Osh. Population
Growth of the Population of Osh
“Although the colonial path of development that Central Asia took after its annexation to Russia and its transformation into a raw material appendage of the metropolis hindered industrial development, during this period, more favorable conditions were created than before for the deepening of social division of labor, increasing the commodity nature of the economy, and developing economic specialization in certain areas, which led to significant urban growth,” notes expert on pre-revolutionary history of Central Asian cities O. A. Sukhareva.
The history of Osh and the formation of its population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is one such example. The dynamics of urban population from 1876 to 1917 is characterized by continuous growth, predominantly due to mechanical movement. Osh, being the largest settlement of the former Osh district of the Kokand Khanate, although it had only a few thousand residents at that time, was chosen by the Turkestan authorities as the district center of the eponymous district of the Fergana region. This circumstance, along with other socio-economic factors (the cessation of feudal strife that tore the khanate apart and adversely affected the economy of urban and rural populations, the establishment of general “calm” in the region, which was so necessary for the development of trade and crafts, improvement of roads, etc.), contributed to the increase in the population of Osh, which became evident as early as the 1880s. According to official sources, in 1880, the population was already recorded at 3,307 people (excluding troops), in 1882 — 7,766, in 1883 and 1884 — 12,976 and 13,538, and by 1885 — about 15,000 people.
It is clear that such rapid growth of the urban population was explained not only by natural internal growth, for which, as already noted, there were more favorable conditions compared to the time of the Kokand Khanate, but also by the influx of incoming population, primarily from rural areas. This source of replenishment of the urban population remained the main one throughout the pre-revolutionary period. The more intensively the laws of class differentiation operated in the kishlak at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the greater the influx of villagers into Osh.
The significant growth of the population of Osh by 1914 (51,701 people) compared to the end of the khanate's rule in southern Kyrgyzstan is explained, of course, not only by the elimination of feudal wars and inter-tribal strife in the region but also by a certain growth in productive forces under the influence of stimulating trade relations with other Central Asian cities and regions of Central Russia, increasing commodity nature of the economy, and the associated strengthening of social division of labor. Moreover, the increase in the trading and industrial contingent that replenished the urban population contributed to the emergence of capitalist relations within the feudal production framework.
The natural and geographical position and developed trade and transport connections of the district city of Osh (implying the comparative proximity to Osh of densely populated kishlaks and cities of the Fergana Valley, numerous surrounding Kyrgyz ails located in the foothill zone of Eastern Fergana, as well as the intensity of caravan communication with Eastern Turkestan, from where there was an annual influx of seasonal workers), and the increasingly significant role of the city as an economic and cultural center in southern Kyrgyzstan at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries clearly affected the diversity of the ethnic composition of its residents. One of the characteristic features of the population formation of Osh (as well as other cities of the former Fergana region) was the diversity of the national composition, but with a clear predominance of Uzbeks. The most important channel for replenishing the urban population was usually the rural district, although its ethnic composition was more homogeneous than that of the city. This is evidenced by brief data on the national composition of the city's population for 1884.
