BUKHARIAN TERRITORY AS A LABORATORY OF POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS: ELITE ADAPTATION STRATEGIES IN COLONIAL CONDITIONS (PERIODS 1896-1938)

This article examines the complex strategies of political adaptation employed by Central Asian elites during the early Soviet period, focusing on the paradigmatic case of Fayzulla Khodzhaev (1896–1938). Combining postcolonial theory, sociology of power, and historical institutionalism, the article proposes the original concept of "positive mimicry"—a framework that transcends Homi Bhabha’s classical notion of colonial mimicry by emphasizing agency, capital conversion, and narrative entrepreneurship among Indigenous actors.