How Russia Ended Slavery in Central Asia
Battle of Russians and Kokands at Makhram 1876. Hood. Nikolay Karazin
Why was Central Asia annexed?
The Central Asian khanates actively traded with Persia, China and India, and established ties with Russia. The trade routes to the Volga and Siberia were lively. Russian merchants brought leather, fur, cloth, and wooden utensils to Asia. They brought back cotton fabrics, silk fabrics, and items made from them. Bukharan merchants often acted as trade intermediaries, delivering goods from China, and to a lesser extent from India and Persia.
Since the beginning of the 18th century, having developed Siberia and the Volga region, Russia has sought to strengthen its position in Central Asia and gain direct access to the markets of Persia, Afghanistan, India and China.
At the same time, the Russians needed to eliminate the centers of local steppe predators who lived by war, raids, and the slave trade. That is, to destroy the unproductive, predatory-parasitic way of managing that was inherent in the southern khanates. These were state formations like the Crimean Khanate (Robotic parasitic Crimean Khanate and the fight against it), hindering the development of Russian civilization and the Russian state.
At the same time, in the ancient cities of Central Asia there was also a manufacturing economy and crafts with ancient roots.
On the other hand, in the 1820s and 1830s, Great Britain, which was then a world empire, a superpower like today's USA, declared its interests in Central Asia. This forced Russia to step up its policy in the region so as not to get British outposts in the southern underbelly of the state.
Conquest of Turkestan
The first attempt to annex the rich trading cities of Central Asia was made by Tsar Peter I, who had a strategic vision and understood the strategic and economic necessity of Russia’s breakthrough to the “warm seas” (Persia and India).
Today, this idea exists in the form of the Southern Corridor project – a system of gas pipelines, transport communications (including railways) from Russia through the Central Asian republics and Afghanistan to India, Pakistan and Iran.
In 1716, Peter ordered troops under the command of Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky to be sent to Khiva. In June 1717, Bekovich's 4-strong detachment moved from Guryev towards Khiva. A month later, the Russians reached the Karagach tract, where their path was blocked by the Khiva army, which was six times larger than Bekovich's forces. A three-day battle ensued, which demonstrated the difference in class between the Asian horde and the Russian regular army. The Khivans were utterly defeated, losing hundreds of people. Russian losses were minimal.
The Russians entered Khiva. The Khivans began peace negotiations. They managed to deceive Bekovich. Under the pretext that they would not be able to feed the entire detachment, they offered to divide it into five parts and send it to several cities for billeting. As soon as the Russians split up and moved 100 miles from Khiva, they were unexpectedly attacked by superior enemy forces. Most of the Russians were killed, the rest were turned into slaves. The Khan of Khiva sent Bekovich's head as a gift to the Bukhara ruler.
Peter, who found another route to the southern seas – through the Caspian Sea and Persia (How Peter I cut through the "door" to the East; Part 2), he never returned to the problem of Turkestan.
In 1740, the Persians defeated the Khiva Khan and released all Russian captives. Only a few dozen elderly former soldiers managed to return to Russia 23 years later.
After Bekovich's failed expedition, Russia forgot about Central Asia for almost 150 years. To protect the southern regions from steppe robbers, the Siberian lines were built, including the Tobol-Ishim and Irtysh lines. Naturally, the construction and maintenance of fortifications and fortresses, their garrisons cost effort and money.
Map of the lands of the Siberian Linear Cossack Army. Source: "Atlas of the lands of irregular troops". 1858.
In the first half of the 19th century, the nomadic clans of the Kazakhs (they were then called "Siberian Kirghiz") - the Junior Zhuz, the Middle Zhuz and the Senior Zhuz - came under the protection of Russia. The Kazakhs experienced pressure from other nomads (Nogais, Dzungars, Khivans) and preferred to go under the hand of the "white tsars". In the previously wild lands, the Russians built fortress cities, including Kokchetav (now Kokshetau), Akmolinsk (now Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan), Vernoye (now Alma-Ata).
