Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
troops skirmished in northeast Afghanistan. After a burst of diplomatic
manoeuvring, Anglo-Russian boundary agreements in 1895 and 1907
gave Russia most of the Pamirs and established the Wakhan Corridor, the
awkward finger of Afghan territory that divides the two former empires.
The Great Game was over. The Great Lesson for the people of the
region was: 'No great power has our interests at heart'. The lesson has
powerful implications today.
Colonisation of Turketan
In 1861, the outbreak of the US Civil War ended Russia's imports of
American cotton. To keep the growing textile industry in high gear, the
natural place to turn to for cotton was Central Asia. Other sectors of
Russian industry were equally interested in the new colonies as sources
of cheap raw materials and labour, and as huge markets. Russia's govern-
ment and captains of industry wisely saw that their own goods could not
compete in Europe but in Central Asia they had a captive, virgin market.
In the late 19th century, European immigrants began to flood the tsar's
new lands, a million in Kazakhstan alone. The new arrivals were mostly
freed Russian and Ukrainian serfs hungry for land of their own. Central
Asia also offered a chance for enterprising Russians to climb socially. The
first mayor of Pishpek (Bishkek) left Russia as a gunsmith, married well
in the provinces, received civil appointments, and ended his life owning
a mansion and a sprawling garden estate.
The Russian middle class brought with them straight streets, gas
lights, telephones, cinemas, amateur theatre, parks and hotels. All these
were contained in enclaves set apart from the original towns. Through
their lace curtains the Russians looked out on the Central Asian masses
with a fairly indulgent attitude. The Muslim fabric of life was left alone
and development, when it came, took the form of small industrial enter-
prises, irrigation systems and a modest program of primary education.
In culture it was the Kazakhs, as usual, who were the first to be influ-
enced by Russia. A small, Europeanised, educated class began for the first
time to think of the Kazakh people as a nation. In part, their ideas came
from a new sense of their own illustrious past, which they read about in
the works of Russian ethnographers and historians. Their own brilliant
but short-lived scholar, Shokan Ualikhanov (Chokan Valikhanov), was a
key figure in Kazakh consciousness-raising.
The 1916 Uprising
The outbreak of WWI in 1914 had disastrous consequences in Central
Asia. In southeastern Kazakhstan massive herds of Kazakh and Kyrgyz
cattle were requisitioned for the war effort, whereas Syr-Darya, Fergana
and Samarkand provinces had to provide cotton and food. Then, in 1916,
The phrase
'Great Game'
was first coined
by British officer
Arthur Conolly
(later executed
in Bukhara) and
immortalised
by Kipling in his
novel
Kim.
1898
Rebellion in Andijon in
Uzbekistan against the
Russians. The insur-
rection is put down and
steps are taken to Rus-
sify urban Muslims.
1916
An uprising over forced
labour conscription
during WWI leads to
over 200,000 Kazakhs
leeing to China.
1917
The Bolshevik October
Revolution in Russia
leads to the creation
of the Tashkent Soviet.
The Alash Orda move-
ment in Kazakhstan
creates an independent
state until crushed by
the Bolsheviks three
years later.
Jul 1919
Anti-Communist allies
establish the short-
lived independent
state of Transcaspia,
with help from a small
British force from
Mashhad. British
forces temporarily oc-
cupy parts of southern
Turkmenistan.
