Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal. 2022. № 4 (44). P. 183—201
HISTORICAL SCIENCES
UDC 94(47)“1878/1879”
Vasilyev Dmitry Valentinovich, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor
Moscow City University
AFGHANISTAN AT THE СENTER OF THE GREAT GAME. 1878—1879. ACT THREE: EMIR SHIR-ALI’S WAR
Abstract
The article examines the prehistory and the very beginning of the Second Anglo-Afghan war in the context of Russian-Afghan relations. The reasons for the interest in Afghanistan for the Russian Empire and the reasons for the unsuccessful development of the Russian-Afghan dialogue at the turn of 1878—1879 are shown. Special attention is paid to the Afghan assessment of Russian actions in the round of the Great Game. Evaluations of the activities of the Russian diplomats and the state approach to the problem as a whole are given. The main characters of the article are the Afghan emir Shir-Ali and his successor Abd-ar-Rahman Khan. Diplomatic and official correspondences, as well as memoirs of active participants in the events are the sources of the article. Criticism and analysis of written historical sources became the main methods of the narration. The seeming failures of Russian diplomacy, however, led to the solution of the foreign policy task. Russia has actively declared its intention to defend its own interests in Central Asia even by destabilizing regional political actors.
Key words
Second Anglo-Afghan War, Afghanistan, Russian Empire, Great Game, Turkestan, Shir-Ali, Abd-ar-Rahman Khan, K. P. Kaufman, P. A. Shuvalov, N. G. Stoletov, N. I. Razgonov, I. L. Yavorsky.
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Bibliography link to this article:
Vasilyev D. V. Afghanistan at the Сenter of the Great Game. 1878—1879. Act Three: Emir Shir-Ali’s War. Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2022, no. 4 (44), pp. 183—201. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2022.44.7.