By the middle of the 19th century, Russia, having solved a number of other strategic tasks (in particular, annexing the Caucasus), returned to the problem of Central Asia. Strategic and economic interests required annexing Turkestan. Although the finance ministers, who did not want to spend money, and diplomats, who were afraid of international complications (irritating England), did not want this. In the end, the military prevailed, the "thorn" had to be pulled out.
The Russians, with the help of diplomats, travelers and merchants, among whom were military intelligence officers, had already studied the region well. The largest state was the Bukhara Emirate, inhabited by 3 million people. The Kokand Khan had one and a half million subjects, and the Khiva Khan had half a million. These three monarchies, quite backward even by Asian standards, were constantly at odds with each other. Palace coups, civil strife and uprisings were constantly taking place in the khanates themselves. Cities and villages burned in strife and raids, ordinary people died and suffered. Slavery flourished.
At the same time, the English began to penetrate Central Asia, settling in India. Many English goods appeared in the markets of Kokand, Khiva and Bukhara. The authorities of these states clearly sympathized with the British traders: they were subject to lower duties than Russian merchants. The British could bring modern weapon - rifles and guns.
A. Orlovsky. "Battle of the Cossacks with the Kirghiz" (Kazakhs)
Storming of Turkestan
It was necessary to solve the problem before it was too late. On November 26, 1839, over 6 soldiers and Cossacks moved from Orenburg to the south. The expedition was led by the military governor of Orenburg, Vasily Perovsky. The winter steppe campaign ended in failure: the Russians suffered from cold and disease, the Khivans attacked the uninvited guests on marches and bivouacs, and the Kyrgyz guides turned out to be traitors. Having lost over two thousand people killed and captured, Perovsky returned to Orenburg in early 1840.
After 13 years, Perovsky resumed the offensive, but had already corrected his mistakes. New fortifications were erected in the steppe, which were the mainstay of our troops. At the same time, Russian troops destroyed and took the fortifications and outposts of the Kokand people. In 1853, they stormed Ak-Mechet (present-day Kyzylorda) on the Syr Darya River. The fall of Ak-Mechet broke the defense of the Kokand Khanate. The Kokand people's attempts to recapture the fortress were unsuccessful.
The following year Perovsky founded Fort Verny (now Alma-Ata), which he intended to use as a stronghold for the conquest of Kokand. These plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the Crimean War. The Russians hastily signed a truce with the Kokand Khan that was advantageous to them.
The next stage of the struggle for Central Asia began in May 1864, when the detachments of Colonels Verevkin and Chernyaev invaded the Kokand Khanate from both sides. They immediately managed to take the cities of Turkestan and Aulie-Ata, for which both were promoted to general.
The Kokand Khan Alimkul moved his army to meet the Russians, but then his neighbor, the Bukhara Emir, struck him in the back, taking advantage of the noise to seize Tashkent. Alimkul rushed about, trying to repel all the enemies, but was nowhere in time. The Russians occupied Chimkent, and in Tashkent, skirmishes began between supporters of the city's annexation to Russia (merchants and artisans advocated this) and the clergy, who liked the Bukhara Emir more. Alimkul suppressed these riots, but let Chernyaev's detachment approaching Tashkent pass.
On May 9, 1865, a battle took place in which the Kokand Khan died and his army was defeated. Building on his success, Chernyaev immediately began an assault on Tashkent. After two days of street fighting, the city authorities expressed their readiness to fully submit to the "white tsar" Alexander II. That same year, Tashkent and most of the territory of the Kokand Khanate became part of the Russian Empire.
Taking advantage of the moment, the Bukhara Emir captured Kokand. The Russians, who already considered the new khan their vassal, did not like this and declared war on Bukhara. The Emir's army was no match for Russian bayonets. And soon Khojent and other cities of the Fergana Valley became part of the Turkestan Governorate-General, formed in 1867 with its center in Tashkent. The Turkestan Governorate-General included the Syrdarya (center - Tashkent) and Semirechensk (center - Verny Fortress) regions.
