History · 07 / 09

The Russian Empire period

The Governorate-General of Turkestan, the protectorates of Bukhara and Khiva, railways and cotton, new Russian towns and the Jadid movement — the colonial era transformed life in the region.

1868–19178 events49 sites2 min read

Photo: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Conquest and administration

Russia's advance into Central Asia peaked with the capture of Tashkent in 1865. In 1867 the Governorate-General of Turkestan was created with its seat in Tashkent, first headed by General Konstantin von Kaufman. Samarkand fell in 1868 and the Emirate of Bukhara became a protectorate; the Khanate of Khiva followed in 1873, and in 1876 the Khanate of Kokand was abolished and turned into Fergana Oblast. The territory was run by a military administration, while the local population, governed through district elders and qadis, had no political rights.

The emir of Bukhara and the khan of Khiva kept their thrones, but foreign policy passed to Russian control. In Khiva the vizier Islam Khoja attempted reforms, building a school, a hospital and a post office; the minaret and madrasa bearing his name were completed in 1910.

Railways, cotton and new towns

The Trans-Caspian Railway reached Samarkand in 1888 and Tashkent and Andijan in 1898, and the Tashkent–Orenburg line opened in 1906. From the 1880s American cotton varieties were planted in the Fergana Valley, and the region became the main raw-material base of the empire's textile industry. Radially planned Russian quarters grew up beside the old cities — in Tashkent, Samarkand, Kagan and New Margelan (today's Fergana) — while Termez gained a military fortress and settlement. Villages and canals for Russian settlers appeared in the Hungry Steppe.

Society and culture

Resentment of colonial rule erupted in the Andijan uprising of 1898. In the early 20th century the Jadids — Mahmudkhoja Behbudiy, Munavvar Qori, Is'hoqxon Ibrat, Abdurauf Fitrat and others — founded new-method schools, newspapers and a national theatre, while the poets Muqimiy and Furqat wrote about the social problems of their day. Russian scholars and artists studied the region too: the Turkestan Album was compiled in 1871–1872, Vasily Vereshchagin painted his famous Turkestan series, and in 1908 Vasily Vyatkin discovered Ulugh Beg's observatory.

1916 and the fall of the empire

During the First World War taxes and prices rose. A 1916 decree conscripting Turkestanis for labour behind the front triggered a mass revolt, crushed with particular brutality in Jizzakh. After the February Revolution of 1917 political life revived, and in October power in Tashkent passed to the Bolsheviks.

Where to see it

The palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich (1891) and the Museum of Applied Arts building in Tashkent, the “new town” around University Boulevard in Samarkand, the Sitorai Mohi Khosa palace in Bukhara and the Islam Khoja minaret in Khiva all capture the look of the era.

Sources (5)

The Russian Empire period

Key events

Full timeline

1865–1867

The fall of Tashkent and Russian Turkestan

From 9 May to 17 June 1865 General Mikhail Chernyayev's troops besieged Tashkent, then part of the Khanate of Kokand. Alimqul, Kokand's de facto ruler, was killed leading the defence, and the city passed to the Russian Empire. In 1866, at war with the Emirate of Bukhara, Russian forces took Khujand, Ura-Tyube and Jizzakh. In 1867 the Governorate-General of Turkestan was created with its seat in Tashkent, headed first by General Konstantin von Kaufman. A new European-style Russian town grew up beside the old city, and Tashkent became the region's administrative centre.

Tashkent (city)Tashkent Region Jizzakh Syrdarya
May–June 1868

Samarkand falls and Bukhara becomes a protectorate

In May 1868 Kaufman's troops defeated the army of Emir Muzaffar of Bukhara on the Chupan-Ata heights and entered Samarkand. In June, while the main force crushed the emir again at Zirabulak, the small garrison left in Samarkand's citadel was besieged by townspeople and the forces of the Shakhrisabz begs; among the defenders was the painter Vasily Vereshchagin. Under the peace signed at the end of June, Samarkand and Kattakurgan passed to Russia as the Zeravshan District, and the Emirate of Bukhara became a Russian protectorate. Vereshchagin's Turkestan series, including scenes of the siege, hangs in Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery.

