23.06.2013 Views

A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Russian conquest and rule 201<br />

that of Britain, and a civilization too impressive to subordinate it to that<br />

of the conqueror, deterred any such contemplations.<br />

The administrative structure devised by St.Petersburg for its new possessions<br />

went through several stages and modifications.The stages were<br />

the fall of Tashkent in 1865, the defeat and truncation of the emirate of<br />

Bukhara in 1868 and of the khanate of Khiva in 1873, the liquidation of<br />

the khanate of Khoqand in 1876, and the completion of the overall conquest<br />

with the fall of Merv in 1884 and penetration of the Pamirs by 1895.<br />

The result was the Governorate-General of Turkestan (Turkestanskoe<br />

General-Gubernatorstvo or General-Guberniya Turkestan), administered<br />

by a military governor residing in Tashkent and divided into five<br />

regions (oblasts) and two protectorates.The regions were Syrdarya (center<br />

Tashkent), Semireche (center Vernyi), Fergana (center Skobelev),<br />

Samarkand (center Samarkand), and Zakaspie (Transcaspia, center<br />

Ashgabad); the protectorates were the emirate of Bukhara and the<br />

khanate of Khiva.<br />

Meanwhile, the organization of the steppes to the north – thus of the<br />

greater part of Kazakhstan – proceeded along lines that were somewhat<br />

distinct without, however, denying the many-faceted links with<br />

Turkestan.The distinctiveness resided, among other things, in their geographical<br />

and historical linkage with Russia proper and with Siberia.<br />

The result was that unlike the Governorate-General of Turkestan,<br />

which had a specific administrative and geographical unity, the territory<br />

inhabited by the Kazakhs consisted of three separate parts: the westernmost<br />

part, whose area corresponded to that of the Bükey and Lesser<br />

Hordes, was now the oblast of Uralsk, whose administrative center was<br />

the city of Uralsk and whose governor reported directly to the Ministry<br />

of Interior; its central part, more or less the former Middle Horde, consisted<br />

of the oblasts of Turgai and Akmolinsk; the governor of the<br />

Turgai oblast did not even reside there, but rather across the border in<br />

Orenburg, for he was at the same time governor of the Governorate-<br />

General of Orenburg and also reported to the Ministry of Interior; the<br />

oblasts of Akmolinsk and Semipalatinsk, on the other hand, formed a<br />

full-fledged Governorate-General, that of the Steppe, but their governor<br />

did not reside there either but across the border in the Siberian city of<br />

Omsk, which is thus also included in this governorate on some maps.<br />

The Semipalatinsk oblast covered some of the territory of the defunct<br />

Greater Horde, but the greater part of the latter now corresponded to<br />

the Turkestan oblast of Semireche and the eastern fringe of that of<br />

Syrdarya, both within the Governorate-General of Turkestan.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!