The Visualization of Imperial Space: the Experience of the Central Asian Region of Russia

Cover Page

Cite item

Full text / tables, figures

Abstract

The present study investigates the visualization of the imperial space with examples of meetings of the population with representatives of the ruling house of the Russian Empire. The focus is on meetings of the indigenous people of Russian Central Asia with the Turkestan Governor General and the heir to the throne. The article is based on memories of eyewitnesses as well as on publications from that time. Public appearances verbally and nonverbally influenced the population. The present study is based on an array of methods, including the analysis of the sources to identify the components of the ceremonies, synchronous and diachronous methods, comparative analysis, content analysis, as well as discourse analysis. This research methodology and the rich source base from which we quote here elucidate the basic techniques for visualizing the presence of power on the outskirts of the state. The article analyzes the meetings of the Turkestan Governor General with the population at different time periods as well as the measures organized for the heir to the throne during his travels in the Far East and Siberia in 1891. For establishing a connection with propaganda activities of the first years of the Soviet regime, the authors highlight the fundamental components of these ceremonies in the Russian Empire. Such representations of power were aimed at demonstrating the unity of society and monarchy, in a display of strength and greatness. All these events conform to the state ideology “autocracy - orthodoxy - nationality,” with just a minor adaptation in relation to Turkestan. There, the authorities adhered to the tactics of ignoring Islam and limiting Orthodox proselytism, with the result that the role of the central element of the triad was minimized.

About the authors

Dmitry V. Vasilyev

Moscow City University

Author for correspondence.
Email: dvvasiliev@mail.ru

Doktor Istoricheskikh Nauk [Dr. habil. hist.], Professor of the Department of Russian History

4, 2nd Selskohozyaistvenny Dr., Moscow, 129226, Russia

Aleksandr V. Ryabov

Saint Petersburg University of State Fire Service of Emercom of Russia

Email: ryboff@yandex.ru

Kandidat Kul'turologii [Ph.D. in Cultural], Head of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences

