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British Intelligence on Russia in Central Asia, c. 1865–1949

Hrsg. v. A.J. Farrington

Online

Verlag :: Publisher

Brill Academic Publishers

Preis :: Price

Preise auf Anfrage / Prices on request

Siehe auch:
British Colonial Policy and Intelligence Files on Asia and the Middle East, c. 1880–c. 1950

Das Angebot richtet sich nicht an Verbraucher i. S. d. § 13 BGB und Letztverbraucher i. S. d. PAngV.

ISBN/ISSN

2950-5011

Bestellnummer bei digento :: digento order number

10883312

Verlagsinformation :: Publisher's information

Central Asia was among the most disputed regions in clashes between empires and ideologies, especially during the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. This online primary-source collection presents the intelligence gathered by the British India Office on the political, economic, strategic and social history of the area. Materials and files were labelled Secret, Confidential, or For Official Use Only; they cover the period 1865–1949.

There is enormous interest today in the economic resources, geopolitics, and history of the former Soviet Central Asian republics. Covering a vast area from the Caspian Sea to the western border of China, the states of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) are a focus of increasing international attention. The archives of the Political and Secret Department of the India Office are an outstanding source of information on the region, and this is the first time they have been made available in their entirety online. The material in this collection consists of secret and confidential intelligence reports, maps, memoranda, and handbooks, together with policy files covering the wider context of international relations and providing detailed information on local and regional political administration, social trends, and economic infrastructure. The collection is supplemented by printed material drawn from the India Office Military Department.

The "Great Game"

In the nineteenth century, Central Asia was at the crossroads of both war and commerce between Europe and Asia. It was of particular interest to the British imperial rulers of India, who were engaged in the "Great Game" – a competition for control of the balance of power and influence in the buffer states between the British and Russian empires.

British political relations with, and interests in, the Central Asian khanates were mainly directed by the India Office Political Department in London and by the Government of India political departments in Calcutta and, later, Delhi. Until the Second World War, British policy towards the region was mainly formulated in the India Office and the Foreign Office. Military intelligence was supplied from 1878 by the Intelligence Branch of the Quarter Master General’s Department in India and, later, by the Intelligence Section of the Military operations of the General Staff. The gazetteers, route books, personality reports, and political assessments were prepared in both the Military and Political Departments from source material submitted by political and military officials in the field, travelers, and locally-engaged clandestine agents. They were printed for official use only, generally classified as "Secret" and preserved in the India Office departmental libraries.

Michell’s Russian Abstracts

During the 1870s and 1880s, the India Office Political and Secret Department considered the Russian and Central Asian question to be so important that it employed an interpreter, Robert Michell, whose task was to review and translate Russian printed reports and extracts from Russian newspapers and other publications. Newspapers and journals regularly monitored included the Moscow Gazette, Turkestan Gazette, Journal de St Petersbourg, Russian Invalid, St Petersburg Gazette, Golos, Turkestan Gazette, and Novoye Vremia.

Political and Secret Memoranda

At about the same time, as a result of the increasing quantity of intelligence now being regularly received, the India Office Political and Secret Department began to produce printed memoranda in order to provide ministers with easily digestible précis of the information they needed to formulate policy. For officials in India and London, processing information from the frontiers and providing background papers for successive incoming governments and their ministers became an almost full-time occupation. The Memoranda were arranged and numbered by contemporary India Office officials in an alphanumeric sequence which reflected the geographical subject area. Memoranda relating to Central Asia, which included items reflecting the great political debate and guessing game over the nature of Russian intentions in the region, were usually put away in series "C".

Political and Secret Files on Soviet Central Asia

Although Anglo-Russian rivalry officially ended with the Convention of 1907, Russian ascendancy in Central Asia continued to be of interest to the British imperial administrations. After the First World War and the Russian Revolution, the two powers confronted each other again. With the creation of Soviet Socialist Republics in the period between the two World Wars, the British rulers of India were increasingly concerned with the infiltration into Indian politics of communist and nationalist agents and ideas. During this period, a new generation of British military and political intelligence officers, spies, and adventurers made courageous, and sometimes unofficial, journeys into the Central Asian republics and beyond into Sinkiang. A British Indian agent was stationed at Kashgar in 1893, but in 1911 the post was upgraded to Consulate-General. Kashgar became the listening post and source of regular intelligence briefings, political diaries, and trade reports.

Provenance and Archival Background

The archives of the India Office Political and Secret Department (and Military Department) form part of the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC) now within the Asia, Pacific, and Africa Collections at the British Library. The Political and Secret Department papers and printed material have now been catalogued under the OIOC reference L/PS. Military Department papers are located under the reference L/MIL.

The departmental reference libraries from which many of the printed items in this collection are drawn are now classified as L/P&S/20 and L/MIL/17. These archive groups also include the series of Michell’s Russian Abstracts and a set of Foreign Office printed correspondence on Central Asia distributed to the India Office. The Political and Secret Department Memoranda are located under the reference L/P&S/18. From 1902, the most important of the Political and Secret Department’s correspondence and papers accumulated in London were registered, indexed, and arranged in separately-bound files according to subject. Smaller collections of papers were bound in annual volumes. The pre-1930 subject files are located under the reference L/P&S/10, with the parallel series of annual volumes located under the reference L/P&S/11. Around 1930/1931, the department replaced its subject file system with a new series of "Collections," arranged according to geographical area. They are now to be found under the reference L/P&S/12. Material in this series is drawn mainly from collections 10 and 12 ("Central Asia" and "Chinese Turkestan"), with some relevant additional material from collections 32 ("Russia") and 46 ("Routes").