Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865--1923

Conclusion

Conclusion 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 its place among modern Western empires, and perhaps score a victory against Great Britain, Russia’s main rival in Europe and Asia. Administrators, scholars, and businessmen arrived from central Russia, to seek promotions, knowledge, or wealth, as well as advance the fortunes of this new imperial possession and the empire as a whole. Kaufman sought to establish a colonial administration that would ensure peace and stability, and gradually attract Central Asians to “civilization.” Russian Tashkent, designed to resemble the most modern of tsarist and European cities, St. Petersburg and post-1848 Paris, was at the center of Kaufman’s plan to showcase the power and culture of the colonizer. N. A. Maev and other intellectuals who occupied leading posts in the tsarist administration expressed even loftier goals. They, along with some commentators from the central press, saw Russian Tashkent as a city of the future, freed from deadening national traditions that had so delayed modern reforms in the metropole. Russians could combine their history of interethnic contact with new, progressive methods of rule to demonstrate their superiority to Western nations in matters of empire. Central Russian Tashkent’s stately architecture, gardens, and broad, tree-lined boulevards impressed Western visitors, remained a point of pride for tsarist elites, and attracted many wealthy Central Asians to reside as well as work. Empire offered opportunities as well as challenges Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent 230 to indigenous Tashkent residents, who had grown accustomed to control from outside forces. Tsarist administrators needed the cooperation of important sections of the Central Asian population to rule the region in a cost-efficient manner. Notables in Tashkent pledged outward allegiance to the tsar in exchange for assurances of political and cultural autonomy. As we have seen, tsarist elites saw fit to violate written and tacit agreements with Central Asian notables during times of crisis. Yet imperial administrators, some fearing rebellion and others seeking financial opportunities , patronized these notables. Central Asian mercantile elites, who benefited following the conquest from new markets, in both Russian Tashkent and European Russia, joined notables in gaining access to the halls of power. They spoke at tsarist ceremonies, dined in the mansion of the governor-general, and visited with other leading imperial officials. Many, from Sattar Khan to Arif Khoja, circulated among the intellectual as well as political elites of Russian Tashkent. Central Asian Jadids joined these circles even as they condemned colonial rule. Central Asians below the rungs of the elite, from water managers to healers and petty traders, sought to profit from an expanded population and economy. Many established social and economic contacts with the Russians living across the Ankhor canal. Intercultural contacts were mutual and widespread: Russians and Central Asians used each other’s court systems, and crossed the Ankhor canal to celebrate each other’s holidays. Such relationships formed the backbone of a mediating mechanism between tsarist-era colonizers and the Central Asian population, and provided Tashkent with outward peace from the conquest to the First World War. During that period only, amid a cholera epidemic in 1892, did large-scale ethnic violence occur in the city. Imperial rule, however, was neither benign nor stable. Tsarist, and later soviet, power flowed primarily from the military barracks outside the borders of city. Russian and European officers and soldiers continually displayed their vast superiority in arms and martial knowledge. Tsarist military personnel killed hundreds of CentralAsians to suppress protests and acts deemed a threat to colonial rule, from the 1892 anticholera demonstration to the Kokand Autonomy of 1917–18. Equally importantly, frequent violence and compulsion occurred on an everyday level. Officers and soldiers used verbal and physical abuse to express their power over local Central Asians on the streets of Tashkent. Tsarist elites required that Central Asians—including notables—encountering them on the streets perform gestures of submission or face punishment. Notables gained privileges only if they delivered substantial taxation revenue to imperial authorities, who then focused their spending on Russian Tashkent. Many Central Asians used personal connections to Conclusion 231 imperial agents to triumph over their rivals, shifting relationships of power in the Asian city. Yet these connections did not allow the local population as...