In 1866, Russia proposed to the Bukhara emir Muzaffar ad-Din (1860-1886) to sign a protectorate treaty. The emir was to recognize all of Russia’s territorial conquests in Central Asia, ensure freedom of movement for Russian merchants in Bukhara, and pay a war contribution. Muzaffar ad-Din refused to recognize the treaty. Border skirmishes began.
In March 1868, the Emir of Bukharan declared a holy war on Russia – gazavat. In April, Bukharan troops crossed the border and took up positions near the Zeravshan River, not far from Samarkand. The Russians arrived in time and routed the Bukharans in a battle that lasted all day. The Samarkandians opened their gates to the Turkestan Governor-General Konstantin Kaufman and asked for Russian citizenship.
Russian troops moved towards Bukhara. On June 2, a decisive battle took place on the Zirbulak hills, after which the Bukharan army ceased to exist. A couple of weeks later, Emir Muzafar concluded a peace treaty with Russia. He acknowledged vassal dependence on Russia, pledged to pay a contribution of half a million rubles, and gave up the cities of Khujand, Ura-Tyube, and Jizzakh.
The Zarafshan District is created as part of the Turkestan Governorate General. However, the capitulation of the emir is not recognized by some of the Bukhara feudal lords and Muslim religious figures, who raise a rebellion in Samarkand. Russian troops suppress the rebellion. Bukhara's right to conduct independent foreign trade is limited. The Bukhara Emirate, along with Khiva, is included in the all-Russian customs system. Formally, the emirate existed until 1920 and was abolished as a result of the revolution.
V. Vereshchagin. Russian troops storm the city
The fall of Khiva and the liquidation of the Kokand Khanate
The last independent state in Central Asia was the Khiva Khanate. The campaign began in 1869. In February 1873, 12 soldiers under the command of General Kaufman moved across the sands to Khiva. The weak Khiva army was unable to offer worthy resistance. On May 26, the Russians approached the walls of Khiva. After a three-day assault, the city fell.
Khan Sayyid Muhammad Rahim (1864-1910) managed to escape into the desert with several courtiers. The Russians caught the fugitive monarch, returned him to his capital and forced him to sign a peace treaty. Khiva acknowledged its subordination to Russia and agreed to pay a contribution of 2,2 million rubles. Slavery was banned throughout the khanate, and Russian merchants received the right to duty-free trade. The entire right bank of the Amu Darya became Russian, which almost halved the territory of the Khiva Khanate. Foreign relations and customs came under the control of Russian officials.
In 1875, conquered Kokand began to seethe. Khan Khudoyar, who had acknowledged vassal dependence on Russia, fled, and his son Nasreddin, who had been placed on the throne by the mullahs, did not want to submit to the empire. Calls for gazawat began to sound. In response, Russian troops entered the khanate and occupied Kokand. Nasreddin signed another peace agreement, gave Russia the Namangan beykstvo and agreed to pay another contribution.
However, unrest in the khanate did not subside. In order to avoid further complications, on February 19, 1876, Russia abolished the Kokand Khanate, and its lands became part of the Fergana region of the Turkestan Governorate General.
Only the Turkmen tribes, who inhabited oases in the Transcaspian deserts and had no centralized power, remained unconquered in Central Asia. England set its sights on their territory, actively supporting the Turkmen and Tekins, who lived mainly by plundering neighboring regions. In 1878, England captured Afghanistan and was going to occupy the territory of Turkmenistan.
In January 1881, General Mikhail Skobelev took the enemy's main fortress, Geok-Tepe, in a fierce battle. In May 1881, the Akhal-Teke oasis became the Trans-Caspian region with its center in Askhabad.
