The 1873 Treaties of the Russian Empire With the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara: A Historical and Legal Analysis

Abstract

The article devoted to specific features of relations of the Russian Empire with the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva on the base of treaties signed in 1873, which are considered to fix the status of these Central Asian polities as Russian protectorates. The author examined preconditions of signing of these treaties, analyses the treaties of Russia with Khiva and Bukhara, gives a formal legal characterization of their form and content. The article is an attempt to explain the reasons of including by Russian authors in these treaties of specific statements which were to provide the control of the Russian Empire under the policy of the khanates in different areas as well as further practical implementation of these statements. Sometimes these reasons are not so obvious and it makes the author analyze not only literal sense of treaties, but also their “spirit”, i. e. implication within the context of Russo-Bukharan and Russo-Khivan relations before and after the establishment of the protectorate. The analysis of historical sources (legal acts, another official documents, contemporary testimonies, periodicals) and the results of previously made research allows the author to conclude that relations of the Russian Empire with authorities of Bukhara and Khiva were a complex of activities within the policy of the frontier modernization with due regard for specific features of political-legal and social-economical position of the khanates and intricate international situation as well as contradictions of different authorities in the Russian Empire itself.