How Russia Colonised Central Asia

How Russia Colonised Central Asia

Hikma History

45,941 views  Jul 16, 2025  #historylovers #russia #turkic

Central Asia is not a region that stimulates significant conversation in the modern West. The dominance of medieval horse lords on the steppe, the centers of learning and culture in places like Samarkand and Herat, and even the existence of brilliant cities like Merv have since been largely forgotten in a Europeanized world. Instead, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan are better known for their positions in the Russosphere and not for their own histories. But just like everywhere else in the Islamic world, the Central Asian Khanates would soon find out the hard way how far they were behind the might of Europe. So, join me as I enquire how these great nations become part of the Russian sphere of influence in the first place? Was it possible that they could have avoided subjugation? 

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Intro

Central Asia is not a region that stimulates  significant conversation in the modern West. The  

dominance of medieval horse lords on the steppe,  the centers of learning and culture in places like  

Samarkand and Herat, and even the existence of  brilliant cities like Merv have since been largely  

forgotten in a Europeanized world. Instead,  Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,  

and Turkmenistan are better known for their  positions in the Russosphere and not for their  

own histories. As the age of modernity approached,  these traditionally prosperous societies faced  

the might of Russia’s mechanized army. Just  like everywhere else in the Islamic world,  

the Central Asian Khanates found out the hard  way how far they were behind the might of Europe.  

So, join me as I enquire how these great nations  become part of the Russian sphere of influence  

in the first place? Was it possible that  they could have avoided subjugation? And  

most importantly, how is it that a diverse  region once filled with warriors, artists,  

and scientists, can now be lumped into  an area termed as the “Soviet stans?”

Ivan The Terrible Paves The Way

Central Asia has been hugely shaped by many  different cultural influences, primarily of  

Turkic, Iranian, Arab, and Mongolian people’s.  The people of Turan, as it had been called by  

other Iranian language-speakers for over 2000  years, struck fear among settled peoples for  

their brutal and efficient raids through their  unmatched use of mounted archery. Horsemanship  

remained essential to controlling Central Asia  well into the modern-period. After the conquests  

of the Mongol Empire and its breakaway states, all  powerful nomadic polities in Central Asia claimed  

their legitimacy through relation to Genghis Khan.  Their power would stagnate, however, especially  

in relation to the meteoric rise of the Ottoman  Empire and the subsequent commercial and gunpowder  

revolutions in the Christian kingdoms of Europe. European Christians, in particular, would very  

soon begin to advance on the same Central  Asians who had once subjugated them. In 1480,  

the Russian prince, Ivan III, cast out the Golden  Horde, an offshoot of the Great Mongol Empire,  

and subsequently won de facto independence  for Moscow. His grandson, the first Tsar  

Ivan the Terrible moved to conquer the horse  lords; in 1552, he decisively conquered the  

Khanate of Kazan. Over 100 years of war  between the two states had hitherto been  

insufficient to determine a winner. This made  the subjugation of Kazan an, understandably,  

notable moment for contemporary geopolitics. Unimpressed, however, was Devlet I Giray. As  

the Khan of Crimea since 1551, he had confronted  the Russians before; the Khanate of Kazan had  

previously been under Crimea’s sphere of influence  before the Russian conquest. In 1556, the Russians  

conquered the Astrakhan Khanate, another  traditional ally of Crimea. The dynamic between  

the Russian Tsardom and the Central Asian nomads  had already fundamentally shifted at this time.  

Not only did the Europeans clearly have momentum  in the battle to control the steppe, Devlet found  

himself struggling to balance relations with his  Ottoman guarantors and allocating resources to  

repel incursions from his new Cossack neighbors.  After years of raids on Russian territory and  

failed attempts to take Moscow, finally there  was a breakthrough: the Crimean Khanate sacked  

Moscow in 1571. Drawing on support from several  Russian boyars who had defected, the nomads were  

able to enter the city with relative ease and  destroyed the city completely. For a moment,  

it seemed as though Devlet would totally subdue  Ivan and slam shut Russian entry into Central  

Asia before it could really begin. Instead, a  series of miscalculations on the part of Devlet  

Giray culminated with a Russian force decisively  expelling the Khanate’s forces from the region in  

1572 at the Battle of Molodi. Though the Crimean  Khanate may technically have not been located  

within Central Asia, it had the pedigree of the  esteemed Central Asian horse lords. Regardless,  

it had become clear that significant advantages  in firepower and fortifications rendered any  

antiquated notion of the invincible horse archer  moot. For the first time, the Russians had  

unequivocal control of the entire River Volga, and  the rest of Central Asia would soon follow suit.