Samarkand Bukhara Navoiy Kashkadarya
May–August 1873

The Khiva campaign and the Treaty of Gandimian

In spring 1873 several Russian columns under the overall command of General Kaufman crossed the deserts from different directions into Khorezm, and at the end of May Khiva surrendered without a fight. Under the Treaty of Gandimian, signed in August, Muhammad Rahim Khan II kept his throne but lost the right to conduct foreign policy without Russian consent; the slave trade and slavery were abolished and a heavy indemnity imposed. The right bank of the Amu Darya, most of today's Karakalpakstan, passed to Russia as the Amu Darya Department, administered from the fort of Petro-Alexandrovsk, now Turtkul. Khiva survived as a protectorate until 1920.

Khorezm Karakalpakstan
Palace of Khudayar Khan

1873–1876

The end of the Khanate of Kokand

In 1873 a broad revolt against Khudayar Khan's heavy taxes swept the Fergana Valley, led by a pretender known as Pulat Khan. In 1875 Khudayar was overthrown and fled to Russian territory, and the rising turned against Russia. Troops under General Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev occupied the valley, and in February 1876 an imperial decree abolished the khanate, replacing it with Fergana Oblast. A new administrative centre, New Margelan, was built — later renamed Skobelev and, from 1924, Fergana. Khudayar Khan's palace in Kokand now houses the regional museum.

Fergana Andijan Namangan Palace of Khudayar Khan
1888–1899

The railway reaches Samarkand and Tashkent

Built eastward from the Caspian shore under General Mikhail Annenkov, the Trans-Caspian Railway reached Samarkand via Bukhara (Kagan) in 1888. Trains first crossed the Amu Darya on a wooden bridge; a permanent one was completed only in 1901. In 1898 the line was extended to Tashkent and Andijan, and the opening of the Tashkent–Orenburg railway in 1906 linked Central Asia directly with central Russia. The railway boosted cotton exports dramatically, and new settlements grew around stations such as Kagan and Khavast and in the Russian quarters of towns like Jizzakh. The old station buildings of Kagan and Samarkand recall the era.

Navoiy Bukhara Samarkand Jizzakh Syrdarya Tashkent (city)Fergana Andijan
29 May (17 May O.S.) 1898

The Andijan uprising of 1898

On the night of 29 May 1898 some 1,500 armed men led by the Naqshbandi sheikh Muhammad Ali Madali, known as Dukchi Ishan, attacked the Russian army camp at Andijan. The rising fed on resentment of colonial rule, taxation and land policy, as well as on religious appeals. The troops quickly recovered and beat off the attack, and within days the revolt was crushed. Dukchi Ishan and other leaders were executed, many participants exiled and their villages punished. The episode pushed the authorities to tighten control over Muslim institutions in Turkestan.

Andijan Fergana
late 19th century – 1920s

The Jadids: schools, press and theatre

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a reform movement took shape in Turkestan: the Jadids, advocates of usul-i jadid, the “new method”. Inspired by the Crimean Tatar educator Ismail Gasprinsky, Mahmudkhoja Behbudiy, Munavvar Qori, Abdulla Avloniy, Is'hoqxon Ibrat, Abdurauf Fitrat and others opened schools teaching literacy by the phonetic method and wrote textbooks. From 1906 Uzbek-language newspapers such as Taraqqiy and Khurshid appeared in Tashkent, and Behbudiy's play “The Patricide” (Padarkush), staged in 1914, launched a national theatre. The Jadids sought to renew society through education, the press and reform. Many were repressed in the 1920s–1930s; their legacy is being rediscovered today.

Samarkand Tashkent (city)Bukhara Fergana Namangan Khorezm
July–September 1916

The 1916 revolt and the Jizzakh uprising

On 25 June (8 July) 1916, at the height of the First World War, Nicholas II decreed the conscription of Turkestani men aged 19 to 43 for labour behind the front. Issued at harvest time and enforced through unfair lists, the decree provoked mass unrest. In July there were protests in Khujand, Tashkent and towns of the Fergana Valley; in Jizzakh the rising turned into armed fighting and was crushed with great brutality by punitive detachments, which left the old town badly damaged. The revolt also spread across Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Tens of thousands of labourers were eventually sent to the front zone regardless.

Jizzakh Tashkent (city)Samarkand Fergana Andijan Namangan