[000:00:39;00] on a hot june morning in 1842, a small group of local residents silently looked at

two men kneeling before the creator and peace of bukhara for 4000 miles house 2 of the british officer colonel a few hours later they were executed by order of the emir this episode was one of perhaps the most tragic moments that lasted the entire 19th century russian-british confrontation in the struggle for control over asia and the balkans. in international politics in world affairs

there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, no permanent people. received the name of the big game it was they who perceived everything that happened. how's the game, what's up? you also need to remember what

a game is in english? now, but there is such a topic. the beginning of the nineteenth century, the british empire became the most powerful country in the world, the leading colonial power, the british fleet, the most powerful and strongest and reigned supreme on the seas and oceans, the british army was excellent, equipped and prepared the industrial revolution turned england into

the locomotive of the world economy, which was much more powerful than the united states in including in the fifties or the soviet union in its heyday. it was indeed, the power of great britain was already pursuing a global policy. she created a global empire and naturally for her , issues related to competition with other european powers were acute in all regions of the globe, britain is of particular concern to the russian empire. for centuries , it is rapidly expanding at a speed of 140 m². or 52,000 m² per year russians conquered the crimean khanate appeared in transcaucasia came out to the pacific ocean, the baltic and black seas , only countries that have a military way and geographically secured access to the sea began to be called powers, that is, a system that

forms elements of the international system. the state does not stop two hundred kilometers from the sea. it either reaches him, or he is thrown further and someone else occupies him. if you look at a map of the british empire, except for the obvious places like canada australia, was the british empire certainly a maritime power? century of the russian empire they compared the british, but they, respectively, expanded their possessions of russia from the mainland side, and britain from the ocean side, of course. it had to collide somehow. the southward expansion of the russian empire meant to broken line the hypothetical possibility that someday

, russian interests might extend to india too. and of course, always in the head of the british was this horror that they could lose the pearl of their empire, because for britain, india is uh much more than any colony for any country. xix century, india accounted for about 27% of world gdp. it was the second richest country on the planet after china. so that's a century later, when britain became the workshop of the world. e share, india was one and a half percent described as a diamond its attraction to british adventurers was the opportunity

to earn large sums of money. for the development of south asia in 1600 in london , a private company of merchants of london was founded , trading in post-india, but did not invest their money was not only merchants, but also many politicians . initially, the goal was trade with the prospect of modern times.

europeans began to establish direct control over the lucrative spice trade in asia at prices or middlemen european colonial powers gained direct control over the spice trade through naval power people returned from india british politics at the time were quite corrupt if you had money you could buy yourself a seat in the parliament of india at that time brought great wealth to britain until the middle of the 19th century, india was not a colony in its purest form. these were the territories that were controlled by the private east ying company, however, it acted on behalf of the british crown, as a conductor of the british crown, and in the interests of britain, the very idea that a state controlled could exist, not that the state of the whole indian empire, controlled even not some kind of private person, yes, but generally speaking, the existence of

an animated campaign. this is, strictly speaking, already a political organization of the future, something to which we are all gradually coming. the company controlled vast territories with the help of sepoys, the so-called mercenaries, who were recruited from local residents by the rulers of indian principalities, transferred the company to conduct foreign affairs and paid a subsidy for the maintenance of the company’s army, in addition, they kept british presidential officials at their courts, that is, the capture of india took place on the money of the indians and their own hands became one of the main sources of the british

economic and political miracle of the xix century. in 1801, incredible things happen in their own way. the scale of the international event, which becomes the first step in a great game , napoleon bonaparte and the russian emperor paul the first concludes a military alliance no one else like it. i didn’t expect a few years before that russia was just in the anti-french coalition in alliance with britain and fought against napoleon. when in 1800 the allies captured the island of malta, pavel was sure that it would be given to russia, because russia did not get any military trophies on the continent, the russian

emperor wanted to do the island is the base of the russian fleet in the mediterranean, but the british left malta siberia breaks diplomatic relations with england together with france and other allies begins a general european blockade of the british isles in england , the supply of russian grain to the population of the country is stopped. famine threatens at the end of 1800, france and russia decide to jointly attack british india; the french corps was to pass through south russia and then from astrakhan along the caspian sea and land in the persian port of gazprombat ; russian troops had to pass through bukhara and ihiuk to afghanistan to connect with the french in the area of ​​herat. where

did the direct road to food open from? i don’t wait for the french on january 12, 1801, paul was the first to send the imperial donskoy orlov to say they need to be attacked, where blows can be a sensitive attack on india , the best thing for everything is to free all english establishments in india from the oppressed indian owners and bring russia into the same dependence, what kind of bargaining was it, turn to us the news that 40 cossack regiments are under command. and you, ilya yes, pavel first surrounded himself with a whole party anglophobes who did not live, so that england laid a hand on the continent did not push the emperor to rapprochement with france, the anglo-philes, who

were very numerous in st. petersburg, decided to stop this rapprochement. paul the first was supposed to die on march 12, 1801, and the russian officers of the conspirators killed emperor paul in the mikhailovsky castle of st. petersburg coordinated the action of the conspirators british ambassador charles wheat about the assassination of paul i reached paris, no one believed in a stroke, which was the official version of the death of the king of the english financially, of course, the british weren't just behind it. until the end there the situation was so absurd that in london about death. almost

simultaneously with the assassination of paul i , an unsuccessful attempt was made on napoleon, they tried to blow him up with the help of an infernal machine, as they said then. the next day after the death of paul , the new emperor alexander sends a gonce to the cossack detachments of atamanov orlov and platov with an order to block the probably tragic death from going to india. more precisely, the assassination of emperor paul prevented the inevitable death 22.000. cossack fees. they were, of course, skilled fighters, desperate fighters who knew how to survive in the most difficult conditions that spring. they would hardly have even reached the afghan border in the detachment , the first frostbite had already begun, there was not enough food for the horses, and besides, who knows how many

fighting detachments. the beginning of the campaign caused a very serious reaction in england; special maps were even issued. that's about how much russia is, uh, how aggressively it behaves towards you in the east, that we need to be prepared for the fact that russia can go to our possessions russia was definitely the main threat to india and, of course. this is explained in the central asian rivalry with russia in central asia in afghanistan begins a struggle for control of

the central asian region, which divided the territory of the russian empire and the british colonies in 1810 by two british officers, 22. they had to find out. will the enemy army, that is, the russians, be able to pass this route, the task turned out to be incredibly risky charles christie once, almost was exposed when a local mullah in one of the villages entered into a serious dispute with him about

islam. he was buying himself a pair of shoes. hands all the way, lieutenant cotinger, introduced secret daily records of everything he saw and heard, he noted springs and rivers of crops and the nature of the climate, outlined the best places for defense, his notes became. the first military map of the western approaches to india in 3 months. british scouts traveled more than two and a half

thousand kilometers. putin fat for doing this unique mission. a quick promotion and a knighthood awaited. while the british scouts were exploring the supposed asian theater of operations, real battles were going on in europe. russia fought almost continuously from persia, turkey and napoleon throughout the attack in 1812, when napoleon invaded russia, england did everything to be supported not at all because andrei felt love for russia , but only for the reason that the enemy of my enemy , my friend, as for england - it is

normal for england to support russia because that the biggest threat to her at that time was napoleon of moscow. indeed, the british at the same time supported the persians, they supported the ottoman empire that is, as they say , russia’s natural opponents from a geopolitical point of view in 1814 , the russian cossacks, who did not reach british india, entered paris, russian bayonets saved britain and really helped her get rid of the most dangerous competitor, when in france it was destroyed by the hands of russia. well, as it always happens in the english big politics english enemies, as a rule, are destroyed by proxy. suddenly it turned out that russia is the state

number one. immediately after the victory over napoleon in europe, an anti-russian information bomb explodes , a fake testament of peter i was drawn up, allegedly, that peter i bequeathed on his deathbed. well, such is the unrestrained expansion of the russian empire to the east, the anonymous authors of the false will attribute to peter the great the following instructions to their descendants to introduce continuous hostilities through wars and diplomatic intrigues to subjugate the whole of europe, divide poland, neutralize turkey and conquer india, these ideas are developed by the english general sir. robert wilson his book, a description of russia's military and political power, comes out in 1817 and quickly becomes untargeted , having withstood five of the knowledge in a row, wilson claims that, encouraged by his unexpected power, russia plans

to capture constantinople and then the fading ottoman empire and then the russians will capture india wilson is considered one of the fathers of european russophobia in 1812 to london from russia where he served as a military attache, at the headquarters of the russian army, the general begins to talk about the allegedly incredible atrocities of russian soldiers and cossacks against captured french, including acts of cannibalism and cruel executions, since wilson was personally acquainted with alexander with a body with other russian commanders, he himself participated in battles with the french, where he showed a remarkable. the courage of the general was believed for many years, his book was considered a source of authoritative and verified information about russia, it is in many ways determined the vectors for the development of british foreign policy and the book was often quoted by parliamentarians and journalists. was there a fear that the russian expansion of the tsarist

expansion in central asia would not stop, that british india could be strangled by the deadly embrace of the russian bear? the englishman puts himself in our place. and when they realize that here, yes. here they are in the center of eurasia and have this resource. and, of course, they understand that there is no reason not to put these resources into action and not to subdue, in the end in the end, the entire continent is positioned in the caucasus and this threatens india, and the russians are pushing persia and the ottoman empire, and this is threatening india , the russian fleet has appeared in the mediterranean.

this threatens india does not want to admit that the action of st. petersburg was caused by objective states from european countries that were looking for richer and more attractive colonies . russia did not choose any territories, it went to natural geopolitical borders, because catherine ii wrote catastrophically to her friends in europe , she says don't get what we're aiming for expansion. i do everything to stop the expansion of the territory, but the need for defense. she forces them to move to

the frontiers. why did we need it? crimea had to be destroyed, the main thing is nothing more than the market that existed there, because these raids are nomadic. they were, of course, already becoming , uh, colossal problems. what do we see? the vast steppe space, which is a kind of hotbed of robbery, may the great silk road cease to exist. here is the movement of caravans. this movement of money is the movement of the economy. with the advent of sea routes, which in general have become much simpler, more profitable and safer. people who, in fact, have nothing to feed themselves, they are simply forced to engage

in the slave trade, banditry, collapsible, and so on, for example, at the beginning of the 19th century , several thousand russian captives were sold every year in the slave markets of bukhara as anga.

because they were people, well, women. the first serious attempt to rescue the captives was made by the authorities of the empire in 1819 , a russian intelligence agent went to him from the caucasus. captain nikolai muravyov his first rank. he got only 17 years old, in less than 24 years , made several secret expeditions perfectly. he knew the tatar and persian languages ​​and managed to convey to muravyov a short letter about his situation. we would like to inform your excellency that there are about 3,000 slaves here, who are

suffering unheard of from hunger, hunger and hard work. have pity on our fate and deliver this letter to his majesty, the ant emperor has compiled a report including his recommendations. free the subjects of the king by military means. alexander read the first report, but did not

make a decision about the campaign. we'll take care of this. it will be the honest

detective. always wondering where it all starts now? manufacturers of good things want and russia was not ready for military expansion into central asia, however, economic penetration into the region had already begun

for specific russian interests. there were, of course, in central asia, and from the point of view of security, what was then called the legitimate interests of russia were, of course these areas. at the beginning of the 19th century , there were more and more russian merchants in the markets of central asia, mostly muslim tatars, but it was very difficult to conduct business in 1807 , a secret report was put on the table for alexander. it reports that english merchants are trading in bukhara and filmed them with their commercial intent, buying up various things and bread for themselves at a high price, and they sell it and on the road with a significant loss for themselves , of course, pay the post indian company, which thus eliminates russian merchants competitors central