Middle Volga peoples, poorer Bashkirs and others were not turned into state
peasants (with poll tax and recruitment); they paidiasakat a lesser rate than
other non-Russians and eventeptiarlaborers (non-Russians who tilled Bashkir
lands) paid quitrent lower than that of Slavic state peasants. Elite Bashkirs survived
by acting as“middle ground”intermediaries. Russia allowed elite Bashkirs to
preserve their status; some served as militia on the Trans-Kama line and enjoyed
iasak-free status and the honorific title of“Tarkhan.”So-called“loyal Bashkirs”
served alongside Russian troops in Orenburg, joined by Meshcheriaks (Mishari),
Tatars who had joined Russian service after the conquest of Kazan; many had
settled near Ufa in the heart of Bashkiria. The Bashkir and Meshcheriak landed elite
controlled local government with little intervention by Moscow officials.
The 1775 administrative reforms, introduced in 1781, helped to draw Bashkirs
into loyal service to Russia. The existing large Orenburg gubernia was subdivided to
create a new gubernia in the heart of Bashkiria at Ufa with twelve districts (uezdy);
both were put under the authority of a governor-general. As in European Russia,
land courts for the elites, upper civil and criminal courts, and the new courts of
equity were introduced at Ufa and Orenburg, with elected native assessors from
Bashkir villages and other communities at high and local levels. Lower courts
(raspravy) for Bashkirs, state peasants, and other native peoples were created in
ten districts that used Sharia law and other native customs. One effect of this
structure was to undermine the power of Bashkir elites. The reform’s police and
judicial organs were generally staffed with Russian and Bashkir military officers,
there being few Russian landholders in the area (onlyfive of twelve districts had
sufficient presence to need noble land courts).
Another way in which Russia tried to co-opt the native populations of Bashkiria
was the creation in Ufa in 1788 of the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly, a
senior Muslim religious official (mufti) and a council to act as liaison between
Russia and the Muslim community. The Spiritual Assembly had jurisdiction over
Muslims across the empire, theoretically, from the Middle Volga and Urals to
Siberia and the steppe as well as European Russia. The Mufti and his Assembly
were charged with overseeing Muslim marriage, divorce, inheritance, and admin-
istrative issues, as well as promoting loyalty to state and dynasty. The Authority
defined Muslim law, provided oversight of Islamic educational institutions, and
standardized the appointment of mullahs and religious teachers; the Russian state
paid for building new mosques and madrasas in Ufa and Orenburg provinces. With
this reform, Russia gained administrative access to the Bashkir community and
shaped the terms of imperial interaction with the Muslims of the empire.
Finally, Russia, as it did elsewhere, used military administration to co-opt and
create loyal servitors. In 1798 a Bashkir-Meshcheriak Host was assembled under
Russian military supervision, a primarily Muslim Cossack-style adjunct to the
Russian army. The Bashkir territory was divided into Bashkir and Meshcheriak
cantons for recruitment; their role, along with the Orenburg Cossacks, was to
maintain the fortified lines, serving two-year stints. The Orenburg to Verkhne-iaisk
line paid a salary of 10–20 rubles a year, the more volatile Siberian line to the east
yielded 30–50 rubles a year. In 1767 in Orenburg province there were 195,000
92 The Russian Empire 1450– 1801