Paper abstract:

This paper explores the series of articles authored by Nil Sergeevich Lykoshin titled Pis’ma iz Tuzemnogo Tashkenta [Letters from Native Tashkent] and published in Turkestanskiia Vedomosti. This series allows us to study Lykoshin’s work at the formative period of his career in Turkestan, as well as the everyday life of Asiatic Tashkent. The series provided an opportunity for residents of Russian Tashkent to learn more about their neighbors in Asian Tashkent, and about whom the majority of them knew very little. Lykoshin’s articles also provided a perspective on the broader character of the Russian rule in Turkestan, and in Tashkent in particular. Who was Lykoshin’s intended audience? What topics did Lykoshin cover in his Letters from Native Tashkent series? What do these articles tell us about Lykoshin as an Orientalist at the formative stage of his work and throughout his 40-year long career in Turkestan?