In October 1924 Central Asia was divided into distinct political entities. The Transcaspian Region and Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkestan ASSR) became the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR), a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, having equal status with e.g. Russian SFSR. During the forced collectivization and other extreme socioeconomic changes of the first decades of Soviet rule, pastoral nomadism ceased to be an economic alternative in Turkmenistan, and by the late 1930s the majority of Turkmen had become sedentary. Efforts by the Soviet state to undermine the traditional Turkmen lifestyle resulted in significant changes in familial and political relationships, religious and cultural observances, and intellectual developments. Thousands of Russians and other Slavs, as well people of various nationalities mainly from the Caucasus, migrated to urban areas of Turkmenia. Turkmenia was industrialized and natural resources were exploited in a limited degree.