The 'Great Game

SUMMARY: This article attempts to delineate and plot the contours of the intercultural contributions of Gerasim Lebedev in a linguistic-cultural domain totally alien to him, in early-colonial Calcutta. It also seeks to contextualise the intense polysemy between 'microcosmic' personal and literary journeys and the 'cosmopolitan' acculturation that came with Lebedev's socio-cultural background and travels. Though, as will be seen in the essay, Lebedev's path-breaking maverick effort was largely a shot in the dark, his achievement is seen, in almost the entire theatrical fraternity in West Bengal and Bangladesh, in terms that can be described as larger than life. The essay will seek to understand the extent to which Lebedev's personal and professional choices reflected deep cross-cultural sympathies, thus making him an enthusiast with a difference.

Eric Shipton was notoriously circumspect about many aspects of his life and there is much that remains unexplained about his career and his motivations. Mountain travel books like Mountains of Tartary (1950) tell us next-to-nothing about the political context of his time as Consul General in Kashgar, Xinjiang between the years 1940-1942 and 1946-1948, indeed the text serves quite deliberately to deceive. Enmeshed in the apparatus of the British Imperial security state in Chinese Central Asia, Shipton became adept at covering his tracks by directing his readers’ attention elsewhere. At the heart of the Shipton story is a missing decade. Utilising the 'Travellers' file kept on Shipton by the External Affairs Department of the Government of India, this paper examines how Shipton negotiated the complex web of political authority that governed access to the sensitive border regions of British India, ultimately enabling him to take up a key diplomatic posting in Chinese Central Asia.

The question of legality of the Durand Line is not much of an interest for the international political and academic community. Most of the Global Powers readily buy Pakistan’s legal argument and agree that the Durand Line is a sacrosanct international boundary separating Afghanistan and Pakistan and that it has existed as it is for more than a century now.They also assert that Afghanistan had no legal rights to repudiate any agreement pertaining to their border unilaterally. However, there is a new line of scholarly investigation on the legality of the Durand Line as an international border and it questions the nature of the agreement and treaties pertaining to the Line. This paper intends to pursue the investigation further and challenge the legality of the Durand Line. For the purpose, all the original treaties and agreements signed between the Amirs of Afghanistan and the Government of India, and since 1919 between the two Governments have been studied in the paper.

The Secret War marks a new direction in the cultural history and theory of intelligence gathering and state secrecy in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. While historical truth remains hidden from the public, Eva Horn finds in political fiction, which serves as both an indicator and a tool, a means to analyze political secrets. Starting with a general theory of treason and military intelligence as a specific type of political knowledge, the book charts the history of intelligence gathering from 1900 to 9/11. The Secret War analyzes literary and cinematic depictions of espionage from Rudyard Kipling and T. E. Lawrence to John Le Carré and Steven Spielberg. Horn considers these fictional accounts against the historical development of Western secret services from their inception in World War I to their struggle against current terrorist networks. The Secret War shows the crucial part fictions play in shaping conflicts, constructing “the enemy,” and deciding political strategies.

This paper examines the process through which the colonial government led by Russophobia tried to establish its frontiers in the Northern region of Kashmir princely state. The remaking of the then Kashmir State forces (now Jammu and Kashmir Rifles) from 1889 played a crucial role in this exercise.

Alive with adventure, rich with exotic detail, the voice of Rudyard Kipling carried readers to faraway locations and brought new, exciting scenes to their doorsteps. Born and raised in India, Kipling became the voice of the eastern British Empire, and his writing extensively covered Central Asia. Early in his career, Kipling drew inspiration not from travels of his own, but from working with far-flung correspondents at the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore, Pakistan, where he served as assistant editor. One of his chief correspondents was Dr. Charles Owen, a close friend of his father’s who served a tour of duty with the Afghan Boundary Commission between 1884 and 1886 addressing the border dispute between Great Britain and Russia. This historical biography provides a new perspective on Kipling’s days as an employee of the Civil and Military Gazette. Information garnered from newly uncovered letters and diaries of Dr. Owen (acquired by the National Army Museum in 1998) gives personal insight into Kipling’s life as well as firsthand perceptions of the Boundary Commission’s work. In addition, appendices provide a wealth of information regarding articles by Kipling, articles attributed to Kipling or his supervisor Wheeler, Kipling’s translations of Russian dispatches, and Boundary Commission reports.

