A Study on the Evolution of Russian Imperial Rule over the Kyrgyz Nomads : Clues from Transformations in the Position of Manaps as Collaborators in Russian Rule

In this paper, I discuss the position of the local elite under the rule of the Russian Empire over the Kyrgyz nomads by investigating how the Russian colonial military rulers and administrators positioned the tribal chieftains of the Kyrgyz nomads, the manaps. The premise on which the modern history of the Kyrgyz has been perceived is the fixed idea that the manaps represented the stratum of "dominant figures of traditional society." To the present day, the focus of studies on the manaps has been on positioning the manaps as a traditional social system that existed from ancient times. On the other hand, as for Russian rule that lasted for as long as half a century from 1867 to 1917, no comprehensive or diachronic studies based on careful examination of historical records written in those days have been carried out. Accordingly, in this paper, I try to clarify different aspects of the institution of the manaps and how it changed over time under Russian rule, by analyzing documents of the Russian colonial administration kept in the national archives of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. From the eighteenth century, the Russian Empire had recognized the Kyrgyz nomads on the basis of an understanding of the Kazakh nomads. In the process of expansion into the Kazakh Steppe after the collapse of the Jungarian Empire, the Russian Empire recognized the Kyrgyz nomads as an ethnic group living on the periphery of the Kazakh Steppe, which was reflected not only in its name (Dikokamennyi Kirgiz), but also in the representation of its social structure. Focusing on the fact that the Kyrgyz nomads lacked the aristocratic (aq suek "white bone") element of the Kazakh nomads as descendants of Chinghiz Khan including sultans, the Russian military rulers and scholars regarded the manaps as non-aristocrats distinct from sultans. However, after the establishment of Russian direct rule in 1867, the Russian military rulers and colonial administrators gradually began to recognize the manaps as aristocracy peculiar to the Kyrgyzs nomads and comparable to the Kazakh sultans. Still, in contrast to the latter with more solid recognition as aristocracy within the Russian Empire, the Kyrgyz manaps remained indistinct throughout the Russian administration until the beginning of the twentieth century. Indeed, there were no manaps officially raised to the peerage. From the end of the 1860s to the end of the 1870s, Russian military rulers and colonial administrators neither perceived the manaps as an issue to be dealt with nor did they plan the elimination of their stratum in the administration. Even after the 1880s, when the Russian Empire completed the conquest of Central Asia, Russian military officials and colonial administrators still considered the manaps to be influential collaborators in Russian rule over the Kyrgyz nomads. However, after the 1880s, as the colonial administration put more stress on protecting the benefits of the common people, it increasingly saw the manaps as the obstacle to Russian rule. At the end of the nineteenth century, in striving to govern the Kyrgyz more directly and further expand its power, the Russian colonial administration turned to a more heavy-handed policy in the name of the "fight against the manaps (bor'ba s manapami)." However, in the course of this struggle, it became clear that the power of the Russian Empire did not extend to the roots of Kyrgyz society, and the Russian authorities failed to gain cooperation from the local population. Facing this situation, particularly in the Chui Valley, the Russian colonial administration chose to collaborate with the manaps deemed useful in ruling the local society, rather than to liquidate them as the entire class. The Russian officials continued to implement such concrete political measures as building native Russian and Kyrgyz schools in close cooperation with the manaps. In contrast to the Chui Valley, in the mountainous lands to the south of the Kyrgyz Alatau (Zagornyi Krai), the fight against the manaps assumed a harsher form. In this region, the Russian colonial administration banished the manaps and sent them into exile for a certain period of time. On the one hand, this measure acutely indicates the eagerness of the Russian colonial administration to directly oppose the manaps and physically eliminate them. However, on the other hand, what drove the Russian colonial administration to take these repressive measures did not stem from the manaps themselves, but from the fact that the Russian colonial administrators viewed the local population with distrust and suspicion, namely from the dysfunction of colonial rule. The banishment was evidence of the frailty, rather than the strength, of Russian rule. Lastly, I deal with the position of the manaps after 1905, when settlement of Russians and expropriation of lands were becoming matters of great urgency. The Land Resettlement Agency established in Semirech'e Oblast in 1905 became a new standard-bearer in the fight against the manaps. Its activities were based on a strong belief that establishing villages for permanent settlement would not only promote the liberation of the populace from the yoke of the manaps and facilitate the development of the backward half-feudal Kyrgyz society, it would also motivate more Russian peasant immigrants to settle there. The advancement of the Land Resettlement Agency caused a serious conflict between the manaps trying to take advantage of the resettlement policy to gain more power and land, and the manaps realizing that the real intention of the resettlement policy was confiscation of their lands. Under these circumstances, the implementation of the resettlement policy was accompanied by factional strife among the influential manaps rather than by the class struggle between the manaps and the common people. The Russian officials of the local administration were reluctant to promote the resettlement policy and were even trying to deter it. The manaps opposing the resettlement policy hampered movements led by those manaps in favor of this policy with recourse to the people's court (narodnyi sud). The oblast administration took no specific measures to cope with the strife and left its solution to the county heads and the district superintendents (uchastkovyi pristav). The district superintendents in their turn did not challenge the manaps' authority so much as amplified the influence of the manaps in the districts as a bulwark against the intervention of the Land Resettlement Agency. After 1909, when the central government took a sudden turn in the resettlement policy by opening the door to Russian peasant immigrants in Semirech'e, the Russian colonial administration managed to reach an agreement with influential manaps in various ways. While regarding the institution of the manaps as a remnant of the past, the governor general of Turkistan A.V. Samsonov attached substantial importance to them as collaborators. He treated Shabdan with special care as a symbol of the Kyrgyz nomads' integration into the Russian Empire. He even granted land to Shabdan in order to win his trust. In the course of time, the manaps gradually lost their power. However, under Russian imperial rule, they managed to maintain their power by standing on the boundary between the Russian authorities and the Kyrgyz people. What made this possible were the frailty and the defects of Russian rule