British historiography (second half of the XX century) on «The Great Game» in Central Asia

The article discusses the British historiography of the second half of the XX century, dedicated to the various aspects of the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia in the XIX-early XX centuries. The second half of the XX century was an important step in the development of British historiography of «The Great Game» in Central Asia. This was largely due to the change in the balance of forces in the world arena, social and political transformations in the world. After decolonization of the British empire, on the world stage the United States and the Soviet Union began to play the leading role. Between them turned «Cold war», which define international relations for almost the entire second half of XX century. Summing up «The Great Game» the results of the British historiography in the second half of XX century it should be noted that this period gave a new impetus to the development of the historiography of the problem being studied. It was due to a change in the correlation of forces in the world arena, social and political transformations in the world, the collapse of the British Empire, the emergence of two superpowers - the US and the USSR, which was determined by the development of international relations until the end of the XX century. During this period, the British historiography of «the Great Game» is derived from the final transition to the geopolitical concept of the modernization concept, which focuses on the "civilizing aspect of" British policy in India and Central Asia. In addition, during this period in British historiography Russian rivalry and Britain in Central Asia finally confirmed the thesis that «the Great Game» did not end with the conclusion of the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, and continued after the end of World War I, although it was in a slightly different form - in the framework of ideological confrontation of Soviet Russia and the capitalist states, the concept of "communist revolution export", launched more L.D. Trotsky. British historical literature of the second half of XX century has two main advantages. First, the researchers had access to the solid base of source that has been accumulated by several generations of researchers, for more than 100 years studying Central Asia. Secondly, the British historiography was based on solid scientific historical school. At the same time, it is not without some drawbacks. First and foremost, the lack of British authors of this period - lies in the fact that they, like their Soviet counterparts, were influenced by ideological contradictions. This led to the fact that they are often not sufficiently objective approach to assessing the actions of the Russian Empire in the region have focused on its aggression, expansionism and the orientation of the annexation of the territory of neighboring states.

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