Asiatic Russia: Imperial Power In Regional And International Contexts (new Horizons In Islamic Studies)

Although The Russian Empire Has Traditionally Been Viewed As A European Borderland, Most Of Its Territory Was Actually Situated In Asia. Imperial Power Was Huge But Often Suffered From A Lack Of Enough Information And Resources To Rule Its Culturally Diverse Subjects, And Asymmetric Relations Between State And Society Combined With Flexible Strategies Of Local Actors Sometimes Produced Unexpected Results. In Asiatic Russia, An International Team Of Scholars Explores The Interactions Between Power And People In Central Asia, Siberia, The Volga-urals, And The Caucasus From The 18th To The Early 20th Centuries, Drawing On A Wealth Of Russian Archival Materials And Turkic, Persian, And Tibetan Sources. The Variety Of Topics Discussed In The Book Includes The Russian Idea Of A 'civilizing Mission,' The System Of Governor-generalships, Imperial Geography And Demography, Roles Of Muslim And Buddhist Networks In Imperial Rule And Foreign Policy, Social Change In The Russian Protectorate Of Bukhara, Muslim Reformist And National Movements. The Book Is Essential Reading For Students And Scholars Of Russian, Central Eurasian, And Comparative Imperial History, As Well As Imperial And Colonial Studies And Nationalism Studies. It May Also Provide Some Hints For Understanding Today's World, Where 'empire' Has Again Become A Key Word In International And Domestic Power Relations--provided By Publisher. Pt. 1. Russia's Eastern Expansion : Its Mission And The Tatars' Intermediary Role -- Pt. 2. Taming Space And People : Institutions And Demography -- Pt. 3. Russian Power Projected Beyond Its Borders -- Pt. 4. Asiatic Russia As A Space For National Movements. Edited By Uyama Tomohiko. Simultaneously Published In The Usa And Canada--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Asiatic Russia Imperial power in regional and international contexts 4 Copyright 5 Contents 8 Contributors 10 Preface 13 Maps 15 Introduction: Asiatic Russia as a space for asymmetric interaction 18 PART I: Russia’s eastern expansion: its “mission” and the Tatars’ intermediary role 28 1 The Russian Empire’s civilizing mission in the eighteenth century: A comparative perspective 30 2 Tatarskaia Kargala in Russia’s eastern policies 49 3 The Russian Empire and the intermediary role of Tatars in Kazakhstan: the politics of cooperation and rejection 69 PART II: Taming space and people: institutions and demography 98 4 Intra-bureaucratic debate on the institution of Russian governors-general in the mid-nineteenth century 100 5 Colonization and “Russification” in the imperial geography of Asiatic Russia: from the nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries 119 6 Empire and demography in Turkestan: numbers and the politics of counting 146 PART III: Russian power projected beyond its borders 168 7 Russo-Chinese trade through Central Asia: regulations and reality 170 8 Muslim networks, imperial power, and the local politics of Qajar Iran 191 9 Sunni–Shi‘i relations in the Russian protectorate of Bukhara, as perceived by the local ‘ulama 206 10 The open and secret diplomacy of Tsarist and Soviet Russia in Tibet: the role of Agvan Dorzhiev (1912-1925) 233 PART IV: Asiatic Russia as a space for national movements 252 11 Muslim political activity in Russian Turkestan, 1905–1916 254 12 The economics of Muslim cultural reform: money, power, and Muslim communities in late imperial Russia 269 13 The Alash Orda’s relations with Siberia, the Urals, and Turkestan: the Kazakh national movement and the Russian imperial legacy 288 Index 305 Although the Russian Empire has traditionally been viewed as a European borderland, most of its territory was actually situated in Asia. This book examines the history of the Asian parts of the Russian Empire, investigating the empire's policy toward various religious and ethnic groups