The Kazakhs Lose Autonomy

Over the next century, Russia was too busy with  its “Time of Troubles”, a period that was shaped  

by domestic upheavals and foreign invasions. But  that was decisively ended by Peter the Great, who  

set Russia on aggressive course of conquest. In  the heart of Asia, in the modern day northern half  

of Xinjiang laid the Dzungar Khanate. Unbeknownst  to its aging Khan, Tsewag Rabtan’s realm would  

soon draw the attention of the Russian military  machine. But he was unmoved by the fortresses  

Russians were constructing within the northern  reach of his territory. The Russian threat did  

not loom nearly as large as that of the Chinese  Qing Empire, with whom the Dzungars had already  

been warring for a decade before he began the  first of his 30 years as Khan. The Russian Tsar  

Peter would learn the difficulty of conquest  in 1716. Deep within unfriendly territory,  

the commanding Russian officer had already taken  shelter at a nearby fortress. Intending to alert  

the Tsar he had insufficient manpower to engage  the Dzungar military, his message could not be  

delivered before Tsewang Rabtan laid siege  to the fort, which fell after two months. 

This would not be the last of the Russian failures  in Central Asia. Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky,  

who was originally born a Muslim prince of  Circassian origin, was tasked by Peter to survey  

the Caspian region in 1717, ensuring the loyalty  of the Khanate of Khiva along the way. The Khivan  

Khan, Shir Ghazi, did not shy away from using  force during his reign, harassing new arrivals  

in the lower delta of the Amu Darya and crushing a  slave rebellion. Bekovich-Cherkassky, ignorant of  

Shir Ghazi Khan’s brutality, was slaughtered along  with his men after the Khan feigned surrender to  

separate the Russian troops. All officers were  executed, and any other captured Russian survivors  

were sold into slavery. The loss of a substantial  number of his troops did not particularly concern  

Peter. At the moment he had not yet ensured  victory in the Great Northern War and hostilities  

between Russia and the Ottoman Empire were  increasing rapidly. Russian attempts at conquering  

Central Asia had to be postponed for the  time-being. Unfortunately for the Khans of Central  

Asia, they could not forever go like-for-like  in a brutal conflict against the Russian Empire. 

This was becoming increasingly apparent to some  Central Asian Khans. Abul Khair Khan, leader of  

the junior jüz (division) of the Kazakhs, laid the  groundwork for potential Kazakh resistance against  

Russia in the future, though perhaps unknowingly.  He galvanized the de facto independent middle and  

senior jüz into a unified force under his command  in the conflicts against Tsewang Rabtan’s Dzungar  

Khanate. The united sentiment fizzled out,  unfortunately for Khair Khan, but it would  

make significant comebacks in the coming years.  Khair Khan also saw the importance in maintaining  

friendly relations with the Russians when  possible, even swearing an oath of submission  

to the Russian Empire in 1731. This led to some  confusion: the Russians interpreted this as the  

Khan accepting Russian suzerainty. The Khan  interpreted this as a mutually beneficial  

alliance that only nominally had the Russians as  senior partners. However, upon the realization of  

the misunderstanding, the Russian policy towards  the Kazakhs actually stayed mostly the same. To  

the Russians, access to trade further east and  safety from devastating Kazakh raids were well  

worth sacrificing more formal control over nomadic  subjects. Ablai Khan, leader of the middle jüz  

since the early-mid 18th century, was made Khan  of the all Kazakhs in 1771. His reign saw the  

zenith of the Kazakh Khanate – and was immediately  followed by its downfall. Ablai Khan was a savant  

at playing powers against each other. He courted  alliances with the Russian and Qing Empires very  

meticulously, and eventually received the support  of both states against his own Kazakh rivals. His  

diplomatic cunning even made him a symbol of  Kazakh patriotism today. However, peace and  

stable relations with Russia and the Qing came at  the cost of a vicious internal strife within the  

Khanate. Ablai Khan was a powerful and respected  ruler among virtually all of his Kazakh subjects,  

but his sons did not remotely command the  same respect. Upon Ablai Khan’s death in 1781,  

his sons squabbled amongst themselves for power.  By the time Khanzada Wazi Sultan could succeed  

his father, he had already lost control of the  junior and senior jüz to the Russian Empire. 

