On the Issue of Integrated Development of Water Resources of the Central Asian Republics of the USSR in the Post-War Years (1945–1991)

Relevance. Issues of integrated use of water resources in Central Asia have traditionally been considered since the republics of the region declared their independence, but the historical part of this problem is still poorly explored.
The purpose of the article is to highlight the main reasons for the construction of hydroelectric power stations in Central Asia in the post-war period, as well as the role of irrigated agriculture in the integrated development of water resources in Central Asia. The territorial framework covers the modern borders of the Central Asian countries.
Objectives: to consider the prerequisites for the integrated use of water resources in Central Asia, the increasing role of irrigated agriculture (cotton growing) over the energy use of water resources (construction of hydroelectric power plants).
Methodology. The methodological basis was the principle of historicism, comparative-historical chronological and logical approaches.
Results. The author attempts to generalize a variety of literary and archival sources, and highlights the role of irrigated agriculture in the integrated development of water resources both in the interests of irrigation and in the interests of energy.
Conclusions. Despite the integrated use of water resources in Central Asia by the government of the Soviet Union, the interests of hydropower were infringed in favor of the interests of irrigated agriculture. The practical monopoly of the Ministry of Water Resources of the USSR led to the irrational use and distribution of water resources in the region. As a result, this caused the drying up of the Aral Sea, and the transformation of the upstream countries (Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) into reservoirs for the downstream countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan). Hydroelectric power stations in the post-war period in the upstream countries were built not in the interests of electrification of the same republics (as was planned by the GOELRO Plan), but for the accumulation of water resources in the winter and irrigation of the irrigated lands of the downstream countries in the summer (vegetation period).

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