Russian Efforts to Legitimatize the Occupation of Turkestan: Propaganda

In the 18th century, Peter I (1682-1725), who ascended the throne in the Russian State, raised Tsarist Russia to the status of an Empire with the reforms he made. Thus, the expansionist policy, which started with the reign of Tsar Peter I and was carried out by all the representatives who ascended the Russian throne, became the official programme of the Russian State. As a result, the Russian imperial authorities adhered to this policy and occupied countries that did not belong to them. Turkestan was only one of the countries occupied by the Russians (after the second half of the 19th century). Turkestan, which has vast territories, was gradually and systematically occupied by the Russians. In order to integrate the occupied territories into its own structure, the Russian Empire, during the reign of Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881), established the Governor-General of Turkestan (1867) and appointed General Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman as the first Governor-General. Subsequently, simultaneously with their occupation, the Russians in the Turkestan region embarked on propaganda activities in order to establish a permanent presence in the region. The aim of these activities was to convince national and international public opinion and legitimise the occupation. Russian propaganda conducted during this period is the subject of this study. The sources of the study are Turkistan Vedomosti Newspaper, Turkistan Sbornik (corpus), paintings of Russian artists and Turkistan Album.