Forging a Russian Hajj Route

Having mapped the basic geography of the hajj, Russia next turned to organizing it. In the 1890s Tsar Nicholas II ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to create a government “ monopoly” of the hajj.¹ This plan fit the regime’s broader efforts to control and co-opt Russia’s mass migrations and channel them in ways beneficial to the state and the empire.² It was testimony to the growing consensus within the government that stopping the hajj traffic was impossible and that it must do something to regulate and manage it—and, that Russia could benefit from organizing the pilgrimage. Russia’s goals