Russian Colonial Wars

At issue: Russian expansion toward the East

Date: 1462–1917

Location: From Moscow north to Finland, east across Siberia, and south through Central Asia and the Caucasus Mountains

Combatants: Russians vs. Ustiugs, Voguls, Yugrians, Buriats, Kalmyks, Ostiaks, Chukchi, Chechens, Dagestani, Georgians, Turks, Murids, Kazaks, Turkmen, and Kirgiz

Principal commanders:Russian, Ivan the Great (1440–1505), Ivan the Terrible (1530–1584), Yermak Timofeyevich (d. 1585), Voevoda Mansurov, Peter the Great (1672–1725), Alexander I (1777–1825), Nicholas I (1796–1855), General Vasilii Alekseevich Perovskii (1795–1857), Alexander II (1855–1881), M. G. Cherniaev (1828–1898), Dmitri Il’ich Romanovskii, Mikhail D. Skobelev (1843–1882), A. I. Bariatinskii; Dagestani, Ghazi Molla (1793?-1832), Hamza Bey (d. 1843), Shamil (1797–1871); Kazak, Khan Kasimov (d. c. 1836)

Principal battles: Kazan, Astrakhan

Result: An end to czarist Russia

Background

Russian expansion over indigenous, nomadic, and semi-nomadic peoples of the east began when the 240-year-rule of the Mongol Empire in Russia ended in the late fifteenth century. Muscovite ruler Ivan the Great conquered the native Finno-Ugrian peoples to the northeast, and his successors began the trek across the Ural Mountains. By 1643, Russian settlers, merchants, and warriors had mastered the entire stretch of Siberia to the Pacific Ocean. By 1859, Russian armies had subdued the people of the Caucasus Mountains and were extending Russian military might through Central Asia to the borders of Afghanistan.

Action

Russian expansion to the east began in the 1400’s under Ivan the Great, who inherited the conquered empire of Novgorod. This led to wars against nomad and Turkish societies on both sides of the Ural Mountains, including the Ustiugs, Voguls, and Yugrians. Ivan took the title of lord of the Yugra, but permanent Russian occupation of the Trans-Ural region would come a century later. Czar Ivan the Terrible conquered the Tatar states of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), thus dividing the steppe nomads to more easily control the Buriats and Kalmyks. Although security motivated Russian expansion eastward, commerce soon persuaded Russians to more ambitious movements into Siberia.

Cossack Yermak Timofeyevich received a commission from Czar Ivan IV to raid the Ural nomads in retaliation for attacks upon an Oriental mission to Moscow. Yermak also launched an expedition against the Siberian khanate with financing from the wealthy Stroganov merchant family, recipient of large land grants in the upper Kama region in 1558. With the support of Ivan IV, the family obtained title to lands across the Urals in 1574. With 840 men, Yermak seized the capital of Isker or Sibir (later Siberia) in 1582. Making war with the Voguls and Ostiaks, his armies grew short of supplies, and he sent to Moscow for reinforcements. They arrived, but too late to save Yermak, who perished after a surprise Tatar ambush near the junction of the Irtysh and Vagai Rivers in 1585. New Russian armies under Voevoda Mansurov reconfirmed Moscow’s hegemony over Sibir, and the first permanent Russian settlements were founded at Tiumen and Tobolsk from 1586 to 1587. These became administrative centers for the collection of local taxes, and they were succeeded by Tara (1594), Turinsk (1600), Tomsk (1604), and many others. The need for additional furs compelled Russians to move across the Yenisei basin, founding Bratsk (1631) and Yakutsk (1632). The march to the Pacific was completed in 1639, when Muscovites viewed the Sea of Okhotsk.

