ULI453U-RUSSIA, CENTRAL ASIA AND THE CAUCASIA
Chapter 1: Geography and History of Eurasia (Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus)
Defining Geography and History in Eurasia
The areas considered to be part of Eurasia have changed over time, as geographical boundaries have changed with significant alterations in human political and economic relations. The term “Eurasia” is used in three ways: first, Eurasia is used both as a part of geographical and historical discourse. In a geographical term, in a broader sense, Eurasia was a horizontal line from the Atlantic to the Pacific between the hotter peripheral regions in the south and the colder Arctic region in the north. In a narrow sense, the Eurasian realm is a large landlocked region between Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and the Arctic taiga-tundra zone. (Beckwith, 2009, p. xix). Historically, the term “Eurasia” can be defined not only as a geographical term but as a territory where information, goods, and people were exchanged historically. A second use of the term became common in Western academia: Eurasia began to refer to the fifteen states that became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The concept of Eurasia refers to states that are economically, culturally, and politically close to each other and share the same fate. The third usage of Eurasia comprises Russia, Turkey, and five Central Asian countries. This usage is part of Russian and Turkish political discourses that have acquired an ideological meaning in what is known as “Eurasianism.” Classical “Eurasianism” is based on Russian political and intellectual movements in the early twentieth century. Both Turkey and Kazakhstan also have their versions of Eurasianism. However, it has become a part of political discourse in Turkey and Kazakhstan. In simple terms, it means creating collaboration and cooperation between the Slavic and Turkic peoples.
The Russian Federation is the strongest and largest country in the Eurasian region as the true heiress of the Russian Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union. Russia applies its geography and history to continue its primary position in the region. In other words, Russia attempts to preserve its geopolitical position in his “Near Abroad,” which she thinks she inherited from the Soviet Union, against other major powers endeavoring to fill the power vacuum that emerged in the region. To preserve its position, Russia puts pressure and control over the countries that gained their independence after the Soviet Union’s dissolution.
Geography of Eurasia
Geography of Russia
Russia is a country like no other. It occupies most of Eurasia. Russia is the largest country globally in terms of its area; it spans 11 time zones and has over 18 million square kilometers. Its climate is generally cold due to its proximity to the north pole of the country and the absence of high mountain ranges in the north to prevent cold air currents. Thus, the image of Russia in the world is cold. Russia geographically extends from the flat areas in the
east of the European continent to the Ural and Siberian lands to the open seas in Asia’s east. Thus, Russia occupies a large part of the Eurasian plain. These low- altitude lands extend from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. This situation is shaped from west to east, gradually tilting from the Carpathian Mountains towards the Volga River Basin. Rivers flow from south to north, especially in Siberia. However, several important Russian rivers start from the Volga River Basin and head towards the seas in different directions. Unlike the rivers in Siberia, the Volga River flows mainly south. It flows into the Caspian Sea. The Amur River flows mostly eastward, along the Chinese border into the Sea of Okhotsk (Blinnikov, 2011, p. 1).
Unlike the European colonial empires, Russian states (Tsarist and Soviet Union) controlled lands close to the Russian mainland. Historically, Russia has been invaded many times and has been challenged for centuries, with its geographically vulnerable location encompassing Europe and Asia. This openness to foreign intervention encouraged an expansionist mindset among those who ruled the Russian states. Some historians who have studied Russia argue that this factor, combined with Russia’s harsh climate with long cold days, encouraged Russia’s rulers to establish a centralized and autocratic state and have a goal to reach the open seas or oceans (DeBardeleben, 2007, p. 356).
Geography of Central Asia
19th-century German geographers (Alexander von Humboldt and Ferdinand von Richthofen) first introduced the concept of Central Asia. They defined this region as a landlocked intercontinental space. Therefore, Central Asia is the name given to the vast land area in the middle of the Eurasian continent with no ocean access. However, exactly where Central Asia covers, is debatable, as there are no natural borders like the ocean. Therefore, various definitions have been made. One of these is the official Soviet definition: According to this, Central Asia covers the territory of the now independent Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In this definition, Kazakhstan was not considered as part of Central Asia. The second definition represents five independent states’ lands: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. UNESCO’s definition includes, on top of five countries, southern Russia, Mongolia, Eastern Turkistan (Xinjiang), Tibet, northern India, northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, and northeast Iran. Although UNESCO’s definition is more inclusive, the definition of five independent countries is more accepted and used more often.
