Features of the Interfaith Policy of the Russian Empire in the Turkestan Governor-General

Abstract

The Turkestan Governor General in the second half of the 19th century becomes the center of attraction for a large mass of people who come to these outskirts of the Russian Empire in order to have a better life, sun and warmth. The reform of 1861 gave freedom to serfs, but did not provide them with land. In Tashkent, the center of the Turkestan region, Orthodox churches, a Roman Catholic church, an Evangelical Lutheran church, Jewish synagogues, etc. began to be built. The main religious denomination of the region was naturally Islamic. The contact of the two worlds — Islamic and Christian — naturally did not happen easily. The first Governor-General of Turkestan K. P. von Kaufmann believed that the influence of the Christian religion on Islam would have such a strong influence that the Islamic religion would gradually lose its position. However, the reality turned out to be much more complicated. Islamic institutions in Tashkent and Turkestan as a whole were strengthened more and more every year and increased in number. However, it must be admitted that the tsarist administration as a whole did not seriously interfere in the religious life of the peoples of the region. And in financial terms, local maktabs, madrasahs and mosques were outside the help of the Russian state, i.e., found their own livelihood.