The Amu Darya Organizational Commission of 1875-1876 (Toward a History of the Karakalpak in the Second Half of the 19th Century)

Abstract

The article examines the work of the Amu Darya Organizational Commission in 1875-1876 in the Amu Darya Department of Turkestan (the present territory of Karakalpakstan), which was Russian Empire’s new territory populated by the Karakalpak, Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek, and acquired after the conquest of the Khiva Khanate. The Commission conducted statistical and ethnographic research in the area. As a result of its various activities, feudal forms of land ownership were altered, the taxation system was brought in line with that of Turkestan, and a new administrative order was instituted. The author argues that the measures undertaken by the Commission brought the population of the Amu Darya Department closer to the population of Turkestan.