Grigoriev in Orenburg

Grigor'ev in Orenburg, 1851-1862: Russian Orientalism in the Service of Empire? Author(s): Nathaniel Knight Source: Slavic Review, Vol.
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in Orenburg,1851-1862: Russian Grigor'ev in the Serviceof Empire? Orientalism

NathanielKnight
In December 1851,VasiliiVasil'evich Grigor'ev, one of Russia'sforemost on the history specialists and languagesofCentralAsia and theNear East, setoff in the from St. Petersburg to build a newcareeras an administrator turbulent borderlandsaround the cityof Orenburg.Grigor'ev's reasons forleaving and personal.Unable tofind Petersburg werebothprofessional an acceptablepositionin eithertheeducationalsystem or thestatebureaucracy, Grigor'ev, formerly a professor at the Richelieu Lycee in Odessa, had subsisted forseveralyearsas assistant editorofthejournal oftheMinistry of InternalAffairs, and by 1851, withlittleprospectfor advancement,he was willingto look further afieldforemployment.' Grigor'ev's biographeralso alludes to personal problems-a painfulconflict witha close friendthatmade his presence in St. Petersburg unpleasantif not himfromPetersburg, Butwhatever mayhave been driving therewere motivesdrawingGrigor'evto Orenburg.Deeply patriotic, Grigor'ev was devoted to the idea thatscience should exist,not merelyas an fervently end in itself, but forthe greatergood of the nation.As a memberof the had been at the newly founded Russian GeographicalSociety, Grigor'ev of a fiercestruggle German leaders who forefront againstits ethnically the needs of Russia to a universalistic sciwere accused of subordinating
forAdvancedRussian This articlewas written while in residenceat the Kennan Institute I am tremendously to grateful Studiesand the HarrimanInstitute at Columbia University. bothinstitutions fortheirsupport. Earlierversions werepresentedat the 1997 annual conof SlavicStudiesin Seattle,the ferenceof theAmericanAssociationfortheAdvancement Columbia University SlavicSeminar,and the MarylandWorkshopin RussianStudies.My I am comments. thanks go out to all theparticipants in thesesessionsfortheirstimulating forhis close readingand incisivecriticism and to the particularly indebtedto Paul Werth twoanonymousreferees at SlavicReview fortheirhelpfulsuggestions. can be attributed in partto the 1. Grigor'ev's lack of successin finding employment lack of appropriatepositions (university chairsin Oriental studieswere fewand farbeand oftenabrasive tweenin the 1840s), to academic politics, and to Grigor'ev's impulsive He had decided to resignhis positionin Odessa in anticipation ofan appointpersonality. at Moscow University. His plans ment to a vacant chair in easternlanguages and history the head of were thwarted, betweenhis patron,Count Stroganov, however, bythe rivalry the Moscow Educational District, and the minister of education,Sergei Uvarov, who dehisrejection, Grigor'ev refused to resumehispoclined to approvetheappointment. After sitionin Odessa. Subsequent hopes fora chairat St. Petersburg University were similarly see N. P. Barsukov, dashed. For an account of Grigor'ev's tribulations on thejob market, M. P Pogodina(St. Petersburg, Zhizn'itrudy 1888-1906) 7:313-24. VasiliiVasilbevich 2. The basic biographicalsource on Grigor'evis N. I. Veselovskii, i trudam 1887). In addition to a biographicalnarGrigor'v po ego pis'mam (St. Petersburg, fromGrigor'ev's personalcorresponrative, Veselovskii's workcontainsextensive excerpts dence and publishedwork,makingit an indispensablesource of primary material. SlavicReview 59, no. 1 (Spring2000)
unbearable.2
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positionin Orenburgwas a entific agenda.3Acceptingan administrative to realizetheprinciples thathe had trumpeted so loudly wayforGrigor'ev in Petersburg academic politics.Placas a leader of the "Russianfaction" languages,and culturesof CentralAsia ing his knowledgeof the history, he would help to at the disposal of the Russianimperialadministration, create an efficient system of governancethatwould be a credit to the mightand gloryof Russia. and the eleven yearsof serdecision to leave Petersburg, Grigor'ev's of theinat first glance,a graphicillustration vice thatfollowed, provides, power. As such, knowledge and imperial betweenscholarly terdependence enablingknowledge neatly intotheparadigmofmutually his example fits workOrientalism. and powerspelled out byEdwardSaid in his influential thatknowledge idealswerefoundedon an implicit assumption Grigor'ev's ifwe knowhowAsiatics his think, administration: was thekeyto successful thenwe knowhowto governthem.As Said putsit:"knowlreasoning went, edge of subjectraces or Orientalsis whatmakes theirmanagementeasy and profitable; knowledge givespower,morepowerrequiresmoreknowland profitable dialecticof information edge, and so on in an increasingly "4 control. forunderwould seem to providean ideal framework Said, therefore, intellectualpursuitsand his prostandingthe linksbetweenGrigor'ev's fessional service.Or does he? A momentof cautionis perhapsin order.It Said's to note thatthe discussionssurrounding is hardly an exaggeration redefined the concept of orientalismitself: work have fundamentally it the new paradigm, or not one acceptsthe premisesunderlying whether about orientalism solelyas has become nearly impossibleto speak or write on Asia without also evokingimagesof a scholarship the bodyofwestern to createand marginalspecifictypeof imperialdiscoursethatfunctions As a land withmore than itsfairshare of "othize the degraded "other." ers,"theRussianempireis a clearand obviousfieldinwhichto applySaid's Said's model But forall itsimpactelsewhere, and methodology. principles it has stimulated have evoked surof orientalism and the richdiscussions This paper atlittleresponsein studiesof the Russianempire.5 prisingly
in the GeographicalSociety, see NathanielKnight, "Science,Em3. On the struggle in the Russian GeographicalSociety,1845-1855," in Ethnography pire and Nationality: (BloomfortheEmpire Russia:NewHistories JaneBurbankand David L. Ransel,eds.,Impffial poluvekovoi deiaington,1998), 108-41. See also P. P. Semenov (Tian-Shanskii),Istoriia 1845-1895 (St. Petersburg, obshchestva, Russkogo tel'nosti Imperatorskogo Geograficheskogo obshchestvo za sto let (Moscow1896), vol. 1; and L. S. Berg, Vsesoiuznoe geograficheskoe circulatedmemoranbya widely viewsare bestrepresented Leningrad,1946). Grigor'ev's proposed bythe leadershipof the dum thathe wrotein 1848 in responseto a new charter istoricheskii gosudarstvennyi society. The completedocumentcan be found in Rossiiskii arkhiv (RGIA), f.853, op. 1, ed. kh. 10 (ProektnovogoustavaRGO i zamechaniiak nemu). 95-96. Vasil'evich Grigor'v, Vasilii Excerptsare publishedin Veselovskii, (New York,1978), 36. 4. EdwardW. Said, Orientalism on non-Russian nationalities produced duringtheCold Warwasnever 5. Scholarship imperialoppression. of Russianand latercommunist forthe victims lackingin sympathy ofRussianRule (New York, Asia: A Century ed., Central See, forexample,EdwardAllworth, (New York,1979); and Robert ofan Empire 1967); Helene Carrered'Encausse, TheDecline
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of theorientalism paradigm and utility tempts to addressthe applicability in the Russian imperialcontextthroughan examinationof Grigor'ev's ideas and career as a scholar of the east and an imperialadministrator. discuras describedbySaid, denotesan all-encompassing Orientalism, and dominatesthe knows, whichEurope imagines, siveformation through is one of represenlands and peoples of the east. The taskof orientalism a metaphorical tation. The Orientitself, accordingto Said, is a projection, to the European consciousnesson whicha richcastof charstageaffixed carpets,sultanswiththeir acters-pharaohs, sphinxes,geniis on flying the mystery, and the dangerof the east.6 harems-embody the exoticism, a secular priesthood To penetratethismystery is the taskof orientalists, and theability from of arcane knowledge mastery whoseauthority derives The of the east,usable truth. complexity to distill, out of the bewildering the orientalist's "truth" mustneverbe confusedwithindigenousreality: concealed remains inaccessible, realeast,as experiencedbyitsinhabitants, disbeyond the vast epistemologicaldivide thatgives life to orientalist course. But while the Orientmaybe an illusion,the powergeneratedby level,the creation orientalist knowledgeis real and inescapable.At every discourseis inseparablefromdomination. of alterity throughorientalist is never Knowledgeof the Orientis neverinnocent;oriental"otherness" an assertion of difference. Ratheris it the markof subordination, merely inferior "other"embodies the fullpanoply whichthe universally through is both a productof of civilizedman. Thus orientalism of traits unworthy and a precondition forEuropean imperialism. Manynow and influential. Said's viewshave been both controversial trendsin postmodernand postcolonialstudiesbear the clear flourishing theirappearance of his ideas, althoughone would not attribute imprint has attracted itsfairshareof Said's Orientalism to Said.7Naturally, entirely
Future Soviet and the (Stanford, 1986). But fewof Nationality Conquest,ed., TheLastEmpire: ofa comto place theRussianimperialexperiencein thecontext werewilling thesewriters ofimperialism as a whole. More recentwriters critiqueofwestern prehensivetheoretical in theRussian thequestionofhisapplicability addressing explicitly ten evokeSaid without context.See, for example, the set of articlesby Katya Hokanson, Daniel Brower,and 53, no. 3 (1994). See also Susan Layton, Thomas Barrett thatappeared in RussianReview SlavicReview Caucasian Geography," 45, no. 3 (Fall 1986): "The Creationofan Imaginative position on Said in "NineteenthCentury 470-85, but note Layton'srather different in Daniel R. Browerand EdwardJ.Lazzerini,eds., of Caucasian Savagery," Mythologies 1997), 81- 82. A 1700-1917 (Bloomington, Borderlands andPeoples, Imperial Russia'sOrient: of Said can also be found in the conclusion to Yuri briefdiscussionof the applicability North (Ithaca, 1994). ofthe Arctic Mirrors: SmallPeoples Russiaand the Slezkine, 63. 6. Said, Orientalism, 7. In anthropology, forexample,Said's ideas have helped to underminethe assumpgroundedtheethnographic thathad traditionally and disinterestedness tionofobjectivity search in a challenging butinevitably futile anthropologists endeavor,leadingpostmodern without authors.A seminalworkin thisregardis the collection forwaysto produce texts 1986). Historians Culture (Berkeley, Clifford and George E. Marcus,eds., Writing byJames to groupswhosevoices and experiattention bySaid have turnedtheircritical influenced of Orientalist discourse.The subalbeen silencedbytheworkings ences have supposedly thatrelatesthe in thisregard.For an overview prominent ternstudiesgroupis particularly Histories Post-Orientalist workof thesescholarsback to Said, see GyanPrakash,"Writing in SociStudies fromIndian Historiography," Comparative of theThird World:Perspectives
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scholarsoforientallanguagesand history critics as well.Mostpredictably, of theirendeavorhave to the legitimacy a threat who see in his argument to Said's In addition,scholarsmore sympathetic protestedvociferously.8 of critical responses:some have fohave advanced a variety undertaking theneed inconsistencies, whileothershave suggested cused on theoretical This essayproceeds Said's model in lightofregionalspecificity.9 to modify frameI questionboth thegeneraltheoretical in both of thesedirections: in the Russiancontext. workof Said's model and itsspecificapplicability raises Applied to Russia, the paradigm of orientalismimmediately dichotomy betweenOrientand Occithe stark questions.Mostobviously, in the Russian condent around whichSaid's analysishingestransforms all,was Russia,theeast.Russia,after thewest, triptych: text intoan awkward discourse,but also itsobject.Throughnot onlythe subjectof orientalist Russiawas depictedin western and seventeenth century out the sixteenth thereAnd even after orientaldespotism.'0 as thequintessential literature of civiforms of Peterthe Great,Russia'sacceptance into the community nationswasconditionalat bestand applied onlyto theextent lizedwestern and assimilate thatRussianeliteswere able to shed theirnativetraditions When Russianscholarsturned intoa pan-Europeancultureofaristocracy. oftheirownsupposed backwitha sharpawareness to theeastitwasoften of Britain, in the face of the grand civilization wardnessand inferiority How would thisawarenessshape Russianvisionsof France,and Germany. Russianimperialrule? of powerunderlying the east and the dynamics theparadigm context, of the Russian Aboveand beyondthespecificity mechanisms concrete about the questions leavesunresolved oforientalism and power. of the intersection knowledge and relationships underlying desimultaneously discourse" as an "enabling Said presentsorientalism this But does how of domination." rivedfromand productive imperial oftheconcretehisdiscoursefunction whenembedded in thevicissitudes and behavior? of individual thought torical momentand theidiosyncrasies so ingrained of deeply an inescapableweb assumption Is discoursedestiny,
