Engineering Empire

Abstract

This essay examines hydraulic engineers in Central Asia under tsarist rule and their participation in processes of agricultural expansion and empire-building in the imperial province of Turkestan. This province theoretically provided the perfect space in which Russians, who continually worried about their own “backwardness” in relation to Europe, could demonstrate their ability to be a colonial power on par with European empires, yet the lack of an understanding of irrigation engineering and the difficulties of irrigating arid regions threatened to jeopardize Russia’s efforts at a “civilizing mission.” Still, a growing group of Russian technical specialists was able to participate in scientific dialogue and transnational technological exchanges with other hydraulic engineers in other parts of the world who were similarly enthusiastic about the potential of science and technology to create a more modern future in the Russian Central Asian borderlands. Ultimately, however, even though the zeal of these Russian and foreign hydraulic experts coincided with Russian political ambitions in Turkestan, the political realities of the tsarist government’s position in the region would determine the fate of their grand visions for transformation.