The establishment of a new supranational financial institution based in Beijing needn’t trigger vain geopolitical rivalries.

Hawkish elements within the Obama administration initially viewed the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as an unacceptable challenge to the IMF and World Bank, the Washington-based twin pillars of the sacrosanct “Bretton Woods system” and thus lobbied actively against Beijing’s project - without success.

China and the West can work successfully together to build a more prosperous, equitable economic order across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

In 1888, a British expedition in the southern Himalayas represented the first direct confrontation between Tibet and a Western power. The expedition followed the encroachment and occupation, by Tibetan troops, of a portion of Sikkim territory, a country led by a Tibetan Buddhist monarchy that was however linked to Britain with the Treaty of Tumlong. This paper analyses the role of the Bhutanese during the 1888 Expedition. Although the mediation put in place by Ugyen Wangchuck and his allies would not succeed because of the Tibetan refusal, the attempt remains important to understand the political and geopolitical space of Bhutan in the aftermath of the Battle of Changlimithang of 1885 and in the decades preceding the ascent to the throne of Ugyen Wangchuck.

East Turkestan, a mysterious region for Europeans for centuries, has become one of the focal points of the rivalry, mainly based on colonialism, between the British and the Russian called “Great Game” in the 19th century. For one of the parties of this game, England, East Turkestan in the said period became to be a more intense interest. A concrete proof of this interest is Robert Shaw and his work.
Robert Shaw, who started his journey to the newly established state of Kashgar in East Turkestan with the identity of a merchant in 1868, first reached Yarkand and then Kashgar, where he made contacts with almost all segments of the state from the state administrators to the general populace. His journey was paricularly important as he was one of the first British to visit these regions.
During his travels, Robert Shaw observed the political, social, economical, cultural, ethnic and geographical aspects of East Turkestan and wrote these observations in his work Visits To High Tartary, Yarkand And Kashgar (Formerly Chinese Tartary): And Return Journey Over The Karakoram Pass. In this work, which is an important source in determining the East Turkestan policy of England within the framework of the “Great Game”, the political structure, relations with its neighbors, social, economical and cultural characteristics of the newly established Kashgar State in East Turkestan in the second half of the 19th century were discussed.
This work, which is one of the first English works about East Turkestan and a main source that contains original information, has been translated into Turkish by me. Through both the references from the text itself and other dissertations, books, documents, first and second hand other resources, Shaw’s work has been studied and evaluated.

The province of the People's Republic of China, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has historically been known under various names-Eastern Turkestan, Chinese Turkestan, Kashgaria, etc. In the early 19 th century this region was one of the least explored in Western scholarship and of Kashgaria. Accordingly, in the second half of the 19 th to early 20 th centuries, several expeditions were organized that pursued serious academic goals alongside military, diplomatic, and commercial purposes. One of these Turkestan, the northern outskirts of the Tibetan Plateau, and Dzungaria studying this vast region's geography, topography, nature, climate, and population. The results of this investigation were presented by M.V. Pevtsov region's ethnic composition, religious beliefs, language, customs, and rituals. This article offers insights and analysis of the content of Pevtsov's report, which provides valuable information about the daily life of the population of Kashgaria at the end of the 19 th

The collapse of the USSR brought about conditions conducive to the dynamic development of relations between Central Asia and China. These relations have evolved from deep mistrust to the continually growing Chinese presence primarily in the region’s economy but also increasingly in its politics. Central Asia is playing a growing role in those areas of the economy which China sees as strategic (in particular in energy and communications). China’s ambitions and capabilities with regard to new areas and its geopolitical competitors are also being tested here. For the time being, it can be said that China has achieved vast success: its offer is appealing for the region, and Beijing has outpaced its Western rivals and has seriously challenged Russia’s position in the region. It remains, however, an open question whether China will be able to maintain and secure its present achievements and trends, which will be a serious challenge given the eternal instability in the region and Russia’s reintegration ambitions.

