RUSSIAN PERIODICALS AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH -20TH CENTURIESON RUSSIAN MIGRANTS’ SOCIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION IN CENTRAL ASIA

In the Russian historiography, the views of the publicists of the early 20th century of the Russian colonists’ life in Central Asia aren’t duly highlighted. The novelty and aim of the research consist in revealing the general and particular in the Russian periodicals’ percep-tion of the colonization of Turkestan, in determining their ideological bent. The authors have discovered that all the reviewed periodicals were adherents of Central Asia colonization. They supported the imperial policy of the government with minor reserva-tions. Most publicists noted that the settling of colonists depended on the actions of the central government, which insuffi ciently took into account the local conditions. However, publicists differed in the choice of the main direction and in the assessments of the value of colonists’ adaptation activity; they proposed various ways of developing the intercultural dialogue.The authors come to the conclusions that liberal periodicals paid special attention to the economic activities of Russian immigrants, assessing the degree of their adaptation by the level of well-being achieved. The Narodnik periodicals considered migrants as a part of the peasant world of Russia. They were concerned, above all, about the colonists’ commu-nity, which they considered an effective means of adaptation, preserving the culture and moral qualities of the Russians. Probably, they considered it a pledge of building fair relations with the local population. Conservative and offi cial publicists viewed Russian immigrants primarily as support of the Russian government in Central Asia. That is why they paid special attention to the preservation of assimilation qualities of the Russians, the loss of which could become, in their view, an obstacle to the strengthening of the empire positions in the region.