32, no. 2 (April1990): 383-408; RosalindO'Hanlon and David Washbrook, ety and History Studies Comparative and Politicsin theThirdWorld," Culture,Criticism Orientalism: "After 1992): 141- 67. 34, no. 1 (January and History in Society West (NewYork,1993). For Said's re8. See, forexample,BernardLewis,Islamand the Raritan14, no. 3 (Winter1995): an Afterword," sponse,see EdwardW. Said, "Orientalism, 32-59. "On OriincludeJamesClifford, perspective 9. Critiquesof Said froma theoretical andArt Literature, Ethnography, TwentiethCentury ofCulture: in his ThePredicament entalism," and the Ethnog(Cambridge,Mass., 1988); and CatherineGimelliMartin,"Orientalism A Quarterly forLiterature Criticism: rapher:Said, Herodotus and the Discourse of Alterity," see from a regionalperspective, views 32, no. 4 (Fall 1990): 511-29. For critical and theArts Predicaand the Postcolonial and Petervan derVeer,eds., Orientalism Carol A. Breckenridge and Dirlik,"ChineseHistory Asia (Philadelphia,1993); and Arif on South ment: Perspectives and Theory 35, no. 4 (December 1996): 96-118. History the Question of Orientalism," 10. On westernearlymodern travelaccounts of Russia,see Lloyd Eason Berryand ofSixteenthRussia in theAccounts Kingdom: eds., Rude and Barbarous Robert Crummey, TheEarly BorntoSlavery": (Madison, 1968); MarshallPoe, "APeople Voyagers Century English Russia" (Ithaca, forthcoming). Idea of"Enslaved ofthe Origins Modern of Caucasian Mythologies Century 12-13; Layton,"Nineteenth 11. Said, Orientalism, 81-82. Savagery,"
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as to appear invisible to the subject?Or can the individualtranscendthe alternatives to practicesto offer meaningful hegemonicgripof discursive And even (or simply to act outsideof) thedominantparadigmofempire? knowledge and imassuming a constant and directlinkbetweenscholarly of and concretely, do theesotericpursuits perialpractice, how,specifically and agendas of the imperialstate? orientalism further the interests Grigor'ev's servicein Orenburgprovidesan opportunevantagepoint and the ofRussianorientalism from whichto considerboth thespecificity of scholarly knowledge concretemechanisms the intersection governing and imperialpractice.In considering Grigor'ev's career,threeareas are of as a scholarly disparticular interest: first, thevisionofRussianorientalism his training and early thathe derivedfrom ciplineand bodyofknowledge funcspecializedknowledge career;second, thewaysin whichGrigor'ev's tionedwithinthe culturaland institutional contextof imperialadministheattitudes thecolonial "other"and policiestoward tration; and,finally, in thiscase Kazakh nomads-that Grigor'ev derivedfromhis intellectual as an administrator. backgroundand implemented An Orient'sOrientalism in 1816,VasiliiVasil'evichGrigor'ev fallssquarely Born in St. Petersburg within the age cohortoftenconsideredthe first generationof the intellithecore ofthe gentsia-young menwho came ofage in the 1830s,formed famousSlavophileand Westernizer groupsin the1840s,and,in some cases, of the late 1850s and 1860s.12 playeda guidingrole in the GreatReforms Like his betterknowncontemporaries, was drivenbyan obsesGrigor'ev to the "west," sivepreoccupation withtheproblemofRussia'srelationship fromthe tensionbetweenthe desireto viewRusa preoccupationarising and the need to assertRussia as a bearer of universal"enlightenment" Russian orienFor Grigor'ev, sia's culturaldistinctiveness (samobytnost'). talismas a fieldof science and a scholarly vocationprovideda vehicle to reconcilethesedivergent imperatives. formulated In the yearsbeforehis departureto Orenburg,Grigor'ev search forscientific a conceptionof orientalism, not onlyas an abstract but also as a response to the challengesposed by the problem of truth, narodnost'-Russia's quest to defineitsnationalessence. While Grigor'ev his ideas refrained fromopenlyembracinga singlephilosophicalsystem, in line withthe assumptions of Russian about nationality were perfectly in vogue at the time.'3For intellectuals of the 1830s,naSchellingianism
in RichardPipes,ed. TheRussianIntel12. MartinMalia, "WhatIs theIntelligentsia?" Govffnment TheParting oftheWays: ligentsia (New York,1961), 1-18; Nicholas Riasanovsky, and the Educated Publicin Russia,1801-1855 (Oxford,1976). Glavnye 13. On the impactof Schellingianphilosophyin Russia,see P. N. Miliukov, 1913), 278-300; MartinMalia, Alexander mysli (St. Petersburg, techeniia russkoi istoricheskoi Mass,1961), chap. 5. Narodnost'refers Herzen and theBirth RussianSocialism (Cambridge, of of "nationality." Ideas of ofcourseonlyto theethnicas opposed to thepoliticaldimensions itsrange and nationalstyle come closer,perhaps,to expressing nativeness, nationalspirit, Nationality of meanings.For discussionof narodnost',see Nathaniel Knight,"Ethnicity, in YanniKotsonisand David in ImperialRussia," and theMasses:Narodnost' and Modernity (London, 1999); and Lauren G. Leighton,"Narodnost' Hoffmann, eds., RussianModernity
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tions were organic beings, livingorganisms undergoing a set lifecycle from savage infancyto decrepit old age. The goal of the nation was to manifest fullyits unique spiritand in so doing to fulfillthe world historical mission instilled upon it by Providence. For Russians this meant a passionate quest to find and cultivate Russian samobytnost' in all areas of life. Science was no less a field for the expression of the national spiritthan literatureand the arts,and throughout his career, Grigor'ev devoted himself with passion and vigor to the ideal of autonomous Russian scholarship. He never ceased to be repulsed by the Russian impulse to bow down before the superior knowledge and experience of the west. "Russia and the Western states,"he wrote in 1847, and therefore, diverseconditions, developed and existundercompletely whatis apdifference, of the demands of ethnic [plemennogo] regardless untimely and inapprotherecan be forus entirely propriateand timely Russia,whilenot not onlyuselessbut harmful. priate,and, consequently, developand advance nonetheless, itself from thewest... must, alienating on itsown narelying independently, to the common goals of humanity thanthoseofthewest.... This period whichare different tiveprinciples, ofinfatuation thewest]has outliveditstime.For us the period has [with and autonomousactivity.'4 setin of rationalself-awareness Orientalism played an integral part in Grigor'ev's vision of an autonomous Russian science. Russian scholars were uniquely positioned, he felt,not only to excel at the study of eastern languages and history,but also to approach these subjects from a distinctperspective. Unlike in the west,where orientalism was, above all, the studyof the distant and exotic "other,"in Russia the studyof the east was the studyof Russia itself."Who is closer to Asia than us?" Grigor'ev wrote. "Which of the European tribes preserved in itselfmore of the Asiatic element than the Slavs, who were the last to leave their primitivehomeland?"' 5 Orientalism in Russia served two essential functions. First,by studylanguages, and cultures of the eastern peoples within and ing the history, surrounding the Russian empire with whom Russians had interacted for centuries, orientalists would produce fundamentally new insights about Russia itself.'6Second, Russian orientalism could offsetwestern cultural
Two Essays(The Hague, in hisRussianRomanticism: as a Concept ofRussianRomanticism," r975), 43-107. ob izdaniiZhurnala Severnoe 14. RGIA,f.853, op. 1, ed. kh. 12 (ZametkiGrigor'eva forthe by Grigor'ev were takenfroma prospectuswritten obozrenie). These comments which he published togetherwithhis friendP. S. Savel'ev in obozrenie, journal Severnoe 1848-49. the 'AmurEpoch' 15. Quoted in Mark Bassin, "The Russian GeographicalSociety, GeogofAmffican Association and the GreatSiberianExpedition 1855-1863," Annalsofthe 73, no. 2 (1983): 243. raphers monetakh 16. For a typical example of Grigor'ev'sapproach, see 0 kuficheskikh istorii otechestvennoi dlia drevneishei kakistochnik stranakh v Rossiii pribaltiiskikh nakhodimykh i statei izsledovanii (Odessa, 1842), laterrepublishedin thecollectionRossiiai Aziia:Sbornik V V Grigortevym (St. Petersburg, vremia v raznoe napisannykh i geografli, etnografli po istorii, describeshoards of CentralAsian Grigor'evexhaustively 1876), 107- 69. In this study, of European foundin the territory coins datingfromthe ninthto the eleventhcenturies evidence he proposes several Russia and the Balticlands. On the basis of thisnumismatic activities, materiallife,and even the national characterof the antheoriesabout trading
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domination by spreading knowledge about the civilizationsof the east and by creating a discipline that could stand proud alongside the highest achievements of itswesterncounterparts.As earlyas 1837, Grigor'evwrote: which learning, in Russiaofeastern and strengthening The dissemination broader than makes the horizonsof our knowledgeand understanding ofwestern Europe,wouldforceus not thatof thinkers and publicfigures so submisto bow down beforethe resultsof theirthoughtand activity it as we do in the presenttimeout of necessity; and subserviently sively to western as a counterweight prinwould giveus autonomy and, serving itsstrengthwouldfacilitate our nationaldevelopment, ciplesthatrepress theinfluence eningand rapidprogress.... The bestmeans to counteract of the east.'7 of thewestis to relyon the study Clearly, then, Grigor'ev's interest in the eastern "other" was part of a and national self-assertionin broader endeavor of national self-definition the face of western cultural domination. But to what extent did Russian orientalism as a project of nation building draw upon and facilitatean ideology and practice of imperial domination? A fundamental assumption running through all of Grigor'ev's activitieswas the idea that orientalism should serve. But the object of orientalism's service was not always clear. Grigor'ev's ideal of service to Russia represents an intermediarystance between the model of service to the autocrat embodied in the "OfficialNationality"of Nicholas I and the vision of service to the "narod" thatwould become the guiding impulse of the liberal and radical intelligentsia. On the one hand, Russia, for Grigor'ev, was an abstract autonomous entity, whose spiritual essence transcended the person of the emperor.'8 On the other hand, Grigor'ev saw no contradiction between the ideal of "service to Russia" and the realityof service within the state bureaucracy. In this sense his views reflect the values and ideals of the "enlightened bureaucrats" of 1840 who saw specialized knowledge as the key to enhancing Russia's prosperityand well-being within the basic frameworkof the autocratic state.'9 But while Grigor'ev's vision of Russian orientalism undoubtof Grigor'ev's worksrevealsnumerousexcientSlavs.A glance throughthe bibliography 085-0105. Similar Vasilii Vasilfevich Grigorfev, amples of similarendeavors.See Veselovskii, and colleague,P. S. Savel'ev. close friend ofGrigor'ev's examplescan be foundin theworks 1861), 178-201. P S. Savel'eva(St. Petersburg, Zhizn'i trudy See V V Grigor'ev, 33. There are clear parallels between the Grigorev, VasiliiVasilfevich 17. Veselovskii, as expressedin hisfaparticularly in 1837 and theideas ofSergeiUvarov, viewsofGrigor'ev "The ImH. Whittaker, mous 1809 proposalforan AsiaticAcademyin Russia.See Cynthia fur Jahrbiicher pact of the Oriental Renaissance in Russia: The Case of Sergei Uvarov," 26, no. 4 (1978). Osteuropas Geschichte whom wereclose to thoseofMikhailPogodinwith views 18. In thisrespect, Grigor'ev's forthe mostpart,good relations.On he was acquainted and withwhom he maintained, NaI and Official Nicholas see Nicholas Riasanovsky, of "Official Nationality," the varieties 1959), 124- 40. in Russia,1825-1855 (Berkeley, tionality ofReform see W. Bruce Lincoln,In theVanguard 19. On the enlightenedbureaucrats, both through bureaucrats, was associatedwiththe enlightened (DeKalb, 1982). Grigor'ev and throughhis particunder Lev Perovskii, of InternalAffairs his servicein the Ministry was closelyallied withthe While Grigor'ev ipation in the Russian GeographicalSociety. from thetime faction, correspondence in thestruggle withthe "German" Miliutin brothers in conwithNikolai Miliutinapparently of his move to Orenburgshowshostilerelations