MAIN POINTS

The past two decades have been a period of fundamental change in Central Asia triggered by the collapse of the USSR. One effect of this was that five new states arose in the region. The emergence of China’s presence as a major player in Central Asia has been among the fundamental aspects of these regional changes.
Security issues are at the core of Chinese engagement in Central Asia. In the regional dimension, China wants to protect its western province, Xinjiang, from possible destabilisation which could spread from Central Asian countries or draw inspiration from them. In broader terms, Beijing wants to secure its interests with regard to Russia and the USA, which are also present and active in the region. In turn, from Central Asia’s point of view, securing the region against Chinese expansion is of fundamental significance. However, at the same time, the countries in the region are aware of the inevitability of co-operation with China, and have been making efforts to use it as a tool for strengthening their own stability and sovereignty.
Although security and (in broader terms) political issues are the basis for relations between China and Central Asia, the main field of play for their co-operation is economic issues. This is an effect of two realities: the economic: the great area and basic willingness for co-operation, and the political: mutual cautiousness and the self-restriction of the partners, and above all, resistance from Russia. Despite many difficulties encountered over the past two decades, China has become a strategic economic partner for this region. This is most evident in the trade, energy and infrastructure sectors. Beijing has outstripped its competitors: Russia, the USA, Turkey and Iran over a relatively short period. At the same time, the scale of co-operation has made Central Asia an important region for China (especially as an element of the strategy to bring stabilisation into Xinjiang and as a major gas supplier). Chinese economic engagement in Central Asia – considering the specifics and the guidelines of Beijing’s policy – viably contributes to China’s growing political significance in the region; with regard to individual republics and relations between them and also with regard to Russia and the USA. At the present stage, the region’s countries benefit, both politically and economically, from this situation. It is, though, giving rise to serious concern in strategic terms.
Whatever attainments Central Asia or China have made over the past two decades, the general situation in and around the region remains unstable, and the parties’ interests have been fixed and secured to a limited extent. Therefore, the evolution of China’s regional policy to secure its own interests by political means, the ultimate geopolitical balance of powers in the region between China, Russia and the USA, and the ability of the countries of Central Asia to continue to use China to reinforce their position are still open questions. However, China’s stance is playing an increasing role in each of these aspects.

Drawing on published documents and research in Russian, Uzbek, British and Indian archives, this article explains how a hasty attempt by Russia to put pressure on the British in Central Asia unintentionally triggered the second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878-80. This conflict is usually interpreted within the framework of the so-called 'Great Game', which assumes that only the European 'Great Powers' had any agency in Central Asia, pursuing a coherent strategy with a clearly-defined set of goals and mutually-understood rules. The outbreak of the Second Anglo-Afghan war is usually seen as a deliberate attempt by the Russians to embroil the British disastrously in Afghan affairs, leading to the eventual installation of 'Abd al-Rahman Khan, hosted for many years by the Russians in Samarkand, on the Afghan throne. In fact the Russians did not foresee any of this. 'Abd al-Rahman's ascent to the Afghan throne owed nothing to Russian support, and everything to British desperation. What at first seems like a classic 'Great Game' episode was a tale of blundering and unintended consequences on both sides. Central Asian rulers were not merely passive bystanders who provided a picturesque backdrop for Anglo-Russian relations, but important actors in their own right.

How can we explain that the Cold war is back, when the Soviet Union has disappeared? Since the change of regime in Moscow has not put an end to the tensions between Western countries and Russia, should we not question the current view that the cold war would have been an ideological confrontation between two competing social systems? In short, the "new Cold War" would not be the time to turn the page of the ideology of the Cold War?

The Anglo-Persian War of 1856–57 was a complex, bloody, but ultimately short-lived affair that has been studied from a number of perspectives. In a desire to keep the city of Herat out of Persian, and thus Russian, control the government of British India launched an amphibious invasion 1,200 km away along the Persian Gulf littoral, forcing an end to Herat’s occupation by the Persian army. The war itself has long been regarded as a key moment in the history of British India on the eve of the “Sepoy Mutiny” of 1857; as an example of the Great Game rivalry between Czarist Russia and the British Empire; and as an important episode in the tumultuous relations between Persia and the West. This study, on the other hand, explores Qajar foreign policy-making before and during the war, a topic which has not received systematic treatment.

Since the war’s outcome appeared as foreordained even to many contemporary observers, there has been a broad assumption in the historiographical literature that Qajar decision-making was unsophisticated, incoherent, or even irrational. However, a thematic reexamination of Qajar foreign policy reveals a cogent process in which the regime attempted to match ambitions with domestic and international constraints. While Persia’s efforts would ultimately founder owing to material deficiencies and military inefficiencies, Tehran nonetheless was fully aware of the various factors that would determine the success or failure of its foreign policy goals.