The conquest of Siberia continued as Tatar Buriats resisted Russia until they were overwhelmed around mid-century. The founding of Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal, rendered them effective subjects. The Chukchi of the far northeast fought the Europeans until about 1750. Most native tribes were sparse, little acquainted with Russian gunfire, and were unable to unite because of the distances. Meanwhile, Russians moved from rivers to portages with ease, fueled by the imagination of frontiersmen anxious to escape the bureaucratic arms of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Russians numbered about 300,000 farmers, miners, furriers, administrators, and Cossacks in Siberia by 1700. Nomads continued to threaten Russian settlements in the steppes, and fortresses were constructed in the southern Siberian lands. The explorations of Vitus Bering ultimately opened Alaska later in that century as the quest for furs continued. Alaska would be sold to the United States in 1867.

The nationalities in the mountainous area between the Black and Caspian Seas were once conquered by Greek, Byzantine, Roman, Persian, or Turkish empires. Russians began serious involvement in Caucasia only in the seventeenth century, when Cossacks fought with Chechen and Dagestani tribesmen. Peter the Great launched a full invasion, gaining temporary hold of the Caspian coastline. By mid-century, Russians began cultivating the princes of Kabarda as foils of the Ottoman Turks, who had title to many of these lands. Following the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) with the Porte, Russia assumed control over the indigenous peoples of Ossetia and Kabarda. By 1783, the eastern portion of Georgia fell under Russian control, as did part of Dagestan three years later. In 1796, the Russian forces obtained the submission of other nearby khanates.

Under Alexander I, five more local rulers of Dagestan submitted to the power of Russian arms. His aggressive expansion in Caucasia was continued by his brother Nicholas I (1825–1855) as five provinces of Georgia were forcibly annexed, and a sixth, Abkhazia, early in the following reign. To the southeast, Alexander I conquered a number of khanates formerly under Persian suzerainty, including Karabagh, Shaki, Derbent, Kuba, and Baku. Meanwhile, the Armenian enclaves of Yerevan and Nakhichevan came under Russian protection following a Persian war early in the reign of Nicholas I. At the Treaty of Adrianople (1829), various Black Sea coastal districts passed from Turkish to Russian control, and following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Batum, Kars, and Ardahan did the same.

Until mid-century, local tribes fought vigorously to avoid Russian control. Muridism, a form of Sufi mysticism popular in this mountain region, fostered resistance to foreign rule. Ghazi Molla was the first leader (imam) of this awakening in Dagestan. He was succeeded by Hamza Bey, then by Shamil. Russian wars against the local tribes began in earnest after 1829, when imperial officials erred by supporting the autocratic powers of the local feudal khans. The Murids preached Islamic unity, and Ghazi Molla united tribesmen in the northern regions for a holy war against Europeans. The greatest rebel success came when Shamil gained control of most of Dagestan, most of Avaria and Chechnya, and threatened Russian fortresses such as Vladikavkaz. Employing a system that fostered courage and employed conscription, harsh discipline, the supremacy of Shari’a (Islamic law), and mobile, guerrilla military tactics, Shamil weathered five major Russian offensives against his religious armies after 1837. A succession of Russian generals was sent to subdue him, all failing except for the last, A. I. Bariatinski.

The mountains made obvious both Bariatinski’s strengths and weaknesses. The terrain was difficult for his enemies to master, enabling him to hold out for a long time against modern military weaponry. On the other hand, the mountainous region allowed rival tribes to remain neutral (Kabarda), or loyal to the czar (Ossetia). It was difficult to sustain the emotional advantages of a holy war for an extended period, especially as victories became infrequent. Shamil was unable to muster support among Christians of Georgia and Armenia who looked to St. Petersburg for protection against Islam. As Russian armies methodically captured his territories over the next twenty-five years, Shamil recognized the end and submitted in 1859. Shamil was revered by his enemies and received at the court in St. Petersburg. Allowed to retire with honor, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and died in Arabia on February 16, 1871.

By 1700, a power vacuum was present in Turkic Central Asia. Kazaks and Turkmen were largely nomadic, and the settled khanates to the south were unstable and weak. The land was ripe for exploitation by a stronger power. Russians saw there remnants of the Mongols who ruled them in the Middle Ages; they also feared the machinations of British imperialists from India. Consequently, Russian military chiefs saw opportunities for adventure, power, despoliation, and security by conquering Turkistan and Turkmenia. Ironically, such extension of Russian suzerainty sometimes differed with the goals of the foreign ministry. Activities of Russian generals in Central Asia were, at times, even unknown to the czars, until the conquests were realized.