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availableto the edlypresupposedthatthefieldwould make itsknowledge state administration, there is littleevidence to suggeston his part an openlyexpressedideologyofimperialexpansion.To be sure,itis possible mission"to findin hiswritings thefamiliar notionof Russia's"civilizing to the isolatedand undeveloped peoples bringing the gifts of civilization But even in the idea of a civilizing missionthereis nothing of the east.20 oftheempireunderNicholasI that requires physical conquest:theborders containedmore thanenough human materialto provideforRussia'sselfrealizationas the bearerof enlightenment. conButwhileGrigor'ev's orientalism maynot have requiredphysical of "conceptualconquest," quest,itis still possibleto conceiveofitas a type of easternculturesto be recona culturalappropriation of the histories Much as, according textualized into a narrative of Russiandomination.2' ofAncientEgypt to positthe the history to Said, theFrenchappropriated thevictory of rationality and leading toward starting pointfora teleology in the French Revolution,and the Britishand Germans enlightenment a creationmyth for thehistory ofAncientIndia to construct appropriated thehistory ofits would appropriate theAryan race,so Russianorientalism Russia's underpinning easternsubjectsand neighborsto build a narrative culturaldominationand colonial expansion.22 On closer consideration, doubts arise regardingthisinterhowever, To be sure, Russian historians of the pretationof Russian orientalism. of in whichthe growth nineteenthcentury oftendid produce narratives the Russian empire is presentedas an "organic"process by whichnonabsorbedas theempireinexorably spread Russianpeoples werepainlessly On the across the greatEurasian expanses bequeathed to it by destiny.23 disputethateventssuch as the riseand fall otherhand, one could hardly of the Khazar and Volga Bolgar empires,the ascendancyof the Golden thepeoples oftheCentral Asian interaction and tradewith Horde, cultural did have a significant impacton the course ofRussianhissteppeactually
excessive"westernizing" tendencies.See, forexample,Veselovskii, nectionwiththelatter's 116, 119. Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigorev, in Ob otnoshenii Rossii k Vostoku 20. Grigor'evaddresses this issue most explicitly the themeof a civilizing missiondoes not occupya (Odessa, 1840). In general,however, works. prominent place in his earlyscholarly connotais borrowed, albeitwitha ratherdifferent 21. The termconceptual conquest tion,fromtheworkofFrancineHirsch.See her "The SovietUnion as a Work-in-Progress: Nationality in the 1926, 1937,and 1939 Censuses,"Slavic Ethnographers and the Category Review 56, no. 2 (Summer1997): 256. Notes on Sanskrit 76-88; Sheldon Pollock,"Deep Orientalism: 22. Said, Orientalism, and the and van der Veer,eds., Orientalism and PowerBeyond the Raj," in Breckenridge see Katya For a discussionalong theselinesin theRussiancontext, Postcolonial Predicament. Imperialism, Narodnost' and Pushkin'sInventionof the Caucasus," Hokanson, "Literary RussianReview 53, no. 3 (1994): 336-52. RussianPopular His23. Seymour Becker,"The MuslimEast in NineteenthCentury Central AsianSurvey 5, no. 3/4 (1986): 25-47; WillardSunderland,"Making toriography," the Empire:Colonistsand Colonizationin Russia,1800-1850s" (Ph.D. diss.,Indiana UniThe NationHypothesis': Solov'ev and the 'Frontier versity, 1997); MarkBassin,"Turner, alistSignification History 65, no. 3 (September1993): ofModern of Open Spaces,"Journal Kursrusskoi istorii (Moscow,1908), 473 -511. For a typical example,see V 0. Kliuchevskii, 1:23-26.
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Is it reallysurprising, tory. therefore, thatRussianscholarswould attempt to investigate these topicsusing the tools providedby orientalism-numismatics, archaeology, ethnology, textualcriticism, and so on? Mustthe knowledge produced bysuch endeavorsbe inherently linkedto an ideology of expansion and exploitationof the imperial"other"?24 Moreover, of "manifest narratives destiny" and "organicexpansion"had little need to create mythical genealogies rooted in the areas to be absorbed. If anythingthe mostpowerful and necessarymyth in the discourseof organic expansionwas the myth of emptiness, a myth directly underminedbythe empiricalresearchof Russianorientalists. The visionof Russian orientalism as a fieldof science articulated by Grigor'ev priorto his departureto Orenburgcentered,as we have seen, on enhancingthe pride and prestigeof the Russiannationvis-'a-vis western Europe. Grigor'ev's in thisperiod reflects own scholarship the ethos ofintellectual strict and methodological autonomy, empiricism, rigorthat he believedwould earn Russianorientalism universal respectand recognition.25 Byrealizing theseideals,he believed,orientalism would perform itsgreatest serviceto thenation.His work, whichfocuseson historical topics and on interpretations ofesotericsources,showslittle concernforrepthe contemporary "other"and creating the cognitive resenting apparatus for domination.By enteringthe imperialadministration, Grigor'ev was of the breakingnew ground,not onlyin his own career,but also in terms of Russianorientalism in serviceof empire. possibilities Orenburg:Powerand Politicson the ImperialFrontier For an accomplishedscholarlike Grigor'ev, acceptinga postin Orenburg In manyways, was no small sacrifice. Orenburgin the 1850swas, despite a typical Perched backwater. its unique strategic significance, provincial line betweenEuthe dividing on the highbank ofthe Ural Rivermarking fortress and gates rope and Asia and dominatedbyimposing walls,towers,
linked to a particular ideology 24. The veryidea of seeing knowledgeas inherently As David Ludden pointsout in the case of India, knowledge and practiceis problematic. of nacould providea richlode ofmaterialforthe construction generatedbyorientalism oftenmobilizedin directoppositionto European dominance. See David tional histories in BreckenTransformations of Colonial Knowledge," Empiricism: Ludden, "Orientalist 252. Postcolonial Predicament, and the ridgeand van der Veer,eds., Orientalism worksin the period beforehis move to Orenburginmajor scholarly 25. Grigor'ev's (St. Petersburg, X veka,naidennykh v Riazanskoi gubernii monet kuficheskikh clude: Opisanie (Moscow, ordy russkomu dukhovenstvu Zolotoi dannykh khanami iarlikov, 1841); 0 dostovernosti kakistochnik dlia v Rossiii pribaltiiskikh stranakh, nakhodimykh monetakh 1842); 0 kuficheskykh Zolotoi Saraia, stolitsi otechestvennoi istorii (Odessa, 1842); "O mestopolozhenii drevneishei v Rossii religioznye sekty Zhurnal Ministerstva del,1845,nos. 2, 3, 4; Evreiskie vnutrennykh Ordy," preimushchestvenno 1847); "Tsari Vospora Kimmeriiskogo, (St. Petersburg, po sovrei monetam," ZhurnalMinisterstva del, vol. 36,pp. 110vnutrennykh impamiatnikam mennym slova vostochnogoproiskhozhdeniia: velikorusskie 46, 267-96, 413-83; and "Oblastnye Akademii Izvestiia Imperatorskogo Slovaria," zamechaniiak'Opytu'oblastnogoVelikorusskogo i slovesnosti, werelater vol. 1 (1852). Mostof thesearticles iazyka russkogo naukpo otdeleniiu issledovanii i statei po istorii, republishedin a singlevolume entitledRossiiai Aziia: Sbornik V V Grigortevym v raznoe vremia 1876). i geografii, (St. Petersburg, napisannykh etnografli
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thatwere locked shut each night,Orenburg exuded an air of barracks As one observerdescribedit: and provincial philistinism. regimentation lifeand needs go"Orenburgcannot boast of a high level of intellectual of life. comforts material purely and the external, ing beyond gluttony read. There are little Journals and newspapers There is no public library. intellecPeople with them. no one likes to read and books, are stillfewer For a scholarwhose studiesrequired tualneeds are hated and scorned."26 literature, manuscripts, of contemporary wide variety access to a constant essena like Orenburg meant, to place moving and reference materials, it traditionally defined. of an career as was academic tially, the end Orenburg On the other hand, Orenburg presented opportunities. the finaloutcenterof a vastand diverseterritory, was the administrative and frontier. a turbulent ill-defined post ofRussianimperialpoweralong out extensive Tatar carried colony, which The city itself washome to a large of OrenWithinthe territory tradewithCentralAsia and even China.27 and a grownomadic Bashkirs, Ural Cossack host, burgprovincelivedthe in thevaststeppe BeyondtheUral River ingpopulationofRussiansettlers. betweenthe Caspian Sea and the mountainsof the Altai,the Kazakhs, carriedon theirnomadic miknownto Russiansat the timeas the Kirgiz, oftheSyr' in valleys And the Kazakhs thefertile finally, beyond grations.28 Daru and Amu Daru rivers, weretheindependentCentralAsian khanates of Khiva,Kokand, and Bukhara. When Grigor'evarrivedin Orenburg, Russianpowerin the CentralAsian steppeswas stillquite weak and thinly oftheemsubjects spread.WhilethethreeKazakhhordeswerenominally and dispire,allegiancescontinuedto be fluidand uncertain.Uprisings turbanceswere common occurrences,and memorieswere stillfreshof seized were sometimes Kazakh raidsin whichRussiansettlers devastating For theimperialadministration, to be sold as slavesin Khivaor Bukhara.29 and maintain orderon thesteppes, thetasks therefore, wereclear:establish theallegiancesoftheKazakhsto theempire,expand and reinforce clarify trade relationsbetween Russia and Central Asia, and reduce the perceived threat posed bythe independentkhanates. but interrelated For Grigor'ev, servicein Orenburgposed twodistinct available to enhance his knowlto use the opportunities challenges:first, directand extendedencounedge ofthepeoples ofCentralAsia through ters;second, to applyhis specialized knowledgeto shape administrative
ocherk (Orenburg,1891), 41. Geografichesko-statisticheskii 26. K. Belavin,Orenburg: 27. On the OrenburgTatars,see G. G. Kosach, 'A RussianCitybetweenTwo Contied., Russia at a and State Power,"in NuritSchleifman, nents:Orenburg'sTatar Minority Practice (London, 1998). Memory and Political Crossroads: History, as they theterms 28. The confusion Kirgizand Kazakh (or Kirgiz-Kaisak surrounding century)seems to have stemmedfromthe need to in the nineteenth were oftenreferred had no clear meaning.Kirgiz in a contextin whichthe concept itself to ascribeethnicity a generic termforpastoralnomad. See Daniel Brower,"Islam and Ethwas, apparently, in Brower and Lazzerini,eds.,Russias Orient, RussianColonial Policyin Turkestan," nicity: 128-29. CentralAsia: An HistoricalSketch," "The RussianPolicyregarding 29. V. Grigor'ev, Bukharaand in Russian Turkistan, Khokand, in E. Schuyler,Turkistan: Notesof a Journey Asia. Central Kuldja (New York,1877), 2:410-14. See also Allworth,
