Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865--1923
Publication Year: 2007
This intensively researched urban study dissects Russian Imperial and early Soviet rule in Islamic Central Asia from the diverse viewpoints of tsarist functionaries, Soviet bureaucrats, Russian workers, and lower-class women as well as Muslim notables and Central Asian traders. Jeff Sahadeo's stimulating analysis reveals how political, social, cultural, and demographic shifts altered the nature of this colonial community from the tsarist conquest of 1865 to 1923, when Bolshevik authorities subjected the region to strict Soviet rule. In addition to placing the building of empire in Tashkent within a broader European context, Sahadeo's account makes an important contribution to understanding the cultural impact of empire on Russia's periphery.
Published by: Indiana University Press
Download PDF (45.1 KB)
Download PDF (43.0 KB)
I owe debts of gratitude to many people and organizations that assisted me in this project’s realization. Musallam Juraev and Ergash Umarov offered invaluable aid to navigate Tashkent’s libraries and archives. I encountered friendliness...
Note on Transliteration
Download PDF (72.6 KB)
Just as this work involves the encounter between two cultures, it involves the encounter between two languages. I have wrestled with issues of transliteration for some time. I employed the standard Library of Congress system to render Russian...
Download PDF (82.4 KB)
“If I die as governor-general,” read the words of K. P. fon Kaufman on a monument erected to his memory in the center of Russian Tashkent in 1910, “please bury me here, so that all may know that here is true Russian soil, where no Russian...
Prologue: Tashkent before the Russians and the Dynamics of Conquest
Download PDF (135.9 KB)
On the eve of the 1865 Russian conquest, Tashkent was a center of trade in Inner Asia. Active artisanal and manufacturing sectors profited from the city’s position along routes linking neighboring khanates and extending to...
1. Ceremonies, Construction, and Commemoration
Download PDF (964.7 KB)
Residents of the new “Russian section” of Tashkent anxiously awaited the arrival of Konstantin Petrovich fon Kaufman, the first governorgeneral of the province of Turkestan, on November 7, 1867. Tashkent was to become the administrative...
2. Educated Society, Identity, and Nationality
Download PDF (145.5 KB)
Tashkent Russians reached beyond ceremonies to frame values and roles in colonial society. Leading administrators and intellectuals engaged in a search to define the character and purpose of their endeavors on the frontier, at once part...
3. Unstable Boundaries: The Colonial Relationship and the 1892 “Cholera Riot”
Download PDF (278.4 KB)
On June 24, 1892, a Central Asian crowd crossed the Ankhor canal into the Russian section of Tashkent. The crowd sought to prevent Muhammad Yaqub, Asian Tashkent’s chief administrator, from meeting City Commandant Stepan R. Putintsev. Muhammad Yaqub intended to report widespread...
4. Migration, Class, and Colonialism
Download PDF (258.1 KB)
“The growth of Tashkent has engendered the development of a proletariat, the inevitable evil of all European societies, the dark, reverse side of our civilization. It will be easier to combat this evil now, before it lays its tenacious roots.”1 N. A. Maev printed this...
5. The Predicaments of “Progress,” 1905–1914
Download PDF (314.5 KB)
On November 24, 1905, the Tashkent newspaper Sredneaziatskaia Zhizn’ featured an article entitled “Down with Progress.” Its author stressed the dangers of recent political changes to Russia’s quest to bring “culture” and “civilization” to Central...
6. War, Empire, and Society, 1914–1916
Download PDF (153.7 KB)
A large crowd of Russian women gathered around the store of local merchant Paizu Umirzakov in the early morning of October 22, 1916. Rumors had circulated that Umirzakov was withholding large supplies of meat, then in extremely...
7. Exploiters or Exploited? Russian Workers and Colonial Rule, 1917–1918
Download PDF (137.6 KB)
Social tensions in Tashkent, as across the Russian empire, exploded in the revolutions of 1917. The colonial environment posed special challenges for Russians and Central Asians alike. In the aftermath of the sudden collapse of tsarist power, Tashkent Russians...
8. “Under a Soviet Roof”: City, Country, and Center,1918–1923
Download PDF (138.9 KB)
This summer 1920 analysis by the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party revealed continuing frustration at Tashkent Russians’ ability to maintain imperial privileges even as Bolshevik representatives from Moscow purged and...
Download PDF (65.9 KB)
Governor-General K. P. fon Kaufman and the first generation of tsarist administrators in Tashkent began their mission with confidence. Imperial rule in Central Asia could bear witness to a state now ready, in the wake of the Great Reforms, to assume...
Download PDF (38.4 KB)
Download PDF (253.7 KB)
Download PDF (144.3 KB)
Download PDF (97.5 KB)
Page Count: 336
Illustrations: 17 b&w illus., 4 maps
Publication Year: 2007