A study of the formation of the Russian imperial rule over the Kyrgyz nomads : With a focus on the Kyrgyz tribal chieftains "manaps"

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the Russian Empire established its rule over the Kyrgyz nomads by analyzing the activities of Kyrgyz tribal chieftains, "manaps", and the circumstances faced by them. The formation of the rule of the Russian Empire over the Kyrgyz nomads was a dynamic process in which the eastward migration of the Kyrgyz nomads, who after the collapse of the Jungarian Empire sought to obtain new pasture lands, interacted with the military expansion of the Russian Empire toward the heart of Central Asia and which was even more complicated by the presence of other neighboring powers. The Russian Empire opened up direct relations with the Kyrgyz nomads when it took an arbitrator's role in the Kazakh-Kyrgyz frictions of the late 1840's. The Russian Empire eventually came to see manaps as mediators with the local population. From the end of the 1850's, when the Russian Empire activated its efforts toward the conquest of Central Asia, the Kyrgyz nomads were put in a borderline position facing closely interwoven issues of the military expansion and the governance mechanism establishment. The Russian Empire sorted manaps out based on their loyalty and reliability and tied the selected ones up to the local military governance mechanisms. Moreover, the Russian Empire built a hierarchy among the manaps by introducing the institution of appointed senior manaps ("starshii manap"). In such a situation the manaps managed to extend their power and expand their pastures by not only emphasizing their own military exploits in the conquest wars but also by exaggerating the questionability of loyalty of their rival manaps-thus in both cases utilizing the factor of presence of the neighboring powers. Such policy of the Russian Empire and strategies used by the manaps continued even after the establishment of the governor-generalship of Turkestan in 1867. The Temporary Statute of 1867, which in principle was aimed at dismantling the "tribal principle" including the authority of the tribal leaders, was flexibly utilized by the local colonial authorities for the purpose of setting up the hierarchy and selecting the able manaps who might be useful for establishing and exercising the Russian imperial rule over the Kyrgyz nomads and conducting further military expansion. On the other side, some of the manaps sought the office of the volost headmen ("volostnoi up-ravitel") to strengthen their power, while others purposely turned down the offered position in order to avoid restrictions implied by the post and retain their freedom of maneuver. Among these latter manaps, there appeared such influential figures as Shabdan who expanded their influence by skillfully making use of the multitiered structure of the governance system involving the Russian colonial officials.