Wikipedia

Russian Turkestan

Turkestan Governorate-General
Туркестанское генерал-губернаторство (Russian)
Туркестанский край (Russian)
Governorate-General of Russian Empire
1867–1918
Coat of arms of Russian Turkestan, Turkestan Krai
Coat of arms

Location in the Russian Empire
Anthem
Bozhe, Tsarya khrani!
Боже, Царя храни!
"God Save the Tsar!"
CapitalTashkent
DemonymTurkestani
Area 
• 1897 (Russian Empire Census)
1,707,003 km2 (659,078 sq mi)
Population 
5,280,983
History 
• Established
23 July 1867
• Disestablished during the Russian Revolution
30 April 1918
Political subdivisionsOblasts: 5 (since 1897)
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Khanate of Kokand
Turkestan Oblast
Kokand Autonomy
Turkestan ASSR
Today part ofKazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Russian Turkestan[a] was the vast region of Central Asia governed by the Russian Empire, often described by historians as a colonial possession.[1] It was formally organized as the Turkestan Governorate-General[b] in 1867, and was also known as the Turkestan Krai[c] from 1886 onward. For administrative and military purposes, its territory was managed as the Turkestan Military District.

It comprised the oasis regions south of the Kazakh Steppe but excluded the Russian protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva. While these states retained internal autonomy, their independence was largely nominal, as Russia controlled their foreign relations and military affairs.[2] The population consisted primarily of speakers of Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tajik, with a significant Russian settler minority.[3]

History

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Part of a series on the
History of Central Asia
Central Asia
Ancient
Oxus Civilization
Scythia
Dingling/Tiele
Saka
Kangju
Huns
Middle Ages
Sogdians 200s–1000s
Hephthalites 440s–710
Göktürks 552–745
Karluks 665–744
Kimek Khanate 743–1220
Oghuz Yabgu State 750–1055
Kara-Khanid Khanate 840–1212
Qara Khitai 1124–1218
Mongol Empire 1206–1368
Golden Horde 1240s–1446
Modern
Colonization period
Russian Turkestan 1867–1918
Great game period
History of Central Asia XIX a.d.–
Topics
The Defence of the Samarkand Citadel in 1868
Map of the Syr-Darya Oblast in 1872

Establishment

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Main article: Russian conquest of Central Asia

Although Russia had been pushing south into the steppes from Astrakhan and Orenburg since the failed Khivan expedition of Peter the Great in 1717, a more systematic conquest began in the 1850s. After subjugating the Kazakh hordes, Russian forces captured key Kokandi forts, including Ak-Mechet in 1853. However, the most decisive phase of the conquest began in 1865. That year the Russian forces took the city of Tashkent[4] under the leadership of General Mikhail Chernyayev, who expanded the territories of Turkestan Oblast (part of Orenburg Governorate-General). Chernyayev had exceeded his orders (he only had 3,000 men under his command at the time) but Saint Petersburg recognized the annexation in any case. This was swiftly followed by the conquest of Khodzhent, Dzhizak and Ura-Tyube, culminating in the annexation of Samarkand and the surrounding region on the Zeravshan River from the Emirate of Bukhara in 1868.

An account of the Russian conquest of Tashkent was written in Urus leshkerining Türkistanda tarikh 1262–1269 senelarda qilghan futuhlari[d] by Mullah Khalibay Mambetov.[5][6]

Expansion

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See also: Great Game

In 1867, Turkestan was made a separate Governorate-General, under its first Governor-General, Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman. Its capital was Tashkent and it initially consisted of two oblasts (provinces), Syr-Darya Oblast and Semirechye Oblast. In 1868, the Zeravshan Okrug was formed from annexed Bukharan territory; it was reorganized in 1887 into the Samarkand Oblast. To these were added in 1873 the Amu Darya Division (Russian: отдел, romanized: otdel), annexed from the Khanate of Khiva, and in 1876 the Fergana Oblast, formed from the remaining rump of the Kokand Khanate that was dissolved after an uprising in 1875. In 1897, the Transcaspian Oblast (which had been conquered in 1881–1885 by generals Mikhail Skobelev and Mikhail Annenkov) was incorporated into the Governorate-General.[7]

Colonization

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The administration of the region had an almost purely military character throughout. Following Von Kaufman's death in 1882, a committee led by Fedor Karlovich Giers (or Girs), brother of the Russian Foreign Minister Nikolay Karlovich Giers, toured the region and drew up reform proposals, which were implemented after 1886. In 1888 the new Trans-Caspian railway, begun at Uzun-Ada on the shores of the Caspian Sea in 1877, reached Samarkand. Nevertheless, Turkestan remained an isolated colonial outpost. Its administration preserved many features from the previous Islamic regimes, such as Qadis' courts. Russia implemented a system of indirect rule, devolving much power to a "native" administration of local Aksakals (elders or headmen), which created a sharp distinction from the direct governance systems in European Russia. In 1908, Count Konstantin Konstantinovich Pahlen led another reform commission to Turkestan, which produced in 1909–1910 a monumental report documenting administrative corruption and inefficiency. The Jadid educational reform movement originated among Tatars and spread to Central Asia. This modernist Islamic movement advocated for adapting to modernity through new methods of teaching (usul-i jadid), emphasizing secular education and cultural renewal alongside religious studies.

