BETWEEN EMPIRE AND REVOLUTION: THE FATE OF THE TARANCHI IN SEMIRECHYE (1918–1920) BASED ON ARCHIVAL SOURCES

Abstract

This article examines the case of the Taranchis of Semirechye during the interregnum of 1918–1920 through the theoretical lens of settler colonialism. This approach demonstrates how colonial governance practices of the late imperial period and the early Soviet regime created a durable system of displacement, violence, and redistribution of land and economic resources in favor of settler populations amid political regime change. The violence of this period is interpreted not merely as a consequence of the Civil War or “extraordinary circumstances,” but as a structural element of a colonial project aimed at consolidating settler authority and reorganizing the social and spatial order of Semirechye. Special attention is paid to the interregnum as a kind of “window of opportunity” for the radicalization of settler colonialism. The collapse of imperial administration and the unstable character of early Soviet power contributed to the use of violence as a key instrument for land redistribution and the elimination of socially vulnerable groups. For the Taranchis, already marginalized due to limited land allotments, legal insecurity, and economic dependence, this period marked a sharp intensification of colonial pressure. Based on archival sources, the article examines the settlement of Taranchis on lands unsuitable for agriculture and their incorporation into the colonial economy of the region as laborers under settler peasants who arrived in Semirechye following the Stolypin agrarian reforms. Central to the study is the analysis of the 1918–1920 repressions, including mass executions, forced flight to China, and subsequent seizure of Taranchi lands and households by settlers. The originality of the study lies in the introduction of previously unpublished archival materials and the application of a settler colonial analytical framework, which allows understanding repressions, displacement, and resource redistribution as part of a long-term system of colonial governance and settler occupation of Semirechye amid political regime transformation.