How did Soviet language policies help divide Central Asian peoples?

Soviet language policies were a key component of an "ethno-engineering" strategy designed to prevent the emergence of a unified "Turkistani" national identity, which the Soviet authorities feared could foster Pan-Turkism or Pan-Islamism.12

To divide and rule the region, the Soviets implemented several specific linguistic measures:

• Emphasis on Linguistic Differences: Authorities made strenuous efforts to highlight and exaggerate the differences among the various Turkic languages spoken in the region, effectively discouraging a shared linguistic identity.12
• Creation of Distinct Literary Languages: In the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviets established new literary languages based on local dialects for groups like the Kyrgyz, Bashkir, and others, often without coordinating these projects to ensure mutual intelligibility.3
• Script Manipulation: The Soviets frequently changed the writing systems used for these languages—moving from Arabic script to Roman, and finally to compulsory, modified Cyrillic alphabets. Because these graphic representations differed significantly across languages, written communication between the various Central Asian peoples was severely hindered.3
• Promotion of Russian: Russian was vigorously promoted as the primary language of learning and intercourse, further isolating the local languages from one another and reinforcing Moscow's central control.4