Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism

5 Russian Colonialism and Central Asian Jewish Routes

The story of Yosef Maman’s arrival in Central Asia at the turn of the eighteenth century signifies the onset of new forms of engagements between the Jews of Bukhara and the Jewish world that lay to the west. These relationships intensified in the nineteenth century as Imperial Russia encroached on Central Asia, bringing the region under its control. Taking advantage of improved conditions for travel and communication and of new mercantile opportunities the Russians brought with them, Bukhara ’s Jews formed new far-reaching trade relationships. A well-traveled, nouveau riche class emerged, focused on material acquisition as well as on using their recently obtained financial resources to enhance their spiritual lives. Pilgrimage to the Holy Land became fashionable, and importing religious teachers from there also gained popularity. Through these connections, the Jews of Bukhara were drawn into extensive conversations about religion with rabbinic authorities in Ottoman Palestine. The next chapter (chapter 6) will trace the contours of these charged debates; we will analyze these in a manner akin to the way in which the debates between Maman and Central Asia’s local religious authorities were studied. The current chapter sets the stage by providing a political and historical context for these colorful and complex international religious conversations. Russian Territorial Expansion We begin by widening the angle of our lens beyond Bukhara and even beyond Central Asia. We zoom out so far that our picture encompasses five Russian Colonialism and Central Asian Jewish Routes Map 5.1 Map of Russia’s moving frontier, as it appeared in a nineteenth-century travelogue From Francis Henry Skrine, Heart of Asia (London: Methuen & Co., 1899) 71 Russian Colonialism and Central Asian Jewish Routes Europe and the large-scale negotiations between Russia and Britain for control of massive areas of land. One object of this Great Game was domination of Central Asia. As early as the eighteenth century, Russian eastward expansion moved across the Kazak steppes, bringing the nomadic people of the territory today known as Kazakhstan under their governance. Turning southward, the Russians headed toward the Syr River in the direction of Central Asia’s three khanates (or kingdoms) of Bukhara, Kokand, and Khiva. In 1865, General Mikhail Chernyayev and his troops reached Tashkent, one of the first important urban centers in his path. At the time, the city belonged within the realm of the Kokand Khanate, but control over it was being contested by Bukhara. In an effort to weaken both kingdoms and to exert Russian power in the region, the general conquered it, bringing it under tsarist control. Tashkent became a base for further expansion and within two years was designated as administrative headquarters of Russia’s newly created Central Asian administrative unit, the Turkestan Government-General.1 In 1868, following war, the emir of Bukhara was forced to sign a treaty in which he ceded Samarkand, once an important silk-route city, to the Turkestan Government-General. By signing, he also agreed to a set of provisions that facilitated the activities of Russian merchants within the boundaries of the Bukharan emirate. As the treaty was being composed and negotiated, the question of whether Russia should actually occupy and take full control of the Bukharan emirate was raised. While the Turkestan administrators were in favor of occupation, the tsar was not. Orders were issued from St. Petersburg not to add to “the burden of territorial conquests.” In response, assistance was provided to the emir to help him regain control of his shrunken emirate. The emir thereby retained sovereignty, but became dependent on Russia to stabilize his fragile crown. After 1868, he was described as “a sort of guilded marionette ” controlled by Russian hands.2 In 1873 Russian troops attacked the khanate of Khiva. Unlike the Bukharan emirate that retained nominal sovereignty despite its loss in territories, Khiva was fully defeated and “reduced to the legal status of Russia’s protectorate.” Its capital was occupied and its khan was forced to declare himself an “obedient servant” of the tsar.3 Pushing east, the khanate of Kokand was incorporated into Russian Turkestan by 1876.4 72 Nineteenth-Century Conversations With that conquest, the city of Kokand and the cities of the Fergana Valley (Fergana, Kokand, Andijan, and Namangan) were brought directly under Russian rule. Russia’s Textile Market and Central Asia’s Jews One aspect of Russia’s motivation for conquest was territorial expansion in response to competition with British India...