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| Russo-Khivan War of 1873 | |||||||||
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| Part of theRussian conquest of Central Asia | |||||||||
.jpg) Russian forces entering Khiva, 1873 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Russian Empire |  Khanate of Khiva | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Alexander IIK. von Kaufman | Muhammad II | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 13,000 troops | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 33 killed and 124 wounded[1] | 5,000+ killed | ||||||||
In theRusso-Khivan War of 1873, Russia conquered theKhanate of Khiva, and it became a Russianprotectorate.
Twice before,Russia had failed to subjugateKhiva. In 1717,Prince Bekovitch-Cherkassky marched from theCaspian and fought the Khivan army. The Khivans lulled him with diplomacy, then slaughtered his entire army, leaving almost no survivors. In theKhivan campaign of 1839,Count Perovsky marched south fromOrenburg. The unusually cold winter killed most of the Russian camels, forcing them to turn back.
By 1868, theRussian conquest of Turkestan had capturedTashkent andSamarkand, and gained control over the khanates ofKokand in the eastern mountains andBukhara along theOxus River. This left a roughly triangular area east of the Caspian, south of theAral Sea and north of the Persian border. TheKhanate of Khiva was at the north end of this triangle.
In 1869,Fyodor Radetsky foundedKrasnovodsk, which later became the headquarters of theTrans-Caspian Military District and the start of theTrans-Caspian railway. In March 1870, the decision was made to attack Khiva. Because Khiva was an oasis surrounded by several hundred miles of desert, this desert had to be mapped and waterholes found before armies could move.Mikhail Skobelev mapped a route from Krasnovodsk to the edge of the oasis, and Colonel Vasily Markozov later explored the area more thoroughly.Nikolai Lomakin explored theMangyshlak Peninsula. In September 1872, Colonel Markozov started from Krasnovodsk and Chikishlyar; he planned to make a dash to Khiva, but was called back by the Viceroy of the Caucasus. In the east,Konstantin Kaufman sent parties into the desert south of the Syr-Darya.
In December 1872 the Czar made the final decision to attack Khiva. The force would be 61 infantry companies, 26 ofCossack cavalry, 54 guns, 4 mortars and 5 rocket detachments. Khiva would be approached from five directions. (1)General von Kaufmann, in supreme command, would march west fromTashkent and meet a second force moving south from (2)Fort Aralsk. The two would meet in the middle of theKyzylkum Desert atMin Bulak and move southwest to the head of theOxus delta. Meanwhile, (3) Veryovkin would go south fromOrenburg along the west side of theAral Sea and meet (4) Lomakin coming directly east from theCaspian Sea while (5) Markozov would march northeast fromKrasnovodsk (later changed to Chikishlyar). The reason for this odd plan may have been bureaucratic rivalry. The governor of Orenburg had always had primary responsibility forCentral Asia. Kaufmann's newly conqueredTurkestan Province had many active officers, while theViceroy of the Caucasus had by far the most troops.
The Aralsk force set out on 11 March 1873, then Kaufmann started fromJizzakh on 23 March. On 13 April, Kaufmann issued new orders: both forces would turn southwest, meet at Khala-Ata about 130 miles east of the head of the delta, then march west to theOxus. The new route had not been mapped, a dangerous thing in the desert. On 6 May, the two forces met at Khala-ata, spent time resting and digging wells, then moved out on 12 May. On 17 May, they moved out with what they thought was a 3-day supply of water, but by nightfall the water was gone. AKazakh found a small waterhole a few miles north, and the camels were sent back to bring a new load of water. By this time, so many camels were weak or dying that they had to abandon most of their supplies.
They reached the Oxus at Uch-Uchak on May 23. They silenced a Khivan battery at Sheik-Arik and spent three days crossing the river unopposed. Now on the populated side, Kaufmann announced that he would pay for any supplies, which he did, but if supplies did not appear he would take them by force. On June 4 he occupied the abandoned fort ofHazarasp and received a letter from the Khan offering terms and another message from Veryovkin who had just takenKungrad. The campaign was now almost over except for the problem of the western armies. (Uch-Uchak is on the Oxus about 30 miles southeast of the start of the delta. Hazarasp is in head of the delta 50 miles northwest of Uch-Uchak. 30 miles west of Hazarasp is Khiva. Kungard is around 140 miles north-northwest of Khiva at the northwest corner of populated part of the delta, north of which there are marshes and then Lake Aral.)
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Veryovkin was at the northwest corner of the delta and Kaufmann at the south corner, but it was not until June 4 and 5 that messengers brought them into contact. Veryovkin took command of Lomakin's troops and left Kungard on May 27, taking Khojali (55 miles south) andMangit (35 miles southeast of that). Because of some firing from the village, Mangit was burned and the inhabitants slaughtered. The Khivans made a number of attempts to stop them. By June 7 he was on the outskirts of Khiva. Two days before he had learned that Kaufmann had crossed theOxus. On June 9 an advanced party came under heavy fire and found that they had unwittingly reached the North Gate of the city. They took a barricade and called for scaling ladders, but Veryovkin called them back, intending only a bombardment. During the engagement Veryovkin was wounded in the right eye. The bombardment began and an envoy arrived at 4 p.m. offering capitulation. Because firing from the walls did not stop the bombardment was resumed and soon parts of the city were on fire. Bombardment stopped again at 11 p.m. when a message arrived from Kaufmann saying that the Khan had surrendered. The next day some Turkmen began firing from the walls, the artillery opened up and a few lucky shots smashed the gate. Skobelev and 1,000 men rushed through and were near the Khan's place when they learned that Kaufmann was peacefully entering through the West Gate. He pulled back and waited for Kaufmann.
The Khan, who had fled Veryovkin's bombardment, was called back and reinstated on June 14. On August 24, after messages were exchanged withSaint Petersburg, a treaty was signed. The Khan renounced diplomatic or military operations without Russian consent, abolished theKhivan slave trade and slavery, opened the Khanate to Russian merchants and theOxus to Russian boats, and agreed to anindemnity of 2,200,000rubles which would be paid in instalments until 1893. The Russians placed a garrison atPetroalexandrovsk east ofKhiva. In October a strip of Khivan territory was given toBokhara as a reward for the Amir's neutrality. In March 1874 a Trans-Caspian military district was created with its headquarters atKrasnovodsk. Khiva remained a Russian protectorate until the revolution.
The Yomud campaign: While negotiating with the Khan, Kaufmann attacked theYomudTurkomans who lived on the southwest side of the oasis. According to MacGahan,[5] Kaufmann demanded an impossibly large tax and when the Yomuds fled he sent soldiers after them with a great deal of unnecessary slaughter. After the Yomuds were ruined other Turkoman tribes agreed to a similar large tribute.