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policy for the benefit of all concerned. His dual roles-acquiring knowlassignment in his first edge and wielding power-were highlighted vividly in which he was sent to a remote forepost in the steppe to studythe Kazakh wayof lifeand investigatealleged abuses bythe leaders of the Inner Horde. In a letter to his friend,Pavel Savel'ev, Grigor'ev wrote: ... I willagain ride to the Horde forthe Once I finish the investigation it in all itsdetailsin order to latergive myopinion purpose of studying once and forall in accordancewiththeviewsof on howto arrangethings and forthe benefit of the nomads themselves.... Both the government theHorde willacquaintme, and theassignment to study theinvestigation and the steppewayof lifein genI hope, withtheKirgiz, theirmanners, writwhichwillservewell ... forvarioushistorical eral,quite thoroughly, ingsabout CentralAsia.30 Afterseveral weeks, however, Grigor'ev had become absorbed with the accouterments and rituals of power in the steppe. He wrote to Savel'ev: You know, GenghisKhan has nothingon me. I have acquired a magnifirecent Kirgizhat. I have let down the ear flapsand grownsomething gaze at myfeeton sembling a beard. I sitin a robe and, in such splendor, descendantsof thisfearsomeconqueror,the variousSulthe trembling tansofthefamousBukeevHorde. 0, a statecouncilorin thesteppemeans a greatdeal! Let anyonewho wantsto see all the mightof thisranklook upon me.31 Was Grigor'ev the administrator overshadowing Grigor'ev the ethnographer? Actually,it was precisely the theme of power that brought the two together. Grigor'ev's ethnographic interests centered on what might be termed the culture of power-both the concrete structuresthroughwhich power was wielded on the steppe and, especially,the subjective perceptions of the nature of power specific to the "Asiatic"in general and the Kazakhs in particular. By basing its actions on an understanding of power in the steppe, Grigor'ev felt,Russian administration could defend its interests, bring peace and prosperityto the steppe, and win the loyaltyof the nomads. Orientalism could make a valuable contribution to the empire by providing such an understanding. But for orientalism to serve as the foundation for a new enlightened milieu of poweradministration,it had to functionwithina verydifferent of that of the military bureaucratic apparatus empire whose authority Grigor'ev personified. Given the relentlesslyhierarchical nature of Russian imperial power, it was natural that the highest officialin the regionin thiscase the Orenburg governor-general-would cast an indelible mark on the atmosphere of the administration and the fortunes of his subordinates. For Grigor'ev, the character and inclinations of the governor were
117. Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigorev, 30. Veselovskii, vein: "I willtellyou wroteto NikolaiNadezhdin in a similar 31. Ibid., 118. Grigor'ev on all sides forfourhundredversts theplace whereI am nowstanding as an example,from you willnot finda singlestatecouncillor;and to the east you could go all the wayto the saythatin the empireof China and you stillwillnot finda statecouncillor,althoughthey i iskusstva gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury empire of China theyhave a few."Rossiiskii N. I. Nadezhdinu). (RGALI), f. 1387, op. 2, ed. kh. 1, 1. lob. (Pis'mo V V. Grigor'eva
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guided bytheinsights hisvisionofan administration important: especially withthe supportand undercould onlycome to fruition of orientalism But to whatextentwould the politicaland culstandingof his superiors. tural atmosphereemanatingfrom the governor'sofficeaccommodate This was the critical Grigor'ev'svision of scientificadministration? dilemma. withhigh Grigor'evbegan his serviceunder Count V. A. Perovskii the viceroyof the Caucasus, like his contemporary, hopes. Perovskii, a administrator, as an enlightened viewedhimself PrinceM. S. Vorontsov, aristocrat who appreciatedexcellenceand understoodthebenefit refined L. A. Perovskii, Like hisbrother, could bring.32 thatspecializedknowledge endeavoredto surroundhimself Perovskii affairs, of internal the minister to his adminisand scholarswhose talentscould contribute withwriters was just such a talGrigor'ev trationwhile enrichinghis culturallife.33 ented individual.34 administration. became indispensablein Perovskii's quickly Grigor'ev his ability to compose direct skillas a writer, Above all it was Grigor'ev's of understanding and effective memoranda based on a comprehensive leaderfavor.Under Perovskii's the matterat hand, thatwon Perovskii's to St.Petersreports composed mostifnotall oftheofficial ship,Grigor'ev But what of burg, manyof whichwere read by the emperor himself.35 reallyneed a specialistin credentials? Did Perovskii scholarly Grigor'ev's to be sure, his memoranda?Perovskii, to write CentralAsian numismatics interests and providedhim opportunischolarly encouraged Grigor'ev's his knowledge.In addition to the papertiesto expand and disseminate towrite detailed"hiscommissioned Perovskii Grigor'ev workand reports, memoranda on the Kazakhs and the Ural Cossacks.36 torico-statistical" There is no indication,however,that these reportshad any impact on practicalpolicy. status-he had been overGrigor'ev's uncertainties ; In 1854,lingering an official without appointment-were resolved.Duringa brieftripback he was appointed chairmanof the OrenburgBorderlands to Petersburg responsiofForeignAffairs an official organ of the Ministry Commission, withthe Kazakhsand otherpeoples of the steppe.His ble forall relations
tothe Vorontsov: Michael Prince Viceroy see L. HamiltonRhinelander, 32.' On Vorontsov, Tsars(Montreal,1990) 34-36; P. I. Mel'nikov, "Vospominaniiao ofReform, 33. Lincoln, In theVanguard vol. 103, bk. 3 (1873): 310-11. vestnik, VladimireIvanovicheDale," Russkii A hero of 1812 and close was not a newcomerto steppe administration. 34. Perovskii as Orenburggovernorin the late had served successfully friendof Nicholas I, Perovskii expeditionagainstKhivain 1840 put an end to his administration. 1830s,untila disastrous was readyto return Perovskii in the Senate,however, After severalyearsof semiretirement to activeserviceand some energeticlobbyingsucceeded in persuadingNicholas to apwas in fact The post of Orenburggovernor-general point him again as governor-general. bito allow him to servedespite his high rank.See Russkii created speciallyforPerovskii 1896-1918), 13:530-40. 25 vols. (St. Petersburg, slovar', ograficheskii 127. Grigorev, Vasilii Vasilbevich 35. See Veselovskii, 36. Ibid., 117, 125. In all likelihood the unpublished manuscript"Opisanie Orenikhot kokandskogo iga,"loizbavivshim k russkim, stepeii otnosheniiaKirgizov burgskikh cated at RGALI,f. 159, op. 1, ed. kh. 63, is one such memorandum.
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new position gave him an independent base of power from which he could begin to craft a policy toward the peoples under his jurisdiction. The power imparted by his new position was formidable. Soon after his appointment he wrote to Savel'ev: beforeme. I go about placingsultansunder The Kirgizsteppe trembles but,alas, to I removethemfromtheirpositions.I catchbrigands, arrest. A few daysago the I do nothave thepowerto hang them. mygreatdismay, orderwas givento assemble7,000 camelsin 7 days:I gave the command What hapthattheybe assembled,withoutexpectingit to be fulfilled. It is amuspened? The camels appeared on timeand I am triumphant. 37 are afraid! are afraidof me. But yet,they ing to thinkthatthey For all his seeming omnipotence in relation to the Kazakh nomads, however, Grigor'ev's position within the administration as a whole recircumscribed. While wielding broad discretionarypowers mained strictly on everydaymatters,he could only institutefundamental policy changes with the approval of the Asiatic Department of the Ministryof Foreign and the Orenburg governor-general. Given the state of communiAffairs cations at the time, attaining such approval was an excruciating process susceptible to political intrigue, bureaucratic inertia, and a host of other with his secretarDespite these limitations and continuing frustration ial duties, Grigor'ev's early years of service in Orenburg under Perovskii were, on the whole, successful. Although his scholarly production had almost entirelycome to a halt, he had carved out a niche for himselfwithin the administration and expanded his knowledge of the Kirgiz steppe and its inhabitants. But to what extent was the ambition that he brought to did his background and expertise as Orenburg fulfilled?How, specifically, an orientalist contribute to his early success and to the direction of imperial policy under Perovskii's stewardship? In certain instances, Grigor'ev ideas and opinions were undoubtedly influential,although there is no evidence that he was part of the decision-making process withregard to mato what extent did his analyBut two questions arise: first, jor initiatives.39 sis of Central Asian policy draw on his specific knowledge as an orientalist? His policy memoranda, one might argue, differlittlefrom the work of an
132. Grigorev, Vasilii Vasilbevich 37. Veselovskii, in thisregardwere compounded byhis poor personal redifficulties 38. Grigor'ev's which the head of theAsiaticDepartmentin St. Petersburg, lationswithE. P. Kovalevskii, work.See once wroteof Kovalevskii's review Grigor'ev stemmedfroma critical apparently 215. Grigorev, Vasil'evich Vasilii Veselovskii, viewson the statusof Russian tradersin CentralAsia, 39. For example, Grigor'ev's rewhichhe expressedin a memorandumunder his own name and in one of the official See N. A. Khalfin, impactin St. Petersburg. had a significant portshe wroteforPerovskii, also expressedhis views Azii (Moscow,1974), 362- 66. Grigor'ev Srednei Rossiiai khanstva Rossii s Srednei Asiei' in a long printedreview:"Razbor sochineniia 'Ocherki torgovli 1856). demidovskikh nagrad(St. Petersburg, na XXV-mprisuzhdenii P. Nebol'sina,"in Otchety in the expeditionagainsttheKokand participated On theotherhand, althoughGrigor'ev tenure,thereis no eviof Al-Mechetin 1853, one of the keyeventsof Perovskii's fortress or planningthe event.The factthathe was not sure dence he played a role in initiating thathe on the contrary, he would even go along suggests, untilthe lastmomentwhether 126-27. Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigorev, was "outof the loop." See Veselovskii, difficulties.38
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bureaucrat. Second, to what extent did and well-informed intelligent a decorativefunction scholarly backgroundserve,essentially, Grigor'ev's Perovskiiprided Ever the aristocrat, administration? withinPerovskii's actors, artists, whichincludedwriters, entourage, on his extensive himself With his unique skillsand experiand hapless relatives.40 bureaucrats, panache to the enence, Grigor'evadded a certaindegree of scholarly appreciatedregardlessof the specificpositions tourage,whichPerovskii his aide espoused. positionin Orenburghad begun to deteByaround 1856,Grigor'ev's health,resignedhis post, who had long been in failing riorate.Perovskii, Russianpolicy to hisfateunder a newleader. Moreover, leavingGrigor'ev thatGrigor'ev CentralAsia duringthisperiod tooka newdirection toward foundnot to his liking.In the late 1850s,in responseto heightenedtensionsbetweenRussiaand theindependentkhanatesofCentralAsia,4'the its positionand to strengthen intensified diplomaticefforts government poland administrative military rulers. Atthesame time, assuagethenative in CentralAsia could only had become convincedthatstability icymakers postsstretching a heavily fortified line of frontier be achievedbycreating Vernoe (nowAlma-Ata),a measurethat fromthe Aral Sea to the fortress to expand the Russian presence, leading inevitably would dramatically annexationof theindependent and perhapseven to the outright conflict
khanates.42
approaches unprofoundboth the diplomaticand military Grigor'ev the Russian contacts-particularly ductive and ill-advised.Diplomatic 1858 -were, in in N. P. Ignat'ev Bukhara led by delegationto Khivaand conmake significant any Khans never would since the his opinion,futile, a Russia in poextent that they placed harmful to the cessions,and even than with negotiate should dictate rather he felt, sitionofweakness. Russia, froma stance of incontestable Khivaand Bukhara.Only byactingfirmly achieve its goals.43 could Russia strength conquest. At the same time,Grigor'ev was not an advocate of military a of Asia, he felt, based on Central knowledge decisive A strict and policy secuinterests and ensure Russia's economic be to would enough protect While he acintervention. directmilitary along the borderswithout rity processes drawingRussia into the knowledgedthe inexorable historical region,he feltthatdirectannexationofpartsofKhivaand Bukharawould and burdensomeentanglement.44 resultin an unproductive merely
enof Perovskii's were rathertakenaback bythe extravagance 40. Local inhabitants tourage,which included a French chef,who, on a dailybasis, produced a multi-course closestassociates.See P. P. Zhakmon, "Iz vospominanii of Perovskii's banquet for thirty vestnik, vol. 100, no. 4 (1905): 74-88. Istoricheskii starozhila," Orenburgskogo 41. On the reasons for heightened tensions in this period, see Khalfin,Rossii i Azii,366-72. Srednei khanstva in Central Asia: Bukharaand Khiva,186542. SeymourBecker,Russia'sProtectorates 1924 (Cambridge,Mass., 1968), 14-16. 43. Grigor'evexpressed his feelingon the exchange of diplomaticmissionsquite Vasilii that can be found in Veselovskii, clearlyin a letterto V V Veliaminov-Zernov 169-70. Vasil'evich Grigortev, 44. Ibid., 184-85.
