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2. Educated Society, Identity, and Nationality
- Indiana University Press
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2. Educated Society, Identity, and Nationality 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 of imperial Europe, tsarist Russia, and colonized Asia. The language and actions of this Russian elite reflected a confidence that they could design a modern, civilized society to serve as a model for imperial Russia and Europe, but also a fear that their distance from the metropole would lead to their neglect by the central state and educated public, dooming the colonial venture in Tashkent. Russian intellectuals, many of whom served in prominent posts in the tsarist administration, envisioned Tashkent as a city of the future. As Daniel Brower has argued, notable tsarist administrators, whom he labels “cultural enlighteners,” saw Turkestan as a laboratory to test new, modern ideas of administration in the wake of the Great Reforms.1 This chapter will trace the efforts of Russian intellectuals to envision and construct a city and society freed, as they argued, from the stultifying traditions of tsarist state dominance on the one hand, and the violent history of European empire-building on the other. New labels of identity, from Tashkenter to Turkestani, appeared to encapsulate new values associated with this construction of a modern colonial community. Yet local intellectuals found that defining local, national, and imperial identities escaped their control. Officialdom remained divided on the virtues of allowing educated society an independent role outside the bounds of the state. Russians’ interactions with Central Asian society challenged the view of a modern, privileged, European colonizer neatly imposing Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent 58 his will and values on the local population and environment. Educated publics in central Russia and the Western world were as likely to portray the building of empire in Tashkent as a sign of continued tsarist and Russian backwardness as they were to see it as a symbol of progress. The complexities of colonial society and the complicated, shifting relationship between center and periphery undermined stable identities in imperial Tashkent. Pessimism mixed with confidence in the writings of Tashkent Russian intellectuals as they reviewed the recent past and the potential for progress in the decades following the conquest. Characteristics that defined one as a Tashkenter, Turkestani, Russian, and European transformed in the colonial idiom. Tashkenters to Turkestanis Efforts to project Russian Tashkent as a symbol of modern progress went beyond those realized by Governor-General Kaufman. Russian liberals in the city and observers from St. Petersburg imagined a new society and culture that would reflect the dynamism of Alexander II’s Great Reforms.2 Their visions focused on the development of an intellectual society freed from the constraints of the tsarist state.3 “New Tashkent men” saw themselves as radiating civilization not just to Central Asia, but to central Russia as well.4 Yet leaders of this quest soon found the meaning of “Tashkenters” appropriated, and sought other labels to define their quest for progress on the periphery. Who were these men who sought to lead a “civilized” society in Russian Tashkent? The great majority of them served as functionaries. Many, such as Turkestanskiia Viedomosti editor N. A. Maev, had begun their careers in active military service and then received a higher education in military or engineering academies. Others were recruited directly from universities. V. F. Oshanin, a naturalist from the physics and mathematical faculty of Moscow University, became the director of a state institute of economic development and the women’s gymnasium in Tashkent.5 The faculty of Eastern languages of St. Petersburg University provided many administrators trained in local languages, ethnography, archaeology , and other intellectual skills.6 Fresh, young, highly educated Russians served as teachers, doctors, agronomists, economists, zoologists, naturalists, and engineers. N. P. Ostroumov lauded educated Russians who chose to immerse themselves in their work and familiarize themselves with their environment, differentiated from other bureaucrats who saw their service in Turkestan as temporary and worked primarily to enrich themselves or to seek a transfer to a post in European Russia.7 Those who remained for the long term rose quickly through adminis- [107.21.176.63] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 02:43 GMT) Educated Society, Identity, and Nationality 59 trative ranks. They gained a prominent voice in local society through the pages of Turkestanskiia Viedomosti, which Maev used as a forum for intellectual discussion, as well as through their attendance at balls, readings...