Afghanistan at the Сenter of the Great Game. 1879—1885. Act Six: Pende Crisis
Dmitry V. Vasilyev, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor
Moscow City University, Moscow, Russia, dvvasiliev@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6616-0646
Abstract
The spread of Russian sovereignty over the Turkmen lands entered its final phase after the annexation of Merv. The Russian movement developed in two successive directions. The first led to the oasis of Atek near the Persian border where a transitional regime was established. At the end of the five-year period, the oasis was to pass to Russia. Until that time, Persian border commanders had taken clearly anti-Russian steps. They restricted the water supply to local Turkmens and resettled their compatriots on their lands. This did not suit the imperial border commissioner, who initiated discussions on the issue of accelerating the introduction of Russian administration in Atek. Despite this, the establishment of Russian power in the Atek oasis still occurred on time. In 1886, the so-called pristavstvo (an administrative-territorial unit of the Russian Empire in the late 18th — early 20th centuries) was established there on the same basis as in the Transcaspian region. The situation with the disputed territory of the Pende oasis, which the Afghan side laid claim to, developed differently. The Afghan (Pende) crisis of 1885 began with the occupation of the oasis by Russian troops. The exchange of the Pende oasis for the Zulfakar Pass, in which Great Britain was interested, allowed both sides to reach a compromise. Thus ended the acute phase of the Great Game. A distinctive feature of the strengthening of the Russian presence in the region was the creation of a local administration aimed at encouraging the indigenous population to be loyal to the new government.
Keywords
Transcaspian Province, Turkmens, Atek, Pende, Persia, Afghanistan, Great Britain, Great Game, administration policy.
Acknowledgments: The research is supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 24-28-00915 (https://rscf.ru/project/24-28-00915/), implemented at the Russian Academy of Entrepreneurship
For citation:
Vasilyev D. V. Afghanistan at the Сenter of the Great Game. 1879—1885. Act Six: Pende Crisis. Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2025, no. 1 (53), pp. 38—55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2025.53.3.
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