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Disagreements over policy were exacerbated by the strainsof adjusting to a new administration. Perovskii's replacement, General A. A. Katenin, was to all appearances a pleasant and well-intentioned superior. Before actually taking office he spent two months in Orenburg learning about the steppe and his new responsibilities. On Perovskii's advice, he urged Grigor'ev to continue to serve and frequentlyturned to him for information and assistance.45But once Katenin actually took office,Grigor'ev's favorable impression quickly dissipated. Despite his initial good intentions, Katenin, it turned out, had littleserious interestin learning about the land and peoples under his jurisdiction. Unlike Perovskii,he did not cultivate an image as a patron of scholarship, and Grigor'ev's plans to produce additional historical and ethnographic studies of the region rapidly fell by the wayside.46Meanwhile, secretarial duties-the bane of Grigor'ev's existence under Perovskii- only increased under his successor.47These frustrations, when added to the differences over policy, often plunged Grigor'ev into deep despair. At one such moment he wrote to I. I. Sreznevskii the prominent philologist: ... at every step I am obliged to fulfill thatwhichI considerantithetical to the interests of Russia and the people thatI administer. As an orienunderstandAsia and Asiatics.But those who talist, I, to mymisfortune, guide myactionsdo not knowa thingabout one or the other,and, measuringbythe European yard,theysaddle theircowsand harnesshorses to theyoke.And thereis no wayto setanyonestraight about this.You begin to explain and theyget angryand say thatyou do not understand anything.... For a person who is not stupidit is shamefulto be a Rus-
sianbureaucrat.48 in Grigor'ev's cryfromthe heartcutsto the core of the dilemmainherent or inat all automatic did notequal power- therewasnothing knowledge
evitable about the relationship between the two. Without a receptive and product of the militarybureaucratic culture of Nicholaevan Russia, could the relationship between scholarship and state policy. In Grigor'ev's case,
of power,Grigor'ev's knowledgewas little accommodatingenvironment more thanan irritant to thosewhomitwas to have benefited. Katenin,the not conceiveofa place forGrigor'ev and hisknowledge beyondthemindTrained as an officer, he numbingroutineof the provincial chancellery. formulatedpolicy on the basis of military contingencies-during his to strengthen and annex territory tenureefforts fortifications proceeded of the peoples rapidly. Knowledgeof the languages,culture,and history of littleconsequence, and he touchedbyhis policywas,forhim,a matter resentedthosewho told him otherwise.
45. Ibid., 149-51. 46. Ibid., 166-67. Grigor'ev wroteto Savel'ev: "AllthistimeI have been 47. Soon after Kateninarrived, since we writea greatdeal or, I should say,servicescribbling, tied up withserviceaffairs, departuretherewould withPerovskii's but verylittlesense comes out of it. I had thought be a littleless secretarial work.But thatis not whathas happened. I fellout of the frying Vasilii Vasil'evich pan into the fire.I am forcedto writeall sortsof rubbish."Veselovskii, Grigor'ev, 167. V V Sreznevskomu); 48. RGALI, f.436, op. 1, ed. kh. 1189, 1. 17 (Pis'ma Grigor'eva see also Veselovskii, Vasilii Vasilbevich Grigorev, 174-75.
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was not of long duration.In the Katenin's tenureas governor-general returning from an expeditionand after summer of 1860 he died suddenly fortunes Under Bezak, Grigor'ev's was replaced byGeneralA. P. Bezak.49 bad to worse.UnlikeKatenin,Bezak did not even make an atwentfrom set about imwiththe regionand immediately temptto acquaint himself plementing a broad range of personneland policychanges.As a result, and hissuperiors expanded therangeofdisagreements betweenGrigortev withthe CentralAsian khanates to encompassnot onlyexternalrelations and Ural of the Kazakhs,Bashkirs, but also the internaladministration to persuade the new governorto Cossacks.50 Rebuffedin his attempts wentpublicwitha seriesof articlescriticizchange his policies,Grigor'ev in ing the official positions.51The resultwas a viciousand open conflict ininnuendo, and an official whichGrigor'ev was subjected to intrigue, as head of the BorderlandsCommission.While quiryinto his activities in defendinghis record,his experienceslefthim thoroughly successful service.In Decemdisillusionedand repulsedbythe prospectof further ber 1862, his resignationfrom the Borderlands Commissionwas acto St. Petersburg. immediately cepted,and he returned ambitionshad ended in failure;his ideal of an imperial Grigor'ev's administration guided by specialized knowledgeof the east had been His experienceillustrates the difficulties in conceivingof orishattered. literary proentalism as a cohesivediscoursein whichscholarly expertise, Here is a case intertwined. duction,and imperialpracticeare inextricably in which the connectionsbetween knowledge,power,and imagination came to Orenburgas an oracle of scientific cannotbe assumed.Grigor'ev valued as theconsumtruth about theAsiatic"other," onlyto findhimself executinga visionoverwhichhe had no matepenpusher,mechanistically street. control.For him,the nexus ofpowerand knowledge was a one-way and the "Kirgiz" Lord of the Steppe: Grigor'ev Grigor'ev's positionas chairDespite his lack of successin shapingpolicy, man of the BorderlandsCommissiondid provide a certainamount of
borderlands, where he first 49. Bezak had servedmostof his career in the western forhis servicein suppressing the Polish rebellionof 1831. His distinearned recognition ofAlexanderII who apguishedservicein the Crimeanwarbroughthim to the attention biograficheskii pointed him to the positionin OrenburgafterKatenin'sdeath. See Russkii and autocratictyrant. was thatof a petty slovar'2:630-32. Bezak's reputationin society see David MacKenGrigor'ev, Fora brief thattoucheson Bezak'srelations with description (Athens, Ga., 1974), 28-29. ofGeneral M. G. Cherniaev zie, TheLion ofTashkent: TheCareer starozhila," Istoricheskii vestnik, See also P. P. Zhakmon,"Iz vospominaniiOrenburgskogo vol. 106, no. 7 (1906): 76. and Bezak ranged fromplans to 50. The specificdisagreements betweenGrigor'ev among the reorganize the Orenburg Cossack Host to measures to combat horse theft forKazakhs nomads,and thedenial ofpermission Bashkirs, plans to forcibly settleBashkir foragricultural use. For a detailed discussion,see Veselovskii, to receiveland allotments Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigorev, 201-3, 210-12. Vestnik 51. See, for example, "Neskol'ko slov o zheleznoi doroge cherez Ust'-urt," i otnositel'nozemledeliiav Bashkirii promyshlennosti, 1860, no. 1 (signedV G.); "Zametki Ia. promyshlennosti, 1861,no. 1:29-41 (signedSterlitamak, pozharovvOrenburge,"Vestnik 1862, no. 12. delakh,"Aktsioner, Sakharov);"O nashikhsredneaziatskikh
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space for independent action. How, then, were his actions and decisions shaped by his background as an orientalist?What sorts of models and assumptions did he bring to his administration, and how did he integrate these ideas into specific policies? On the most basic level, Grigor'ev's relations with the peoples of the steppe were informed by the assumption that Russian and Central Asian cultures were distinct and that Russian culture was superior. The Russian presence in Central Asia, he assumed, was natural, proper, and inevitable -in a later work he referredto it as "one of the main callings of the Russian people."52 But Grigor'ev did not view the differencesbetween Russia and Asia as insurmountable or physicallyinnate. On the contrary, he decisivelyrejected racial conceptions that posited fixed a priori limitations on the capacity of a people or an individual to develop.53 If the "Kirgiz"were at a lower stage of development, thiswas the product of historical and geographical conditions that necessitated the nomadic way of life and prevented the spread of civilization. The tasks of Russian administration in the steppe, as Grigor'ev saw them, were twofold-first, to uphold and advance Russian interests,and and second, to protect subject peoples, increase their material prosperity, create conditions that would make possible their cultural advancement. Thus, Grigor'ev saw the relationship between Russian administration and the "Kirgiz" as one of tutelage, patronage, and protection.54Spontaneity and organic growthwere the fundamental principles upon which Russian tutelage should rest. Direct attemptsto impose Russian civilization,he insisted,were futileand only served to alienate the population. Only through steady peaceful interaction would the "Kirgiz"understand what theywere lacking and turn toward Russian civilization. One step Grigor'ev took in this direction was to organize a Kazakh delegation to the coronation of Alexander II. He wrote: in the Horde forinstilling This measurewillbe ten timesmore effective expeditionsinto the a likingand respectfor Russia than ten military and have seen the magsteppe.... Kirgizwho have been to Petersburg themulofour armies, and brilliance ofour court, thenumbers nificence to the Horde not at returned and so on, and so forth titudeof our cities, itself very all the same people thatleftit, and this change manifested in theirserviceactivities.55 beneficially
v poslednee mnenii,vyskazannykh 52. V Grigor'ev,"V oproverzhenienekotorykh v Rossii,i ob izucheniiu nas Vostokavoobiazykov vremia,o prepodavaniivostochnykh shche,"Den', 1865,no. 18:433. Den', racial conceptions,see "Iz zauralskoistepi," attitudetoward 53. On Grigor'ev's 1862,no. 28:5-7. is his withthe "Kirgiz" indicationofhis conceptionofrelations 54. A smallbut telling to Savel'ev whenreferring to them.For example,in a letter use of thediminutive frequent from1857 he wrotewithregardto the arrivalof Katenin:"WouldthatI do not get along in good hands."Veselovskii, stayed Kirgiz[Kirgiziki] with him,ifonlytheregionand mylittle 153. Grigorev, Vasilii Vasil'evich 55. Ibid., 146. For an actual account of one such tripto the imperialcapital under"SubjectsforEmpire:OrthotakenbythreeCheremis(Marii) in 1829,see Paul W. Werth, (Ph.D. diss., Region,1825-18819" dox Missionand ImperialGovernancein theVolga-Kama of Michigan,1996), 196-207. University