After the walls of Geok-Tepe were torn down, the Russians, proving the falsity of English propaganda, began to be emphatically friendly towards the local population. This had an effect. The inhabitants of the still independent Tejen, Merv and Pendinsky oases, despite the incitement of the British, forgot about their previous hostility towards the Russians. In January 1884, the inhabitants of Merv decided to become Russian citizens, and on January 31 in Askhabad their representatives took the oath to Emperor Alexander III. The conquest of Central Asia was complete.
The Emperor appointed Konstantin Kaufman, an active participant in the Central Asian campaigns, to head the Turkestan Governorate-General. Central Asia was divided into five regions: Syr Darya, Samarkand, Fergana, Semirechye, and Transcaspian. Each was headed by a military governor. The regions were divided into counties, and the counties into volosts. Muslims were allowed to govern only at the lowest, volost level.
Kaufman proved to be a skilled administrator. As his chancellery manager Georgy Fedorov noted, “he was truly the Tsar’s viceroy in the East, and it was not for nothing that the natives called him Yarym-Padsha (Half of the Tsar). Equipped with enormous powers, surrounded by a brilliant aura of almost unlimited authority (which he never abused), Kaufman was more than a Tsar’s viceroy; he was truly half of the Tsar.” Under Kaufman’s leadership, Turkestan began to develop rapidly.
The Bukhara Emirate and the Khiva Khanate remained formally independent within Turkestan. The Russian government was in no hurry to liquidate these monarchies, considering their vassal dependence to be quite sufficient. The emirate and khanate were finally liquidated only by the Soviet government in the 1920s.
Thus, Russia, without great losses of its own and local population, in a relatively short period of time annexed a territory comparable to Siberia. It won the Great Game, preventing England from entering the southern underbelly of the empire.
Monument to K. P. Kaufman in Tashkent (1913, dismantled in 1919)
Abolition of slavery
Russia brought peace to Central Asia, raids, wars between monarchies, civil strife, coups and uprisings ceased. The population began to grow, as did the economy. Social, economic and transport infrastructure developed.
The shameful slavery, which essentially remained a relic of the ancient world, was abolished. The steppe predators enslaved not only the local common people, but also their neighbors, including Russians. Many thousands of Russians were enslaved and sold. These were mainly Russians and other peoples of Russia from the Volga region, Persians from Khorasan.
Thus, according to researchers’ estimates, in the mid-30th century, there were about 10 thousand slaves in Khiva alone (15–200% of the entire population of the khanate, which was then estimated at 300–XNUMX thousand people).
Russian soldiers and authorities freed thousands of people from slavery in Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and other cities. One of the first decrees of the Governor-General of Turkestan, General Kaufman, was devoted specifically to the issue of slavery. He demanded that the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva stop capturing and selling people into slavery.
"Blacks" historical The myths that are created in the former post-Soviet republics and actively supported by Western structures seek to present Russia exclusively as a “prison of nations,” and Russians as “invaders, colonizers, and oppressors.”
In reality, it was the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union that laid the foundations of modern social (including education and medicine), economic and transport infrastructure in Central Asia. And the USSR also created the statehood of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
It was the Russians who established order and a safe life, which allowed the inhabitants of Turkestan (previously a wild and deserted territory) to begin rapid demographic growth. Previously, the population did not grow, as it simply perished due to wars, local genocides, epidemics and famine.
The Russians destroyed slavery and a number of other ancient and shameful traditions of the region. Thus, before the establishment of the Russian protectorate in Bukhara and Khiva, bloody and cruel public punishments were widely used - cutting off ears and noses, blinding, dragging through the streets (a person was tied to a horse and driven). The Russians banned this barbarity.
Another custom that the Russians have abolished is a form of slavery called bacha bazi (literally meaning "playing with boys"). This is a form of sexual slavery and child prostitution that involves boys performing erotic dances in female guise for clients, who may also "buy" the performer for sexual gratification.
This form of slavery flourished in Turkestan, having survived from the earliest times of slave states. Interestingly, this tradition is now fully preserved in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is present in the Middle East.