This study primarily utilizes Persian diplomatic circular notes and direct correspondence with the British Foreign Office to reconstruct the main objectives of Qajar policy. It likewise includes memoirs of key diplomats and military officers who were participants in the events. Local and dynastic Qajar chronicles from the early Nasirid period shed some further light on the Qajar elite’s aims and methods during the conflict.

A number of conclusions about Qajar foreign policy may be drawn from the war, many with broader historical implications. We may point here to Persia’s vulnerability to amphibious assault in the Persian Gulf during much of the nineteenth century. Closely related to this was an imperfect understanding of Western military abilities, which included the false conclusion that the Crimean War had “exhausted” Great Britain. A primary Qajar objective was reading the intentions and manipulating the policies of other Western powers, along with attempting to rouse the “fanaticism” of the Persian populace for the regime’s political ends—although both policies fell short of producing the desired effects. And finally, we see that Persian defeat and the final discomfiture of Qajar designs in Afghanistan was to a large extent a failure of execution rather than of design; sheer incompetence prevented Herat from falling to the Persian army for ten months during which a relatively favorable international environment steadily deteriorated.

This paper tries to elucidate what imperial expansion, rule, and rivalry meant for the local people in Central Asia, a region famous for being the theater of the “Great Game.” It analyses historical events that occurred in various places such as Kazakhstan, West and East Turkestan, Pamirs, Hunza, and Kashmir, and makes a number of findings on the dynamics of center-periphery and metropolis-colony relationships. First, in a situation of antagonism among local actors, the intention of one party to ally with a great power to defeat the adversary often led to imperial expansion. In the short run, local actors were able to use the empire and even to twist it around their little fingers, but in the long run, their intentions backfired, and they were subjugated by the empire. Second, when their independence was threatened by a larger country, small countries often tried to enlist the help of another large country or empire by exploiting rivalries among them. Empires used these small countries as pawns in certain situations, but could easily abandon them, giving priority to maintaining the international order of the great powers. Third, as long as imperial rule brought justice and stability, more people chose adaptation and collaboration rather than resistance, but the rulers’ distrust and misgivings sometimes alienated them. Resistance and collaboration were interchangeable strategies for the local people. Fourth, colonized people’s attitudes toward empires diverged in the course of modernization. The ability or inability of an empire to provide cultural and political models and opportunities could determine colonized people’s attitudes toward the empire.

This article reexamines the impact of The Battle of Dorking (1871)—a seminal work of British “speculative fiction”—on print and political debates throughout the 1870s and beyond. In doing so, it also revisits the military, educational and political career of Dorking’s author, Sir George Tomkyns Chesney, and finds him to be a more substantial figure than most previous scholarship suggests.

This work offers a well-researched study of the border areas between the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and Iran focused on the period from the middle of the 19th century until the first part of the 20th century. This topic has received little attention from scholars, despite its obvious importance to the history of the Middle East. This volume successfully builds upon the work of Richard Schofield and Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh and their studies on the borders of Iran with neighboring states. The extensive use of archival material along with numerous published sources provides fascinating insights into this understudied topic.

Tachibana Zuicho left for the Third Otani Expedition to Central Asia in August 1910, he departed from London with a 17-year old young English boy as his assistant. This young man, who had just graduated from the Swindon and North Wilt Technical Institute, was A. Orlando Hobbs. The party travelled to Urumchi and Turfan and split there because Tachibana wanted to spare his young assistant from the hardships of desert exploration. Hobbs was supposed to wait for Tachibana at Kucha where he unexpectedly contracted small pox and died. His body was transported to Kashgar on orders from British Consul-General George Macartney and he became the first person buried in the British cemetery there.

This paper discusses the interaction between Tachibana Zuicho and Nomura Eizaburo, the two members of the Second Otani Expedition and Capt. Shuttleworth, the acting British Consul in Kashgar in 1909. Based on information provided by the Russian Consul, Shuttleworth was convinced that the two young Japanese explorers were involved in espionage, filing reports on their activities and ultimately preventing them to return to Xinjiang through the British frontier in Northern India.

