Administrative System of Governance in Turkestan
Administrative Policy.
The organization of governance in Turkestan, including the Kyrgyz lands, was initiated by the Russian Empire during the conquest. Administratively, the northern part of present-day Kyrgyzstan - the modern Chui, Issyk-Kul, Naryn, and Talas regions - was part of the Semirechensk and Syrdarya regions. The territory of the modern Jalal-Abad region was included in the Namangan and Andijan districts, the territory of the Osh region - in the Osh, Andijan, and Margilan districts, while the territory of the Batken region was part of the Margilan and Kokand districts of the Fergana region. A small part of the modern Batken region - the Laylak district - was included in the Khojent district of the Samarkand region. Thus, the territory inhabited by the Kyrgyz was divided among four Turkestan regions, which negatively affected the processes of national consolidation.
The imperial authority aimed to eventually transform the Turkestan lands into an integral part of the Russian state. The main goal of the colonial policy of autocracy was implemented based on the principles of gradualness, step-by-step approach, consideration of local conditions, and religious tolerance. The policy of "Russification" was carried out by declaring all lands of Turkestan as state property, introducing the Russian administrative structure, resettling Russian peasants to new territories, gaining control over the main levers of the region's economic life by Russian entrepreneurs, and spreading all-Russian norms in the region. These principles were reflected in the first Temporary Regulations on the administration of the region (1867, 1868) and in the Regulation on the administration of the Turkestan region (1886).
In building the governance system in territories inhabited by peoples at a different level of socio-economic development than in the center of the empire, the authorities proceeded from the interests of military command and the imperial treasury. The new administrative division often did not take into account the ethnic characteristics of the local population. The administrative management system of Turkestan was adapted to solve military tasks and was based on the fusion of military and civil authority, as well as on the concentration of judicial, economic, and other functions in the same institutions.
The head of the administration was the governor-general, who concentrated military and civil power in his hands. The regions were headed by military governors, who were subordinate to the district chiefs. The staff of the district administration consisted of Russian officials who exercised police oversight over the local population, judicial, and other functions.
Alongside this administrative apparatus, there existed a "native administration," consisting of volost administrators and elders, who were elected by the residents themselves for three years. The colonial authorities retained the kaziy courts for the settled population and the biy courts for the nomadic population. "People's judges" were also elected from their own ranks.
Administrative-territorial reforms aimed to strengthen colonial order, but at the same time brought a number of innovations to the people. For example, the age-old traditions of clan relationships and the associated dependence of the population on the clan elite began to gradually erode. With the introduction of the election of officials, the institution of hereditary succession of power, previously exercised exclusively by the biys and manaps, was destroyed. Governance conducted under Russian laws put a barrier against disorganization and arbitrariness from both upper and local tiers of traditional authority.
Kyrgyz in the Russian Empire