Russian forces began to move south from Siberia to control Kazak threats as early as 1730. From their fortified outposts in Orenburg, Omsk, and Semipalatinsk, Cossacks began the march toward Khiva, south of the Aral Sea. Sometimes, local hordes sought Russian protection against rival khanates. When Khan Kasimov united the Kazaks to resist the Russian intruders after 1836, he was killed by Kirgiz foes. Although native armies were no longer a match for the modern weapons and discipline of European-trained Russians, their knowledge of the terrain sometimes afforded them opportunities, as was the case for the Khivan troops in their successful war against Russian General Vasilii Alekseevich Perovskii from 1839 to 1840. By 1850, Russia controlled the Kazak steppes and was sailing steamships on the Aral Sea.

Under Alexander II, the Russian Empire annexed the oases, deserts, and valleys between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya Rivers, most notably the khanates of Kokand, Bukhara, and Khiva. Motivated in part to protect commerce for cotton and silk, Russians grew wary of British expansion into northwestern India. The weak Asian khanates stimulated an enhanced rivalry among the great powers that was called “The Great Game.” Military adventurers such as Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman sought to restore Russia’s prestige after the humiliating defeats in the Crimean War. Despite the objections of Foreign Minister Aleksander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, who was concerned about European diplomacy, the czar frequently approved military operations in the East. Incentives for expansion were provided by Count Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev’s mission to Bukhara and Khiva in 1857, confirming the weaknesses of the khanates, and by the easy suppression of Kokand attacks on Russian outposts in 1860. In 1863, Colonel Mikhail Grigor’evich Cherniaev disobeyed orders from the capital not to seize Kokanese lands, thus demonstrating the ease of advancing Russian hegemony. Consequently, the government was persuaded to extend civilization to the backward regions of Turkistan. Gorchakov promised a limited operation, but in 1865, Cherniaev launched an unauthorized campaign that took the key city of Tashkent. With less than 2,000 soldiers, Cherniaev occupied the stronghold defended by about 30,000. When he again disobeyed instructions by invading Bukhara, angry officials at court removed him for insubordination. His successor, however, General Dmitri Il’ich Romanovskii, defeated Bukhara in 1866 and annexed the khanate of Khodjent.

Von Kaufman became the new Turkistan governor-general in 1867 and convinced St. Petersburg that caution required more aggression to protect Russia’s gains. When the emir of Bukhara declared a holy war upon Russia in 1868, Kaufman weakened this rival by occupying Samarkand, thus compelling the ruler to open his capital to Russian merchants. Against the wishes of the foreign ministry, the governor-general refused to relinquish Samarkand and turned westward to the last significant opposition in Central Asia, Khiva. In 1869, Russian armies crossed the Caspian Sea to found Krasnovodsk, a launching pad for Russian incursions into Khiva. Because of numerous border skirmishes, St. Petersburg finally yielded to Von Kaufman’s urgings to dispose of this Turkmen khanate that was surrounded by deserts. In 1873, Russians declared war and invaded with an army of 12,300. Resistance was surprisingly weak, and Khiva became a Russian protectorate. Later that winter, the rebellious Kokand khanate was subdued by General Mikhail D. Skobelev and incorporated into Turkistan. From 1873 to 1881, Russia defeated the remaining Turkmen to annex the Transcaspian region, culminating in the successful Siege of Geok-Tepe by Skobelev, after which he massacred 8,000 refugees.

Aftermath

Additional Russian advances in Central Asia, such as the occupation of Merv, were designed to forestall a supposed British invasion. By 1895, both Britain and Russia were able to agree on stable boundaries, and the threat of war disappeared.

The last colonial war was a suppression of a violent revolt in the summer of 1916 by Kazaks and Kirgiz, who resisted conscription during World War I. Some 2,500 Russians lost their lives before the rebellion was crushed in September. Less than six months later, czarist Russia was gone.

Bibliography

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