The following paper analyzes articles published in the Tibetan-language newspaper Yul phyogs so so’i gsar ‘gyur me long (Melong, Tibet Mirror) on Nicholas Roerich and his family. The Melong, one of the first Tibetan-language newspapers, was published from 1925 until 1963 in the Indo-Tibetan border town of Kalimpong. The time span coincides with the Roerichs’ extensive travels through Asia, including a long expedition to central Tibet in 1926-7. Like many other theosophist contemporaries, the Roerichs saw the key to a blissful future in the preserved wisdoms of Tibet, inspired by the Tibetan Shambhala-myth. Seen through the light of the Roerich’s global engagement with an array of press outlets, it is not surprising that articles on the Roerichs can be found in the Melong, as well. This paper thus explores how Roerich was presented to a Tibetan audience. Reading the articles shows that not only Roerich uses the newspaper for positive publicity. Also the Tibetan authors use Roerich for their own purposes. Its reading opens up new perspectives on Roerich’s usage of local press outlets, but also on the understanding of the Melong. In specific, the newspaper’s performance in a field of tension between the spreading of “Western" modernism and its ability of appropriating the very same to local particularities can be well observed.
The paper is in French, translated from English by Francoise Robin and Dany Savelli

Çalışmamız, kısa birer giriş ve sonuç kısmı ile üç ana bölümden oluşmaktadır. Girişte
problematiğimiz ve bakış açımız takdim edilmekte, metin boyunca kullanılacak coğrafi
terminoloji hakkında da bilgi verilmektedir.
İlk bölümde, 19. yüzyılın sonlarında doğan jeopolitik disiplininin Orta Asya’yı kapsayan
coğrafyaya yaklaşım biçimi eleştirel bir değerlendirmeye tabi tutulmaktadır.
Mackinder’dan başlayarak Brzezinski’ye uzanan çizgideki devamlılık unsurlarının altı
çizilmekte, Batılı jeopolitikçiler tarafından üretilen kalıpların gerçekliği kavrayışımızı
kolaylaştırmak bir yana, onunla aramıza nasıl ilave engeller diktiği Türkistan örneği
üzerinden gösterilmektedir.
İkinci bölüm jeopolitikçilerin inşa ettikleri kavramsal prizmayı besleyen tarih anlayışının
tenkidi ile başlamakta, Orta Asya’yı insanlık tarihinde layık olduğu yere oturtan çalışmalara
dikkat çekilerek bölgeyle ilgili oryantalist imajlar sorgulanmaktadır. Bu bölümde ayrıca,
eleştirisi yapılan klasik jeopolitiğin Batı merkezci kavramsal mimarisi yerine, anlam üreten
öznelerin mekanla ilişkilerini merkeze alan içerden bir yaklaşım da önerilmektedir.
Daha sonra ise, bölgenin geçmişine doğru, jeokültürü daha çok vurgulayan bu perspektifi
işlevsel hâle getirecek kısa bir yolculuğa çıkılmaktadır. 7 ve 8. yüzyılları şekillendiren
jeopolitik denklem önce tasvir edilmekte, ardından da Orta Asya’ya hakim
olan özne-mekan bileşkesinin gözüyle anlamlandırılmaktadır.
Son bölümün başlangıç kısmı, yaklaşık yüz elli-iki yüz yıla yayılan bir uzun vade analizine
ayrılmıştır. Burada, değişimin boyutları hakkında fikir veren bazı ampirik göstergelerden
hareketle geleceği kurması muhtemel eğilimlere işaret edilmektedir. Ardından
da, yeni çağın beraberinde getirdiği Orta Asya denklemi masaya yatırılmaktadır.
İçeride “öznenin” bir buçuk asırlık parçalanma dönemini takiben kendini onarma ve
mekan üzerinde bütünleşme arayışına, dışarıda ise ABD, Rusya ve Çin’i buluşturan
rekabet üçgenine odaklanılmaktadır. Bu değerlendirmeler yapılırken Ayrıca, ortak öznenin
kendini farklı bir mekanda kurmuş parçası olan Türkiye’nin, hem entegrasyon
süreçlerinde, hem de dış dünyayla ilişkilerde oynadığı roller de ihmal edilmemektedir.
Çalışmanın sonuç bölümünde ise, bölgeyi edilgenlik vurgusu taşıyan “jeopolitik
önem” parantezinden çıkarabileceği düşünülen vizyonun temel parametreleri, metin
içinde tartışılmış önemli noktalar etrafında bir kez daha vurgulanmaktadır.

