Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu :
I do not think we disagree on essentials, but I beg to differ on this one. The US did not wipe the Native population more than Russia did the same to native populations of Asia. Most of the "wiping" of the American natives occurred due to the lack immunity to Eurasian diseases, which was not the factor in Russian colonisation of Asia.
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Au contraire on both points. The Chukchi population of northeastern Siberia was hit by smallbox and other diseases brought in by Russian traders (as were the Alaskan Aleuts). Also, Russian policy was not oriented toward mass settlement of the territory. Tsarist involvement in Siberia was mostly limited to fur trading. That's why the population of Yakutia is half Yakut. Russia had to wait until Stalin to get a Trail of Tears.
Representative stories:
In the 17th and 18th c., the Kazakhs found themselves increasingly unable to defend their homeland against nomadic incursions by Dzungarians, Kalmyks and others. Therefore, they turned to the expanding Russian empire for help. The Kazakhs swore an oath of loyalty to the Russian crown, and by 1742, only parts of the Greater Horde had not yet joined in a defensive alliance with Russia. The Kalmyk menace was fended off, but the Kazakhs quickly became subject to Russian influence and control.
http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Kazakhian
According to most historians, the Udmurts appeared as an identifiable ethnic group in the 6th c. They survivied through slash-and-burn agriculture, hunting, fishing and small-scale local commerce. In the 8th c., they fell under Khazar dominance, but by the mid 9th. c, the Volga Bulgarians had significantly increased their cultural and political influence in the region, and displaced Khazar influence among the Udmurts. The Volga-Bulgarians remained in control until the Mongol-Tatars conquered the Udmurt land in the 1230s. Russian cultural and economic contacts with the Udmurt date back to the 12th c., but it was not until the middle of the 16th c. that the Russians established control over the territory. The area along the Middle and Upper Vyatka river was incorporated into Russia in 1489, and in 1552, the Kama Udmurts voluntarily accepted annexation by Russia.
http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Udmurtian
When the Khazan Khanate was defeated by Ivan the Terrible in 1552, the Chuvash came under the Russians, and were subjected to intensive Christianization. Unlike with the Tatars, a majority of the Chuvash converted to Russian Orthodoxy in the centuries to follow. The Russians protected Chuvashia against the Tatars, and southern Chuvashia was resettled from around 1600.
http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Chuvashian
The territory/people were annexed to the Russian state by treaties in 1689 and 1728, when the territories on both the sides of Lake Baykal were separated from Mongolia. From the middle of the 17th c. to the beginning of the 20th c., the Buryat population increased from 27,700 to 300,000. The historical roots of the Buryat culture are related to the Mongolian one. After Buryatia was incorporated into Russia, it was exposed to two cultures - Christian and Buddhist traditions. Buryats west of Lake Baikal (Irkutsk Buryats) are "russified", and they soon abandoned nomadism for agriculture, whereas the eastern (Transbaykal) Buryats are closer to the Mongols, may live in yurts and are mostly Buddhists.
http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Buryatian
The Russian empire expanded south- and eastward throughout the 16th and 17th c., and by the middle of the 19th c., the Russians had embarked on a military conquest of Central Asia. Khokand, in the fertile Fergana Valley, fell to Russia in 1853, and subsequently became (together with much of present-day Kazakhstan) "Russian Turkestan". Bukhara and Khiva became vassal states under the tsar.
http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Uzbekian
Russia annexed Yakutiya in the 1620s, and immediately imposed the fur tax. Soldiers and merchants poured into the area in order for the Russians to take control over Yakutiya and the numerous Yakuts. The Yakuts answered with several uprisings between 1634 and 1642, but the revolts were all crushed. The fighting, together with a variety of European diseased brought by the Russians, led to a decrease in the Yakut population.
http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Yakutian
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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