НАПАДЕНИЯ СРЕДНЕАЗИАТСКИХ КОЧЕВНИКОВ НА РОССИЙСКИЕ ТОРГОВЫЕ КАРАВАНЫ В НАЧАЛЕ XIX В.

Abstract

Based on archival materials (reports of the Orenburg border and customs departments, orders of the military governors of the Orenburg region, letters from the injured merchants, etc.), the article considers cases of attacks of the Central Asian nomads on the merchant caravans in the early 19th century. The main means of trade and transport communication between the Russian Empire, Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand were caravans, their size sometimes reached several thousand loaded camels. At that time, the steppes that separated the Russian border from the main trading cities of Central Asia were insufficiently explored, difficult to traverse, and very unsafe. Armed nomadic groups moving along the imperial border and deep in the Kazakh steppe were a direct threat to slow-moving and poorly guarded caravans. Steppe raiders were attracted by a diverse range of valuable goods and a large number of working animals, so valued by nomadic cultures. Merchants, their clerks, and hired workers were often killed in clashes with raiders. Those Russian merchants who were robbed of their money and property sought support from the leadership of the Orenburg province and even sent messages to the central Russian government.