***

Our study, which has been written to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the independence
of the Turkic republics, consists of a short introduction, a short summary
and three main chapters. In Introduction, our hypothesis and approach are presented
and information is given on the geographical terminology which will be used in the
whole text.
In the First Chapter, the approach of the discipline of geopolitics, which was born
at the end of the 19th century, to the geographical area embracing Central Asia is
analyzed critically. The elements of continuity in the line reaching from Mackinder to
Brzezinsky are underlined and, by using the example of Turkestan, the effort is made
to prove that the models produced by Western experts of geopolitics do not increase
our understanding of reality, but they erect additional obstacles.
In the Second Chapter, initially the understanding of history which fosters the conceptual
prism created by students of geopolitics is criticized and then orientalist images
are questioned by drawing the attention to the studies which explain the true place of
Central Asia in the history of mankind. In this Chapter, instead of the Western oriented
conceptual architect of the classical geopolitics, which is criticized, a native approach
focusing on relations of the entities producing meaning with the space is proposed.
In the following chapter, it is set forth on a short journey to the past of the region,
which will make functional this perspective putting more emphasis on geo-culture.
The geopolitical equation which shaped the 7th and 8th centuries is described firstly
and then it is given a meaning from the perspective of the subject-space combination
dominant in Central Asia.
The first part of the last Chapter includes a long-term analysis of the period covering
a hundred fifty to two hundred years. In the following section, domestically the search
of the entity for repairing itself and integrating on the space after one and half centurylong
period of disintegration is studied intensively in addition to the analysis of the
triangular of competition consisting of the United States, Russia and China without
ignoring Turkey as the external factor.
In Conclusion, the basic parameters of the vision, which is expected to save the region
from the tight dress of “geopolitical importance” implying passivity, are summarized.

***

Работа, посвященная 20-летию независимости тюркских республик, состоит из
краткого введения, заключения и трех основных разделов. Во введении пред-
ставлены проблематика и взгляд автора, а также дана географическая термино-
логия, использованная в тексте.
В первом разделе критическому анализу подвергается форма геополитического
подхода к центральноазиатскому региону, возникшего в конце 19-го века. Под-
черкиваются факторы преемственности линии, начатой Маккиндером и продол-
жающейся до Бжезинского; на примере Туркестана показано, что модели вос-
приятия западных геополитиков не то, чтобы облегчают наше понимание реаль-
ности, наоборот создают дополнительные препятствия между нами.
Во втором разделе, начатом с критики исторического понятия, на основе ко-
торой построена концептуальная призма геополитиков, обращается внимание
на труды, которые показывают достойное место Центральной Азии в мировой
истории и рассматриваются ориенталистские имиджы данного региона. В этом
разделе также вместо западноориентированной концептуальной архитектуры
классической геополитики предлагается внутренний подход, ставящий в центр
отношения между субъектом и пространством.
Позже сделан краткий экскурс в прошлое данного региона, который показывает
функциональность этой подчеркивающей геокультуру перспективы. Сначала
описывается форма геополитического уравнения 7-го и 8-го веков, затем объ-
ясняется с точки зрения равнодействия предмет-пространство, доминирующей в
Центральной Азии.
Начальная часть последнего раздела посвящена анализу длительного периода, ох-
ватывающего примерно сто пятьдесят-двести лет. Затем после полуторавекового
процесса разделения «субъекта» изнутри показаны поиски самовосстановления и
интеграции региона; как внешний фактор внимание акцентируется на конкурент-
ном треугольнике США, России и Китая, не забывая при этом и Турцию.
В заключительной части исследования даны основные параметры видения, по-
зволяющего региону выйти из зоны пассивности с точки зрения геополитиче-
ского значения.