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suggested, even the like,Grigor'ev Ifthey onlyknewwhatRussiawasreally mostrebelliousKazakh leaderswould soon become loyaland productive citizens. the primary were futile, measuresto impose progress Since artificial as Grigor'evsaw it,was to counterrole of the BorderlandsCommission, the natural act and, ifpossible,eliminateobstaclesthatwere preventing Among the Kazakhs, into the borderlands. spread of Russiancivilization and thesystem ofnativegovernanceand Islamwerethemain hindrances, considerably by wrongheadedpolicies on the both were strengthened partof the Russianadministration. of the Kazakhs,fromhis first days in Orenimpressions Grigor'ev's "kind, people were,he felt, weresharply divided.Whiletheordinary burg, to everything and receptive good," theKazakh elites,who conintelligent bythe imperialadministration, tinuedto governwithalmostno oversight Kazakh "sultanwere unscrupulousand exploitativeto the extreme.56 the stereotypical image of the 'Asiatic." rulers"embodied, forGrigor'ev, wrote,"because of theirlow stateof cultural[dukhov'Asiatics," Grigor'ev deceit.The Asiaticconare in generalinclinedtoward noe] development to cheat a neighbora greatvirtue; cunningseems to him siderstheability Added to the duplicity of the a necessarycompanion to intelligence."57 toward theirsubjects. weretheirrapaciousnessand brutality Asiaticrulers In his official uncovereda range of abuses, fromexcapacity, Grigor'ev By attacking to taxation and embezzlement.58 illegal tortionand bribery hoped abuses and weakeningthe powersof indigenousrulers,Grigor'ev towinoverthepoor and exploitedKazakhmassesto Russianpower.Strict, into account the traditional and just exerciseof power,taking consistent, lewould instill a rudimentary law,he felt, practicesof Kazakh customary Kazakhs to the Russian adminand teach view consciousness ordinary gal Atthesame time, to thenativeauthorities.59 istration as a fairer alternative faKazakh officials a cadre of native worked to cultivate young Grigor'ev miliarwithRussianways who would shed the mantleof 'Asiatic"rule and concepadministrative practicesin accordance with"civilized implement tionsof power."60 picIn his depictionof the 'Asiatic"ruler,Grigor'ev paintsa familiar to instrutureof "oriental It would be various posit veryeasy despotism." forhis applicationof "orientaldespotism"to Central mentalmotivations that'Asiatics" werefundamentally unable to rule themAsia. Byasserting one selvesin a just and civilizedmanner, mightargue, Russianoriental56. Veselovskii, Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigorev, 120. 57. [Grigor'ev],"Iz zaural'skoi stepi ... [pt. 2]," Den', 1862, no. 32:13. A note on I have chosen to render dukhovnoe the as "cultural"ratherthan "spiritual," translation: more commonlyaccepted equivalent.Clearlydukhovnoeis one of those termsthatcan in thiscontext,however, it seems neverbe gracefully renderedinto English.Particularly to me thatdukhovnoeevokes a broader image of "thelifeof the mind" than "spiritual," whileundoubtwould tendto convey. "Cultural," withitsprimarily religious connotations, thisshade of meaning. edlyanachronistic, comes closer to expressing Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigorev, 124-25. 58. See, forexample,Veselovskii, 59. Ibid., 213. 60. Ibid., 221-24.
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forimjustification providedan obvious byGrigor'ev, ism,as represented someone has to do it perial expansion-if theycannot rule themselves, indigenouselitescould serve to disempower efforts forthem.Grigor'ev's On closer examination, motivation. as directevidence of his underlying Firstof all, thereis the problemsarisewiththisinterpretation. however, no evidenceto indicate,and itwould There is certainly questionofintent. or even unconsciously to assume,thatGrigor'ev far-fetched seem rather image of the 'Asiatic"withthe propagated his stereotypical consciously Grigor'evactually imperialrule.6' More likely, specificgoal ofjustifying of them in his freand found confirmation believed these stereotypes also quent encounterswithCentralAsian elites.The question of utility arises-can we assume that depriving"orientaldespots"of theirpower viewedas an expedientpolicythatadvanced Russia'simperial was broadly all,had been ofRussianexpansion,after The traditional pattern interests? Grigor'ev's plan to of powermore or less intact.62 to leave local structures ifimplemented (popechiteli), Russian"guardians" with replacenativerulers the Kazakh steppe,would have required vast new expendithroughout turesand leftunresolvedthe question of where qualifiedadministrators as we have seen, argued himself, Moreover,Grigor'ev could be found.63 againstRussian expansion into CentralAsia as an unnecessaryburden, and at one point,it would appear, even invokedthe specterof "oriental Iftherewas an ulterior motivebehind his to bolsterhis case.64 despotism" it was clearlya ratherconfusedone. image of the "Asiatic," stereotypical Islam, was also guided bystereotypes. Withregardto Islam,Grigor'ev and vievokedimagesoffanaticism and hiscontemporaries, forGrigor'ev in lightof Russianexperiencesin the Caucasus, Islam olence. Particularly resistance to Russianpower.As of irreconcilable was seen as a wellspring Veselovskii puts it, "not a single disorder,not a single uprisingon the and encouragementof the local the participation steppe got bywithout
of intentis a problemin generalwithSaid's model of orientalism. 61. The imputing agencyin thepremiseofindividual on preserving pointsout,Said insists AsJamesClifford in thiscase, bethatlargely Agency, precludesitsmanifestation. a conceptualframework See Clifford, "On Oriena pretextto positindividualmoralaccountability. comes merely 269-71. talism," in Edof RussianImperialPolicytowardtheNationalities," "Patterns 62. Marc Raeff, Problems (New York,1971), 22-42; Dov Yaroshevski, Nationalities ed., Soviet wardAllworth, 58-79. in Browerand Lazzerini,eds., Russia'sOrient, "Empireand Citizenship," withhis plan. In keepingwithhis prin63. Grigor'ev waswellawareof thedifficulties replacingtheKazakhrulersonlyin theimciple ofgradual,organicchange,he envisioned withRussian ways. mediate borderlandarea where the population was alreadyfamiliar would be applied to the remainingareas. See he assumed, the new system Eventually, 213 -15. Vasilii Vasil'evich Grigorev, Veselovskii, de64. In 1858, Grigor'evsent to the Russian Geographical Societya manuscript possibleterms. in thedarkest and itsrulers ofa tripto Khivathatdepictedthecity scription for Veselovskii writesthatGrigor'ev"wantedto dampen to some extentour enthusiasm along with were" (173). The manuscript, CentralAsiansand showwhatsortofpeople they Grigor'ev'sextensiveannotations,was eventuallypublished as "Opisanie Khivinskogo geRusskogo ZapiskiImperatorskogo kreposti," khanstvai doroga tuda iz Saraichikovskoi 1861,bk. 2:105-38. obshchestva, ograficheskogo
Grigor'ev in Orenburg
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mullahs."65 At the same time,the roots of Islam among the Kazakhs, His taskwas to see thatthissituGrigor'ev believed,were quite shallow.66 ation did not change. Russian policy since the time of Catherine the and even encouragedtheexpansionoftheIsGreat, whichhad permitted obstacle to the lamic presence in the steppe, proved to be a significant he wasable ofIslam.67 Throughapplicationofpolice powers, containment and Tatarmullahson the steppe, Bashkir to limit the numberofitinerant the tax burden onto shifting but the new policies he suggestedinvolving rejectedin St. Petersburg.68 the Muslimclergy and eliteswere decisively exemplifiedthe problem of The rejection of Grigor'ev'sinitiatives knowledge whichhe sawas the deplorablenorm powerexercisedwithout ofthe cultural theadministration. pracwithin Lackingan understanding in CentralAsian societies,Russian ticessurrounding powerrelationships in theirdealings made continualmistakes Grigor'ev felt, administrators, for example, were prone to with nomadic peoples. Russian officials, themwithunnecessarygifts and overindulgenative leaders, showering way seemed an effective suchtactics privileges. Froma Russianperspective, thereby ofcooperationand sharedinterest, to createa cordialatmosphere accordingto to theimperialregime.But theresults, strengthening loyalty Grigor'ev, were completelythe opposite. The 'Asiatic"perceived lavish license to commitungifts as tribute, a signofweaknessand fear,giving treatment of told infractions againstRussian power. Likewise,merciful criminals and outlaws activities with onlyencouragedthemto resumetheir and Unable to projectan aura of power using symbols renewedvigor.69 could gesturesnativeto CentralAsian cultures,the Russian authorities Violence, in this onlyfallback on bruteforceto uphold theirinterests. to thedirectproductoftheinability forknowledge, sense,was a substitute "speakthe language." fellback into a deWithhis own plans forreform thwarted, Grigor'ev schemesof his suto fend offthe ill-conceived fensive position,working periors.Anymeasuresthatinvolvedsudden drasticchangesin thewayof firm opposition.His posilifeof indigenouspeoples metwithGrigor'ev's
Grigorev, 207. For an overall discussionof Russian 65. Veselovskii, VasiliiVasil'evich Orthodoxy on the East: Ethnography, perceptionsof Islam,see RobertGeraci, "Window ofCalifornia, 1995). in Kazan, 1870-1914" (Ph.D. diss.,University and RussianNationality 66. Nomadic peoples, it was widely assumed, remained attached to traditional less susceptibleto the influenceof Islam. Chokan Shamanistbeliefsand were therefore a nativeKazakh ethnographer much admired,noted in whoseworkGrigor'ev Valikhanov, those thatalthoughthey claimed to be Muslims, a description of the (presentday) Kirgiz, that he encountered could not recite a single prayer,carried out all the traditional in Shamanistrituals, and engaged in sexual behaviorthatwould have been unthinkable an orthodox Islamic society.See Chokan Valikhanov,"Opisanie Dzhungarii,"Zapiski obshchestva, 1861,bk. 2:42. Imperatorskogo Russkogo geograficheskogo in the KirghizSteppe 67. On statepolicy, see Dov B. Yaroshevski, "ImperialStrategy 39, no. 2 (1991): 221-24. in the EighteenthCentury,"Jahrbiicherfiir Geschichte Osteuropas Den', 1862,no. 35: 12-15. For Grigor'ev's views, see "Pis'ma iz zaural'skoistepi," 68. Veselovskii, Vasil'evich Grigorev, 207-8. Vasilii among the 69. This, in fact,was Grigor'ev's explanationfora seriesof disturbances Kazakhsin 1855. See ibid., 139- 40.