The great Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin wrote well about these slaves and bachas in Turkestan.
V. V. Vereshchagin. Sale of a child slave. 1872
Appendix. V. V. Vereshchagin. From a Journey through Central Asia // Essays, Sketches, Memories by V. V. Vereshchagin. — St. Petersburg, 1883.
First, a few words about slave caravanserais and the slave trade. It is true that neither slave caravanserais nor slave trade now exist in Tashkent; nevertheless, I think it will not be superfluous and not without interest to say something about this. The buildings for this trade in the cities of Central Asia are arranged in the same way as all caravanserais; only they are divided into a greater number of small cells, with a separate door to each; if the yard is large, then in the middle of it there is a canopy for pack animals; here, for the most part, the venal people are also accommodated, among whom the unreliable ones are tied to the wooden posts of the canopy. There are usually a lot of all kinds of people pushing around in such yards: some are buying, some are just gawking.
The buyer will ask about the goods: what they can do, what crafts they know, etc. Then they will take them to a small room and there, in the presence of the owner, they will examine them to see if there are any physical defects or illnesses. Young women are mostly not displayed in the yard, but are looked at in small rooms and examined not by the buyer himself, but by experienced elderly healers.
The prices for people, of course, vary according to the time and the greater or lesser influx of "goods". In the autumn this trade usually goes faster, and in the city of Bukhara, for example, at this time in each of the ten slave caravanserais there there are, as I was told, from 100 to 150 people put up for sale. Since most of the slaves of Central Asia are brought in by the unfortunate Persian borders adjacent to the Turkmen tribes, the success or failure of the hunting exploits of the Turkmen in these places mainly determines the price of slaves in Khiva, Bukhara and Kokand; but sometimes wars and the inevitable enslavement of all captives, if they are not Sunni Muslims (otherwise the capture and resale of all slaves of the defeated side), significantly and at once change prices in all these markets: in such cases a person goes for a very cheap price - for several tens of rubles, sometimes even for 10 rubles.
In general, there are many more men for sale than women, by the way, because the Turkmen, willingly selling men, keep more women. A beautiful young woman is very expensive, up to 1000 rubles and more.
Pretty boys also command a good price: they are in great demand throughout Central Asia. I have heard stories from former Persian slaves about how, when they were still small, they were captured by the Turkmen: some in the fields, at work, together with their father and brothers, others simply on the street of a village, in broad daylight, amid the helpless howling and screaming of the cowardly population. The stories of the subsequent wanderings, the passage of these unfortunates from the hands of a Turkmen robber to the hands of a slave trader and from there to the house of those who bought them, are extremely sad, and one cannot help but be glad that thanks to the intervention of the Russians this dirty pool has apparently begun to clear up.
The Russian influence on the slave trade was reflected in three most outstanding facts: firstly, the number of slaves in general decreased, because they became free in the entire country annexed to Russia; secondly, the demand for new slaves in general decreased, because there was no longer a market for them in all these newly acquired countries, and in such cities as Tashkent, Khodjent, Samarkand and others, their market was considerable; thirdly, this trade fell significantly, decreased in size in all the neighboring barbarian states of Central Asia for the simple and not devoid of sense assumption that the Russians could come to any of them any day now, and since in each of them it is well known that the Russians mercilessly free slaves, then all purchases and transactions of this kind now take on an unreliable, thankless appearance.
But it is not only the official slaves, so to speak, who have now breathed more freely: all kinds of poverty and oppression are beginning to boldly look capital, nobility, and power in the eye, feeling no small amount of embarrassment because of this.
