Participants of Russian Naval Expeditions on the International Legal Status of Turkmen People of the East Caspian Region in 18th–19th Centuries

Abstract. The goal of the article is to study notes of participants of Russian naval expeditions to the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea as a source of information on international legal status of nomadic people of the region - primarily, Turkmen and Kazakh tribes. Official reports of the leaders and participants of the expeditions on their results and participants’ memoirs are the main sources of the research. The article describes the significance of these expeditions in the formation and implementation of the Central Asian policy of the Russian Empire, analyzes the evidences about the peculiarities of the legal situation of nomads in the Eastern Caspian region in the XVIII–XIX centuries in relation to the Russian Empire, Persia, the Khiva Khanate. The author concludes that the notes of the participants of Russian naval expeditions are valuable for study of international legal status of nomads in Eastern Caspian region and support the information from other sources.

Keywords: Russian Empire in the 19th century, Caspian Sea, Turkmen, Kazakhs, international legal relations, Caspian Region, notes of travelers.