DIRECT COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PROTECTORATE DEPENDENCE IN THE ZARAFSHAN VALLEY (SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY)

Abstract. The article examines how the division of the Zarafshan valley after the Russian conquest of 1868 produced two administrative orders within one river basin, the Zarafshan okrug (from 1887 the Samarkand oblast) under direct imperial rule and the Bukhara Emirate under protectorate dependence. Using comparative historical, systemic and source-critical methods, the author analyses Russian official reports, travel accounts, the works of local chroniclers and the historiography of the Soviet and independence periods. The study shows that control over the distribution of Zarafshan water served as the principal lever of pressure on Bukhara. The «military-popular administration» of the okrug reduced traditional local offices to executive functions, while cotton specialisation, railway construction and Russian banking tied both parts of the valley to the economy of the metropole. Despite their different legal forms, both regimes subordinated the valley to the raw material needs of Russian industry.