ABSTRACT
The rivalry between Great Britain and Russia in the vastness of Asia, which historians, following the British cavalry officer Arthur Connolly, metaphorically call the Great Game, began in the early eighteenth century and continued until Britain handed power in India to the Indian National Congress. Some specialists are inclined to see differences in the motivations of the two main players in the game. It has been noted more than once that if expansion was an inseparable part of Russia's imperial ambitions, Britain mainly pursued the goal of curtailing Russian ambitions in Asia. Very often Britain's aggressive expansionist policy was dictated by the wish to strengthen her influence over territories adjacent to the British Empire in order to keep Russia from filling the power vacuum. Russia readily realized this peculiarity of British policy in Asia and used it toward her aims, with various degrees of effectiveness.
