A Theory of “Natural Boundaries” and the Conquest of Kuldja (1870–1871): A Self-portrait of Russian Military and Diplomatic Elites in St. Petersburg and Turkestan
2/2014
Forum AI
In Search of “Natural Boundaries” of Russia’s Central Asia
SUMMARY:
This is a microhistory of the decision making leading to the conquest of Kuldja (Ghulja) by the Russian troops in 1871–1881. Svetlana Gorshenina deconstructs different understandings of the theory of a “natural border” that influenced the changing opinions of the Petersburg military and diplomatic elites, colonial administrators of Turkestan and Central Asia, and military commanders on the ground. The article presents a nuanced and multilayered picture of the discursive reality behind the conquest of Kuldja, thus explicating a complex mechanism of interaction of the metropole and peripheral actors, the role of local versus universal knowledge, and the influence of diplomatic considerations vis-à-vis Europe and China.
The study is based on archival documents assembled in the course of 1901–1905 by the military engineer, lieutenant colonel Andrian Serebrennikov, for the Collection of Materials for a History of the Conquest of the Turkestan Region. The Kuldja-related documents of the collection remained unpublished and are now preserved in the Central State Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan.