The Judaic Project of General Gustav Grasford - Pyotr Semenov-Tianshansky, 1857
Translation of a very strange plan to convert the steppe nomads to Old Testament Judaism
Below is a translation of an excerpt from Pyotr Semenov-Tianshansky’s memoir “Travel to Middle Asia”. The full book can be read here. The source for this translation can be found here. Pyotr Semenov-Tianshansky was one of the earliest Russian explorers of Central Asia, and the first to explorer the Tianshan Mountains. A longer introduction on him can be found with my other translation of his writing, a letter detailing his adventures with the Kyrgyz in the Tianshan Mountains.
This short text discusses the eccentric character of General Gustav Christianovich Grasford, and his curious plan to convert the nomads of the steppe to Old Testament Judaism. Gustav Grasford was of German origin. He was born in Poland in 1794 to a Lutheran family originally from Westphalia in western Germany. He joined the Russian army in 1812 following Napoleon’s invasion, and fought in numerous battles including Borodino and Leipzig. He later attained the rank of General of Infantry, one of the highest ranks in the Imperial Russian Army, and joined the General Staff. In 1851 he was named Governor-General of Western Siberia, which territorially encompasses Siberia from the Ural Mountains to the River Irtysh.
As Grasford mentions below, Russia effectively converted the steppe nomads to Islam by sending mullahs from the Volga Tatars to proselytize among them. The Muslim religion was thought to be a moderating force that would temper the wild spirits of the nomads and would help domestic them, by tying them to a mosque and thus sedentarize them. Additionally, the Muslim clergy were controlled by the Russian state, thus Russia would gain another lever of control over the nomads. Prior, the Kazakhs were only nominally Muslim and mostly followed their older shamanistic religion. For more on how Russia made the steppe nomads Muslim, see the book “For Prophet and Tsar” by Robert D. Crews.
Nor was the idea of converting them to Old Testament Judaism so strange either. Many nomadic peoples throughout history converted to various Abrahamic religions. It should also be noted that the later Soviet Union enacted far grander transformational projects for its subjects, including the steppe nomads, which revolutionized their lives in all aspects. Thus, we can say that Grasford’s seemingly bizarre idea was simply a warm up for the 20th century’s much larger Promethean projects of social engineering and re-engineering, which I should add, are still being carried out today by some countries, namely China and the United States, among others.
The Judaic Project of General Gustav Grasford
Upon the arrival of Grasford to the region entrusted to him, his first thought was to familiarize himself with the way of life of the Kyrgyz1 people and attempt to establish any kind of lasting and permanent policy, which Russian authorities would hold to in management of the Kyrgyz horde and general nomadic populations. It is remarkable that Grasford immediately understood that his predecessor and neighbors (Governor-General of western Siberia and of Orenburg) had made a very major mistake of intensely and artificially promoting the Muslims faith to those who had not completely lost their ancient shamanic beliefs and only little imbued with the teachings of Muhammad to the Kyrgyz and supplying them with sultans and their auls2 with Tatar mullahs from Kazan.3
But from this completely fair assessment Grasford arrived to a strange and unexpected conclusion, which justified to some extent the nickname given to him by his peers (giving justice to the diversity of his education and the wide erudition of Grasford, they characterized his with the name “turned over bookshelf”, in which everything is mixed up.). In Grasford’s opinion, the gospel of Christian religion could never have success among the Kyrgyz due to the many customs and norms of nomadic life, such as, for example, nomadic polygamy, that are not compatible with the dogmas of Christian teaching. On the other hand, the mass conversion of the Kyrgyz people to the Muslim faith is in opposition to the interests of the Russian state. Thus, it is a necessity to give the Kyrgyz a new religion, in accordance to the norms of their ways of live and compatible with Russian state interests. The defining dogmas of this religion must be understood to be the starting point of the religion, which were the old laws of God, in other words the Jewish religion, having cleared it of Talmudic commentary and reformed in the spirit of Christianity. In other words, to join many Christian dogmas to the commandments and teachings of Moses. The entire project of this religion, exposing the vast theological knowledge of Grasford, was presented by him to Tsar Nikolai I, who, as they say, wrote on the resolution a note: “religions are not invented, as articles in a code of laws.” The proposal was returned to its author with the unflattering review.
These are actually Kazakhs. During the Russian Empire Kazakhs were called Kyrgyz, while the modern Kyrgyz were called the Kara-Kyrgyz or Wildstone-Kyrgyz
Nomadic village or camp
Capital of Tatarstan
A really fascinating, and rather unusual, bit of Russian history - thanks for sharing! It definitely provides some interesting insight into the Russian attempts to control 'Middle Asia' through religion.