Central Asia is topographically diverse as it is an immense landmass: high mountains such as Tian Shan, Pamirs; great desserts such as Karakum, Kızıl Kum, Taklamakan, Gobi, great rivers such as Amu Darya, Syr Darya; lakes such as Issyk Kul, Aral, Balkhash, and great steppe. Thus, Central Asia can be divided into three main parts
according to their geographical characteristics: grassland- steppe, deserts, and mountain zones. The grasslandsteppe zone in the northern parts of the Caspian Sea, then north of the Aral Lake and the Turgay Valley and the Syr Darya of the Kazakh Steppes. The Kazakh Steppes (formerly Desht-i-Kıpchak) are the main grasslands of Central Asia. The Desert region consists of three large sand deserts: Karakum in Turkmenistan, Kızılkum between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and the Taklamakan in East Turkistan. The Hindu Kush, Karakorum, Pamir, Tienshan (Tanrı) mountain ranges form the natural boundaries of Central Asia in the south and also divide the area into the south- west and northeast directions (Barisitz, 2017, pp. 6-8).
Geography of Caucasus
The Caucasus region is the Eurasian steppes’ meeting point in the north and the Middle East plateaus that form the Anatolian and Iranian plateau in the south. The surrounding mountain ranges and the Black and Caspian Seas to the west and east form their natural boundaries. However, these mountain borders are not so obstructive that they can affect human movements. For this reason, different communities have come and settled in the South Caucasus for more than a thousand years. Despite its mountains and lands, the South Caucasus geography has an open and accessible position to put it briefly (Herzig, 1999, p.1).
Due to its geographical location, the South Caucasus has historical importance as a border and bridge between different societies and cultural families. The fact that the Caucasian lands are suitable for human settlement and life, many communities came to the South Caucasus. Thus, the mosaic of various ethnic communities in which Caucasian, Indo-European, and Turkic languages are spoken became diverse (Herzig, 1999, p.2).
History of Eurasia
History of the Russian Tsarist Empire
History of the Russian Tsarist Empire in the 13th century, the Duchy of Moscow came to the fore among other Russian-Slavic principalities. It united these principalities under the Duchy of Moscow. Having become the Vladimir-Muscovite princes’ residence in 1271, Moscow stretched in a basin at the Upper Volga plain and the central Russian Highlands. As such, it was strategically positioned to enable the Muscovy rulers to dominate the surrounding Russian principalities. Three sources influenced this state in political, social, and military terms. It reflected a mixture of Byzantine, Tatar, and Slavic influences. Moscow’s Dukes had to share their power with the Russian Orthodox Church, which moved to Moscow in the mid-fourteenth century. Moreover, due to their relationships with Tatars over the centuries, many Tatar customs, traditions, and lifestyles have been adopted by Russians.
In the mid-1400s, the Moscow-based Russian principality leaders began to use Caesar’s Russian equivalent, the
“Tsar,” after controlling other Russian principalities. These leaders also implied that they were emperors who continued ancient Roman traditions. In the 1500s, Russian tsars also began to call themselves “autocrats.”
The emergence of the Russian Tsarist Empire as an important actor on the world stage was due to two fields’ developments. First, the Russian empire’s territorial expansion began in the late 16th century when it controlled non-Slavic lands and peoples. Tatars lost their sovereignty in the middle of the sixteenth century. They were the first Turkish-speaking Muslims to be subjugated by the Russian empire. Nevertheless, Tatars also found a place within the Russian aristocracy. Over time, especially during the reign of Catherine the Great, Tatars helped the Russian rule reach other Turkish people (Lazzerini, 1994, p. 88). Second, Tsar Peter I, the Russian Tsarist Empire, started the modernization process, first its military and then all state structure to adapt the western model. When Catherine II became Empress of Russia, she accelerated the modernization process, adoption of western technologies and transforming Russian cities.
Peter I, the Great (reigned 1682-1725), was a member of the Romanov family that began to rule in the 1600s. After becoming the head of the Russian Tsarist state, Peter the Great organized expeditions to the Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Baltic Sea coast to expand his country. In 1696, Petro captured the area around the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea’s northern branch. However, he was defeated by the Ottoman army under the command of Baltaci Mehmet Pasha in 1711 near the Prut River. The regions west of the Caspian Sea (Derbent and Baku) were captured in a war with Iran, but this was also short-lived (Cohen, 2015, p. 223).
One of Russia’s greatest leaders is “Catherine the Great.” Her rule lasted from 1762 to 1796 and expanded the empire south and west, making it one of the world’s dominant powers.
Alexander died in December 1825. Taking advantage of his death, a small group of aristocratic military officers secretly mobilized to establish a constitutional monarchy. However, Nicholas I, brother of the late Tsar Alexander, put down the rebellion. As they tried to seize power in December, the revolts called Decembrists were severely punished. Although there were many coups and coup attempts in Russian history, the Decembrist rebellion was important. It was the first revolutionary movement with a specific political goal.
