| Turkestan Governorate-General | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governorate-General ofRussian Empire | |||||||||||||
| 1867–1918 | |||||||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||||||
 Location in the Russian Empire | |||||||||||||
| Anthem | |||||||||||||
| Bozhe, Tsarya khrani! Боже, Царя храни! "God Save the Tsar!" | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Tashkent | ||||||||||||
| Demonym | Turkestani | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• 1897 (Russian Empire Census) | 1,707,003 km2 (659,078 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 1897 (Russian Empire Census) | 5,280,983 | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Established | 23 July 1867 | ||||||||||||
• Disestablished during theRussian Revolution | 30 April 1918 | ||||||||||||
| Political subdivisions | Oblasts: 5 (since 1897) | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan | ||||||||||||
Russian Turkestan[a] was the vast region ofCentral Asia governed by theRussian Empire, often described by historians as a colonial possession.[1] It was formally organized as theTurkestan Governorate-General[b] in 1867, and was also known as theTurkestan Krai[c] from 1886 onward. For administrative and military purposes, its territory was managed as theTurkestan Military District.
It comprised the oasis regions south of theKazakh Steppe but excluded the Russian protectorates of theEmirate of Bukhara and theKhanate 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 ofUzbek,Kazakh,Kyrgyz, andTajik, with a significantRussian settler minority.[3]
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Although Russia had been pushing south into the steppes fromAstrakhan andOrenburg since thefailed Khivan expedition ofPeter 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 GeneralMikhail 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) butSaint Petersburg recognized the annexation in any case. This was swiftly followed by the conquest ofKhodzhent,Dzhizak andUra-Tyube, culminating in the annexation ofSamarkand and the surrounding region on theZeravshan River from theEmirate of Bukhara in 1868.
An account of the Russian conquest of Tashkent was written inUrus leshkerining Türkistanda tarikh 1262–1269 senelarda qilghan futuhlari[d] by Mullah Khalibay Mambetov.[5][6]
In 1867,Turkestan was made a separateGovernorate-General, under its first Governor-General,Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman. Its capital was Tashkent and it initially consisted of twooblasts (provinces),Syr-Darya Oblast andSemirechye Oblast. In 1868, the Zeravshan Okrug was formed from annexed Bukharan territory; it was reorganized in 1887 into theSamarkand Oblast. To these were added in 1873 theAmu Darya Division (Russian:отдел,romanized: otdel), annexed from theKhanate of Khiva, and in 1876 theFergana Oblast, formed from the remaining rump of theKokand Khanate that was dissolved after an uprising in 1875. In 1897, theTranscaspian Oblast (which had been conquered in 1881–1885 by generalsMikhail Skobelev andMikhail Annenkov) was incorporated into the Governorate-General.[7]
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 MinisterNikolay Karlovich Giers, toured the region and drew up reform proposals, which were implemented after 1886. In 1888 the newTrans-Caspian railway, begun at Uzun-Ada on the shores of theCaspian Sea in 1877, reached Samarkand. Nevertheless, Turkestan remained an isolated colonial outpost. Its administration preserved many features from the previous Islamic regimes, such asQadis' courts. Russia implemented a system of indirect rule, devolving much power to a "native" administration of localAksakals (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. TheJadid 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 theTurkification 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]
In 1897, the railway reached Tashkent, and in 1906, a direct rail link with European Russia was opened across thesteppe fromOrenburg to Tashkent. This led to much larger numbers of ethnicRussian settlers flowing into Turkestan than had hitherto been the case, and their settlement was overseen by a specially created Migration Department inSaint 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 theCentral 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, intolabour 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 theFebruary Revolution took place in 1917. This ushered in a still bloodier chapter in Turkestan's history. In early 1918, theBolsheviks of theTashkent Soviet launched an attack on theKokand Autonomy, leaving an estimated 14,000 local inhabitants dead.[15] Resistance to the Bolsheviks by the local population (dismissed as "Basmachi" or "bandits" bySoviet historians) continued well into the early 1930s.
By 1897, the Turkestan Governorate-General was divided into fiveoblasts (provinces). The population was overwhelmingly rural, with detailed figures recorded in the1897 Russian Empire census.[16]
The 1897 census provides a detailed breakdown of the population across the five oblasts.
| 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 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% | |
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 |
After theRussian Revolution of 1917, aTurkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkestan ASSR) within theRussian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was created inSoviet Central Asia (excluding modern-dayKazakhstan). After the foundation of theSoviet Union, as part of the national delimitation in Central Asia, it was split into theTurkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmenistan) and theUzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbekistan) in 1924. TheTajik 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, theKyrgyz SSR (Kyrgyzstan) was formed from the Kirghiz ASSR, which had been part of the Russian SFSR. After thecollapse of the Soviet Union, these republics gained their independence.
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