The “white gold” of Turkestan Governorate-General (solving the problems of cotton growing in early XX century)
Svetlana N. Brezhneva, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher of the Scientific and Educational Center for Historical Research and Analysis
Pushkin Leningrad State University, St. Petersburg, Pushkin, Russia, brezhneva_s_n_@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7637-2949
Olga A. Bogdanova,Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor
Volga Region State University of Service, Tolyatti, Russia, brezh_80@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4446-0039
Abstract
The article is devoted to the activities of the government of the Russian Empire, designed to ensure cotton independence in the early twentieth century. The imperial authorities had high hopes for their cotton-growing national outskirts — the Turkestan Governorate-General. To obtain their own high-quality varieties, a whole range of actions was developed related to the creation of “experimental fields”, cotton ginneries, internships of specialists abroad. Much attention was paid to railway construction, designed to ensure the connection of the Turkestan region with the textile regions of the empire. However, in the race for profit, the Russian administration did not forget about the needs of the indigenous population engaged in cotton cultivation. Measures were being developed to provide mortgage loans to cotton growers, a revision of the legislative articles of the Regulations on the Turkestan Region was proposed. Even in the conditions of the crisis caused by World War I, the government continued to take care, if not about expanding, then about preserving cotton plantations. However, the hardships of wartime, aggravated by the revolution, led to the fact that the initiatives of the imperial authorities remained unrealized.
Brezhneva S. N., Bogdanova O. A. The “white gold” of Turkestan Governorate-General (solving the problems of cotton growing in early XX century). Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2023, no. 1 (45), pp. 45—60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2023.45.4.
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