149, Moskovskiy Av., Saint-Petersburg, 196105, Russia

References

  1. Alimdzhanov, B.A. “Discussions around the industrial policy of the Russian Empire in Turkestan Governor General.” History magazine: researches, no. 1 (2017): 18–22 (in Russian).
  2. Arapov D.Yu., and Vasil'yev, D.V. “Projects of the organization of the Office of Muslim Spiritual Affairs in Turkestan. Documents of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire. 1900.” Historical archive, no. 1 (2005): 150–174 (in Russian).
  3. Bakhturina, A.Yu. A.N. “Kuropatkin and the Central Asian Uprising of 1916.” Jurisprudence: history and modernity, no. 3 (2019): 65–74 (in Russian).
  4. Brezhneva, S.N. “General M.G. Chernyaev: personality against the background of military campaign on Russia’s conquest of Turkestan.” RUDN Journal of Russian History, no. 1 (2014): 106–117 (in Russian).
  5. Kolokol'tsev, D.G. Vospominaniya general-leytenanta Kolokol'tsova 1887 goda. (O Konstantine Petroviche Kaufmane). Moscow: [S.n.], 1887 (in Russian).
  6. Konovalov, V.V., and Makeyev, D.A. “Mass media about Russia’s development of authorities of Middle Asia (the middle of the 1870-s).” Vestnik of Vladimir State University, no. 1 (2017): 7–13 (in Russian).
  7. Kotyukova, T.V. “Alexey Nikolaevich Kuropatkin – the last Turkestan Governor General.” The World of Politics and Sociology, no. 2 (2018): 27–50 (in Russian).
  8. Krylova, Ye.Ye. “First exhibitions of V.V. Vereshchagin’s works from Central Asia in press and the problem of the Turkestan series interpretation.” Knowledge. Understanding. Skill, no. 4 (2015): 335–342 (in Russian).
  9. Lisitsyna, N.N. “The expansion of the Russian Empire in Central Asia and the perception of Russians and Russia by the population of Turkestan (second half of the twentieth century).” Moscow State Pedogogical university and the Sholokhov, no. 2 (2014): 26–30 (in Russian).
  10. Pochekayev, R.Yu. Gubernatory i khany. Lichnostnyy faktor pravovoy politiki Rossiyskoy imperii v Tsentral'noy Azii: XVIII – nachalo XX v. M.: Izd. Dom Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki Publ., 2017 (in Russian).
  11. Pochekayev, R.Yu. “Features of the administrative development of the Ili region in 1871–1881: between traditions and frontier modernization.” Society and State in China 46, no. 2 (2016): 531–542 (in Russian).
  12. Pochekayev, R.Yu. “Features of the legal status of the Ili region in the 1760–1860s.” Journal of the Ural Federal University. Series 2. Humanities 20, no. 4 (2018): 152–166 (in Russian).
  13. Ryabov, A.V. Khudozhnik i vlast' (bor'ba i sotrudnichestvo, 1918–1932 gg.). St. Petersburg: SanktPeterburgskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet Publ., 2000 (in Russian).
  14. Skhimmel'pennink van der Oyye, D. Russkiy oriyentalizm. Aziya v rossiyskom soznanii ot epokhi Petra Velikogo do Beloy emigratsii. Moscow: Politicheskaya entsiklopediya Publ., 2019 (in Russian).
  15. Shadmanova, S.B. “Obraz musul'manskikh uchebnykh zavedeniy na stranitsakh periodicheskoy pechati Turkestana (konets XIX – nachalo XX vv.).” In Idealy i tsennosti islama v obrazovatel'nom pro- stranstve XXI veka: materialy Mezhdunarodnoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii, posvyashchennoy 110-letiyu medrese «Galiya», 146–154. Ufa: Mir pechati Publ., 2016 (in Russian).
  16. Uortman, R.S. Stsenarii vlasti: Mify i tseremonii russkoy monarkhii. Moscow: OGI Publ., 2004 (in Russian).
  17. Vasilyev, D.V. “The Chinese Question in Russian Turkestan: On the History of the Russian Admini- stration in the Ili Region.” Tomsk State University Journal, no. 449 (2019): 93–101 (in Russian).
  18. Vasilyev, D.V. “Russkiy Turkestan: sud'ba i vlast' (turkestanskiye general-gubernatory v 1865–1886 gody).” In Aziatskaya Rossiya: lyudi i struktury imperii: sbornik nauchnykh statey k 50-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya professora A.V. Remneva, 351–392.Omsk: OmGU Publ., 2005 (in Russian).
  19. Vasilyev, D.V., and Lyubichankovskiy, S.V. “Russian power in the Turkestan region: visualization of the imperial space as a factor in acculturation.” Tomsk State University Journal. History, no. 54 (2018): 17–26 (in Russian).
  20. Volkova, M.A. “Symbols of power in the Russian art culture of the XVIII century.” The Bulletin of Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, no. 3 (2009): 74–77 (in Russian).
  21. Zakharova, O.YU. Vlast' tseremonialov i tseremonialy vlasti v Rossiyskoy imperii XVIII – nachala XX veka: Koronatsii, diplomaticheskiye priyomy, vysochayshiye vykhody, voyennyye parady, ry- tsarskiye karuseli, tseremonial'nyye zastol'ya, baly. Moscow: AiF Prin Publ., 2003 (in Russian).
  22. Zakharova, O.YU. Gosudarstvennyy tseremonial kak programma vlasti. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf Publ., 2014 (in Russian).
  23. Zimin, I.V. Tsarskaya rabota. XIX – nachalo XX v. Povsednevnaya zhizn' Rossiyskogo imperatorskogo dvora. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf Publ., 2011 (in Russian).

Copyright (c) 2020 Vasilyev D.V., Ryabov A.V.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This website uses cookies

You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

About Cookies