![]() Instead, it has been incorporated into a broader discourse of the geographical-historical spread and enculturation of Christianity into the Central Asian landmass. In particular, the history of the dissemination and inculturation of Christianity among Sogdians is one such area, which despite material and textual witness has not been studied autonomously. "Despite nearly two centuries of fascination in the scholarly world with the history of Sogdian culture there are still many under-researched areas. The paradoxical result was that, at least in the Zarafshan Valley (and quite possibly in other sedentary regions of Central Asia) the advent of the colonial regime meant a reduced tax burden, less state oversight, and security of property at least equal to what had existed before. The Russians also failed in their attempt to have the region's land declared the patrimony of the state. However, the system the Russians put in place instead placed enormous power in the hands of village oligarchies, ensuring that at the lower levels the Russians had little control over how the tax burden was allocated, and almost certainly collected far less than their Bukharan predecessors. The Russians found the Bukharan land tax system impossible to understand, and so proceeded to dismantle it, abolishing the annual assessment of the quantity and value of the harvest (which had been the responsibility of the amlakdar) and also refusing to recognise claims made by religious elites in the region that they were entitled to tax breaks on their mulk property. I argue that Russian attempts to implement at what is sometimes called 'land reform' in the Zarafshan Valley in the 1860s and 1870s are better understood as a fiscal measure, rather than anything to do with property rights. I have disentangled these, added some further evidence, and reconsidered the evidence which I put forward in my book. ![]() The most glaring of these was to confuse a Bukharan tax official (the amlakdar) with the owner of 'mulk' (a category of landed property which usually carried some form of tax exemption). This paper is a revision and correction of Chapter 3 of my 2008 monograph ('Russian Rule in Samarkand') in which I made a number of errors and misjudgements. You can hear an interview with me about the book here: Based on ten years of archival research in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and India, on Persianate chronicles and an abundance of campaign memoirs, this book explains how Russia acquired and governed a colonial empire in Central Asia, with consequences that still resonate today. It also explores in depth Russian diplomatic relations with Central Asian states and peoples, China, Persia and the British Empire. From the earliest conflicts on the steppe frontier in the 1830s, to the annexation of the Pamirs in the early 1900s, it gives a detailed account of the logistics and operational history of Russian wars against Khoqand, Bukhara and Khiva, the capture of Tashkent and Samarkand, the bloody subjection of the Turkmen, and the decision-making processes that launched these campaigns. This book is the first comprehensive military and diplomatic history of the conquest to be published for over a hundred years. ![]() "And no Ukrainian crisis would happen at all," he concluded.The Russian conquest of Central Asia was the 19th century's most dramatic and successful example of European imperial expansion, adding 1.5 million square miles of territory and at least 6 million people - most of them Muslims - to the Tsar's domains. He saidĪccording to the foreign minister, this concerns the Nagorno Karabakh and Transnistrian conflicts. “I am convinced that if equal indivisible security really took a legally binding form, many conflicts in Europe would have been settled long ago. “These declarations convey the desire of the parties to form a space of equal security in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian countries, as well as an assurance that none of us will strengthen our security by infringing on the security of others,” Lavrov said.Īt the same time, he expressed regret that these declarations "remained on paper". Russia is a responsible country that is firmly committed to the declarations that have been made over the past 20 years in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Russia-NATO Council, the Russian foreign policy chief said. Lavrov expressed concern over “the persistent efforts of NATO to change the military-political situation in the Euro-Atlantic region, including the military build-up in areas bordering Russia,” PanARMENIAN.Net reports citing TASS reports. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has given a hint as to why the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) has not been solved to this day.
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