The role of Russian orientalism in tsarist Russia's conquest of Turkestan

This study examines Russian Orientalism in terms of its historical, intellectual, and institutional foundations, exploring how Orientalist knowledge production became a tool for the occupation during the process of Turkestan's occupation. The main objective of the research is to analyze the Eastern policies of the Russian Empire not merely as a process of military and political expansion, but as a system of domination constructed through knowledge, culture, and science. Edward Said's concept of "knowledge and power" serves as the main theoretical framework of the study. This approach is applied to the Russian context in order to discuss the similarities and differences between Western and Russian forms of Orientalism. The thesis outlines the historical background of Russia's relations with Turkestan. The second chapter examines the conceptual origins of Orientalism, its development as a philological and cultural discipline in Europe, and its institutionalization in Russia through structures such as Kazan University, the Asiatic Museum, and the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages. The third chapter analyzes the strategic, political, and economic motivations behind the conquest of Turkestan, the structure of the Emirate of Bukhara, and the role of Orientalist discourse in legitimizing this process. The study reveals that Russian Orientalism was not merely an academic curiosity but a systematic ideological practice serving the imperial interests of the state. The limitations of the study include restricted access to Russian archival materials, the ideological nature of certain sources, and the partial inapplicability of the Western model of Orientalism to the Russian case. Nevertheless, the thesis contributes significantly to the literature by demonstrating that the Russian domination of Turkestan should be understood not only as a military or diplomatic enterprise, but also as a form of cultural hegemony constructed through representation and the production of knowledge.