Abstract:

From the point of view of integration and acculturation, the Central Asian region was developed by the Russian Empire through gradual fragmentation and subsequent pulling of its individual parts up to the standards of the "core" of the empire, and given the success of this work, it is especially important to understand the historically tested mechanisms for achieving this result. Some of them (military, administrative, economic) have been studied quite well. However, the mechanism of changing the image of the region and its individual components in the eyes of both the population, representatives of public thought, and government circles (metropolitan and regional elite) is almost completely unexplored. This most important form of "mental reformatting" of the territory's status is the focus of the round table. It will be important to consider the evolution of the image of the south-eastern periphery of the empire in government and public circles in a long historical perspective (18th - early 20th century), to find out the main actors of this process and the influence of this polyvector factor on the solution of the problem of integration and acculturation of the region in the socio-cultural and political-administrative field of the Russian Empire, as well as on the solution of the tasks of the empire's foreign policy.

Methodologically, the roundtable is based on the achievements of historical imagology. Over two centuries, the image of the Central Asian periphery has been repeatedly transformed in its key components, responding to new challenges, the emergence of new regional actors and the requirements objectively set by the process of frontier modernization. The mechanisms of formation and transformation of the macro-region's image were both an essential part of the imperial policy of integration and acculturation of regions, imperial foreign policy, and at the same time a factor that largely determined the framework of this policy.

Leading specialists from leading scientific centers of Kazakhstan and Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Astana, Alma-Ata, Aktobe) have already given their preliminary consent to participate in this roundtable discussion: Kovalskaya Svetlana, Professor, Eurasian National University (Astana, Kazakhstan); Izbassarova Gulbanu, Professor, Jubanov Aktobe Regional University (Aktobe, Kazakhstan); Uderbaeva Saule, Associate Professor, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Almaty, Kazakhstan); Vasilyev Dmitry, Professor, Moscow City University (Moscow, Russia); Roman Yu. Pochekaev, professor. HSE University in St. Petersburg.