Russian rule in Central Asia

Abstract

This chapter introduces readers to the institutions and policies the Russian Empire sought to introduce in Central Asia and explores their effects. It notes divergent policies in the steppe regions (incorporated earlier, and largely populated by pastoral nomads) and in Turkestan (conquered from the 1860s, with a large sedentary population). Although tsarist rule in Central Asia was inconsistent and uneven, it brought significant changes and engendered important responses in the local population. These included the bureaucratisation of legal and administrative systems; the rise of nationalist movements and ‘progressive’ Islamic movements; and demographic and environmental change caused by peasant colonisation.