"The Great Game"

[third eye]

To someone with more than a passing interest in the history of the region we live in, this will be a good read. It gives a historical perspective of the hows and whys of our troubled region - just change the names of the players and the story goes on..

A series of programmes on the history of rivalry between the Russian and British empires for dominance in Asia in the nineteenth - early twentieth century, which has been called "The Great Game.”

Secret Russian-British war in Asia in the second half of the XIX century still haunts not only the chroniclers of the history of intelligence . After Rudyard Kipling introduced the term «The Great Game» in his novel "Kim," the interest of readers continues unabated in real and mythical secret missions that were an integral part of the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Asia.

Reports of military-intelligence missions, of travelers, scientists, merchants, members of diplomatic missions, are stored in the archives. However, not everything was documented and not all documents have been preserved. This has given rise to many legends, myths and interpretations. But researchers still do not know the details of what happened in reality in the area from Iran to Tibet for decades.

Russian Empire motivated its expansion towards south by its desire to stop raids by the local tribes on its territories, and to gain access to Central Asian goods, especially cotton. Russian Major General Lev Feofilovich Kostenko, a member of the Khiva campaign in 1840, spoke about it diplomatically: "No ambition, nor any other selfish motives are behind Russia’s forward movement in Central Asia, but only a desire to appease that region, to give impetus to production and to open the shortest path for marketing goods from Turkestan in the European part of Russia."

Britain, having by this time transformed India into its colony, was afraid of the strengthening of Russian Empire and the possible Russian plans to oust the British from India. The possibility of losing India became a nightmare and an obsession for British politicians.

"It is only when you get to see and realize what India is that she is the strength and the greatness of England that you feel that every nerve a man may strain, every energy he may put forward, cannot be devoted to a nobler purpose than keeping tight the cords that hold India to ourselves. " --Lord George Nathaniel Curzon (of Kedleston)

In connection with the activation of Russia's in Asia in the second half of the XIX century, the British ruling elite was divided into two camps. Supporters of the course of masterly inactivity believed that to strengthen their influence on the dependent territories, various agreements should be signed with the rulers, providing financial subsidies and developing trade relations with them.

But supporters of the forward school strongly demanded to establish a direct political control in the neighboring areas of India, not excluding the use of threats, intimidation and the military force. And here the "horror stories" about the Russian threat to India played a significant role. According to hardliners, it was necessary to curb the hostile tribes as soon as possible and to eliminate the slightest pretext for the Russian invasion of the countries neighboring India. These sentiments of the “forwards” were supported by the majority of military and civilian officials of the British colonial administration in India.

The famous Lord Henry Palmerston, serving at that time as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Britain, wrote that Russia and Britain will sooner or later meet in the center of Asia. And Britain should make sure that this meeting should take place as far as possible from its Indian territories for her own comfort and safety.

At the same time, a number of modern researchers believe that the Great Game was more of an illusion than a real process. The historian Gerald Morgan discovered in the archives many facts of exaggeration and even outright falsification of information about the aggressive designs of Russia in Asia.

British scientists believe that the "Great Game" is a myth that was used extensively by the British military and colonial powers to their advantage. Tatiana Zagorodnikova, a leading researcher at the Centre of Indian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Russia has this to say:

"The British needed the " Great Game " very much in order to receive funding for the army stationed in India. The Army there largely carried out police duties. Unrest was brewing in India all the time. And the height of this resistance to the colonizers assumed the form of the sepoy uprising. On top of it, a large number of military expeditions were launched into the mountains - in areas that are now called the tribal zone in Pakistan. Many of these missions ended in nothing. Nevertheless, money was needed for these and subsequent expeditions. And here was a convenient excuse - Britain must be prepared to repel the Russians "

The military and politicians, who frightened the British Parliament and the British public with information about the threat of Russian military intervention in India, operated on a very real fact. In January 1801 the Russian Emperor Paul I gave the orders to march to India. 22,000 Don Cossacks with artillery proceeded in the direction of the southern borders of Russia. Thus began the first and only march of Russian troops towards India in the history.

 

[third eye]

Plans without invasions and invasions without plans

Here are Russia’s plans without invasions and invasions without plans.

By sending the Don Cossacks to India in 1801, Emperor Pavel I had intended to strike at the most important part of the British Empire. But the murder of the Russian monarch as a result of a conspiracy frustrated the Indian campaign. However, many modern scholars believe that the march of the Don Cossacks was a gamble, and the emperor had no chance of success. The campaign was launched without any serious preparation, without preliminary exploration . The Cossacks did not even have maps of the area beyond the Amu Darya.

Subsequently, during the " Great Game, " the Russian military strategists drew many serious, well-developed plans for military expeditions to India.

In 1856, the director of the Military Topographical Depot of the Army General Staff, Major General Ivan Blaramberg wrote a memorandum "On the possibility of a show of strength against the British possessions in India." The General had previously made several trips to the Ottoman Empire, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. Familiar with the conditions of movement and combat operations in Asia, Blaramberg wrote: " Let Russia turn toward the British India, because for us it is here that the most vulnerable side of the Great Britain lies."

A year later, in February 1857, the royal governor of the Caucasus, General Field Marshal Prince Alexander Baryatinsky sent the Russian War Minister Adjutant General Nikolai Sukhozanet project "On measures for action against the British in India". This project made a strong impression in Russian government circles. Emperor Alexander II wrote on the margin of the document: "His (Bariatinsky’s) fears are justified, and therefore I think that we need to seriously prepare for the fight with Britain in Asia."

But all these plans remained on paper. Except for one thing - a military expedition in 1878 . This expedition was to become one of the most striking episodes of "The Great Game”.

The Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 had just ended. During the war, Britain provided Turkey with all possible military and diplomatic support. Turkish troops were armed with the most modern British and American rifles.

In 1878, a Congress opened in Berlin to determine the diplomatic outcome of Russian -Turkish war. Britain has made every effort to nullify the victory of Russian army by diplomatic means to deny Russia access to the Mediterranean Sea and to curb the growing influence of St. Petersburg in Europe. Relations between the two empires were so strained that they threatened to escalate into an outright war .

And then the Russians carried out a brilliant military-strategic operation in Asia. In Turkestan Russian agents began to spread rumours that the Russian invasion to India had begun. To back up these rumours, a large detachment of Russian troops - 60 companies of infantry, cavalry, and 25 hundred Cossacks, 50 guns and 25 rocket launchers were moved to the border with Afghanistan, says a leading researcher at the Centre of Indian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Tatiana Zagorodnikova:

"The Russian Minister of War Dmitry Milyutin never considered this military campaign as something real. He believed that this campaign would be a purely demonstrative act of distracting nature. A there will be no proper military march on India. But the governor-general of Turkestan Konstantin Kaufman followed the orders meticulously and took very serious action - sent scouts on the upcoming route of the expedition force and prepared the supply services for the long march. British intelligence, which was carefully monitoring all actions of the Russian governor-general, was left in no doubt that the Russians were preparing for the invasion of India."

The clear demonstration of the threat to British India played its role. And the reconnaissance expedition of Colonel of the General Staff Nikolai Grodekov from Tashkent to Herat through Samarkand and Northern Afghanistan in autumn 1878 convinced the British administration in India of the seriousness of the upcoming march of the Russian army to the south. The aggressive moods in London were drastically softened and Britain's position at the Berlin Congress relented.

Russia, however, achieving the desired concessions in the European sector, hastened to reassure the anxious Britons. After the conclusion of the congress in Berlin, Russian troops concentrated near the Afghan border were withdrawn to the positions of their permanent deployment .