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tion drew on the understanding of nationalitythat he had absorbed in his youth. Nationality,he felt,was an integral part of human existence. "Without an awareness of oneself as an organic part of a nation [narod]," Grigor'evwrote, "an individual can have neither a healthy life,nor full development."70 A nation, however, was unthinkable without nationalitythe collection of traitsand habits that created a unique mode of existence distinct from that of all other peoples.7' And nationality could not be changed at a moment's notice -a people could either preserve itsnationality or cease to exist as a nation.72 Therefore measures that sought to forciblychange the basic way of life that defined nationalitywere a threat to the existence of the nation. Grigor'ev perceived just such a threat in proposals to force the nomadic Bashkirs to settle permanently and take up agriculture.73On the other hand, he also opposed regulations that expressly forbade the Kazakhs from engaging in agriculture, despite the fact that they themselves felt it a necessity. Behind both positions was his opposition to forcible measures. "Experience teaches," Grigor'ev wrote: will decay. The untimely that nothingforcedwill last, that everything can onlybe the nation itself. When the soil judge as to whatis untimely forone phenomenonor anotheris prepared,itwillemergeofitsownacTo stimulatethisphenomenon cord and it will emerge indestructible. Thus, and provokea miscarriage. meanstoviolatetheorganism artificially a nomadic wayof lifeand does not change ifa particular nationfollows is eito an agricultural wayof lifeof itsown accord, then thistransition To make a noforthemforsome reasonor itis untimely. therimpossible an act of violence to which,in our opinion, no mad settledis therefore has the right.74 authority But ifthe nomadic wayof life could not be changed by force,how were the Kazakhs to be drawn to Russian civilization?The answers,forGrigor'ev, were example and education. It was useless for Russians to preach or to legislate civic virtuesif they themselves did not embody them. If the only image the Kazakhs had of Russian civilizationwas the behavior of corrupt officials,theycould hardly be expected to hold Russia in great esteem. In his tenure with the Borderlands Commission Grigor'ev did his best to
Grigor'ev, Vasil'evich Vasilii Molva, 1857, no. 18. Quoted in Veselovskii, 70. "Zametka,"
were heavilyinfluencedby the ideas of Nikolai viewsof nationality 71. Grigor'ev's Nadezhdin's Nadezhdin withwhom he workedcloselyduringhis yearsin St. Petersburg. izucheniinain "Ob etnograficheskom is laid out mostdirectly conceptionof nationality vol. 2 (1846): 61-114. Also obshchestva, geograficheskogo Russkogo Zapiski rodnostirusskoi," obozrenie, 1994, no. 2. For discussionof Nadezhdin and his published in Etnograficheskoe in Ethnography the Science of Nationality: ideas, see Nathaniel Knight,"Constructing 1995), chaps. 2 and 3. Russia" (Ph.D. diss.,Columbia University, Century Mid-Nineteenth 72. See "O znacheniinarodnosti," Molva,1857,no. 24:291. 73. Grigor'evexpressed his opposition in the article "Zametkiotnositel'no zem1861, no. 1: 29-41. promyshlennosti, ledeliia v Bashkiriii pozharovv Orenburge,"Vestnik 212. Grigorev, Vasilii Vasilbevich 74. Ibid., quoted in Veselovskii,
168.
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on the steppe forwhichRussianofficials and corruption stifle the bribery taskto be sure,but one in whicheven relawere notorious-a thankless could be counted as success.75 tiveimprovement tenureat Educationamong theKazakhshad begun beforeGrigor'ev's by mullahs the BorderlandsCommission.TraditionalIslamic instruction At the same time,athad long been available and continuedto flourish. temptshad begun to include Kazakh children in Russian institutions. From the 1840s on, Kazakh childrenwere takeninto the Cadet Corps in Orenburg,and bythe end of the decade a special school forKazakh chilin Orenburg.76 But native Kazakh education was dren was functioning oftheKazakhlanguage.For Muslimpeoples of hinderedbythelowstatus Even in the the steppe,Tatarwas the language of education and literacy. And before Russianschools,Tatarremainedthe language of instruction. Grigor'ev'sarrival,officialshad carried out all correspondence with thatthe two lanKazakh officials in Tatar,assured by theirinterpreters a cultural polgoal in crafting Grigor'ev's guageswereone and thesame.77 nativeKazakh language and culture icyon the steppe was to strengthen influencewithRussian civilizaand graduallyreplace the Tatar-Muslim tion.Schools thatcombined teachingin the Kazakh languagewithexpomeans through sure to Russian language and culturewere the foremost whichGrigor'ev soughtto realize his goals.78 difference emphasison educationpointsto a fundamental Grigor'ev's ofand themodel oforientalism as an administrator betweenhispractices to learn.On theKazakh feredbySaid. Educationpresupposesthecapacity steppe the picturecan no longerbe sustainedof an unbridgeablechasm betweeneast and west,a gap thatSaid describesas the "core of essential of modernWestern froma century Orientalism, knowledge... inherited the chasm between intelligent, logical and mentallydisciplined Europeans and 'Orientals,"'whose mindsare so disorganizedthattheycannot of course,was not immunefrom even walkon a paved road.79Grigor'ev, But the factthattheywere cultural of the "Asiatic." culturalstereotypes And meantthatthey could be transcended. ratherthanracial stereotypes who had duringthisperiod,notable exampleswereavailableof 'Asiatics" milieu,acquired edudone just that- moved awayfromtheirtraditional and respectwithin Russiansociety. Many, cation,and gained recognition in some cases, as in fact, and orientalists, serving, became ethnographers cultural mediators betweentheirnativepeoples and Russianeducated so75. Veselovskii, Vasilii Vasilbevich Grigortev, 221. (Kazan', 1892),135-37. oNikolaeIvanovicheltminskom 76. P.V Znamenskii,Napamiat' 77. Veselovskii, Grigorev, 217. Vasilii Vasil'evich education policywas its 78. One of the mostprofoundconsequences of Grigor'ev's a young philologistfromKazan' by the name of influenceon one of his subordinates, ofschoolsforinowho laterachievedconsiderableacclaimforhissystem NikolaiIl'minskii, activity. See rodtsy, whichemphasized the use of nativelanguagesas a tool formissionary IlminIvanoviche Na pamiat'o Nikolae Geraci, "Windowon the East,"49-50; Znamenskii, article,"Otkrytie 137-40. On the expansion of the Kazakh schools,see Grigor'ev's skom, pchela,1861,no. 241:2. shkoly v Troitske," Severnaia kirgizskoi 79. Said, Orientalism, 38.
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ciety.80The orientalism model does not accommodate this movement across cultures. Orientalism, by definition, spoke for the orient, leaving the oriental without a voice.8' The idea that orientals themselves might participate in the shaping of orientalism subverts the dichotomy upon which the discourse rests. The extent to which Grigor'ev acknowledged the receptivityof the Kazakhs to cultural advancement is illustrated by a series of articles he wrote under the pen name "Sultan Mendali Piraliev." In a fascinatingcultural masquerade, Grigor'ev created the character of Piraliev and then, writingin the fictitiousfirstperson, used him to project an idealized image of the enlightened Kazakh. A product of the Russian educational system, Piraliev was eloquent, erudite, logical, and stronglyenamored of Russian culture while continuing to live the traditional Kazakh lifestyle. According to prevalent racial conceptions, Grigor'ev pointed out, the very existence of such an individual was unthinkable. "It is clear," North American separatists (that is, Confederates-he was writingduring the American Civil War) would say, does not existand could neverexistand that thatSultanMendali Piraliev who,itiswellknown, oftheslyabolitionists, a newinvention thisis simply all, thisSultan,althoughhe After are capable of all mannerof mischief. belongs nonethelessto the race of the or a red-skin, is not a black-skin and reason as do we, theprivhowcan he look on things yellow-skinned: 82 oftheearth! ileged sons oftheCaucasian "race,"thenaturalaristocrats Grigor'ev/Piraliev'sresponse is unequivocal: from other in lifestyle differ I hardly comfortable: Myexistenceisfarfrom but I do not consider mypresumptuousness, forgive Nonetheless, Kirgiz. anymorestupidor immoralthanan Americanpreacheror a Britmyself of Not all tribes ish Lord or a Frenchbourgeoisor a Russianbureaucrat. are grantedthe same fate.Not all of thememergesimultanehumanity froma But separateindividuals activity. ouslyonto the fieldof historical achieve exactly lower,immature"race" can, givenfavorableconditions, ofbreeds [porod] as members development the same cultural[dukhovnoe] the privilegeof high rank.83 at the given momentin history, enjoying,
80. Examples include Chokan Valikhanov, the Kazakh ethnographer; Dorzhi Banzarov,a Buriatspecialistin Mongolian languages; IakinfBichurin,a nativeChuvash A. K. Kazem-Bek, of Russiansinology; responsiblein large measureforthe establishment of oriental who became an eminentprofessor a Persian adopted into a Russian family see Ch. Ch. On Valikhanov, University. languages at Kazan' and later at St. Petersburg 5 vols. (Alma-Ata,1961- 64); on Bichurin, see Petr sochineniia, Valikhanov,Sobranie 1997). Forinforma(Cheboksary, Bichurina Iakinfa Denisov,Zhizn'monakha Vladimirovich vostokovesee Istoriia otechestvennogo tion on Banzarov,Kazem-Bek,and otherorientalists, c serediny vostokovedeniia otechestvennogo XIX veka(Moscow,1990); Istoriia deniiado serediny slovar'otechestvenXIX vekado 1917g. (Moscow,1997); A. N. Kononov,Biobibliograficheskii (Moscow, 1989). Scholars frommixed marriagesbetweenRussiansand nykh tiurkologov werealso not uncommon.Note,forexample,A. P. Shchapov,M. L. Mikhailov, "orientals" and A. A. Bobrovnikov. 122. 81. Said, Orientalism, Den', 1862,no. 28:5. "Iz zaural'skoistepi," 82. [Grigor'ev], is 83. Ibid. The word raceappears in italicsin the originaltext.My sense, however, use ofquotationmarks. was closerto thepresent-day in usingitalics intent thatGrigor'ev's
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here not onlyas an ethnographer withdeep sympathies writes Grigor'ev his pasHis ideas also reflect and hopes forthe objectsof his research.84 sionatebeliefin a Russianscience thatcould speakwithitsownvoice,that truths was not beholden to models and conceptionsviewedas irrefutable inenvisionedit,whilefully as Grigor'ev in thewest.Russianorientalism, in scholarship on Asia around the formedabout the latestdevelopments to definetheessential conceptsand wouldreserve foritself theright world, itspositionas an autonomousfieldofknowledge. assumptions underlying theperspective and powerfrom In examining thenexusofknowledge Russianorimypurpose has not been to whitewash of Grigor'ev's service, sins and returnit to the pure entalism,to cleanse it of its imperialistic beit is the conceptualframework knowledge.In fact, sphereof abstract hind just such an endeavor thatI seek to call into question: is putting to be judged guilty or innocentof comunder interrogation scholarship the dya productivepath towardunderstanding plicity withimperialism and powerin theRussianempire?EdwardSaid takes namicsofknowledge he derivedfrom oforientalism, and theinsights thisapproach in his study have had a profoundimpacton a rangeof fieldsfromanthrohis inquiry to orientalism itself.85 caGrigor'ev's studies,and history pology,literary put providesample reason to suppose thatthe framework reer,however, should be applied orientalism western forward bySaid forunderstanding withcaution,ifat all, to the Russiancontext. as Said depictsit,is foundedon an essentialized, Western orientalism, Orientalism sweeps unifiedconceptionof the orientand itsinhabitants. and focuseson the productionof a core of awaythe need fordistinctions applicable to the of factualstatements universally knowledgeconsisting it was not quite so easy to disorientas a whole. For Russians,however, As is oftenpointed out, in Russia the oriental pense withthe particular. setapartbythousandsof an unknown creature "other" wasnot necessarily milesand vastoceans. In Russia,the "other" wasall around-in ethnicenin scatdeep into the heartlandof Russiansettlement, clavespenetrating and in vast stretches of borderland in which ethnic tered settlements In such a setting, overthe course of centuries. groupsmetand interacted from thatone "other" differed anotherwasoffundamental theknowledge fromnomadic Bashkirs SettledTatarswere clearlydifferent significance. and to refuseto acknowledgethesedifferences was and pagan Cheremis, one Russianethnography, lethal misunderstandings. to invitepotentially developed as a of the fundamental componentsof Russian orientalism,
