Russia’s Fight against the Savage Punishments in the Emirate of Bukhara (Communicative Aspects)

Abstract

The article analyzes the instruments of political communication used by Russian authorities and other groups of interests in the fight for the abolition of the most severe punishments in the Emirate of Bukhara as an element of its political-legal and social-economic modernization. On a base of legal acts, notes of contemporaries and periodicals of the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries the author analyzes using of different communication tools, groups of interests which used them, effectiveness of communicative means. In particular, diplomatic demarches of imperial diplomats and “own example” of the Russian settlements on the territory of the Emirate of Bukhara are examined as well as direct political consultations of frontier Russian administration (of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship) with Bukharan emirs and high officials and campaign in periodical at the beginning of the 20th century launched by Russian business circles and political parties. The study clarifies the reasons why the goal was not reached despite the active position of Russian actors: some instruments could be effective in relations with Western states but were not relevant in case of the Central Asian country, besides that, the conflicts between Russian authorities (Military Ministry form one side and Ministry of Foreign Affairs from another) on the “Bukharan question” graded effect of political communication executed by regional authorities and Russian actors immediately in the Emirate.