Turkestan Urban Self-Government Institutions in the late 19th – Early 20th Century

Abstract

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the process of urbanization was actively advancing in the Russian Empire. The city reform of 1870 expanded the competence and representativeness of city self-government, represented by the City Duma, with the aim of involving the propertied into the initiative of the urban community addressing urban improvement issues. The development of urban self-government institutions in several cities in Turkestan adhered to the general course of modernization in the Russian Empire, while also reflecting the specific administration and socio-cultural environment of the region.

The author’s objective is to analyze the correlation between general imperial principles and regional specifics in the legal status and activity trends of city self-government bodies in Turkestan. In comparison with the general imperial practice, city self-government bodies were limited both in terms of spatial factors and in terms of their level of independence from the administration and the representativeness of the indigenous population. The Tashkent City Duma serves as a case to study that best aligns with the research objectives. The article examines the activities of the city self-government based on this example.

The predominance of the indigenous population in most cities of the region was the main reason for the reluctance of local administration to extend the city self-government system to other cities. Nevertheless, even in its limited form, city self-government served as another platform for interaction between two cultures, “tradition” and “modernity,” and as an instrument for the gradual modernization of Turkestan cities.