Russo-Khivan Expedition - 1839 + 1873
Khiva was an independent Uzbek khanate of Turkestan, which occupied the fertile oasis stretching in a band of varying width along the left bank of the lower Oxus between Pitniak and the Sea of Aral. The inhabited district, which practically formed the limits of the khanate, was about 200 miles in length and had an average breadth of 25 to 30 miles — an area therefore of some 5000 to 6000 square miles. This tract of territory held the keys of the mightiest river in Central Asia, and formed in consequence a precious jewel for rivalry among Eastern potentates from an early period of the world's history.
The fruit of Khiva was remarkably fine and abundant, the dried fruits being a principal export article to Russia. The melons were of excellent quality, and were sown in enormous quantities. They ripened in the latter part of June, and were, during the summer, a chief article of food. There were many varieties; a melon cost about five kopeks. Water-melons, pomegranates, figs, &c., ripened later. The Khivan cucumbers had the form of the melon, and even the interior of each was not unlike.
A good deal of silk was manufactured in Khiva. The whole oasis was planted with white mulberry-trees; and in every house throughout the country were found two or three large rooms full of the busy little spinners, feeding on the leaves. And although the whole process of manufacture was of the simplest and most primitive kind, silks of very pretty patterns and of an exceedingly durable quality were produced. The whole work of spinning, dyeing, and weaving was often done in one family by one or two persons. The colors were very good, but the people had little skill in arranging them. Those wonderful masses of form and color that in the sunshine seemed to glow and burn with their own light, for which the weavers of Bokhara and Kokan were so renowned, were unknown here. Simple stripes of red, yellow, purple, and brown, was as far as they had attained in arrangement of color.
Russia commenced her relations with Khiva in the 17th century. The warlike Cossacks of the Yaik during their raids across the Caspian learned of the existence of the rich territory of Khiva, and made an expedition to the chief town, Urgentch, at a time when the khan and his troops were absent They carried off a large number of women and a rich booty, but were overtaken on their road home by the Khivans and killed to a man. Two subsequent expeditions under Atamans Nechai and Sheruai proved equally disastrous to the Cossacks. These three expeditions were simply the raids of freebooters.
In 1717, however, Peter the Great, having heard of the presence of auriferous sand in the bed of the Oxus, and desiring also to "open mercantile relations with India through Turan" and to release from slavery some Russian subjects, sent a properly equipped military force to Khiva. The command of the expedition, which consisted of 3,300 men and six guns, with three mouths' provisions, was entrusted to Prince Bekovitch Tchorkassky. After establishing a fortified base of operations on the east shore of the Caspian, Bekovitch collected his forces at the mouth of the Ural and thence marched across the Ust Urt into Khivan territory. When within 100 miles of the capital he was encountered by the forces of the khan. The battle lasted three days, and ended in victory for the Russian arms. The Khivans, however, induced the victors to break up their force into small detachments in order to facilitate supply, and then treacherously annihilated them in detail.
In 1731 the Kirghiz of the Middle Horde surrendered their territory to Anna Ivanovna, and thus gave Russia her first foothold in lands claimed by the khanates of Khiva and Bukhara. The settlement of Orenburg, in 1743, provided at once a convenient rendezvous for the caravan trade, and a starting point for military expeditions. In 1803 the Tsar received the submission of the tribes of the Mangishlak peninsula, on the eastern shores of the Caspian; in 1832 the Little Horde was included within the government of Orenburg, the western Kirghiz being made subject to that of western Siberia.
This disaster did not prevent the Russians from sending embassies from time to time to the khan, but the representations of the envoys did not induce him to desist from enslaving Russian subjects or even to free those already in bondage. The Persian campaign which subsequently followed, the designs in other parts of Central Asia, and the constant embroilment of Russia in European wars caused Khivan affairs to recede temporarily to the background, and it was not until the third decade of the 19th century that the attention of the Muscovite Government was again directed to the khanate. The time had now come for settling accounts with the Khivans, whose detention of Russian prisoners had grown into a formidable evil.
In 1839 a force under General Perovsky, consisting of three and a half battalions, three Cossack regiments, and twenty-two guns, in all 4,500 men, with a large train of camels, moved from Orenburg across the Ust Urt to the Khivan frontiers, in order to occupy the khanate, liberate the captives, and open the way for trade. This expedition likewise terminated in disaster. The inaccessibility of Khiva was once more her safeguard. Before the force reached half-way towards its destination it was forced to return, in consequence of the severity of the weather and the loss of life among the men and animals.