During the absolute reign of Nicholas, the Russian traditional social and political structure was preserved. Various political, travel, and social restrictions on the Russian people, especially on the Russian elite, were imposed. During the Crimean War, Nicholas I died. His son Alexander II became Tsar. Alexander II’s period was a period of significant developments in both Russian domestic and foreign policy. In domestic politics, the
serfdom system was abolished. It was removed in 1861 by a decree signed by Alexander.
In 1861, Tsar II. Alexander abolished serfdom. Still, the situation of the landless peasants in Russia did not improve their emancipation. Because Russia’s serfs could not get the means to sustain their lives, their situation got worse, and we see more and more people opposing Imperial Russia.
In March 1917, women’s protests in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) grew into the March Revolution. Those who opposed the Tsar included the Social Democrats-a Marxist party led by Vladimir Lenin, in 1903, had split into Menshevik and Bolshevik factions, and, later being the most popular with factory workers. Unable to control, the security forces joined the demonstrators after a while. As a result of these events, Nikolai II nominated Michael for the throne on March 5 and abdicated the throne. However, when his brother refused to take the throne, this authority passed to the Provisional Government formed by the Duma. Simultaneously, workers and soldiers elected the Petrograd Soviet (reviving the one formed in 1905). From March to November 1917, dual power existed between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet. Under this atmosphere, the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, took advantage of the country’s political and economic turmoil and tried to attract the people with the slogan “land, bread and peace.” They seized power on November 7, 1917 (October 25, as the Julian calendar was used in Russia). This event, in which the Bolsheviks seized power, was called the “Great October Revolution.”
History of Central Asia
Central Asia has played an essential role in world history. Although the Central Asian region bears the names of Turan, Maverannahr, Desht-i Kipchak, and Turkestan in different historical periods, it is a region that has particular historical, civilizational, economic, and political distinctions. Geographically, these lands, which span a vast region from the Urals to the Pamirs and from the Caspian Sea coast to the Altai Mountains, have been the transit point of trade and civilizations. In the early periods in Central Asia, states were established due to nomadic armies’ contacts with settled populations. The basis of this relationship was directly linked to the military conquest of nomadic steppe communities to settled lands and territories.
Central Asia was the transit route that provided access to all other primary production and exchange centers in Eurasia and directly contributed to trade and the focus of exchanging ideas between different religions. Therefore, since Central Asia is on the historical Silk Road route connecting East Asia to West Asia, Europe, and Africa, all powers have tried to control the region.
Central Asia met with Islam in the 8th century and became the cradle of Turkish-Islamic civilization between the 11th and 13th centuries. The region lived its golden years in
politics and culture during the Karakhanid, Ghaznavid, Seljuk, and Samanid states which were established in this period. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Genghis Khan’s armies invaded Central Asia, and the Chagatai Khanate ruled the region after the Mongol Empire was divided among his four sons.
Since the end of the nineteenth century, Russians and Europeans’ presence has been a major ethnocultural factor in Central Asia. By 1917, a million and a half Russians lived in Turkestan, half of them having resettled there with the encouragement of the Stolypin government and in order to colonize Kazakhstan’s vast steppe areas for farming. Russians also came to Turkestan to boost the region’s industrial development and build railways and factories. This process gained momentum after the revolution. Several waves of Russian migrants arrived in Turkestan seeking escape from hunger, civil war, and repression during the 1918-36 period, from the ‘Great Purge’ of 1937, or else forced to relocate to Central Asia with the industrial enterprises during World War II (Kulchik, Fadin, and Sergeev, 1996, p. 3).
In the Soviet period, local dialects were defined as languages to weaken Turkestan peoples’ close ties with each other. In the late 1920s, the Latin alphabet was used instead of the Arabic alphabet in the region. The reduced cultural relations between Turkey and Turkestan, the Cyrillic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet in the late 1930s. The difference between local languages and cultures is systematized and coded. Highlighting the differences was encouraged. During the Soviet era, border trade between Turkistan and neighboring countries was restricted. All travel and trade were directed north through Russia.
The policies towards many ethnic minorities changed significantly in the 1930s–1940s. The Soviet government initiated Russification, abolished the national institutions, killed intellectuals, and did ethnic deportations. Millions died in compulsory nationalization and forceful collectivization programs. Several thousand Central Asians lost their Second World War. Unsuccessful expropriation resulted in thousands of deaths; ethnic tension and environmental problems increased. During and after the Second World War, two million people from the Western regions of the Soviets were expelled to Central Asia, further complicating the region’s ethnic structure. With the collapse of the Soviets, five countries were liberated.
