About the Book
The Russian conquest of Central Asia was perhaps the nineteenth century's most dramatic and successful example of European imperial expansion, adding 1.5 million square miles and at least 6 million people - most of them Muslims - to the Tsar's domains. Alexander Morrison provides the first comprehensive military and diplomatic history of the conquest to be published for over a hundred years. From the earliest conflicts on the steppe frontier in the 1830s to the annexation of the Pamirs in the early 1900s, he gives a detailed account of the logistics and operational history of Russian wars against Khoqand, Bukhara and Khiva, the capture of Tashkent and Samarkand, and the bloody subjection of the Turkmen, as well as Russian diplomatic relations with China, Persia and the British Empire. Based on archival research in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and India, memoirs and Islamic chronicles, this book explains how Russia conquered a colonial empire in Central Asia, with consequences that still resonate today.
Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Russia's steppe frontier and the Napoleonic generation; 2. 'Pray for the camels': the winter invasion of Khiva, 1839–1841; 3. 'This particularly painful place': the failure of the Syr-Darya line as a frontier, 1841–1863; 4. From Ayaguz to Almaty: the conquest and settlement of Semirechie, 1843–1882; 5. The search for a 'natural' frontier and the fall of Tashkent, 1863–1865; 6. War with Bukhara, 1866–1868; 7. The fall of Khiva, 1872–1873; 8. 'Those who should be spared': the conquest of Ferghana, 1875–1876; 9. 'The harder you hit them, the longer they will be quiet afterwards': the conquest of Transcaspia, 1869–1885; 10. Aryanism on the final frontier of the Russian empire: the exploration and annexation of the Pamirs, 1881–1905; Epilogue: after the conquest.
About the Author :
Alexander Morrison is Fellow and Tutor in History at New College, Oxford. His publications include Russian Rule in Samarkand 1868–1910: A Comparison with British India (2008).
Review :
'In a masterful work of history and historiography, Morrison demolishes the 'Great Game' story of Russia's expansion, so entrenched in English language scholarship. His long-duree account of Russia's Central Asia conquests offers compelling narrative, deep dives into camels and weapons, and comparisons of battles and encounters from the pens of Central Asian participants and observers as well as the far more abundant Russian accounts.' Marianne Kamp, Indiana University
'This wonderfully intelligent, original and well-written book is based on years of meticulous research conducted in many languages in archives across Eurasia, some of them previously almost inaccessible to foreign historians. Not only does it offer unique insights into the thinking of Russian policy-makers, it also adds crucially to our understanding of nineteenth-century European imperialism. This work should transform the Anglophone world's understanding of the 'Great Game'.' Dominic Lieven, University of Cambridge
'The Russian Conquest of Central Asia is a major work. Based on the supreme command of a large body of material, scattered across a dozen archives between present-day Russia, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, Morrison's book is destined to have a deep and long-term impact on the field of Russian imperial history, the comparative history of colonialism in Asia, and Central Asian history.' Paolo Sartori, Austrian Academy of Sciences
'Alexander Morrison's The Russian Conquest of Central Asia provides a detailed and comprehensive account of how and why the Russians came to conquer this vast territory in the century between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and 1914.' Daniel Beer, Times Literary Supplement
'The book delivers a comprehensive and much-needed analysis of the conquest of Central Asia and its place in the history of nineteenth-century global expansions.' Malika Zekhni, War in History Book Reviews
'The book should become the standard work on the subject and take a prominent place in the literature on Russian imperial and military history.' Andrew Monaghan, RUSI Journal
'Alexander Morrison has exploded the myth of the great game in his seminal study largely because of his long term research in archives in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and India. In addition, he comprehensively works through the myriad of published memoirs, official published sources, and a broad range of secondary works which taken together has resulted in a meticulously researched study of the long campaign the Russians undertook to conquer and colonise Central Asia in the 19th century.' John W. Steinberg, War and Society
'Alexander Morrison's magnificent and heart-wrenching study of Russia's nineteenth-century conquest of the region that became known as Central Asia, upends the conventional story in multiple ways.' Jane Burbank, American Historical Review
'[Morrison] is to be highly commended for this work of scholarship, which is essential reading not only for those with a serious interest in Central Asia, but also for those inclined to offer their commentary, expert or otherwise, on Russian foreign policy today.' Sophie Ibbotson, Asian Affairs
'No one who seriously wants to concern themselves with the history of relations between Russia and Central Asia will be able to do without this standard work.' Beate Eschment, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas
'In his splendid new history, The Russian Conquest of Central Asia, Alexander Morrison firmly rebuts the notion of the Great Game - that tsarist imperial expansion into the region was driven by a desire to expel Albion from South Asia. Indeed, if most previous books about the topic tended to ascribe the conquest to a single motive, Morrison wisely avoids a monocausal explanation … Taking full advantage of freer access in the post-Soviet era, Morrison spent ten years in nearly a dozen archives throughout the former Russian Empire, as well as collections in London, Amsterdam, and Delhi. Together with a bibliography of well over 1,000 published primary and secondary sources, The Russian Conquest of Central Asia is by far the most thoroughly documented study in any language.' David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History
'Morrison's work reveals the momentous hubris of a great power that not only was able but also felt entitled by its own military strength to conquer, subjugate and rule over others.' Moritz Florin, Historische Zeitschrift
'In this magisterial and much-anticipated book, Alexander Morrison aims to create a new narrative of the tsarist conquest of Central Asia, to escape the shackles of the extant historiography by dint of deep empirical research. Eschewing overarching explanations in favour of a series of microhistories in which the particularities of environment and personality come to the fore, he succeeds admirably in his task.' Ian Campbell, Ab Imperio
'a superbly well-done military history … This study will be the definitive source on the conquest for at least another generation.' Shoshana Keller, Russian Review
'Morrison's research and synthesis of recent scholarship on Central Asia make his book a major achievement, one that will long stand as a definitive study of its subject.' Charles Steinwedel, Slavic Review
