Syr-Darya Oblast Сыръ-Дарьинская область | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
.svg) Location in the Russian Empire as of 1914 | |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Governorate-General | Turkestan |
| Established | 1867 |
| Abolished | 1917 |
| Capital | Tashkent |
| Area | |
• Total | 504,700 km2 (194,900 sq mi) |
| Population (1897) | |
• Total | 1,478,398 |
| • Density | 2.929/km2 (7.587/sq mi) |
TheSyr-Darya Oblast[a] was one of theoblasts of theRussian Empire, a part ofRussian Turkestan. Its center wasTashkent.
The Syr-Darya Oblast was founded after annexing the northwestern part ofKhanate of Kokand, Chimkent ( established in 1709, declaring independence fromEmirate of Bukhara) and the northwestern part ofKhanate of Khiva (for Amu Darya Okrug at presentKarakalpakstan) in 1867. Khiva wasconquered by the Russians in 1873 who made Sayyid Muhammad Rahim Bahadur Khan IIvassal ruler of the region.[1]
From 1905,Pan-Turkist ideologues likeIsmail Gasprinski aimed to bridge differences among the peoples who spokeTurkic languages, uniting them into one government. This idea was supported byVladimir Lenin, and on April 30, 1918, with support of theBolsheviks inTashkent, theTurkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) was established withTashkent as thecapital. During theRussian Empire, the Turkestan ASSR's territory was governed asTurkestan Krai, theEmirate of Bukhara, and theKhanate of Khiva.
Early Central AsiaBolshevik leaders, the KazakhTurar Ryskulov and the UzbekFayzullah Khojaev, believed all territories would sooner or later be unified into one state, Soviet Turkestan.[2]
Without a tradition of national institutions and consciousness prior to the October Revolution of 1917, Central Asia was divided into “national republics” in 1924.[3]
On October 27, 1924 as a result of the national-territorial reorganisation of Central Asia, most of the Syr-Darya region was transferred to the Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), and on 1 February 1926 to theKyrgyz (Kazakh) ASSR (Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic), still being a part of the RSFSR.[2] The remaining smaller region Tashkent County became a part of theUzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Soviet Union. These borders were not drawn along ethnic or linguistic lines.[4]
The Kirghiz Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic later transformed into theKirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (1936–1990), the Socialist Republic of Kyrgyzstan (1990-1991) and the independentRepublic of Kyrgyzstan (1991).
It borderedTurgay Oblast,Akmola Oblast (the center of which wasOmsk),Semirechye Oblast,Samarkand Oblast,Fergana Oblast (until 1876 asKhanate of Kokand before being annexed by Russia), and the semi-independent states ofKhanate of Khiva andEmirate of Bukhara.
The area was 504,700 km ² (443,442 sq. m. miles). The greatest stretch of longitude - about 1173 kilometers (1100 miles) in width is about - 747 km (700 miles).
Syr-Darya region occupied by about 70% of the total areaTurkestan, and about 25% of theTurkestan province.
Syr-Darya Oblast was originally divided into sixuyezds:
According to the1897 census, the total population was 1,478,398 inhabitants (803,411 men and 674,987 women), including the cities of 205,596. With the exception of the regional city ofTashkent as having 155,673 residents (the most populous city inRussian Central Asia) in the Syr-Darya region of large cities do not.
Source:[5]
| Uyezd | Kazakhs | Sarts | Karakalpaks | Uzbeks | Russians | Tajiks | Ukrainians | Other Turkic People |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 64.4% | 9.8% | 6.3% | 4.3% | 2.2% | ... | ... | 10.7% |
| Aiule-Ata | 90.9% | 0.5% | ... | 3.1% | 1.9% | ... | 1.9% | ... |
| Kazalinsk | 96.7% | 0.4% | ... | 0.03% | 2.0% | ... | ... | ... |
| Perovsk | 97.5% | 1.1% | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| Tashkent | 36.4% | 24.3% | ... | 0.11% | 3.9% | 1.0% | 0.65% | 31.8% |
| Chimkent | 78.8% | 11.2% | ... | 7.3% | ... | ... | 1.5% | ... |
| Petroaleksandrovsk | 24.2% | 0.03% | 47.9% | 17.7% | 1.6% | ... | ... | 7.1% |
With the exception of Russian and some OrthodoxOld Believers and other Europeans, Christians and Jews, the main bulk of the population (96.4%) consists ofMuslims.
Today, the territory of the former Syr-Darya Oblast is in easternUzbekistan and southeastern ofKazakhstan.
41°18′00″N69°16′00″E / 41.3000°N 69.2667°E /41.3000; 69.2667