History of Caucasus
It is a border and bridge between civilizations and peoples due to the South Caucasus’ geographical structure. It is one of the transit points of Eurasia. Historically, legends such as Mount Qaf and the Prophet Noah’s ark reflect these lands’ attractiveness to human habitation. It has attracted immigrants throughout history. The immigration has created a mosaic of ethnic communities speaking languages that are members of different language families
such as Caucasian, Indo-European, and Turkish languages. The diversity of both the inhabitants and the languages spoken is the dominant feature of the region’s demographic structure. The existence of different culturally representing peoples in the region is defined based on Mesopotamia in the south, the Anatolia in the west, Iran in the southeast, and Eurasian steppes in the north. Thus, the South Caucasus, where different cultures can live due to its geographical feature, is a real melting pot for different civilizations. For this reason, the South Caucasus has its distinctive features, including the ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity of its inhabitants, as well as its popular and material culture.
With the Russian victories in the OttomanRussian wars from the second half of the 18th century, the Russian Empire advanced in the Caucasus, increased its power, and expanded its territory against the Ottoman Empire. This situation led the Christian nations in the Caucasus to prefer Russian domination. However, the Muslim societies in the Caucasus supported the Ottoman Empire in the Russian-Ottoman struggle.
With the collapse of Tsarist Russia, the Russians lost control over the Southern Caucasus. Three independent states emerged between 1917-1921. One of these states was the Independent Azerbaijan Republic. These states lost their independence when the Bolsheviks regained control of the region.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
On October 24, 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin and his Bolshevik followers seized power in Russia. They established a one-party communist system that lasted for 70 years. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was one of the most important events that left its mark on the twentieth century. The Bolsheviks named their country as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922, a large and powerful state stretching from Ukraine in the west to eastern Kazakhstan in the east (Diller, 1993, pp. 39-40).
After Lenin’s death, Joseph Stalin (a Georgian whose real name was Dzhugashvili) became the Soviet Communist Party’s General Secretary. Since the Communist Party was the leading institution in the Soviet Union, Stalin, who ruled the Party as its General Secretary, also ruled the state. In 1929 he became the undisputed sole leader of the Soviet Union and remained so until his death in 1953 (Adelman, 1995, p. 134). In the Stalin period, the collectivization policy forced many land and livestock farmers to destroy their harvest and kill their livestock rather than handing it over to the Communists. These peasants, who had vast lands and many animals, were called the kulak. Some were killed, while others were deported to the gulags in Siberia and Kazakhstan. Thus, with Stalin’s repressive policies in the 1930s, the Soviet Union realized industrialization and collective agriculture ownership.
With Stalin’s sudden death in 1953, there was a struggle over who should be the Communist Party leader. Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev won the struggle and became the leader of the Communist Party. Khrushchev showed different leadership than Stalin. At the 20th Party Congress in February 1956, Khrushchev criticized Stalin’s excessive policies and initiated a de-Stalinization policy. This secret speech at the Party Congress was a turning point for the Soviet Union. It was an indicator of the change in the country.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev. Brezhnev was a member of the Politburo, whom Khrushchev brought from Kazakhstan to Moscow. Under Brezhnev, the nuclear capacity of the Soviet Union was increased. Simultaneously, the Soviet Union developed good relations with African and Asian countries that gained independence after the colonial empires’ collapse. During this period, he declared the “Brezhnev Doctrine.” According to this doctrine, the Soviet Union has the right to intervene militarily in any socialist allied government facing domestic political problems.
When Brezhnev died in 1982, he was succeeded by former KGB Chairman Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov. Andropov was closely following the world’s developments, as he was the KGB Chairman for many years.
After three senior leaders in the early 1980s, the relatively younger Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was promoted to the Communist Party’s leadership in 1985. Gorbachev first wanted to restructure the economy with Perestroika (restructuring) policy. It aimed to create an environment where problems were discussed openly, and questions were asked with the Glasnost (openness) policy. With its Demokratizatsiya (democratization) policy, it aimed to make the political system plural. With his “New Thinking” policy, Gorbachev wanted to remove the Soviet Union from the Cold War’s competitive environment
It is difficult to unequivocally answer the question of why the Soviet Union was dissolved. Unlike other empires collapsed, the Soviet Union collapsed unexpectedly. However, other empires collapsed because they lost a war or could not withstand the socio-economic situation created by wars. The reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union are varied and subject to interpretation. Despite all the problems and difficulties, the collapse of the Soviet Union surprised everyone.