The Russians implemented a policy of deliberately enforcing anti-modern, traditional, and conservative Islamic education to keep the local population in a state of torpor and prevent foreign ideologies from penetrating.[8][9]

Russian rule contributed to the Turkification of the Ferghana and Samarkand Tajiks, replacing their language with Uzbek, resulting in a dominantly Uzbek-speaking Samarkand, whereas decades before Tajik Persian was the dominant language in Samarkand.[10]

Revolt of 1916 and aftermath

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In 1897, the railway reached Tashkent, and in 1906, a direct rail link with European Russia was opened across the steppe from Orenburg to Tashkent. This led to much larger numbers of ethnic Russian settlers flowing into Turkestan than had hitherto been the case, and their settlement was overseen by a specially created Migration Department in Saint Petersburg (Russian: Переселенческое Управление, romanized: Pereselencheskoye Upravleniye, lit. 'Resettlement Administration'). This caused considerable discontent amongst the local population as these settlers took scarce land and water resources away from them. In 1916, discontent boiled over in the Central Asian revolt of 1916. It was sparked by a decree issued on 25 June 1916, that conscripted the native population, previously exempt from military service, into labour battalions for work on the Eastern Front of World War I.[11] Thousands of settlers were killed, which triggered brutal Russian reprisals, particularly against the nomadic population. To escape the Russian reprisals, many Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz fled to China, with the Xinjiang region becoming a key sanctuary for fleeing Kazakhs.[12][8] The Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Kazakhs were all impacted by the 1916 insurrection caused by the conscription decreed by the Russian government.[13][14] Order had not fully been restored by the time the February Revolution took place in 1917. This ushered in a still bloodier chapter in Turkestan's history. In early 1918, the Bolsheviks of the Tashkent Soviet launched an attack on the Kokand Autonomy, leaving an estimated 14,000 local inhabitants dead.[15] Resistance to the Bolsheviks by the local population (dismissed as "Basmachi" or "bandits" by Soviet historians) continued well into the early 1930s.

Administration and demographics

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By 1897, the Turkestan Governorate-General was divided into five oblasts (provinces). The population was overwhelmingly rural, with detailed figures recorded in the 1897 Russian Empire census.[16]

The five oblasts of Russian Turkestan, c. 1900

Population by oblast

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The 1897 census provides a detailed breakdown of the population across the five oblasts.

Population of the Turkestan Governorate-General by Oblast (1897 Census)[16]
Oblast Population Area (km²) Capital
Fergana Oblast 1,572,214 125,978 New Margelan (Skobelev)
Syr-Darya Oblast 1,478,398 197,883 Tashkent
Semirechye Oblast 987,863 442,778 Verny
Samarkand Oblast 860,021 110,812 Samarkand
Transcaspian Oblast 382,487 829,552 Ashgabat
Total 5,280,983 1,707,003 —

Ethnic composition

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Ethnic composition as of the 1897 Russian Empire census[16]
Ethnic group Population Percentage
Uzbeks[e] 1,995,847 37.8%
 
Kazakhs[f] 1,283,351 24.3%
 
Kyrgyz[g] 689,274 13.1%
 
Tajiks 350,397 6.6%
 
Turkmen 281,357 5.3%
 
Russians 199,594 3.8%
 
Other groups[h] 481,163 9.1%
 
Total 5,280,983 100%

Governors-General of Turkestan

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Konstantin von Kaufman, first and longest-serving Governor-General of Turkestan (1867–1882)

The governorate-general was administered by a series of military generals appointed by the Tsar.[17]

Name Tenure Military Rank
Konstantin von Kaufman 1867–1882 General of Infantry
Mikhail Chernyayev 1882–1884 General of Infantry
Nikolai Rozenbakh 1884–1889 General of Infantry
Alexander Vrevsky 1889–1898 General of Infantry
Sergei Dukhovskoi 1898–1901 General of Infantry
Nikolai Ivanov 1901–1904 General of Infantry
Nikolai Tevyashev 1904–1905 Lieutenant General
Dejan Subotić 1905–1906 Lieutenant General
Nikolai Grodekov 1906–1908 General of Infantry
Pavel Mishchenko 1908–1909 General of Cavalry
Alexander Samsonov 1909–1914 General of Cavalry
Fedor Martson 1914–1916 Lieutenant General
Aleksey Kuropatkin 1916–1917 General of Infantry

