Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T04:32:35.256Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Aryanism on the Final Frontier of the Russian Empire: The Exploration and Annexation of the Pamirs, 1881–1905

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2020

Alexander Morrison
Affiliation:
New College, Oxford
Get access

Summary

The final phase of Russian expansion in Central Asia occurred in some of the most remote and inhospitable territory on the planet – the high Pamir plateau and the valleys of Shughnan, Roshan and Wakhan, inhabited by sparse populations of Kyrgyz and Pamiri Tajiks. The latter were considered by the Russians to be the last remnants of the autochthonous ‘Aryan’ population of Central Asia, and became an object of ethnographic fascination for this and their Isma’ili religion. Faced with the threat of domination by Sunni Muslim lowlanders – whether in Afghanistan or Bukhara – for many Pamiris Russian rule was a more attractive option. This was perhaps the one phase of the conquest where the old Soviet trope of ‘voluntary uniting’ contains a grain of truth – the Pamiris actively lobbied for a Russian presence on their territory, and proved adept at manipulating it to their advantage. The Pamirs were also the site of some of the most mythologised episodes of the ‘Great Game’, but, while the British were concerned by Russian activities, in 1895 they came to an amicable agreement on the drawing of a new frontier along the river Panj. The problems with Bukharan rule over Shughnan, Roshan and Wakhan proved much more intractable, and led to the imposition of direct Russian rule in 1905.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Russian Conquest of Central Asia
A Study in Imperial Expansion, 1814–1914
, pp. 476 - 530
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×