Russian Turkestan

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Russian Turkestan

Russian Turkestan , also known as Western Turkestan or Turkestanskiy Krai (????????????? ????), was the western part of Turkestan

Turkestan

Turkestan is a region in Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by Turkic peoples. It has been referenced in many Turkic and Persian sagas and is an integral part of Turan ....
within the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
(administered as a Krai or Governor-Generalship

Guberniya

Guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of Imperial Russia, usually translated as government, governorate, or province. A guberniya was ruled by a governor or , a word borrowed from Latin , in turn from Greek ....
), comprising the oasis region to the south of the Kazakh

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
steppes, but not the protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara

Emirate of Bukhara

The Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana....
and the Khanate of Khiva

Khanate of Khiva

The Khanate of Khiva was the name of a Central Asian state that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Persian occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740?1746....
.

ough Russia had been pushing south into the steppes from Astrakhan

Astrakhan

Astrakhan is a major types of inhabited localities in Russia in southern European Russia and the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast. The city lies on the Volga River, close to where it discharges into the Caspian Sea....
and Orenburg

Orenburg

Orenburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast in the Volga Federal District of Russia....
since the failed Khivan expedition

Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky

Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky was a Imperial Russia officer of Circassian origin who led the first Russian military expedition into Central Asia....
of Peter the Great

Peter I of Russia

Peter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V of Russia....
in 1717, the beginning of the Russian colonial conquest of Turkestan is normally dated to 1865, when the city of Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the Capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million....
fell to a force under General Mikhail Chernyayev

Mikhail Chernyayev

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Russian Turkestan , also known as Western Turkestan or Turkestanskiy Krai (????????????? ????), was the western part of Turkestan

Turkestan

Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
(administered as a Krai or Governor-Generalship

Guberniya

Kazakhstan

Emirate of Bukhara

Khanate of Khiva

History

Although Russia had been pushing south into the steppes from Astrakhan

Astrakhan

Orenburg

Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky

Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky was a Imperial Russia officer of Circassian origin who led the first Russian military expedition into Central Asia....
of Peter the Great

Peter I of Russia

Tashkent

Mikhail Chernyayev

Mikhail Grigorievich Chernyayev was a Imperial Russia general, who, together with Konstantin Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev, led the Russian conquest of Central Asia under Alexander II of Russia....
. Chernyayev had exceeded his orders (he only had 3,000 men under his command at the time) but Saint Petersburg

Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
recognised the annexation in any case. This was swiftly followed by the conquest of Khodzhent

Khujand

Khujand , also transliterated as Khudzhand, , formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1939 and Leninabad until 1992, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan....
, Dzhizak

Jizzakh

Jizzakh is a city and the center of Jizzakh Province in Uzbekistan, northeast of Samarkand.Jizzakh was an important Silk Road junction on the road connecting Samarkand with Fergana Valley....
and Ura-Tyube, culminating in the annexation of Samarkand

Samarkand

Samarkand , is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province.The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study....
and the surrounding region on the Zeravshan River from the Emirate of Bukhara

Emirate of Bukhara

Turkestan

Guberniya

Guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of Imperial Russia, usually translated as government, governorate, or province. A guberniya was ruled by a governor or , a word borrowed from Latin , in turn from Greek ....
, under its first Governor-General, Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman

Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman

Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman was the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan....
. Its capital was Tashkent and it consisted initially of three oblasts (provinces): Syr Darya

Syr Darya

Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water....
, Semirechye and the Zeravshan Okrug

Okrug

Okrug is an administrative division of some Eastern European Slavic peoples states. The word "okrug" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "district", or "region"....
(Military Region). To these were added in 1873 the Amu Darya

Amu Darya

The Amu Darya is the longest river in Central Asia. Its name is sometimes represented in a single word, Amudarya .Amu is said to have come from the city of Amul, now known as T?rkmenabat....
Division , annexed from the Khanate of Khiva

Khanate of Khiva

Fergana

Fergana or Farghana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan....
Oblast

Oblast

Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic peoples countries and in some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"....
, formed from the remaining rump of the Kokand Khanate

Khanate of Kokand

The Khanate of Kokand was a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709–1876 within the territory of modern Uzbekistan, southern Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan....
that was dissolved after an uprising in 1875. In 1894 the Transcaspian Region

Transcaspian Region

Transcaspian Region , or Transcaspia, is the name used from the second half of the 19th century until 1924 for the Russian territory to the east of the Caspian Sea, bounded to the south by Iran's Khorasan Province and Afghanistan, to the north by the former Russian province of Uralsk, and to the northeast by the former Russian protector...
, which had been conquered in 1881-1885 by Generals Mikhail Skobelev

Mikhail Skobelev

Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev was a Russian general famous for his conquest of Central Asia and heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78....
and Mikhail Annenkov, was added to the Governor-Generalship.

