Reviews]. Nature 145, 295 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145295b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145295b0