Abstract

In the mid-to-late 19th century, as the Russian Empire expanded into Southern Central Asia, agriculture gradually became a crucial component of governance in the “new frontier.” Western scholarship often emphasizes the Empire’s attempts to transform Southern Central Asian agriculture through Western technology, citing engineering failures and ecological damage as evidence of its inefficient and unsustainable rule. This paper argues that the agricultural reforms carried out by the Russian Empire in Southern Central Asia were not aimed at establishing a “civilizational order.” They served as a core instrument of frontier governance, intended to consolidate rule, increase fiscal revenue, promote colonization and integrate Southern Central Asia from an “outer frontier” into an “inner frontier.”

The primary sources for this study consist of Russian Imperial local government reports, agricultural surveys, water conservancy project archives and related legal documents. The analysis proceeds along three dimensions: institutional construction, water conservancy and cotton industrialization. First, at the institutional level, the Empire did not forcibly impose land privatization but instead incorporated local land and water-rights customs through legislation, creating a form of “governance continuity.” Second, in water conservancy practice, early attempts to directly transplant Western models largely ended in failure. It was through the efforts of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, who integrated local irrigation knowledge and effectively employed local labor, that the water system was improved and irrigated land expanded. Third, in the cotton industry, the Empire transitioned from market-driven to state-led development. Through tariff protection, variety improvement, technology promotion and the establishment of a research network, local government effectively promoted the scaling and institutionalization of cotton cultivation in Southern Central Asia. Although factors such as high production costs and limited administrative capacity prevented the realization of “cotton self-sufficiency,” this process successfully integrated Southern Central Asia into the empire-wide cotton supply chain and market system.

This paper contends that the Russian Empire’s agricultural governance in Southern Central Asia was a pragmatic process unfolding within the tensions among imperial rationality, local knowledge and market forces. Despite issues such as inefficiency, knowledge gaps and limited social integration, the reforms—through adjustments to land institutions, improvements in water conservancy and the development of the cotton industry—largely achieved the goals of consolidating rule, promoting colonization, and fostering economic integration. The completion of the Orenburg–Tashkent railway further strengthened the region’s ties to the Russian heartland, marking Southern Central Asia’s transition from a frontier to an “inner frontier.”