Soviet rule

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Contemporary Central Asia

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, a Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkestan ASSR) within the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was created in Soviet Central Asia (excluding modern-day Kazakhstan). After the foundation of the Soviet Union, as part of the national delimitation in Central Asia, it was split into the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmenistan) and the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbekistan) in 1924. The Tajik ASSR was established at that time as part of the Uzbek SSR, and was upgraded to a full Soviet Socialist Republic in 1929. In 1936, the Kyrgyz SSR (Kyrgyzstan) was formed from the Kirghiz ASSR, which had been part of the Russian SFSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these republics gained their independence.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Russian: Русский Туркестан, romanized: Russkiy Turkestan
  2. ^ Russian: Туркестанское генерал-губернаторство, romanized: Turkestanskoye general-gubernatorstvo
  3. ^ Russian: Туркестанский край, romanized: Turkestanskiy kray
  4. ^ The conquests made by the Russian army in Turkestan in the years 1262–1269
  5. ^ The 1897 census used the term "Sart" for the sedentary Turkic-speaking population, who are largely identified as modern Uzbeks.
  6. ^ The census termed Kazakhs as "Kirghiz-Kaisaks" to distinguish them from the Kyrgyz people.
  7. ^ The census used the term "Kara-Kirghiz" (Black Kirghiz) for the people now known as Kyrgyz, to differentiate them from the Kazakhs.
  8. ^ Including Ukrainians (42,238), Tatars (55,815), Jews (12,343), Germans (8,526), Poles (3,897), and other minorities.

References

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  1. ^
    • Khalid, Adeeb (2009). "Culture and Power in Colonial Turkestan". Cahiers d'Asie centrale (17/18): 416–418.
    • Schlotter, Antonina (September 18, 2024). ""Wherever the Russian settles in Asia, the country immediately becomes Russian." (Dostoevsky): The "civilizing mission" of the Russian Empire in Central Asia in the 19th century". Copernico: History and Cultural Heritage in Eastern Europe. Retrieved April 1, 2025.
    • Brower, Daniel (2003). Turkestan and the Fate of the Russian Empire (1st ed.). London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 19–21. ISBN 0-415-29744-3.
    • Zajicek, Taylor C. (2022). "The seismic colony: earthquakes, empire, and technology in Russian-ruled Turkestan, 1887–1911". Central Asian Survey. 41 (2): 322–346. doi:10.1080/02634937.2021.1919056 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  2. ^ Becker, Seymour (1968). Russia's Protectorates in Central Asia, Bukhara and Khiva 1865–1924. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
  3. ^ "Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку, губерниям и областям". Demoscope Weekly (in Russian). Retrieved October 17, 2025.
  4. ^ Daniel Brower (November 12, 2012). Turkestan and the Fate of the Russian Empire. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-135-14501-9.
  5. ^ Thomas Sanders (February 12, 2015). Historiography of Imperial Russia: The Profession and Writing of History in a Multinational State. Routledge. pp. 451–. ISBN 978-1-317-46862-2.
  6. ^ Edward Allworth (1994). Central Asia, 130 Years of Russian Dominance: A Historical Overview. Duke University Press. pp. 400–. ISBN 0-8223-1521-1.
  7. ^ Morrison, Alexander (2008). Russian Rule in Samarkand 1868-1910: A Comparison with British India. OUP Oxford. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-954737-1.
  8. ^ a b Andrew D. W. Forbes (October 9, 1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949. CUP Archive. pp. 16–. ISBN 978-0-521-25514-1.
  9. ^ Alexandre Bennigsen; Chantal Lemercier-Quelquejay; Central Asian Research Centre (London, England) (1967). Islam in the Soviet Union. Praeger. p. 15.
  10. ^ Kirill Nourzhanov; Christian Bleuer (October 8, 2013). Tajikistan: A Political and Social History. ANU E Press. pp. 22–. ISBN 978-1-925021-16-5.
  11. ^ ÖZTÜRK, SELİM (May 2012). THE BUKHARAN EMIRATE AND TURKESTAN UNDER RUSSIAN RULE IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA: 1917 - 1924 (PDF) (A Master’s Thesis). Department of International Relations, Bilkent University, Ankara. p. 56-57. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2016.
  12. ^ Sydykova, Zamira (January 20, 2016). "Commemorating the 1916 Massacres in Kyrgyzstan? Russia Sees a Western Plot". The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst.
  13. ^ Sébastien Peyrouse (January 2012). Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-0-7656-3205-0.
  14. ^ Sebastien Peyrouse (February 12, 2015). Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development. Routledge. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-1-317-45326-0.
  15. ^ Khalid, Adeeb (1998). The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia. University of California Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-520-21356-2.
  16. ^ a b c "Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку, губерниям и областям". Demoscope Weekly (in Russian). Retrieved October 17, 2025.
  17. ^ Kassymova, Didar; Kundakbayeva, Zhanat; Markus, Ustina. Historical Dictionary of Kazakhstan. p. 228.

Further reading

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