Ruling Without Incorporation: The Decline of Elite Co-optation in Russian Central Asia, 1731–1917

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Abstract

This article examines the transformation of imperial governance in Russian Central Asia from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, focusing on the gradual dismantling of the empire’s traditional strategy of elite co-optation – termed “superstratification” – and the emergence of explicitly colonial forms of rule. Initially relying on Chinggisid Kazakh elites as intermediaries, the Russian Empire progressively shifted toward a militarised and racialised model of administration exemplified by Voenno-narodnoe upravlenie (Military-People’s Administration), which sharply divided Russian and local spheres of authority. Drawing on archival sources and contemporary accounts, the article traces how these reforms marginalised Muslim ruling groups while entrenching the authority of the imperial military bureaucracy. It argues that the abandonment of elite incorporation and the reliance on coercive and segregated forms of governance marked a fundamental reconfiguration of imperial statecraft. The study situates these developments in comparative perspective by referencing analogous practices in British and French colonial contexts, highlighting the emergence of Central Asia as a paradigmatic zone of colonial difference within the Russian imperial polity.

About the authors

A. S. MORRISON

University of Oxford, New College

Author for correspondence.
Email: alexander.morrison@new.ox.ac.uk
Oxford, Great Britain

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