Traditional Identities

Abstract

As Central Asia was integrated into the Russian Empire during the latter part of the nineteenth century, military forces were followed by a host of Russian ethnographers and orientalists. There is general agreement that Tsarist Russia, in stark contrast to the succeeding Soviet regime, had no ambitions to change or reform Central Asian society in any fundamental way. Rather, its main aim was a maximum of control at a minimum of cost, and it was believed that knowledge of the region would facilitate political control. For the Russian scholars and orientalists who went to Central Asia, a major task was to identify the population of the region. Who were the peoples of Central Asia?