The activities of the Ashgabat branch of the State Bank in the first half of the 20th century: Main operations, clients, and staff

The article examines the main banking operations of the Ashgabat branch of the State Bank in the Trans-Caspian region. In Soviet historiography, banking institutions were often regarded as instruments of Western and Russian “colonialism.” However, the author, relying on archival sources, demonstrates that the financial institutions of the Russian Empire took regional specifics into account and contributed to the development of exportoriented production. The study actively utilizes interbank correspondence, annual reports of the branch managers, and audit materials of the Ashgabat branch. For the first time in historiography, both active and passive operations of the bank are analyzed in detail, with a thorough examination of its expenditures and revenues. Unlike traditional Soviet and post-Soviet approaches, the author concludes that banks did not achieve the status of “monopolists” in the economy of Central Asia, while the State Bank partially fulfilled the role of a financial regulator in the region. The concept of “modernization” of the Central Asian economy within banking circles was primarily associated with financing exportoriented agricultural crops and acting as intermediaries between the metropolis and peripheral territories. Despite the apparent attractiveness of the “colonial” periphery for investment and the potential for significant profits, the speculative nature of the Turkestan economy created obstacles to the stable development of the banking system. According to the author, the main reason for the failure of banking activities during wartime and economic instability was the imperial banks’ adaptation to the existing economic relations in the Turkestan Governor Generalship and local khanates.