Modernization and Traditionalism through the Prism of the Events of the 1916 Rebellion in Central Asian Border Regions of Russia

• Main Authors: Yuliya A. Lysenko, Evgeniya V. Demchik, Inna V. Anisimova, Irina B. Bochkareva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sochi State University 2017-03-01
• Series: Bylye Gody
• Subjects: Russian Empire; Central Asia; popular rebellion; modernization; ethnos; identity
• Online Access: http://bg.sutr.ru/pdf.html?n=1488817100.pdf
• ISSN: 2073-9745; 2310-0028

The article within the framework of modernization theory presents an analysis of ethno-social processes in the period of the rebellion of the peoples of the Steppe Region and Turkestan in 1916. The content of this ethno-region of the Russian Empire and its modernization meant the introduction of outside institutions and values of European culture, however a short time impact of modernization trends on the traditional society (the second half of XIX – the beginning of the XX century) could not give a high positive effect in the short historical perspective. Therefore a certain part of the population of Steppes and Turkestan was an active recipient of modernization, integrated into the imperial political and economic space. However, most of the traditional society perceived modernization as a form of coloniality, aimed at suppressing the cultural identity, the transformation of traditional tribal and clan ties and social relations. The analysis of the impact of modernization on the traditional society of the Central Asian border regions of Russia allowed the authors of the article to claim that contradictory of social processes of transition period was fully manifested in the course of the popular uprising in 1916. On the one hand, there were tendencies of the ethno-consolidation processes which gave to that movement a powerful impulse and scale. On the other hand, the events of 1916 demonstrated a certain division of Central Asian society, expressed in the ambiguous position of the intellectuals to the decree of Nicholas II on the mobilization of foreigners working in the rear, intra- and inter-ethnic clashes in the uprising, the restoration of archaic (from the point of view of the theory of modernization) and political institutions social norms, the revival of "ethno-psychological stereotypes" of the previous era.