Methods of conquest and colonisation
Russia's methods of conquest and colonisation appear to have formed a clear pattern. The newly encountered peoples were expected to submit an oath of allegiance seeking the tsar's protection and favour and pledging their eternal loyalty. These oaths of allegiance were prepared in Moscow and were often available only in Russian. After the native rulers, either coerced or beguiled by Russian promises, had agreed to affix their signatures to the shert', Moscow held them responsible and insisted that they became Russia's subjects. A disin- genuity on the part of both Moscow and the native chiefs was obvious. The chiefs were mostly interested in economic largesse and political advantages, but never considered such documents binding. Moscow too understood very well the precarious nature of its relationship with the various peoples on its frontiers. It might have claimed them as subjects, but it treated them as foreigners and considered all related matters through Russia's Foreign Office. In a further sign of Moscow's conscious and deliberate obfuscation, the royal titles which claimed suzerainty over various peoples in the frontier regions were mentioned only in correspondence with the Western Christian rulers and were carefully omitted in letters to the Ottoman sultans and Persian shahs.[96]
In the initial stages, Moscow relied heavily on the local elites, winning them over through a system ofpayments and rewards and retaining their privileges. In time, however, the growing military and economic dependence of these elites on Russia and increasing proximity of the Russian settlements, towns, monasteries and forts allowed Moscow to move into a more intrusive stage of bringing the native population under a tighter Russian rule. In other words, Moscow proceeded cautiously from indirect rule in the borderlands to direct rule once the borderlands were more firmly integrated.
Of course, such an evolution of Russia's rule over the non-Russian peoples was not a straight line, and Moscow had to overcome numerous pitfalls along the way. One of the typical dilemmas confronted by the Russian authorities along the frontiers was whether to unite a native people by supporting a single authority of a strong local ruler or to divide them by encouraging the rivalry among their elites. Both approaches were deployed at different times: the former when Moscow was in a weak position and chose to rely on the non-Russians' military aid, the latter when such aid was no longer needed and Moscow's goals then were to weaken and subdue its new non-Russian subjects.
Other issues seemed to have worked at cross-purposes. It was well understood in Moscow that winning over the native elites was critical to Russia's interests and Moscow pursued the policies of co-optation. At the same time, other Russian policies served to undermine the collaboration of the native elites. One of the major issues which emerged throughout the seventeenth century was the flight of native slaves and commoners to seek freedom and a better life in Russia. While the arrival of the native elites to seek military service and protection in Russia was an old and established practice, the exodus of commoners was a new and disturbing phenomenon in the view of the non-Russian elites.
The native nobles bitterly complained that they were losing their people to their great detriment and demanded the fugitives' return or a monetary compensation. Such complaints were most of the time dismissed by the authorities in neighbouring Russian towns under the pretext that the fugitives had been converted to Christianity and therefore could not be returned. Even in Siberia, where the increased number of fugitives meant diminished quantities of fur iasak, the Russian authorities accepted such fugitives and converted them to
Christianity as long as their conversion was 'voluntary'. The drain of the natives into Russia remained an issue of great importance throughout the centuries and continued to undermine Russia's relations with various native chiefs along the frontiers.[97]
Even when, compelled by political circumstances, Moscow instructed its governors to return such fugitives unconverted, few of them found their way back home. The unaware native fugitives, who could be profitably exploited or sold, represented an attractive source of profit to the corrupt local Russian authorities. Half a century later, in 1755, respondingto the undeniable reality of massive exodus, purchase and conversion of the natives, the government gave a green light to those who wished to purchase and convert the natives in the frontier regions of Astrakhan', Orenburg and Siberia. In a remarkable violation of the exclusive privilege of the Russian nobility to purchase and own serfs, the government permitted priests, merchants, cossacks and others to buy, convert and teach non-Christians, who were to remain their serfs until the owners' death. The Senate sanctioned the purchase of Kalmyks, Kumyks, Chechens, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Tomuts, Tatars, Bashkirs, Baraba Tatars and other Muslims and idol-worshippers. Thus, the non-Christians would be acquired without force, 'so that they could be converted to Christianity'. Such transactions were to take place only with written permission from the native chiefs or parents of those offered for sale, and with the reasonable assurances that those to be sold had not been kidnapped.[98] Of course, given the desperate situation of many natives and the corruption of both the Russian officials and the native chiefs, these conditions were unlikely to prevent any illegal sales. What was in the seventeenth century still a cautious government policy by the mid-eighteenth century had developed into a direct encouragement of a wide-ranging enserfment and Christianisation of the non-Christians in the frontier regions.
Whether through deliberate policies or the circumstances of its overwhelming dominance, Russia's impact on the indigenous societies was destabilising and destructive. In time, the native elites found themselves drawn into the orbit of Russia's influence, becoming dependent on Moscow in political, military and economic matters. The attraction of the Russian market and access to a variety of goods, cash and loans compelled the native elites to increase the tax burden on their own population in order to obtain various items of prestige and luxury. This in turn led to the problem of 'the labour drain', that is, the fleeing of the native commoners to Russia to escape their plight at home. The commoners in the indigenous societies had found themselves overburdened by the increasing demands of both their own elites and the Russian government.
What followed was the interminable civil wars between the elites vying for power and closer ties to Moscow on the one hand, and popular uprisings against the Russian government and those native elites who collaborated with Moscow on the other. The ultimate result was continuous and irreversible political and economic debilitation of the native societies, their increased dependence on Russia and their eventual incorporation into the imperial structures.
For many non-Russian peoples, the seventeenth century marked the beginning of their integration into the Russian Empire. At the time, the Russian government was still struggling to close a large gap between the rate of Moscow's expansion and its ability to control and govern the new territories and peoples. The under-governed nature of Russia's new territories and frontiers meant that the government preferred to rely on indirect control and mostly a set of non-coercive policies and incentives. It was in the eighteenth century, after the Petrine revolution, that the new Westernised generations of Russian bureaucrats and officers brought with them to the Russian frontiers the conviction ofRussian and Christian superiority and their determination to achieve both the submission of the natives in no uncertain terms and a change in their way of life. In relative terms, the events of the seventeenth century were less traumatic and destructive for the native societies than the following century would prove to be.
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