84. This, it would seem, was not an uncommon occupational hazard. Note, forexat the RussianGeographical ample, the case of P. I. Nebol'sin, a colleague of Grigor'ev's on a delegationofKazakhsto St.Petersburg, a sympathetic report writing Society, who,after Kirgizi," See P. Nebol'sin, "Puteshestvyiushchie was publiclyaccused of "Kirgizomania." vol. 29 (September1860): 41-49; and loasaf Zhaleznov,"Kirgizomania," Russkii vestnik, vol. 30 (November1860): 45. Russkii vestnik, see Gyan Prakash, Orientalism, 85. For an overview of the discussionssurrounding and Theory 34, no. 3 (1995): 199-212; and Juan R. I. Cole, Now,"History "Orientalism History 19, no. 3 (1995): 507-13. Diplomatic Knowledgeand Orientalism," "Power,
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thanto of difference" devotedmore to the "making science ofdistinction of the Eurasian plain into aggregate"representathe diversity distilling drew Of course Russianorientalism tions"and easilydigestedmaxims.86 image of the 'Asias Grigor'ev's on and perpetuatedculturalstereotypes, tropeswas a But superimposedupon these "orientalist" atic"illustrates.87 saw as eminently thatGrigor'ev broader discourseof organicnationality applicable to Asian peoples and that led to his vehementrejection of to promotethe languagesand customs racial conceptionsand his efforts of the peoples under hisjurisdiction.88 whichspecialized knowledgeof the orient The mechanismsthrough clear,even in the coninto colonial powerare not always is transformed it would seem, Orientalismcan function, textof westernimperialism.89 forcethatcreatesand orlevel,as a productive discursive bothon a purely ganizes the verycategoriesof thoughtthatrenderdominationpossible, about the orientthat assertions and on a practicallevel as a set ofpositive rely upon however, Both ofthesescenarios, form thebasisofactualpolicy. and shapingthe lepowercapable of penetrating a model of disciplinary experience propracticesof the state.Grigor'ev's gal and administrative inherentin applyingsuch a of the difficulties vides a vividillustration
the Science of Nationality"; "Constructing see Knight, 86. On Russianethnography, RussianScholarsConfront Century versusNations:Eighteenth YuriSlezkine,"Naturalists 27-57. The phrase "makin Browerand Lazzerini,eds., Russia'sOrient, EthnicDiversity," paper "The Makingof a Differis borrowedfromCharles Steinwedel's ing of difference" 1861in Late ImperialRussianPolitics, ofEthnicity of a Category ence: The Construction "NewApproachesto Russianand SovietHistory," 1917" (paper presentedat theworkshop of Maryland, March 1997). University and Chokan to note, though,thatin the cases of both Grigor'ev 87. It is interesting increased the furan 'Asiatic"),the reliance on culturalstereotypes Valikhanov(himself applies the Grigor'ev were removedfromthe realmof the familiar. thertheirdiscussions butalmost to theCentralAsian khanatesand theKazakhleadership, image ofthe "Asiatic" depictsthe ChiKazakhsin whomhe placed his hopes. Valikhanov neverto the ordinary themeparkof Orientaldespotismand Asiaticdeof Kashgaras a veritable nese-ruledcity and the forrent, beheadings,"wives" hourly ofhuman skulls, completewithtowers pravity his descripKirgiz, to the morefamiliar besthashishthisside ofKabul. Butwhen he turns ImperZapiski "Opisanie Dzhungarii," tionstakeon a farmore moderatetone.Valikhanov, obshchestva, 1861,bk. 1:186 - 88. Russkogo geograficheskogo atorskogo viewsand his experiencesin Orenburgwould tend to lend supportto 88. Grigor'ev's its disparatenature,its embedthatstress of Russian imperialism recentinterpretations and its dependence on domesticpolicies,while downplaying dedness in local contexts, See, forexample, and innateRussianexpansionism. notionsof "Russification" monolithic on the and Russification Russia:Nationalism in Imperial Theodore R. Weeks,Nationand State als Vielv6lkerreich: 1863-1914 (DeKalb, 1996); AndreasKappeler,Rufiland Western Frontier, RussianImperialism: (Munich, 1992); DietrichGeyer, und Gegenwart Geschichte Entstehung, 1860-1914 (New Haven, 1987); Slezkine,ArcandForeign Policy, Domestic of TheInteraction and Browerand Lazzerini,eds., Russia'sOrient. ticMirrors; 89. Said's criticshave been quick to point out the tensionbetween the synchronic from fabricofwhichstretches as a cohesivediscourse,the intertextual viewof orientalism reembedded in the everyday and a diachronicorientalism to HenryKissinger, Aeschylus consistsof "representations," alitiesof colonial practice.On the one hand, orientalism orito their objects;on theother, have no relationship purported whichcan, bydefinition, See RobertYoung,White Mytholoservesas a practicaltool in colonial domination. entalism and theWest (London, 1990), 130. History gies:Writing
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has pointedout,therise As Laura Engelstein model in theRussiancontext. took place in Russia,not within includingorientalism, of the disciplines, of the liberal bourgeois state,but ratherin the thejuridical framework jealously guarded its Old Regime absolutismthat contextof a persistent In Grigor'ev's case, exclusiverights to defineand shape the social body.90 fromthe functhe considerablepowerthathe exercisedflowedentirely When he atofstateadministration. within the structure tionshe fulfilled he to shape policy, poweras an orientalist temptedto wield disciplinary ifnot outright hostility. was metwithindifference power in Russia One should not assume, however,thatdisciplinary instruments reduced mere that scholars to were passive was nonexistent, natureofdisthecircumscribed oftheautocratic state.But itwasprecisely to mobilizeinstitutions both inside and outciplinary power,itsinability thathelped side thestateapparatusaround a setofhegemonicpostulates, thedisciplines themand polyphony within to engendera certainrichness Russian orientalism leftample room ideas suggest, selves.As Grigor'ev's thatcut across the "objectiveinforidiosyncrasy, forviewsand activities terests" of the stateand even the individual.9' raisesfundamental questions The idiosyncrasy of Russianorientalism orientalism as discourse,at least in the sense about the utility of viewing In describing Said refers to orientalist discourse, thatSaid uses the term.92 repeatedlyemphasizingboth the its "sheer knittedtogetherstrength," seamless internal cohesivenessof its fundamentalassumptionsover a of embeddednessin thestructures period and itsintrinsic broad historical limitthe domination.93 But does not such an approach artificially western of possibilities inherentwithinthe productionof knowledge multiplicity
Disciplineand theLaw in Im"CombinedUnderdevelopment: 90. Laura Engelstein, Review 98, no. 2 (April1993): 348. Historical perial and SovietRussia,"American a learned 91. Bywayofexample,one need onlyrecalltheexploitsofIakinfBichurin, monksent to head the OrthodoxSpiritualMissionin Beijingin the 1810s.Withthe misduties to learn disintegrating around him,Bichurinabandoned his official sion literally and culture.Broughtback in deep possible about Chinese language,history, everything Bichurinspent camel loads ofpricelessChinese manuscripts, disgracealong withthirteen by churchauthorithe remainderof his lifeeitherin prisonor under close surveillance based on his experiencesin China estaband translations ties.Nonethelesshis writings of For a detailed narrative of Russiansinology. lished him as one of the foundingfigures Bichurina. career,see Denisov,Zhizn'monakha Iakinfa l3ichurin's as discoursefrom Said's model of orientalism 92. One mustbe carefulto distinguish are,byhis own ofMichelFoucaultthatSaid drewupon. WhileFoucault'swritings theviews in his later particularly he distanceshimself, and contradictory, admission,fragmentary fromglobal dichotomiesconceived in termsof relationsbetweenoppressorsand works, and localized" natureof heteromorphous the "dispersed, oppressed. Rather,he stresses and mopointsofutilizing capable at different power.To be sure,he speaksof "strategies" bilizingproceduresof power,but he is carefulto add: "One should not assume a massive a binary structure with'dominators'on one side and and primalconditionofdomination, productionof relationsof domination 'dominated' on the other,but rathera multiform Michel Foucault, into overall strategies." susceptibleof integration which are partially and Other 1972-1977 (New York,1980), 142. Selected Interviews Writings, Power/Knowledge: a farmorenuanced and open-ended conMyreadingoftheseand otherpassagessuggests paradigm. ceptionof knowledgeand powerthanis evidentin the orientalism 93. Said, Orientalism, 6.
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bothmeansand ends, in theidea ofdiscourse Byconflating in anycontext? viewsin the stage forreductionist are we not setting contentand form, of the about external phenomena (representations which statements and motivesimmanentin the very serveinterests other) mustinevitably 94 means of theirexpression? as discourse? to the model of orientalism Can we pose an alternative at leastin the Russiancase, to see the structures Perhapsitis more fitting, themselves of disciplinesas sitesat whichmultiplediscoursesmanifested And it is not enough, as Michel Foucault and enteredinto contestation. to elucidate the remindsus, to relyon the mere "logicof contradiction" knowlIn exploringthe place of scholarly of theirstruggle.95 unraveling and the articuassimilation, resistance, edge in processesof domination, I would argue demands itsowninvestieach context, lationof difference, are important; structures and institutional gation.Intellectualtraditions relationsof powerand the waysin which theyare mobilizedneed to be theuse ofpower;and above normsthatinform probed,as do the cultural all individualsneed to be placed withinthe confinesof context,their and externalstrucof mentality agencybalanced againstthe limitations of tures.It is the mundane realm of praxisratherthan the metaphysics shed mostlighton the nexus of knowledge discoursethatwillultimately and power.
correctthateveryEuropean, in what he could say 94. Said writes:"It is therefore ethnocenand almosttotally a racist, an imperialist, about the Orient,was consequently tric." Ibid., 204. 164. in Power/Knowledge, 95. Michel Foucault,"The Eye of Power,"

Grigoriev in Orenburg

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Grigor'ev in Orenburg, 1851-1862: Russian Orientalism in the Service of Empire? Author(s): Nathaniel Knight Source: Slavic Review, Vol.

in Orenburg,1851-1862: Russian Grigor'ev in the Serviceof Empire? Orientalism

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