Abstract:

Speaking about the national elites of Turkestan, Soviet historical science created a collective portrait of the “national liberation movement” that fought against the double oppression of Russian tsarism and local feudal lords and “religious fundamentalists,” backward retrogrades who did their best to hinder the development and modernization of local society. But there was another alternative and extremely small archetype of the national elite. On the one hand, he seemed to be absolutely integrated into the noble environment of the empire, and enjoyed all existing rights and privileges. On the other hand, he remained in a kind of “gray” transition zone, from distrust and the status of “stranger” to full incorporation and receiving the status of “insider”.

The Russian government initiated and in every possible way encouraged the process of training the children of the national aristocracy in Russian military educational institutions. In Turkestan, this practice, for various reasons, is not widely used. There were very few people among the local elite who went through adaptation to military service. If these representatives of the local elite accepted Orthodoxy, they subsequently acquired a unique status – “friends among strangers, strangers among their own.” At the same time, the imperial authorities did not always trust them completely, and when possible, they did not forget to remind them that they were “strangers.”

Among the Russian generals and senior officials, the most complementary attitude towards the Turkmen was formed, in comparison with other peoples of Turkestan. Paradoxically, this was largely due to the fact that the Turkmens offered the most stubborn resistance to the Russian army in the Central Asian region. The Turkmens were considered by St. Petersburg as the least Islamized, and, therefore, as a less alien community for Russians in Turkestan. This gave some hope for the success of the subsequent integration of the Turkmens into Russian statehood. The Tekin Turkmen were considered the most loyal to the empire, despite the heroic resistance of the Russian army of the Ahal oasis. The Tekins were repaid for their loyalty with loyalty, an emphasized manifestation of which on the part of the empire was the informal recognition of the status of the ruler of the Merv oasis, Guljamal Khan.

Relations with the Yomud Turkmens were more difficult. However, in their midst there was a leader figure. He was Nikolai Nikolaevich Khan Yomudsky.