SUMMARY:

The article reconstructs the roots of the 1916 revolt of the Turkmen tribes in a combination of structural processes and personality factors. The unclarified legal status of the Khiva khanate under Russia’s control – neither a part of the empire nor an autonomous protectorate – produced the structural situation of strategic relativism. The unstable equilibrium was maintained by a complex balance of quid pro quo relationships among the central government in St. Petersburg, the local colonial authorities, the court of the Khiva khan, and the chiefs of various Turkmen tribes on the khanate’s territory. A compact Russian military garrison stationed not far from the khanate’s borders played rather a symbolic role. All sides tried to exploit the ambivalent situation to their advantage, while growing increasingly dissatisfied with the old system of multiple compromises. The delicate balance was radiсally upset in 1914 with the appointment of Colonel Vladimir Kolosovskii as the official in charge of Russia’s relationships with the khanate of Khiva. He disrupted the decades-old system of imperial control in the region by introducing modern forms of administration through political mobilization of various constituencies. Striving to demote the status of the khanate to that of a formal colony in the absence of any new decisive diplomatic agreements or legal norms, he pitched the Turkmen against the khan, the khan against the Russian businessmen in Khiva, and St. Petersburg against the khanate. Pursuing personal enrichment along the way, he eventually helped the political crisis to evolve into a major disaster with a tremendous death toll.