And the other kind of slaves, who are not named so offensively in any textbook, but who nevertheless represent the most terrible form of slavery - mothers, wives, daughters of Central Asian savages, do they not experience the slow but irresistible influence on their position and fate of kafir ("kafir" - infidel) laws and all kafir customs? Without a doubt, yes; and in order not to go far, it is enough to listen to the cautious but bitter complaints that the owner of my house, an old aksakal, pours out in conversation with me. "The last days are coming!" he says and waves his hand desperately. "What is it?" - "How so! What else can you expect, and the husband does not teach his wife: if you start beating her, she threatens that she will go to the Russians…” Indeed, how can an Asian not be embarrassed when his property, his thing, correctly acquired, legally enslaved, begins to declare some of its rights and, first of all, the right not to be beaten at will! How can one not be upset by such a schism and how can one not guess the culprits of all this heresy!..
The undeservedly humiliated position of Eastern women has already been spoken of by many, many travelers, and I will not repeat commonplaces here; I will only say that the fate of women in Central Asia, generally speaking, is even sadder than the fate of their sisters in more Western countries, such as Persia, Turkey and others. Even lower than the latter is her civil status, even greater isolation and rejection from her male ruler, even more restriction of activity to one physical, animal side, if one can say so. Sold to a man from the cradle, taken by him as an undeveloped, unreasonable child, she does not even live a full life in the sexual sense, because by the time of conscious maturity she has already managed to grow old, morally crushed by the role of a female and physically by the work of a pack animal. All intellectual movement, all development can therefore be expressed only in the lowest manifestations of the human mind - in intrigue, gossip, etc., but there is nothing surprising in the fact that they intrigue, gossip...
V. V. Vereshchagin. Portrait of a Bachi. 1867-1868
This extremely humiliated position of women is the main reason, by the way, for one abnormal phenomenon, which is the local "batcha". Literally translated, "batcha" means boy; but since these boys also play some strange and, as I have already said, not quite normal role, the word "batcha" has another meaning, inconvenient for explanation.
Usually pretty boys start to become batchi dancers, starting from the age of eight, and sometimes even older. From the hands of parents who are unscrupulous about the way of getting money, the child falls into the hands of one, two, sometimes many admirers of beauty, partly a little bit of swindlers, who, with the help of old dancers and singers who have finished their careers, teach their protégé these arts and, once trained, nurse, dress like a doll, pamper, caress and give away for money for evenings to those who want to perform in public.
I have seen such public performances - "tamasha" - many times; but the first one I saw, which took place at the home of a wealthy merchant, S. A., remains especially vivid in my memory.
"Tamasha" is given almost every day in one or another house in the city, and sometimes in many at once, before the fast of the main holiday of Bairam, when there are most weddings, usually accompanied by such performances. Then in all parts of the city one can hear the beating of tambourines and drums, shouts and measured clapping of hands, to the rhythm of the singing and dancing of the batchi. Having few acquaintances in the city, I asked S. A. to specially arrange "tamasha" and once, late in the evening, after notifying him that the performance was prepared and would soon begin, we, a company of several people, went to his house.
At the gate and before the gate of the house we found a great many people; the yard was packed; only in the middle was there a large circle formed by spectators sitting on the ground, waiting for the performance; the rest of the space of the yard was a solid mass of heads; people at all the doors, in the galleries, on the roofs (on the roofs there were more women). On one side of the circle, on a raised platform, were musicians - several large tambourines and small drums; near these musicians, in a place of honor, they seated us, unfortunately for our ears. The yard was illuminated by a huge oil torch, shining with a strong red flame, which, together with the dark azure starry sky, gave a wonderful effect to the stage.
"Come here," whispered a Sart acquaintance to me, winking as one does when offering some forbidden fruit. "What is it, why?" "Let's see how the batcha is dressed." In one of the rooms, the doors of which, opening onto the courtyard, were closed for the sake of modesty, several chosen ones, mostly honorable natives, respectfully surrounded the batcha, a very pretty boy who was being dressed for the performance; they were transforming him into a girl: they tied his long hair into several small braids, covered his head with a large light silk scarf and then, above the forehead, tied another, narrowly folded, bright red one. In front of the batcha they held a mirror, in which he looked coquettishly all the time. A very fat Sart held a candle, others reverently, barely breathing (I am not exaggerating), watched the operation and considered it an honor to help her when something needed to be corrected, to hold. At the end of the toilet, the boy's eyebrows and eyelashes were darkened, several astrakhan furs were stuck on his face - signes de beauté - and he, truly transformed into a girl, came out to the spectators, who greeted him with a loud, friendly, approving cry.
