BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND GEOPOLIC INTERESTS: FOREIGN SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITIONS AND COLONIZATION PROCESSES IN TURKESTAN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47390/ydif-y2026v2i4/n03Keywords:
Turkestan, foreign scientific expeditions, Russian Empire, colonial knowledge, movement control, Imperial Russian Geographical Society, Great Game, geopolitics.Abstract
This article examines the activities of foreign scientific expeditions in Turkestan in the broader context of the Russian Empire’s colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It argues that these expeditions operated simultaneously as scientific enterprises and as actors embedded in the geopolitical environment shaped by the Great Game. Drawing on a historical-institutional approach, the study analyzes the administrative structure of the Turkestan Governorate, the permit regime regulating the movement of foreigners, the role of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, and the asymmetric circulation of knowledge between the imperial center and the colonial periphery. The article shows that the Russian government developed a multi-layered system of governance—diplomatic, military, and scientific—that did not eliminate foreign research but rather integrated it into the production of imperial knowledge. As a result, foreign expeditions contributed to the scientific study of Central Asia while at the same time strengthening the strategic interests of the empire. The study highlights the entanglement of science and geopolitics and places Turkestan within the global history of colonial knowledge.
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