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THE RISE OF THE RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE PRESS IN TURKESTAN (1870–1917)
Rustamov Umidjon Maxsudali o‘g‘li
Teacher of Fergana Medical Institute of Public Health
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17148020
Abstract.
This article explores the emergence of the Russian-language press in Turkestan
from the 1870s to the early twentieth century. The founding of Turkestanskie vedomosti in 1870
marked the beginning of official Russian-language periodicals, which primarily served the
administrative and ideological needs of the Tsarist regime. While functioning as a tool of colonial
governance and Russification, the press also reflected wider intellectual and political currents,
including the circulation of revolutionary ideas and the rise of national-bourgeois newspapers
after 1905. By situating the press within the socio-political context of late imperial Turkestan, the
article highlights its dual role as both an instrument of empire and a medium of cultural
exchange.
Keywords:
Russian-language press; Turkestan; colonial policy; Russification;
Turkestanskie vedomosti; N. P. Ostroumov; Orientalists; imperial administration; national-
bourgeois press; late 19th – early 20th century.
РАСЦВЕТ РУССКОЯЗЫЧНОЙ ПЕЧАТИ В ТУРКЕСТАНЕ (1870–1917)
Аннотация.
В статье рассматривается становление русскоязычной прессы в
Туркестане с 1870-х годов до начала XX века. Основание «Туркестанских ведомостей» в
1870 году ознаменовало начало официальной русскоязычной периодики, которая в первую
очередь обслуживала административные и идеологические нужды царского режима.
Выступая в качестве инструмента колониального управления и русификации, пресса
также отражала более широкие интеллектуальные и политические течения, включая
распространение революционных идей и рост национально-буржуазных газет после 1905
года. Рассматривая прессу в социально-политическом контексте позднеимперского
Туркестана, статья подчёркивает её двойную роль: как инструмента империи и как
средства культурного обмена.
Ключевые слова:
Русскоязычная Пресса; Туркестан; Колониальная Политика;
Русификация; «Туркестанские Ведомости»; Н. П. Остроумов; Ориенталисты; Царская
Администрация; Национально-Буржуазная Пресса; Конец XIX – Начало XX Века.
Introduction
The introduction of the Russian-language press into Turkestan in the second half of the
nineteenth century was closely linked with the imperial expansion of the Russian Empire in
Central Asia. The conquest of Tashkent in 1865 and the subsequent establishment of the
Turkestan Governor-Generalship (1867) created the administrative and political framework within
which Russian officials sought to institutionalize control not only militarily and bureaucratically,
but also ideologically through the medium of the press.
Scholars often maintain that the Russian-language press in Turkestan, particularly in areas
such as Northern Tajikistan, began to develop only after the Soviet regime consolidated its
authority. Yet a closer examination of historical evidence shows that the emergence of Russian-
language publishing in the region predates this period. The establishment of printing houses and
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the appearance of official publications can be traced back to 1870, shortly after much of Central
Asia was incorporated into the Russian Empire and the Turkestan Governor-Generalship was
created in 1868.
The first issue of
Turkestanskie vedomosti
(
Turkestan Regional Gazette
), recognized as the
earliest newspaper in Central Asia, appeared on 28 April 1870. While the newspaper was
primarily an instrument of Tsarist administrative policy, aimed at disseminating official
information to the population, its role was not confined to this function. The publication also
carried materials on the region’s economic, social, and cultural developments, and it regularly
featured essays exploring the historical experiences of local communities (
Turkestanskie
vedomosti
, 1871, issues 15, 17, 21). In addition, several articles were devoted to the ethnographic
characteristics of the Tajik people, reflecting the newspaper’s broader engagement with the study
of local traditions and society.
The newspaper soon became a platform that drew the interest of several distinguished
Orientalists, among them V. V. Bartold, A. G. Grebenkin, A. P. Fedchenko, and V. F. Oshanin,
who maintained active cooperation with the editorial team
[1: 27; 2:31-32]
. Among its regular
contributors, Nikolai Petrovich Ostroumov stands out as a particularly influential figure. Having
recently graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy, he was already recognized as a
promising young intellectual and was permitted to lecture at the academy itself. Parallel to this, he
engaged in pedagogical work at local theological and teacher-training seminaries, where he taught
subjects such as history and geography. The majority of Ostroumov’s contributions to the paper
reflected a pronounced religious and missionary agenda, underscoring the ideological orientation
of much of his scholarship.
The publication history of Turkestanskie vedomosti (Turkestan Regional Gazette) is well
documented: its final issue appeared in mid-December 1917. Throughout its forty-seven years of
existence, the size of its print run fluctuated considerably, ranging between one and three thousand
copies.
Scholars analyzing the development of the Russian-language press in Turkestan from 1870
onward often identify three major stages. The first corresponds to the founding of official
periodicals under direct Tsarist patronage. The second reflects the spread of revolutionary
newspapers such as Iskra, Vpered, Proletarii, and Novaya zhizn, which found circulation in cities
including Samarkand, Bukhara, Khujand, and Uroteppa. The third stage, emerging after the
Revolution of 1905, saw the rise of a national-bourgeois press, with Russian-language titles also
appearing within this trend
[1: 65].
