2020 №2 (67) Article 7

Kutsenko B. O.

The Russo-English Dispute over the Pamir Boundary: an Unfought War of 1902 P. 67-77.

UDC 327.5(470:410)(235)«1902»

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2020.67.2.007

The article analyzes the military and political situation in the Pamirs and adjacent regions in the period of 1885-1902. Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia and the countriesʼ attempts to establish control over the territories adjacent to Turkestan (including the Darvaz Khanate, the Chitral Khanate, the Roshan Khanate and other territories) remain largely underinvestigated, and therefore, relevant. The mechanisms of military and political influence exerted by the Russian Empire and the British Empire on the indigenous  population of the Pamir region have never been subjected to rigorous analysis. Hence, we cannot properly assess the real situation in the Pamirs, nor can we appreciate the development of international relations in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The analysis of previously unstudied archival materials enables the author to investigate practical measures adopted by British and Russian diplomats in relation to the Pamir and the adjoining khanates. The analysis of archival documents enables the author to conclude that the political strategies of both Britain and Russia were largely predetermined by the necessity to establish their dominance over Central Asia. The author concludes that the change in the military and strategic balance in the region at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries threatened to trigger off an open confrontation between the British Empire and the Russian Empire and could eventually lead to the global military conflict. Despite military losses sustained by Great Britain in an attempt to resolve the Pamir dispute, British diplomats managed to achieve gains by transforming the Pamir dispute into a tool of exerting influence over Russia, which significantly limited the influence of the Russian Empire in Southeast Asia and in the Far East.

 

Afghanistan; British Indies; Great Britain; Darvaz Khanate; China; international relations; Pamir; Russian Empire; Turkestan; Chitral

 

 

References

  1. Foreign Policy Archive of Imperial Russia. F. 147: Sredneaziatskij stol [Central Asia]. Op. 485. D. 864: Pamiry: Russkij otrjad (1890–1892) [The Pamirs: the Russian Team (1890–1892)]; D. 895: Namerenie anglichan ovladetʼ levym beregom Pjandzha (1902) [The British Plans to Occupy the Left Bank of the Pyandj River (1902)]; D. 897: Oglashenie v pechati sekretnogo dokumenta (1903) [Disclosing a Classified Document (1903)]; D. 898: Shugnan, Roshan, Vahan, Darvaz (1885–1900) [Shugnan Khanate, Roshan Khanate, Vakhan Khanate, Darvaz Khanate (1885–1900)]; D. 900: Razroznennye dokumenty (1884–1904) [The Pamirs. Miscellaneous Documents (1884–1904)]; Op. 486. D. 896: Delo o Pamirskom otrjade (1902) [The Case of the Pamir Team (1902)]. (In Russian).
  2. Kornilov L. G. A Report about a Journey to India. Sbornik geograficheskih, topograficheskih i statisticheskih materialov po Azii (Sekretnoe prilozhenie # 8). [Collected Geographic, Topographic and Statistical Data about Asia (Classified Supplement no. 8). St. Petersburg, Military-Statistical Division of the Main Headquarters Publ., 1904, 133 p. (In Russian).
  3. Russko-japonskaja vojna 1904–1905 gody: v 9 tomah. Voenno-istoricheskaja komissii po opisaniju Russko-japonskoj vojny. Tom 1 [The Russian-Japanese War of 1904–1905: in 9 volumes. Military and Historical Commission on the Russian-Japanese War. Volume 1]. St. Petersburg, A. S. Suvorinʼs Publishing House Publ., 1910, 868 p. (In Russian).
  4. Colonel Yet. “Pamir affair”. Times of India. 1891, November 21.
  5. How we lost the Pamir. The Pioneer. 1893, September 13.
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