Batcha began to walk quietly and smoothly in a circle; he walked rhythmically, in time with the quietly echoing tambourine and the clapping of the spectators, gracefully bending his body, playing with his hands and shaking his head. His eyes, large, beautiful, black, and his pretty mouth had some kind of defiant expression, at times too immodest. The lucky ones from among the spectators, to whom Batcha addressed himself with such meaningful glances and smiles, melted with pleasure and, in return for the flattering attention, assumed the most humiliating poses possible, gave their faces obsequious, touching expressions. “My joy, my heart,” was heard from all sides. “Take my life,” they cried to him, “it is nothing compared to your smile alone,” etc. Now the music began to play more often and louder; following it, the dance became more lively; the feet - Batcha dances barefoot - began to make dexterous, quick movements; The hands began to spin like snakes around the approaching body; the tambourines began to beat even more often, even louder; the batcha began to spin even faster, so that hundreds of eyes could hardly follow its movements; finally, with the desperate crackle of music and the frantic exclamation of the spectators, the final figure followed, after which the dancer, or dancer, as you like, having refreshed himself a little with the tea that was served to him, again quietly walked around the stage, smoothly waving his arms, giving out smiles and throwing his tender, languid, sly glances to the right and to the left.
The musicians are extremely interesting; as the rhythm of the dance quickens, they become even more ecstatic than the spectators, and in the strongest parts they even jump up from their haunches to their knees and tear their already loud instruments with the utmost fury. The girl-batcha is replaced by a boy-batcha, the general character of whose dances differs little from the first. The dance is replaced by singing, original, but also monotonous, uniform, mostly sad! Longing and sadness for a loved one, unsatisfied, suppressed, but ecstatic love and very rarely happy love serve as the usual themes of these songs, listening to which the native will become sad, and sometimes even cry.
The most interesting, although unofficial and not accessible to everyone, part of the performance begins when the official part, i.e. dancing and singing, is over. Then the feasting of the Batcha begins, which lasts for quite a long time - a very strange feast for someone who is not very familiar with the native customs and traditions. I enter the room during one of these backstage scenes and find the following picture: a small Batcha is sitting importantly and proudly against the wall; his nose is raised high and his eyes are narrowed, he looks around haughtily, with a sense of his dignity; from him, along the walls, all over the room, sit, one next to another, with their legs tucked up, on their knees, Sarts of different types, sizes and ages - young and old, small and tall, thin and fat; all, with their elbows on their knees and possibly bent over, are looking affectionately at the Batcha; They watch his every movement, catch his glances, listen to his every word. The lucky one, whom the boy honors with his glance and even more so with a word, responds in the most respectful, obsequious manner, having first made his face and whole figure look like a complete nonentity and having made a bata (a kind of greeting consisting of pulling one's beard), constantly adding, for greater respect, the word "taksir" (sovereign). Whoever has the honor of giving something to the bata, a cup of tea or something else, will do it in no other way than crawling, on his knees and certainly having first made a bata. The boy accepts all this as something due, befitting him, and does not consider himself obliged to express any gratitude for it.
I said above that a boy is often supported by several people: ten, fifteen, twenty; all of them, vying with each other, try to please the boy; they spend their last money on gifts for him, often forgetting their families, their wives, their children, who need the necessities, living in hunger.
V. V. Vereshchagin. Bacha and his admirers. 1868. The public considered the painting "indecent", and the impulsive Vereshchagin destroyed the work. Apparently, he quickly regretted this: starting from Paris, where this happened, the previously taken photo was shown at exhibitions
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