Participation of Nikolay Notovich in the English-Russian rivalry in Afghanistan in the mid-1880s

The confrontation between Russia and Great Britain in Central Asia in the 19th century led to the expansion of these empires’ borders that reached Afghanistan by the 1880s. Thus, Afghanistan was destined to find itself at the epicenter of the two powers’ political and diplomatic games. In the context of fierce foreign policy competition in the region, an important task for the Russian authorities was to study Afghanistan, as well as to en-hance activities of Russian agents on the lands to the South of Amu Darya. This problem became especially acute after the battle between Russian and Afghan troops north-west of Afghanistan border in March 1885: the possi-bility of the military confrontation was considered seriously in St. Peters-burg and London that could take place inter alia in Afghanistan. In order to obtain information about its southern neighbour Russian authorities used agents from the local population as well as former Afghan rulers who fled the country under the oppression of Emir Abdurrahman Khan (1880–1901) in addition to information from its Military and the Foreign Ministry. This issue is touched upon in the works of Russian and foreign orientalists. The participants of the Russian-British confrontation also left their memories. However, a lot of information from archives on these events remains un-published. In particular, the role in the Afghan affairs of traveller Nikolay Notovich who reached Afghan border in the Autumn of 1885. His activities differed a lot from the activities in this area of military and civil servants. After arriving in Mashhad on the recommendation of the military com-manders of the Transcaspian Oblast, Notovich, who was not a civil servant official, tried to play the role of a governmental agent and started corre-spondence with the United Kingdom representatives in Afghanistan, as well as of Afghan and Balochi provincial rulers. Based on archives, this ar-ticle is the first attempt to evaluate this historical episode

Afghan · Ancient history · Archaeology · Battle · Economic history · Geography · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · Political science · Politics · Population · Pretext · Rivalry · Sociology · Central Asia Education and Culture · Demography · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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  Open Access•Zaven A Arabadzhyan•RUDN Journal of Russian History•2024

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