Transcaspian Oblast Закаспійская область | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
.svg) Location in the Russian Empire | |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Governorate-General | Turkestan |
| Established | 1881 |
| Abolished | 1921 |
| Capital | Askhabad |
| Area | |
• Total | 605,150.93 km2 (233,650.08 sq mi) |
| Population (1897) | |
• Total | 382,487 |
| • Density | 0.632052/km2 (1.63701/sq mi) |
TheTranscaspian Oblast,[a] or simplyTranscaspia,[b] was anoblast of theRussian Empire and earlySoviet Russia to the east of theCaspian Sea during the second half of the 19th century until 1924.
It was bounded to the south byIran'sKhorasan Province andAfghanistan, to the north by the formerUral Oblast of the Russian Empire, and to the northeast by the former Russianprotectorates ofKhiva andBukhara. Part ofRussian Turkestan, it corresponded roughly to the territory of present-dayTurkmenistan and southwesternKazakhstan.
The name of the oblast (literally, 'Beyond [the] Caspian') is explained by the fact that until the construction of theTrans-Aral Railway in the early 20th century the easiest way to reach this oblast from central Russia (or from RussianTranscaucasia) was across the Caspian Sea, by boat fromAstrakhan orBaku.
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Transcaspia wasconquered by Russia in 1879–1885, in a series of campaigns led by GeneralsNikolai Lomakin,Mikhail Skobelev, andMikhail Annenkov. The construction of theTranscaspian Railway was started from the shores of theCaspian in 1879 in order to secure Russian control over the region and provide a rapid military route to the Afghan border. In 1885 a crisis was precipitated by the Russian annexation of thePanjdeh oasis, to the south ofMerv, which nearly led to war withBritain, as it was thought that the Russians were planning to march on toHerat in Afghanistan.[1] Until 1898 Transcaspia was part of theGovernor-Generalship of theCaucasus Viceroyalty administered fromTiflis,[2] but in that year it was made an oblast ofRussian Turkestan governed fromTashkent. The best known military governor to have ruled the region fromAshkhabad was probably GeneralKuropatkin, whose authoritarian methods and personal style of governance made the province very difficult for his successors to control. Consequently, the administration of Transcaspia became a byword for corruption and brutality within Russian Turkestan, as Russian administrators turned their districts into petty fiefdoms and extorted money from the local population.[3] These abuses were fully exposed by thePahlen Report of 1908–1910.
During the revolutionary period of 1917 to 1919, parts of Transcaspia werebriefly occupied by British Indian forces fromMeshed. The oblast was one of the last centres ofBasmachi resistance to Bolshevik rule, with the last of the rebelliousTurkmen fleeing across the border to Afghanistan and Iran in 1922 and 1923.
As of 1897, 382,487 people populated the oblast.Turkmens constituted the majority of the population, and significant minorities wereKazakhs andRussians. The totalTurkic-speaking population was 328,059 (85.8%).
According to the1897 Russian census, the ethnic groups by population were:[4]
| Ethnic group | Population | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Turkmens | 248,651 | 65% |
| Kazakhs | 74,225 | 19.4% |
| Russians | 27,942 | 7.3% |
| Persians | 8,015 | 2.1% |
| Total | 382,487 | 100% |
Ethnic groups by percentage of the Transcaspian population according to the 1897 census:[4]
| Okrug (district) | Turkmens | Kazakhs | Russians | Persians |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashgabat | 73.1% | - | 12.8% | 3.3% |
| Krasnovodsk | 62.4% | 19.3% | 9.7% | 3.4% |
| Mangyshlak (centred onFort-Aleksandrovsk) | 4% | 93% | 2.6% | - |
| Merv | 88% | - | 4.5% | 0.8% |
| Tejen | 82% | - | 7.9% | 4.1% |
| Total | 65% | 19.4% | 7.3% | 2.1% |
Ethnic groups by population in Transcaspia according to the 1897 census:[4]
| Okrug | Turkmens | Kazakhs | Russians | Persians |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashgabat | 67,443 | 22 | 11,763 | 3,206 |
| Krasnovodsk | 33,529 | 10,394 | 5,222 | 1,822 |
| Mangyshlak | 2,767 | 63,795 | 1,795 | 6 |
| Merv | 104,980 | 11 | 5,321 | 964 |
| Tedjen | 39,932 | 3 | 3,841 | 2,017 |
| Total | 248,651 | 74,225 | 27,942 | 8,015 |
37°57′00″N58°23′00″E / 37.9500°N 58.3833°E /37.9500; 58.3833