By 1822 the Kazakh lands were firmly under  Russian control. Emperor Alexander I formally  

abolished the Khanate of the middle jüz four  years prior, stripping the traditional Kazakh  

elites of even nominal influence. Furthermore,  there were now concrete attempts to colonize  

the Kazakh way-of-thinking: Alexander issued  reforms intending to pressure the Kazakhs into  

abandoning their nomadic ways. Though these  largely failed, encroaching Russian settlers  

and merchants continued to block Kazakh horsemen  from grazing grounds, often leading to bloodshed.  

The most protracted of the Kazakh rebellions,  and perhaps most significant, was Kenesary’s  

Rebellion. Kenesary, grandson of the revered  Ablai Khan, began raiding Russian caravans in  

1837. Hoping to re-form an independent Kazakh  Khanate, he collected victories and supporters,  

and even established himself as Khan of  the Kazakhs in 1841 – he had succeeded,  

if only briefly. The Russians eventually organized  themselves and concentrated on Kenesary, who was  

now hopelessly outgunned. Forced to flee,  he died in battle against Kyrgyz tribesmen,  

themselves seeking protection from Russia. Any  chance of his rebellion succeeding died with  

him. The hibernating Russian bear had now awoken,  and none of the Central Asian tribes were safe.

The Kyrgyz Become The Next Victims

The Kyrgyz killers of Kenesary, for their  part, had already mulled over their own  

best methods to exercise agency. A kurultai  among Kyrgyz tribesmen was called in 1842 to  

determine the best way to counter the encroaching  Russians and Kazakhs. They decided on unity:  

Ormon Niyazbek uluu was named the first Khan of  the Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate. Ormon Khan proved to be  

a shrewd diplomat and a commanding leader; he  very quickly centralized power in the Khanate,  

uniting the Kyrgyz against external threats. When  Kenesary launched his invasion into Kyrgyz land,  

Ormon Khan asked for Russian aid. His request was  denied, but even this he used to his advantage.  

Defeating the Kazakhs in battle through clever  usage of terrain, he captured Kenesary and  

executed him. Then, he sent the final Kazakh  Khan’s head to the Russians as a macabre  

peace-offering demonstrating aligned interests.  So impressed was Emperor Nicholas I that he  

bestowed upon the Kyrgyz leaders gold medals and  gold-embroidered robes. Ormon Khan, in particular,  

was made a podpolkovnik (lieutenant-colonel) of  the Russian Empire. He now had Russian legitimacy.  

The Kyrgyz wielded great power under Ormon Khan,  but the Khanate was only held together by him,  

and Ormon Khan was not without rivals. Ormon Khan  was defeated and captured by Bugu tribesmen in  

1854. The Bugu chieftain, whose son was married  to Ormon Khan’s daughter, wanted only to ransom  

Ormon Khan in exchange for a guarantee that  he would not be invaded again. Instead,  

a Bugu rival of Ormon Khan personally speared him  and left him to bleed out in his daughter’s arms.  

Retributive attacks by Ormon Khan’s sons would  spell defeat for the Bugu tribe but it was too  

late for the Kara-Kyrgyz. Ormon Khan was dead  and his son, even with great effort, would  

never have been able to maintain unity. In 1867,  thirteen years after the death of his father,  

Umetaaly Ormon submitted to Russian authority. The death of Ormon Khan and the fall of his  

Silk Road Cities Fall Rapidly

Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate would prove to be the point  in which the Russian conquest became inevitable.  

Multiple Central Asian polities that had held  out for decades crumbled entirely in 1868.  

The first was the Khanate of Kokand. Even  prior to Umetaaly Ormon’s formal surrender,  

Kokand’s grasp on independence was tenuous. The  Russians had captured Tashkent in 1865, killing  

the Khanate’s de facto leader in the struggle.  Tashkent, then the wealthiest city in Central  

Asia, was the primary source of Kokand’s power  and revenue. With control of Tashkent ceded, the  

Khanate’s only real lifeline was their ally and  neighbor, the yet-unconquered Emirate of Bukhara.  

