Abstract:

The paper considers patterns of interactions involving sedentary and nomadic communities of Eurasia. Scholars have shown that throughout the region’s history, these interactions constituted an indispensable attribute of the rise and operation of the great nomadic empires. The nomads’ economic dependency on certain items produced in sedentary societies prompted their rulers to establish commercial relations with these societies, impose tribute on them, or take the needed items by force. Most powerful nomadic rulers also initiated the construction of settled spots, which, rather than turning into centers of power, functioned as trading and administrative spots. Owen Lattimore described this nomadic/sedentary interaction as ‘the oasis-in-the-steppe’ pattern. He viewed it as the basic geopolitical, economic, and cultural setting that shaped the region’s operation throughout its history.

I argue that during the formative period of the rise of the Russian Empire (from the mid-sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century), its authorities capitalized on enacting the ‘oasis-in-the-steppe’ setting. To proceed with this argument, my paper investigates the settled spots of Orenburg, Ural’sk, and Verny (Almaty) established in the Kazakh Steppe in the period under consideration. Historians tend to view these and other Russian settled spots as colonial military outposts, embodying the physical presence of Russian imperial power in the Kazakh Steppe. The more so as these spots occupied the surrounding nomadic lands and stationed punitive Cossack military forces. My paper shows that these spots that later grew into cities initially emerged as trading hubs, enabling economic and other interactions between the region’s nomadic and sedentary populations. In so doing, they replaced earlier settled spots that had operated as such centers before the Russian advance in the area. In other words, to strengthen their presence in the region, Russian imperial authorities invested in entertaining ‘the oasis-in-the steppe’ mechanisms. Thus, the initial stage of the spread of Russian imperial rule in the Kazakh nomadic areas in the period under consideration presents a striking contrast with its later period that marked the outset of the era of nationalism in Russia in the 1820s.