Intense frost, heavy snowstorms, and want of provisions compelled him to retire when only half-way from Orenburg, having lost two-thirds of his men, nine thousand camels, and an immense quantity of horses, from illness, cold, and hunger — the expense of the expedition amounting to six and a half millions of roubles. It may be thought that the Khivan enemy assisted in the destruction of the Russian expedition. But this was not the case; the greater part of Perovsky's forces never saw the foe, and there were only slight engagements with advanced parties, in each of which the Khan's troops were put to flight.
The kidnapping of Russian and Persian subjects, and their sale as slaves in Khiva, had gone on for a long time. In the first half of the 19th century, the number of Russian slaves was large; there being, before the expedition of General Perovsky, 2000 in Khiva. But during the campaign of this General, in 1839-40, the greater part of them were set at liberty and sent to Orenburg. In the treaty which Colonel Danilewsky made with the Khan, after the ill-fated expedition, the Khivan ruler pledged himself to deal no more in Russian prisoners. In spite of this treaty, and that which was subsequently concluded with the Khan in 1858, the commerce in Russian slaves still continued, though less extensively. Russian prisoners were sold in the Khivan market for 100, and even 200 tillas; the Persian men at seventy, and the women and young boys at from sixty to 300 tillas. The Russian prisoners were dearer than the Persians, because they worked better; and the Khan generally kept them for himself. Some even attained a certain rank, becoming chiefs in the army, and artillery instructors.
The 1839 expeditions had convinced the Russians that for the effective control of the relations of Khiva a nearer position must be sought. On hearing of preparations for a second expedition, the khan submitted to Russia, and hastened, in 1842, to conclude a treaty of peace with the Tsar. In 1847 the Russians founded the Raim fort at the month of the Jaxartes. As this advance deprived the Khivans not only of territory, but of a large number of tax-paying Kirghiz, while the establishment of a fort gave the Russians a base for further operations, a collision became sooner or later inevitable.
From the establishment of the Russians on the lower Jaxartes in 1847 dated the decline in power of the khan of Khiva. Prior to that year the khan claimed sovereignty from the Caspian on the west to the confines of Khokand and Bokhara on the east, and from the northern margin of the Ust Urt and the Jaxartes on the north to the mountain range forming the Persian frontier on the south, including Merv. Within these limits his authority was recognized, although towards the extremities this was merely nominal. Since that year the Russians annexed the country between the lower Jaxartes and Oxus, established the large trans-Caspian military district on the east shore of the Caspian, and conquered the Akhal Tekke country, thereby hemming in the Khivans on all sides.
Russo-Khivan Expedition - 1873
The Russians were taken up with Khokand, where their operations on that side culminated in the capture of Tashkent in 1865. Free in this quarter, they directed their thoughts once more to Khiva, In 1869 Krasnovodsk on the east shore of the Caspian was founded, and in 1871-72 the country leading to Khiva from different parts of Russian Turkestan was thoroughly explored and surveyed.
The reduction of Khiva was the necessity forced upon the Russians, not only by the depredations of Khivan robbers, but also by the attitude of the khan himself, who had begun to levy taxes on tribes under Russian influence, and had threatened to proclaim a holy war. In 1873 three columns moved against the city, one commanded by General Kaufmann, of 5500 men and eighteen guns; the other under Colonel Markosov, of 3000 troops; and the third in charge of General Verevkin. The whole force consisted of more than 10,000 men. Each column had a different starting point and a particular route of its own, but all were to meet at Khiva. General Verevkin was the first to reach his destination, and it was his attack upon the city, on May 9, which placed it at the disposal of the Russians. General Kaufmann came up later, entering Khiva on June 10, 1873.
Not content with the passive part which he and his officers were thus compelled to play in the affair, Kaufmann promptly planned a campaign against the Turkoman Yomuds, who were unfortunate enough to have settlements on Khivan territory. Under the pretext of punishing them for neglect to pay in money the sum of 310,000 rubles within twelve days, he ordered his lieutenant Golovachev to exterminate the tribe, sparing neither sex nor age. This order was faithfully carried out, and for five days the Khiva oasis resounded with the shrieks of the victims. The treaty which followed this massacre, dated October 10, 1873, transferred to Russia all Khivan territory to the right of the river Oxus.
Khiva was occupied by the Russians almost without opposition. All the territory (35,700 square miles, and 110,000 souls) on the right bank of the Oxus was annexed to Russia and formed into the Amu Daria sub-district, while a heavy war indemnity was imposed upon the khanate. The difficult position financially in which the khan was thereby placed more than once impelled him to beg the Russians to take the country under their administration, Russia, however, preferred the arrangement of maintaining Khiva semi-independent instead of in complete subjection, for, not only did the collection of the indemnity fall upon the Khivan authorities, but the country shielded the Russian possessions on the Oxus from the attacks of the Turcomans, which if made must first come in contact with the intervening territory of Khiva.
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