Türkistan, ilk çağlardan itibaren Uzak Doğu ile Batı uygarlıkları arasında bir köprüdür. Moğolistan’dan Urallara kadar uzanan uçsuz bucaksız bozkırlar, çoğu zaman konargöçer boyların at koşturduğu coğrafya olarak araştırmalarda ön plana çıkarken, bu coğrafyanın Doğu ile Batı arasında gerçekleşen ilişkilerdeki rolü göz ardı edilmiştir. Oysaki Türkistan Çin’den veya Akdeniz kıyılarından yola çıkan kervanların ya da Çin’den Hindistan’a gitmek isteyen Budist hacıların uğramadan yola devam edemeyeceği bir coğrafyadır. Türkistan’ı bir ağ gibi saran tarihi ticaret yolları, sadece kervanların ticari ürünleri taşıdığı basit bir yol değildir. Bu yollar aynı zamanda kültürlerin ve dinlerin uzak coğrafyalara ulaşmasını sağlamıştır. Bu nedenle Çin, İran, Hint ve Roma gibi uygarlıklardan yola çıkan kervanlar, ordular, seyyahlar, hacılar ya da elçilerin yolu bir şekilde Türkistan’a düşmüştür. Bu yolculardan bazıları görüp duyduklarını yazarak bize seyahatnameler bırakmışlardır. Bazılarının serüvenleri ise başkaları tarafından yazılan kitapların konusu olmuştur. Türk ülkelerine çeşitli zamanlarda gitmiş olan yabancı seyyahlar, gezdikleri yerlerde dikkatlerini çeken olayları, mekânları, kişileri ya da gelenek-görenekleri kaleme alarak hem yaşadıkları dönemdeki kendi toplumlarına bilinmeyen ülkeleri tanıtmışlar, hem de bu değerli bilgilerin günümüze kadar ulaşmasını sağlamışlardır. Seyahatnameleri önemli kılan bir başka özellik ise bahsettikleri ülkelerde yaşayanlar için dikkate değer olmayan şeylerin bir yabancı tarafından önemli görülerek kaydedilmiş olmasıdır. Yani seyahatnameler çoğu zaman bir toplumun öteki gözüyle nasıl görüldüğünü anlamamıza imkân sağlayan eserlerdir. Türkistan’a bir şekilde yolu düşen seyyahların eserleri temel alınarak hazırlanan bu kitapta başlangıçtan 20. yüzyıla kadar Türkistan’daki Türklerin bir başkası tarafından nasıl görüldüğünün yansıtılması amaçlanmıştır. Bu nedenle farklı dönem ve kültürlerden seyyahların Türkistan’a ilişkin yazdıkları eserler incelenerek kitabın bölümleri oluşturulmuştur. Tabiî ki tarih boyunca Türkistan’ı ziyaret eden yüzlerce seyyahın eserlerini tek bir kitapta incelemek mümkün değildir. Örnek vermek gerekirse, sadece Rusların yazdığı raporlar ya da seyahatnameleri tanıtmak için dahi ciltlerce kitap yazmak gerekir. Bu nedenle elinizdeki eser, belli dönem ve coğrafyalar seçilerek hazırlanmıştır. Bugüne kadar Türkistan’la ilgili seyahatnameleri içeren birkaç araştırma yapılmış olsa da bütüncül olarak yaklaşan bir eser olmamasından hareketle hazırlanmış olan bu çalışma sadece bir başlangıç olarak değerlendirilebilir ya da Türkistan tarihini seyahatnameler üzerinden değerlendirme yolunda atılmış bir adım olarak da kabul edilebilir. Seyahatnameler üzerinden bir bölgenin tarihi ve coğrafyasının incelenmesi hem coğrafyada yaşayanların hem de
o coğrafyaya seyahat eden seyyahların kültürlerindeki devamlılığı, değişmeleri, kültürlerin birbirlerine karşı geliştirdiği bakışı göstermesi bakımından kıymetlidir. Zira seyyahlar her ne kadar Türkistan coğrafyasının çöllerinden geçip, dağlarından aşsalar da esasen hepsinin hatırasının üzerinden de zaman geçmiştir. Bu anlamda incelenen süreçte tarihin unsurlarından insanlar, zamanlar ve mekânlar da değişmektedir. Türkistan coğrafyası özelinde bu değişimin ana hatlarına değinmeye
çalışan elinizdeki kitabın bundan sonra bu yola düşecek araştırmacılara
faydalı olmasını temenni ederiz.

The paper deals with British russophobia of XIX century as a tool of international relations building. The anti-Russian pamphlets used the entire arsenal of tools of influencing, described by R. Cialdini. They needed for the formation of public opinion, the adoption of certain foreign policy decisions and organization alliances. A very important role belonged to used by pamphleteers binary oppositions, involved in the formation of positive and negative identities of Great Britain and its allies and justify the bipolar system of international relations.
В статье британская русофобия XIX в. рассматривается как инструмент выстраивания системы международных отношений. В антироссийских памфлетах выявлен весь арсенал средств влияния, описанных Р. Чалдини. Они были необходимы для формирования общественного мнения, принятия определенных внешнеполитических решений и организации альянсов. При этом важную роль играли используемые памфлетистами бинарные оппозиции, участвовавшие в формировании положительной и отрицательной идентичности Британии и ее союзников и обосновывавшие биполярную систему международных отношений.