This series of posts is from a presentation entitled “German Geography of the Russian Empire 1721-1914” that I gave in the summer of 2025 at the conferences of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) and the Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS). At a high level, it explores the territorial growth of Imperial Russia and shows its significance to German settlement and migration across the empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
VI. Central Asia and Western Siberia
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| Section of the 1947 map “Territorial Growth of the Russian Empire from 1700 to 1914” showing the territory that Russia acquired in Central Asia and Western Siberia. |
Timeline
1847 — Fort Raim constructed.
1853 — Siege of Ak-Mechet.
1864 — Siege of Chimkent.
1865 — Siege of Tashkent.
1868 — Siege of Samarkand.
1873 — Khiva captured.
1876 — Annexation of Kokand.
1884 — Merv captured, Turkman Lands annexed.
Before the mid-1800s, the Russian empire was mostly consolidating its forts and outposts in Western Siberia and on the Kazakh steppe. Between 1715 and 1745, Russian expeditions, the construction of defensive forts, and ultimately annexations of territory gradually added to the steppe region of Western Siberia around Omsk and Semipalatinsk. At this time, there wasn’t a lot of settlement. Fur trapping and trade was the main industry here.
Some of these areas were among the territories offered up in Catherine the Great’s manifesto in 1763 for colonization by foreigners. They were mentioned specifically in the register of lands that the Crown was trying to push; but there were was no German settlement there until much later.
Territorial growth picked up in the rest of this region in the mid-1800s due to the rapid Russian conquest of three powers in Central Asia: the Khanate of Khiva, the Khanate of Kokand, and the Emirate of Bukhara. This was, at least in part, out of the Russian Empire’s fear of the British Empire would expand into India. The rivalry between the two empires in Asia became known as “The Great Game.”
Khiva, Kokand, and Bukhara were all along the Silk Road, the ancient trade routes that connected Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. For centuries, they had been a part of many larger, powerful dynasties, one after the other. But at this point, instead of one, they were three, smaller and less powerful than under previous rule.
In 1847, Fort Raim was constructed at the mouth of the Syr Darya River at the Aral Sea. The fort was intended to form the new frontier of the Russian Empire. It led to conflict with the khanates of Khiva and Kokand.
In 1853, Ak-Mechet near Kyzylorda, was captured by Russia. This significantly weakened the Khanate of Kokand. Russia began establishing a line of forts along the Syr Darya River.
Chimkent was captured next in 1864, further weakening Kokand. Tashkent fell in 1865. This was, and still is, the largest city in Central Asia.
In 1868, Samarkand was captured from Bukhara, after which Bukhara became a Russian protectorate. Remember: having Russia protect you was the first step toward being annexed by Russia.
In 1873, Russia captured Khiva and turned the khanate into another protectorate. By 1876, the Russian Empire had annexed all of the Kokand Khanate, extending its control to the fertile Fergana valley of modern Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The last area to be annexed was the Turkmen Lands, or Turkmenistan today. Resistance was strong against the Russian Empire, but by 1884, the Merv oasis fell. This completed Russia’s conquest of Central Asia.
By this time, Trans-Caspian railway line was being built into this new territory. The line was started in 1879 and completed in 1906 when it was connected to the Tashkent line that connected Central Asia to the rest of the Russian railway system. This would facilitate German migration and settlement into this area.
This area bordered the Qing Dynasty to the west and the Persian Empire to the south.
What did this mean for German settlement and migration?
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This was a region of voluntary migration and resettlement before it was a region of deportation and special settlement. These were all Daughter colonies, and like the Caucasus migrations, they were often populated with a mix of Germans from various regions.
Beginning in 1881, the first Germans arrived in Russian Turkestan. This is the southern part of this map and includes modern-day southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. A group Mennonites from the Molotschna and Am-Trakt colonies, from the Black Sea and Volga regions arrived as a part of the Great Mennonite Trek to Central Asia in 1882. They were a part of that radical separation movement that we saw in the Caucasus, except Mennonite this time. They came to wait for the Second Coming…and maybe to avoid Russian military conscription. Some accounts note that both played into their decision.
In 1887, Volga German colonists, some from the colony of Frank, settled in colonies in the Transcaspian region on the border with the Persian Empire, or Iran today.
German resettlers to Russian Turkestan came from the provinces Akmola, Don Host, Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, Orenburg, Poltava, Samara, Saratov, Volhynia, and Voronezh.
Toward the north in the Western Siberian steppes, there was a more organized resettlement effort by Russia. This is the area in northern Kazakhstan that borders Russia today. The Trans-Siberian railway reached Omsk in mid-1890s, and that was a popular debarkation point for many Germans to this area.
The rush of German settlement in this area began in 1890, even before the incentives of the Stolypin Agrarian Reforms (1906–1911) were in place. The Stolypin reforms were voluntary resettlement programs was aimed at relieving the problem of overpopulation and landless farmers in European Russia while creating a class prosperous landowners in Siberia. Germans went where there was land to be had.
Again, they came from all over Russia: Bessarabia, Don Host, Kherson, Ekaterinoslav, Taurida,…Samara, Saratov, Astrakhan…Oryol, Mogilev, Voronezh, Kursk, Tambov, Kharkov, Poltava…Chernigov, Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia…Stavropol and other provinces in the Caucasus region. There were also setters to this area from the Baltics, modern-day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
They all had to get permission to migrate and provide information about themselves and their families (names, ages, relations), whether they were until trial or inquest, whether there were any infants or others not able to work, and whether they were in arrears in taxes. The land was fertile and plentiful on the Western Siberian steppes, but not every request was approved.
The last region we will look at is the Russian Far East.
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Related Posts and Sources:
- Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire
I. Introduction (posted 20 September 2025)
II. The Baltics & Finland (posted 21 September 2025)
III. Eastern Europe (posted 22 September 2025)
IV. The Black Sea Region (posted 23 September 2025)
V. The Caucasus Region (posted 24 September 2025)
VI. Central Asia and Western Siberia (posted 25 September 2025)
VII. Russian Far East (posted 26 September 2025)
VIII. Summary (posted 27 September 2025) - Images from the series Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire