44
“On substantive questions Muzaffar successfully resisted
Russian pressure on slavery, the slave trade, and postal
communications and he managed for nine months to avoid an agreement on the construction of the telegraph line, the one issue
on which Russia was adamant.
110
If the emperor chose to command him to comply, but his authority in the khanate would
thereby be undermined because of the clergy’s hold over the masses. A complete Russian takeover in Bukhara would be the
inevitable outcome”.
111
In the end, Russians and modernization won the
game and the Emir had to
step back against Tsarist decisiveness. The telegraph line to Bukhara entered the holy
city, Bukhara in 1884, because the Russian support behind the Emir was vital for him
to maintain his sultanate. An immediate clash with the Tsar or the Governor General
of Turkestan in the region would end his reign.
Russian capitalism was taking control of Bukharan economic life and gaining
every sector in the country. Through the established Banks, Russian based capitalism
penetrated financially in the Emirate. Russian banks spread all over the Bukhara at
the beginning of the 20
th
century. Every bank had a monopoly in economic life. For
example, the Russo-Asiatic Bank had a monopoly of railway construction; the Azov
and Don Bank had cotton trade and the Siberian Commercial Bank had the sector of
cotton purchases and imports of manufactured goods. In addition, the State Bank, the
Volga Bank and Kama Commercial Bank were the other banks, operating in the
emirate
.
112
Although there were local merchants and businessmen, they could not be
compared to Russian capitalists and monopolists. Bukharan
people were peasants
and villagers in a great majority. Through these banks and monopolies, Tsarist
Russia penetrated capitalism and included Bukhara financially to its economic
system. On this way, customs union
was established among Russia, Khiva and
Bukhara in the last years of 19
th
century. Thus the khanates’ economic
interdependence with Russia was completed after the political and military
110
Becker, Seymour,
Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924
,
(London &New York: Routledge Curzon, 2005), 90.
111
Ibid, 89.
112
Carrere D’Encausse, Hèlene, trans,
Islam and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in
Central Asia,
(London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 42-43
45
protectorate. The increase in amount of exports and imports between two countries
consolidated the interdependence in economic realm, especially in finance and trade.
“The inclusion of Bukhara in the empire’s customs
system had the effect of
developing considerably Russo-Bukharan economic relations: in 1865 Bukhara’s
exports to Russia totaled 3,306,000 roubles and its imports 1,913,000 roubles; by
1913 exports had risen to 31 million roubles and imports to 35 million”.
113
On the
eve of the World War I and Revolution, in Bukhara, the industrial development
emerged as being depended on Russian settlements. The basic reason of this was that
Russians formed the skilled labor force.
In both Bukhara and Khiva the ownership of the new factories was predominantly Russian, and the management and
skilled workers were entirely so. By contrast, the unskilled labor force was drawn from the natives of the two countries. The
total number of workers has been estimated at almost 1300 for Bukhara in 1905, and 400-500 for Khiva in 1917.
114
By 1913
the total was
twenty six, of which nineteen were owned by Russians, three by Russian Tatars, three by the emir of Bukhara, and
one by a Bukharan merchant.
115
Since the proletariat class was Russian settlers in the region, the effects of
Revolution spread through this Russian settler class. In the khanates of both Bukhara
and Khiva, the operating factories belonged to Russians and the skilled labor force
was Russian originally. However, the unskilled workers consisted of natives. The
total number of workers in Bukhara was 1300 in 1905 and 400-500 in Khiva in 1917.
The number of factories was twenty six by 1913 and
nineteen of these factories
belonged to Russians, three belonged to Russian Tatars, three belonged to the Emir
and one belonged to a Bukharan merchant.
116
On the contrary, Bukharan indigenous
population was peasant, uneducated and forming unskilled cheap labor force in the
region. The local workers completely lacked theoretical infrastructure in order to
carry out the Revolution. In railroads and factories, Russian workers were the main
113
Ibid, 40.
114
Becker, Seymour,
Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865–1924
,
(London &New York: Routledge Curzon, 2005), 145.
115
Ibid, 145.
116
Wheeler, Geoffrey,
The Peoples of Soviet Central Asia,
(London: the Bodley Head Ltd, 1966), 39.
46
workforce and they carried features of proletariat class in the region. Local people
worked in fields and at works not requiring technical labor force. This situation
became a disputable matter for years and seen as the lack of proletariat class in the
region. After the fall of Emirate, the new Bukharan state and Khorezm state(replaced
instead of Khivan Khanate) were founded as Bukharan Soviet Public Republic and
Khorezm Soviet Public Republic instead of socialist
republics like other ones,
Turkestan ASSR and Kyrgyzstan ASSR. According to Soviet views, the reason was
explained that there had been no proletariat class in Bukhara and Khiva in previous
period, so there should be a transition period for declaration of a socialist republic.
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