The administration of the region had an almost purely military character throughout. Von Kaufman died in 1882, and a committee under Fedor Karlovich Giers (or Girs, brother of the Russian Foreign Minister Nikolay Karlovich Giers

Nicholas de Giers

Nikolay Karlovich Giers was a Russian Foreign Minister during the reign of Alexander III of Russia. He was one of the architects of the Franco-Russian Alliance, which was later transformed into the Triple Entente....
) toured the Krai

Krai

Krai or kray is a term used to refer to nine of Russia's federal subjects of Russia. The term is often translated as territory, province, country or region....
and drew up proposals for reform, which were implemented after 1886. In 1888 the new Trans-Caspian railway

Trans-Caspian railway

The Trans-Caspian Railway is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19th century....
, begun at Uzun-Ada on the shores of the Caspian Sea

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
in 1877, reached Samarkand. Nevertheless Turkestan remained an isolated colonial

Colonialism

Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over Territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colony in which Indigenous people populations are direct rule, Population transfers, or Genocide....
outpost, with an administration that preserved many distinctive features from the previous Islamic regimes, including Qadi

Qadi

Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with the sharia, Islamic religious law. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims....
s' courts and a 'native' administration that devolved much power to local 'Aksakals' (Elders or Headmen). It was quite unlike 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.

In 1897 the railway reached Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the Capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million....
, and finally in 1906 a direct rail link with European Russia was opened across the steppe

Steppe

In physical geography, a steppe , pronounced , is a grassland plain without trees . The prairie can be considered a steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with Poaceae or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude....
from Orenburg

Orenburg

Orenburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast in the Volga Federal District of Russia....
to Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the Capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million....
. This led to much larger numbers of ethnic Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavs ethnic group, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries.The English language term Russians is used to refer to the citizens of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity ; in Russian language, the demonym Russian is translated as Rossiyanin ....
settlers flowing into Turkestan than had hitherto been the case, and their settlement was overseen by a specially created Migration

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to Settler in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin....
Department in St. Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a types of inhabited localities in Russia and a federal subjects of Russia of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea....
(??????????????? ??????????). 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 Basmachi Revolt

Basmachi Revolt

The Basmachi Revolt , or Basmachestvo , was a Muslim and largely Turkic peoples uprising against Russian Empire and Russian SFSR rule in Central Asia....
, sparked by a decree conscripting the natives into labour battalion

Labour battalion

Labour battalions have been a form of alternative service or unfree labor in various countries in lieu of or resembling regular military service....
s (they had previously been exempt from military service). Thousands of settlers were killed, and this was matched by Russian reprisals, particularly against the nomadic population. Order had not really been restored by the time the February Revolution took place in 1917. This would usher in a still bloodier chapter in Turkestan's history, as the Bolsheviks of the Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent is the Capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million....
Soviet (made up entirely of Russian soldiers and railway workers, with no Muslim members) launched an attack on the autonomous Jadid

Jadid

The Jadids were Muslim Reformers within the Russian Empire in the late 19th century . They normally referred to themselves by the Turkic terms Taraqqiparvarlar or simply Y?sl?r/Yoshlar ....
government in Kokand early in 1918, which left 14,000 dead. Resistance to the Bolshevik

Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
s by the local population (dismissed as 'Basmachi

Basmachi Revolt

The Basmachi Revolt , or Basmachestvo , was a Muslim and largely Turkic peoples uprising against Russian Empire and Russian SFSR rule in Central Asia....
' or 'Banditry' by Soviet historians) continued well into the 1920s.

Soviet rule

After the Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union....
, a Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created from the Turkestan Krai of Imperial Russia. Its capital was Tashkent, population about 5,000,000....
(Turkestan ASSR) of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
was created in Soviet Central Asia

Soviet Central Asia

Soviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet control ....
(excluding modern-day Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Turkmen SSR

The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Turkmen SSR for short, was one of republics of the Soviet Union in Soviet Central Asia....
(Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is a Turkic peoples country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic ....
) and Uzbek SSR

Uzbek SSR

The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924....
(Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
). The Tajik SSR

Tajik SSR

The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Tajik SSR for short, was one of the 15 Republics of the Soviet Union that made up the Soviet Union....
(Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east....
) was formed out of part of the Uzbek SSR

Uzbek SSR

The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Uzbek SSR for short, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union since its creation in 1924....
in 1929, and a few years later the Kyrgyz SSR (Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and People's Republic of China to the east....
) was separated from Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)

The Soviet Union's collapse into independent nations began early in 1985. After years of Soviet Armed Forces buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth was at a standstill....
, these republics gained their independence.