This book studies the colonial administration created by the Russians in Central Asia after 1865, focusing on the city of Samarkand and its hinterland in the Zarafshan Valley. Throughout the book comparisons are made with British Rule in India, most commonly Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, and other largely Muslim areas, in an attempt to establish which aspects of Russian colonial rule in Central Asia were peculiarly and distinctively Russian, and which resemble those of the other European Empires. Based on archival research in Tashkent, Moscow, St Petersburg, and Delhi, it makes ext ... More

This book studies the colonial administration created by the Russians in Central Asia after 1865, focusing on the city of Samarkand and its hinterland in the Zarafshan Valley. Throughout the book comparisons are made with British Rule in India, most commonly Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, and other largely Muslim areas, in an attempt to establish which aspects of Russian colonial rule in Central Asia were peculiarly and distinctively Russian, and which resemble those of the other European Empires. Based on archival research in Tashkent, Moscow, St Petersburg, and Delhi, it makes extensive use of the rich resources of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan.