Forging a Russian Hajj Route 101through Bombay as one of its “interests” in need of “protection” there, the
ministry got permission from the British to open the consulate.^38 The diplo-
matic record shows that this institution was partially conceived as an intelli-
gence outpost to keep Russia informed about goings-on along the border
between Russian-ruled Turkestan and British India. In secret instructions,
the Foreign Ministry ordered the Bombay consul general, V. O. Klemm, to
interrogate the “large numbers of Muslim pilgrims and traders” coming down
through Afghanistan and northwest India from Russian-ruled Turkestan,
and to cultivate among them “reliable correspondents” and “intelligence
agents.”^39 Officials in the Ministry of Internal Affairs were upset about the
opening of the Bombay consulate. They argued that it undermined their ef-
forts to centralize the hajj traffic, and that it was increasing the empire’s expo-
sure to deadly cholera. Klemm, in response, defended the consulate as an im-
portant strategic asset in Russia’s ongoing competition with the British in
Persia and Central Asia.^40 He urged the Foreign Ministry to increase services
in Bombay for “the many poor pilgrims from Turkestan” who passed through,
as a way of demonstrating “the benevolence of the Russian government” to-
ward India’s Muslims and of cultivating their allegiance. “Every ‘friend’ we
make in the Muslim population in northern India will be a help to us,” Klemm
wrote to the Foreign Ministry in 1905.^41
This is a perfect example of how a lack of centralized leadership complicated
Russia’s efforts to organize the hajj, and even resulted at times in tsarist officials
working at cross-purposes with one another. It also suggests that the govern-
ment was internally divided over the hajj, and that not every minister supported
the idea of organizing it. This would not be surprising, given the unstable polit-
ical situation in Russia, which was certain to cause rapid turnover in the leader-
ship of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (two ministers would be killed by
revolutionary assassins in this period, one in 1902, and another in 1904).
As ROPiT struggled to find ways to attract hajj pilgrims to its ships, the Min-
istry of Internal Affairs also asked the Volunteer Fleet to develop its own hajj
service. The Volunteer Fleet ranked with ROPiT as one of Russia’s leading mari-
time shipping companies. It had been founded in the 1870s through donations
(hence its name), as a fleet to develop Russia’s foreign trade, and was later nation-
alized by the government. It was under the authority of the Naval Ministry, and
heavily subsidized by the government.^42 For decades it had been involved in pas-
senger traffic, mainly transporting colonists, convicts, and troops to Russia’s Far
Eastern territories on the Pacific Ocean. Now, it too sought new opportunities
for transporting hajj pilgrims and capturing revenues.^43