Subjects of Two Powers: Mapping the Frontier Dynamics of the Double Tributary in the Altay Mountains, 1750s-1860s

• In Event: Imperial Boundaries and Borderland Communities: Exploring Injustice in Eurasia

Abstract

This paper explores the historical dynamics of a trans-imperial phenomenon: the institute of the so-called “double tributary” from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Following the collapse of the Zunghar confederation, the area inhabited by their Turkic-speaking vassals was split between the Qing and Russian Empires. The group known as the Telenggits, the inhabitants of the Altay Mountains, ended up with paying tribute to both. The remote and unpromising physical landscape turned out to advantage the “double tributary” (dvoedantsy): the Telenggits’ social institutes remained intact. This paper looks at the frontier policies and efforts of two imperial states to understand the particular community and spaces they sought to govern. The paper addresses the cartographical production of the Russo-Qing border in this geographical setting and it highlights the knowledge-making efforts of multiple Russian imperial agents: border officers, mapmakers, German naturalists, settler colonialists, and Orthodox missionaries. The paper argues that it is mainly through their knowledge efforts that the buffer zone ultimately became an integral part of the Russian Empire in the 1860s.

Author

• Chechesh Kudachinova, Free U Berlin (Germany)