

@mastersthesis {6215,
	title = {Russian rule in {Samarkand} 1868-1910. {A} comparison with {British} {India}},
	year = {2005},
	note = {U201767},
	school = {University of Oxford (United Kingdom)},
	type = {phdD.{Phil}.},
	address = {Ann Arbor},
	abstract = {This thesis examines Russian rule in Turkestan in the Tsarist period, with a particular focus on the city of Samarkand and the surrounding distinct. Throughout, comparisons are made with the methods used by the British in India when confronted with similar colonial dilemmas. Hitherto the Russian Empire has rarely been considered comparable to those of other European powers, and more generally the history of non-Russian areas before 1917 is very neglected. The thesis is based largely on primary sources from archives in Tashkent, Moscow and St. Petersburg, together with little-known published material. The introduction gives an overview of the historiography, and the reasons why new research is necessary, together with a brief overview of the chronology and the background of the Russian conquest. Subsequent chapters deal with Russian imperial ideologies and contemporary attitudes towards British India; the relationship with Islam; the earliest attempts to create a colonial administration in the region after 1868; the military bureaucracy and its personnel; the native administration; irrigation and the control of water and the islamic judiciary and its relationship with the colonial regime. The arguments of the {\textquoteright}Cambridge School{\textquoteright} of South Asian history have had a considerable influence on my approach. The broad conclusion is that despite military and technological superiority the Russians were far from all-powerful Turkestan, owing to lack of trained personnel, finance and, perhaps most importantly, knowledge. The administration was characterised by corruption, inefficiency and a failure to modernise and reform. Although clerical and aristocratic elites lost some of their power and significance, urban, mercantile and village elites exploited Russian power for their own purposes, and controlled important elements of the administration. However, compared with India the regime was not particularly violent, and taxed lightly. Turkestan???s peasants did not have to finance imperial defence like their counterparts in India. In short, Russian rule brought about a number of changes, but not always on the rulers{\textquoteright} terms.},
	keywords = {0335:European history, Bibliographies, DN090195, European history, Psychology{\textendash}Abstracting, Social sciences, Statistics},
	url = {http://search.proquest.com/docview/301647379?accountid=14270},
	author = {Morrison, A}
}
