Russian Colonialism in Central Asia: to Determine Time and Place

Abstract

The article is a brief overview of Russian legislative practices in the Central Asian region. Kazakh, Turkestan and Transcaspian lands are considered as a single region, as it was understood by the Russian imperial administration. The administration models implemented in it had a different nature and their own specifics. In this case, the time factor was of paramount importance. Russia had not yet formulated its agenda in relation to its southeastern periphery at the beginning of the 18th century. At that time, St. Petersburg perceived the Kazakh steppe as the outer territory of the empire (colony) and consistently implemented methods of indirect and direct control towards it. The situation changed in the middle of the 19th century. The complication of the foreign policy situation in Europe provoked the intensification of Russia in Central Asia. Active advancement towards the Afghan border entailed the transformation of the Kazakh lands into the inner territory of the empire wanting administrative assimilation with the rest of the state. At the same time, a “non‑colonial” view of the empire’s national outskirts prevailed in the Russian capital. The trend towards the spread of general imperial administrative-political and socio-economic norms and approaches to Central Asian possessions has become the leitmotif of the state policy. The system of military-public administration became manifestation of this policy, introduced in the Kazakh steppe, Russian Turkestan and the Transcaspian province in the second half of the 19th century.