However, any Bukharan forces sent in relief were  smashed by the Russian soldiers. Unmolested,  

the Russian army conquered the city of Khujand  in 1866, thus cutting off Kokand from Bukhara  

entirely. Bukhara did not long outlast Kokand.  For many years, the emirate was led by Nasrullah  

Khan. Emir Nasrullah was unafraid to make  threatening overtures to European powers. In fact,  

he ordered the beheadings of two British envoys,  Arthur Connolly and Charles Stoddart, in 1842.  

He also introduced sweeping reforms to Bukharan  society, including in military modernization. The  

effectiveness of his reforms is debated, but  his reputation as a leader far outclasses his  

successor’s. When Nasrullah Khan died in 1860,  his son Muzaffar bin Nasrullah became Emir. The  

reformed Bukharan military under Emir Muzaffar  were little obstacle to the Russian forces.  

Commanding the Bukharans himself, Emir Muzaffar  was defeated at the Battle of Zerabulak on 14 June  

1868, and his army was destroyed. Four days later,  the Russians successfully captured the crucial  

city of Samarkand, forcing swift negotiations  from Emir Muzaffar. In only six months, two-thirds  

of the infamous Uzbek states had fallen. The  final Uzbek state, the Khanate of Khiva, had  

historically proven to be especially challenging  for would-be Russian conquerors. Aside from  

Bekovich-Cherkassky’s disastrous 1717 campaign,  an attempt in 1839 at installing a Russophile  

khan was also unsuccessful. In 1873, however, the  circumstances could not be more different. The  

Khanate’s capital fell in June after a three-month  campaign in which Russian officers were more  

concerned about their personal rivals than the  enemy Khivans. Muhammad Rahim II, the Khan of  

Khiva, fled during the Russian advance to seek  refuge among his Yomut allies. Upon the Russian  

capture of Khiva, the Khan reluctantly returned  to his territory to enter negotiations. He agreed  

to end the Khivan slave trade and bequeath all  military and foreign relations decisions to the  

Tsar. Muhammad Rahim II, a renowned patron of  the arts, thus signed away the independence of  

the Khanate of Khiva. Perhaps it is fitting:  the first target of Russian aggression that  

offered the fiercest resistance fell quietly and  unceremoniously, with the stroke of a poet’s pen. 

Scattered resistance continued to annoy the  Russians, however. On-and-off uprisings lasted  

into the Soviet Era. A rebellion intended to  reassert the Khanate of Kokand as independent  

was crushed in 1876. The failed revolt prompted  the Russian Empire to formally disestablish the  

Khanate, much to the chagrin of the wealthy  figurehead Muhammad Khudayar. All that was  

left of the independent Central Asian polities  were the divided Turkmen tribes. To their credit,  

the Turkmens showed furious resistance:  a Russian campaign in 1879 culminated  

with the humiliating Russian retreat at  the First Battle of Geok Tepe. But this  

did not change the bleak reality – the Russian  conquest was by now unquestionably inevitable.  

In fact, the Russians were so confident  of eventual victory that their presiding  

commander was publicly maligned for unnecessarily  slaughtering the Turkmen defenders just as much  

for his gross waste of resources. Indeed,  the final Turkmen stronghold surrendered  

in January of 1881 at the Second Battle of  Geok Tepe. Over 150 years after Peter the  

Great’s failed attempt at conquering the Dzungars,  Central Asia was united under a European banner.

In 2025, Central Asia is not as globally known for  its past glories as it perhaps should be. However,  

the peoples of Central Asia have not forgotten.  Russian influence in the region is obviously  

prevalent, but each of the Central Asian nations  retains their own language. The spiritual  

successors of the region’s Khanates are still  devout Muslims. They view their ancestors who  

resisted Russian imperialism not as pitiable  and oppressed, but as national heroes to be  

celebrated. And nomadism still maintains a role in  Central Asian societies, even making a resurgence  

in certain places. After nearly 200 years, the  Russian Empire did, indeed, conquer Central Asia.  

But over 100 years after the death of the final  Russian Tsar, the Central Asians have not left.