THE POLICY OF RESETTLEMENT OF RUSSIANS TO THE TERRITORY OF TURKESTAN, TURNING IT INTO A RAW MATERIAL BASE FOR COTTON

Abstract

One of the motives for the subjugation of Central Asia was the desire of tsarism to turn it into a colonization area for the resettlement of peasants from the central provinces of Russia. However, Uzbekistan did little to justify the calculations of the tsarist government, since there was no free irrigated land. Peasant colonization became widespread only on the territory of Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. The resettlement of Russian peasants was often accompanied by a violent seizure of the lands of the indigenous population. The kulak settlers exploited both the local population and the Russian poor. The tsarist government attached great importance to the resettlement of part of the peasants of Russian villages to Central Asia in order to mitigate the social contradictions in Russia caused by the lack of land in connection with the development of capitalist relations in Russian agriculture. Already in 1869, rules on peasant settlements in Semirechye were developed, which created favorable conditions for the influx of Russian settlers. During the period from 1888 to 1916, the sowing of cotton increased by almost 10 times (from 68.5 thousand dessiatins to 680 thousand 911 dessiatins), and the gross cotton harvest increased by almost 7 times (from 2.27 million poods per year). 1879 to 14.9 million poods – in 1916) The area of irrigated land and the production of agricultural products increased significantly, the range of agricultural sectors expanded. Cotton attracted Russian capital to Central Asia. At least 30 of the largest trading companies were engaged in its production and purchase. The main creditors were the largest banks in Russia