General Government of Turkestan

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Turkestan around 1900

The General Turkestan (Russian Туркестанское генерал-губернаторство Turkestanskoje general-gubernatorstwo or Туркестанский Край Turkestanski Kraj ) was in 1868 during the conquest of Central Asia by the Russian Empire established its capital was Tashkent . The history of the territory overlaps with that of the Generalgouvernement of the Steppe , which it adjoined to the south. It existed until 1917.

The region itself is also called West Turkestan , Russian Turkestan (Russian: Русский Туркестан Russki Turkestan ) and corresponds to the later Soviet Central Asia and Soviet Central Asia .

Establishment of Russian rule

The Tsar's court had shown interest in Central Asia since the early 17th century. 1852 began Russian expansion in Central Asia with the attack on to Kokand (independent khanate since 1710) belonging fortress Aq-Metschet the Syr Darya . In 1868 the Emirate of Bukhara was forced to recognize Russian supremacy . It ended in 1884 with the subjugation of the Turkmens and the conquest of Merw . Growing tensions between Russian and English colonial policy (" The Great Game ") prevented further expansion.

The vassal states Bukhara (vassal since 1868) and Khiva (vassal since 1873), whose external relations were controlled, did not belong to the general government .

Under Russian rule, every trip had to be approved by the Russian military authorities, later every change of residence, purchase of real estate and every professional activity in foreign territory. Every village chief now had to be confirmed by the Russians.

School problem

At the end of the 19th century there were 5,000 primary schools and 400 madrasas in Turkestan . The Russians tried to undermine them by withdrawing grants (they were usually funded by foundations ) and career opportunities. The spread of (semi-) Russian-speaking schools was promoted: in 1915 there were 90.

As a result, the residents of Turkestan had difficulty training students outside of Russian-speaking schools, as modern non-Russian schools did not fit either the Russians or the Orthodox clergy (the latter especially in the Emirate of Bukhara). For example, Achmed Ma'zum Kalla (1816–96) tried to teach history and literature as well as natural sciences. Mir Abdul Karim, the emir's envoy in Istanbul, tried to establish an intellectual connection there. The most successful but the Mullah Dschorabaj and its buffer zone, from 1901 to ideas of Crimean Tatars named Ismail Gasprinski founded new schools. By 1914 there were over 100 of these reform schools ( jadidism ).

Settlement of Russians

The Russian administration expropriated land in Turkestan and settled there 1.2 million Russian farmers and 300,000 Cossacks, who on average were allocated more and better land. In the steppe area, Russian immigrants made up 40% of the population (with the exception of the Seven Rivers , there only 20%), but in the irrigated areas of Turkestan it was only 4%.

Economic policy

An important aspect of Russian economic policy in Turkestan was described by Kriwoschein, who was the head of the state facility office around 1913, as follows: "Every excess pud of Turkestan wheat is a competitor for Russian and Siberian wheat, every pud of Turkestan cotton is a competitor for American cotton." By 1900, Turkestan covered 32.6% of Russia's cotton needs , half in 1914 and 100% in 1916. In return, Turkestan became dependent on wheat imports, which manifested itself in the First World War in the fact that the deliveries were stopped and a famine broke out, which was used to consolidate the young Soviet rule.

In 1916 there were 26 cotton ginning factories, 14 metal processing factories, 226 food factories and 200 workshops in the General Government of Turkestan. In the Steppe Generalgouvernement the workshops and factories there had 27,146 workers, 1/10 of them were Turkestans, but they seldom worked as skilled workers. In Turkestan credit banks were established, railway lines (1888 via Samarkand and until 1905 Orenburg - Tashkent ( Trans-Aral Railway )) and modern irrigation systems (projects for the so-called Romanov Canal around 1900 and several dams on the Murgab near Merw or unsuccessful attempts to irrigate the Hungersteppe) built. It was the first major irrigation system in several hundred years, and much larger ones were being planned. Technologically, efforts were made, among other things, to introduce viticulture, sugar beet, mowing machines, cooling systems for meat transports, and the improvement of the silk industry and fruit drying. In the area of ​​town planning, Tashkent stood out, where General Kaufmann († 1882) and his successors tried to create wide streets and many public facilities right up to the establishment of a newspaper.

End of the tsarist era

Russian rule was not received particularly benevolently: from 1901 to 1915 there were 13 mass riots, and in 1916 an uprising in the course of the recruitment of Turkestans for the First World War . Until then you had been released from military service. The latter recorded 4,725 dead Russians, at least 205,000 dead Turkestans, 168,000 exiles to Siberia , 300,000 refugees and at least 50 burned villages in the vicinity of Samarkand. The tsarist authorities did not succeed in fully recruiting the Turkestans for military service.

In the course of the Russian Revolution in 1917 there were upheavals. In April 1917 a congress of the Muslims of Turkestan met in Tashkent to discuss the future of Central Asia. At the end of 1917 there were 8 governments with 6 different state orientations: the Emirate of Bukhara , the Khiva Khanate , two nationally semi-autonomous states ( Alasch Orda and Kokand ), the Soviet Commissariat in Tashkent, the White Guards in Omsk , the Alai Horde in the same name Mountains and a Cossack state in the Urals . By 1922 the Soviets had prevailed against all opponents, most recently Enver Pasha's Basmati army .

Governors General of Turkestan

Administrative division

Related topics

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The USSR. Encyclopedia of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1959, additional card p. 496/497.