Abstract
This study aims to demonstrate the importance of local ethnic groups in the formation of the party elite of the Soviet period and to study their role status in the modern period of a new post–Soviet elite emergence. The methodology is based on the analysis of domestic and foreign historiography, and public statistical and biographical data concerning the Central Asian elite of the late Soviet and post-Soviet period. In practice, tribalism and clan connections are strongly developed in Central Asia, which has a direct impact on the relationships between various elite groups. The study relies on a survey of 144 respondents under the Central Asia Forecasting project. The causality mechanism underlying the transition from the establishment of a mixed-party elite based on local ethnic groups and client-patronage clan relations in the Soviet republics of Central Asia to a national bureaucratic ethnocracy in the post-Soviet era is substantiated. The importance of this work lies in the study of the significance of representatives of local ethnic groups in the Soviet party elite, which enables an understanding not only of the past but also of contemporary processes in its formation.