The Discourse of Religious Policy of Russia in the Steppe Region and Turkestan in Personal Texts of Imperial Experts of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries
Дискурс религиозной политики России в Степном крае и Туркестане в личных текстах имперских экспертов второй половины ХIХ – начала ХХ в.
Nogaibayeva M.S. Zhangaliev U.K. Abykenova G.E. Balakhmetova G.K.
1 March 2026Cherkas Global University Press
Bylye Gody
2026#21Issue 1368 - 376 pp.
This article, using personal texts by officials of the highest provincial administration, employees of resettlement agencies, publicists, and public and church figures, reveals the views of imperial experts on the religious policy of the Russian Empire in the Steppe Region and Turkestan in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The study establishes that the political and public elites of the Russian Empire shaped their ideas about the organization of religious space on the countrys eastern borderlands by embracing the high civilizing mission of the Russian people, which was regarded as a tool for culturization in non-Russian communities. The dominant belief in the authorities and public opinion was that knowledge and belonging to European civilization justified the moral superiority of Russians over the non-Russian populations of the outskirts, and that the introduction of agricultural practices among nomadic peoples would inevitably lead to the transition of the indigenous peoples to a sedentary lifestyle. At the same time, it was widely believed that nomads, by adopting the economic models of the Russian peasant, would finally integrate into the family of Christian peoples and avoid the influence of Islam and Muslim agitators. In the discourse of the government and society in the second half of the 19th century, the rhetoric of ignoring Islam prevailed. Amidst the growth of unauthorized resettlements and ill-considered land use policies, the situation changed in the Steppe Region and Turkestan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a change reflected in the views of imperial experts: the peasantrys cultural influence on the nomadic population was deemed exaggerated, and the position of Islam among non-Russians, especially under the policy of religious tolerance legitimized in 1905, was significantly strengthened.
discourse , imperial experts , Islam , Orthodoxy , population policy , religious policy , resettlements , Steppe Region , Turkestan , views
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Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Alikhan Bokeikhan University, Semey, Kazakhstan
Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abai, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University
Alikhan Bokeikhan University
Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abai
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Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026