Afghan Demarcation 1884–1885 and the Government Official Position of the Russian Empire

Abstract

The author examines the process of establishing the northwestern border of Afghanistan with the possessions of the Russian Empire in Central Asia in 1884–1885, known as the second Afghan demarcation. The main goal set by the author is to study the government official position of the Russian Empire on this issue and to consider its evolution over a period of almost two years. The novelty of the study seems to be that the question of the position of the Russian government during the second Afghan demarcation of 1884–1885 has not yet been considered in a separate work. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the border established by the results of this demarcation is still preserved, being the state border of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, therefore it is important to study the history of its creation. The author presents the results of the analysis of documents on the second Afghan demarcation published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire – this collection served as the basis for writing the work. The article is divided into three parts according to the chronological principle. The author's main conclusion is as follows: the position of the Russian Empire during the second Afghan demarcation remained almost unchanged, especially in terms of preserving the territories of compact residence of Turkmen tribes for Russia, who expressed a desire to become subjects to the Russian emperor, although the government had to make concessions on the status of the Zulfagar Passage.