Knowledge and the ends of empire : Kazak intermediaries and Russian rule on the steppe, 1731/1917

Ключевые слова

Тематические рубрики

• History - History of Kazakhstan
• Kazakhstan - History
• Kazakhstan - Relations - Russia
• Russia - Relations - Kazakhstan
• Russia - History - 1689 - 1801.
• Russia - History - 1801-1917

Аннотация

In the book, Ian W. W. Campbell explores the links between the production of knowledge and the formation of politics in the Kazakh steppes of the Russian Empire. Hoping to improve the management of the region, tsarist officials desperately tried to get reliable information about the unfamiliar environment and population. This thirst for knowledge created opportunities for Kazakh intermediaries to present themselves and their landscape to the tsarist state. Since the tsarist officials were not sure what the steppe was and disagreed about what could be made of it, the Cossacks could participate in these debates, sometimes influencing the policy.Drawing on archival materials from Russia and Kazakhstan and a wide range of nineteenth-century periodicals in Russian and Kazakh, Campbell tells a story that highlights unforeseen circumstances and opportunities for cooperation with imperial rule. Kazakh intermediaries could initially put forward their own unique views on whether the steppe should be Muslim or with