The Activities of Turkish Agents in the Central Asian Borderlands of the Russian Empire in the early XX century according to the Materials of the Reports of the Officer on Special Assignments of the Ministry of Interior L. Naumov

Abstract

The article analyzes the reports of the special instructions officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs L. Naumov, prepared by him on the basis of a trip to the Central Asian outskirts of the Russian Empire in 1910. During the trip L. Naumov had to find out the scale of propaganda work of Turkish emissaries in the region, the degree of penetration of the ideas of pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism in the minds of the indigenous Muslim population. From the information presented in the reports it follows that after the young Turk revolution of 1908, in the Turkestan Governor-General, Bukhara Emirate and Khiva khanate, the work of Turkish residents, aimed at promoting Russophobia, pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism, was significantly intensified. Turkey also actively involved Afghans in the work in the region, using traditional contacts with the Afghan Emirate and considering it the sphere of its geopolitical interests. In his reports L. Naumov cites facts indicating the formation among the Muslim population of the Russian Turkestan adherents propagandized by Turkey ideas, which was expressed in the birth of the Islamic reform movement and the newfangled Muslim education, the refusal to follow all the instructions of the Koran. However, according to the information collected by the official, the traditional Muslim clergy continued to occupy a leading position in the spiritual and religious life of the indigenous population. The negative attitude of the Muslim leaders of Bukhara, Kokand and a number of other cities of Turkestan to the ideas of pan-Islamism, suggesting a spiritual Union of Sunnis and Shiites, allowed L. Naumov to draw conclusions about the futility of the work of Turkish residents in the region and the absence of threats to the territorial integrity of the Russian Empire in the Central Asian suburbs.