ABSTRACT
For the past 50 years the core of Central Asia has formed an integral part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Its annexation and settlement had already been completed under Tsarist rule and recognized by Britain at the Pamirs Boundary Commission of 1895, followed by the more widely drawn Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. But the final settlement only marked the end of the last stage of Russia’s whole expansion in Asia. The expansion to the south had been preceded by a vast east-wards expansion, simply following the line of least resistance, which had carried Russia through Siberia to the Bering Sea. Like the British expansion in India, its primary incentive was trade.