Nevertheless, it may be argued that the second of these stages should not be regarded as an
autonomous phase in the evolution of the regional press. This is because the revolutionary
periodicals of the time were not locally founded or produced but rather introduced into the region
from external sources, their circulation reflecting importation rather than indigenous journalistic
development.
During the years of the First World War, the presence of national-bourgeois newspapers in
Turkestan expanded noticeably. Archival statistics demonstrate a dynamic pattern: in 1915,
seventeen Russian-language periodicals were issued in the region; by 1916 this number had grown
to nineteen, but by 1917 it had declined to thirteen
[2: 109].
In total, between 1870 and 1917,
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roughly 170 Russian-language periodicals were published across Turkestan, more than eighty of
which were newspapers. Their geographical distribution, however, was uneven, reflecting both
demographic and political priorities of the Tsarist regime. Publications appeared in Margilan (8
titles), Vernyi and Kokand (10 each), Ashgabat (23), Samarkand (24), and most prominently,
Tashkent, which hosted more than 80 titles
[2: 155].
The predominance of Tashkent as a publishing center is hardly coincidental. As the
administrative seat of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship, the city enjoyed both infrastructural
advantages - printing facilities, postal communications, and educational institutions - and political
significance as a hub of colonial governance. This concentration of resources created an
environment in which both official and semi-official periodicals could flourish, thereby
reinforcing the city’s role as the intellectual and cultural center of the region under Russian rule.
By contrast, peripheral cities such as Margilan or Khujand produced far fewer publications, a fact
that illustrates the uneven diffusion of print culture and the centralizing tendencies of imperial
policy. It is also noteworthy that Khujand, which later became part of Tajikistan, developed its
own contribution to this landscape of Russian-language publishing. A striking example is the
journal
Krasnoe solnyshko
(
The Red Sun
), established in 1909 under the initiative of V. G. Ryk-
Bogdanovich. Although modest in scale, this periodical reflects the broader trend of localized
publishing efforts in the early twentieth century, which supplemented the dominant centers by
providing outlets for intellectual activity in smaller cities.
Taken together, these figures and examples reveal several important tendencies. First, they
underscore the extent to which the Russian colonial administration relied on the press not only as a
mechanism of political control but also as a means of cultural and social influence. Second, the
fluctuations in the number of periodicals during the war years demonstrate the vulnerabilit y of the
press to broader political and economic crises. Finally, the existence of Russian-language
periodicals outside major centers suggests that, by the early twentieth century, the infrastructure of
print had begun to penetrate deeper into the social fabric of Turkestan, albeit unevenly and under
conditions of colonial dependence.
Many of the official and bourgeois periodicals in Turkestan functioned primarily as
instruments for legitimizing the existing order, openly supporting the policies of the Tsarist regime
and later those of the Provisional Government. Yet one publication stands out as a particularly
illustrative case -
Turkestanskaia tuzemnaia gazeta
(
Turkestan Native Newspaper
), edited by
Nikolai Ostroumov between 1883 and 1917. Despite being administered under his direction, it
cannot be regarded as a fully Russian-language newspaper in essence. Rather, it was issued in the
languages of the local population but was conceived as a vehicle of Tsarist
Russification policy, serving to disseminate propaganda in favor of the Orthodox
monarchy. Interestingly, the paper was not confined solely to loyalist propaganda. On occasion, its
pages featured sharp criticisms of Tsarist officials, including articles exposing the stifling effects
of bureaucratic administration on regional life and the pervasive corruption among Tashkent
officials [3: 260]. This ambivalence reveals that even publications tied closely to imperial
authority could sometimes provide space for dissenting or critical voices, whether intentionally or
as a consequence of the contradictions inherent in colonial governance.
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Ostroumov’s personal agenda, however, was unmistakable. He consistently positioned
himself as an advocate of spreading Russian culture and Orthodoxy among the Muslim peoples of
the region. His well-known book
Sarty
articulated this view most explicitly, where he argued that
the “civilizing” of the local population could only be achieved through the acceptance of the
Orthodox faith
[4: 265–269].
For Ostroumov, religious conversion was not merely a spiritual
matter but a central component of cultural assimilation and loyalty to the empire. The February
and October Revolutions of 1917, however, radically altered the political environment. Ostroumov
came to realize that his long-standing vision of Russification no longer resonated with the local
population, nor did it carry the political weight it once had. Consequently, he chose to leave
Turkestan and return to Russia, effectively marking the end of his decades-long effort to shape the
intellectual and cultural climate of the region through the press.
Conclusion
In summary,
Turkestanskaia tuzemnaia gazeta
largely reproduced, in the vernacular
languages of Central Asia, the ideological content already promoted by
Turkestanskie vedomosti
.
While its principal mission was to defend the interests of the Turkestan Governor-Generalship and
to advance the imperial project of Russification, it nevertheless at times provided space for pointed
critiques of administrative malpractice. This duality illustrates both the adaptability of the colonial
press and the tensions that arose when imperial propaganda encountered the lived realities of
Turkestan society.
The emergence of the Russian-language press in Turkestan should be understood as a
process shaped by the interplay of
imperial policy, settler society, and local dynamics.
It laid
the groundwork for the broader press culture of the region, influencing not only Russian-speaking
readers but also indirectly affecting the rise of native-language publications that emerged in
response most notably the Jadid press of the early twentieth century.
References:
1.
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Бабаханов, М. 1987.
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