The article is devoted to individual and most significant social and cultural changes in the life of peoples of Central Asia in the first decade of Soviet power. The author emphasizes that the reforms carried out by the Soviet government in the region significantly influenced the further development of Central Asia and were a prerequisite for the emergence of not only national republics within the USSR, but the emergence of modern independent states of Central Asia. The article presents legal acts in the form of decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR and the USSR, which constitute the legal basis for social and cultural changes in the life of the peoples of Central Asia. The article provides data on changes in the procedure for marriage registering, on the status of land ownership of peasants in the region and on significant changes in the public education system. When writing the article, scientific works were analyzed in which the problem of socio-cultural development of the peoples of Central Asia in the studied period was touched upon. The article examines the actions of the Soviet government aimed at the development of social and cultural life in Central Asia. Some aspects of the socio-cultural development of the region in the periods preceding the establishment of Soviet power are touched upon in order to objectively assess the first Soviet reforms in the region. When writing the article, the author used the historical-systemic method of cognition and the principle of historicism.
