Russian conquest of Central Asia

Did You Know?

• In 1713, reports of gold in Yarkand led Peter the Great to send an expedition, but the Dzungars wiped out the force by 1716.
• Khiva and Bukhara were major centers of the slave trade in Central Asia for centuries.

Conquest of the Kazakh Steppe

After the death of Tauke Khan in 1715, the Kazakh Khanate weakened, and authority devolved to three clan confederations called jüzes. Pressured by raids and the Russian Empire, the jüzes sought Russian protection by swearing fealty and paying tax. In 1730, Abū'l-Khair Khan of the Junior jüz sent an envoy requesting subjugation; Empress Anna accepted, and Alexey Ivanovich Tevkelev formally incorporated the Junior jüz on 10 October 1731. Soon after, Semeke Khan of the Middle jüz gave his oath of allegiance.

The Senior jüz was confirmed as part of the empire in 1738. Despite these claims, Russia lacked full control for much of the century. Kazakhs viewed the oath as a loose protection arrangement, while Russia saw it as strict submission. Many Kazakh elders did not give allegiance; the Junior jüz often withheld hostages, and the Middle and Senior jüzes gave neither tax nor hostages.

Kazakh sultans continued diplomacy with the Qing Empire into the 1820s, and the Senior jüz was not fully subject until 1846, near the end of Kenesary's Rebellion.

The Syr Darya line

In the 1830s, Kokand pushed north, setting up forts to trade and tax Kazakh herders. The Kenesary uprising weakened Russian authority, spurring them to build more forts in the steppe. Fort Raim, placed where the Syr Darya meets the Aral Sea, gave them control of the river but angered Khiva and Kokand. Raiders from those states hit Russian troops, so the Russians retaliated by kicking out a Khivan garrison.

By 1852, Russia decided to crush Kokand’s power, and the Tsar okayed a chain of forts linking the Siberian line to the Syr Darya, which they saw as a natural border. When a Russian survey team moved up the river, the commander of Ak-Mechet, Kokand’s key northern fort, warned them off. Vasily Perovsky, back as Orenburg’s military governor, sent Colonel Blaramberg to check out Ak-Mechet and maybe destroy it. Blaramberg tried to storm the fort, but his guns couldn’t breach its walls, and he pulled back with several dead and wounded.

Conquest of Kokand and Bukhara

In 1864, Alimkul tried to raid Russian territory and recapture occupied lands, but at Ican his army encountered a hundred Cossacks. Despite heavy casualties, the Cossacks broke through his encirclement. Alimkul retreated. About 50 miles south of the new line was Chimkent (Shymkent), which belonged to Kokand.

After an initial failed attack, the Russians took it. On 15 October, they appeared before Tashkent but failed to take it by sudden assault and retreated. Kokand then failed to retake Hazrat-i-Turkestan. In April 1865, Chernayev made a second attack on Tashkent.

Unable to take the large place, he occupied the water supply at Niazbek. Kokand Regent Alim Kuli arrived with 6,000 troops and almost defeated the Russians but was killed. The inhabitants offered to submit to the Emir of Bokhara. On 27 June, Chernayev risked a storm; Captain Abramov scaled the wall and opened gates. After constant street fighting, the elders surrendered on 29 June.

Conquest of Transcaspia

Transcaspia, corresponding to the Karakum Desert, was inhabited by Turkmen nomads. They had no organized state, served as mercenaries for Khiva, and raided Persia, selling slaves in the Khiva market. They bred desert-adapted horses and were good raiders, but could do little against modern weapons and explosive artillery. The main problem was moving men and supplies across the desert.

Lazarev landed a force at Chikishlyar and moved up the Atrek River, but died suddenly. Lomakin took command, crossed the Kopet Dagh with too few men, made an incompetent attack on Geok Tepe, and was forced to retreat. Skobelev took command in March 1880, spent most of the year moving supplies, and in December besieged Geok Tepe for a month. He took it by detonating a mine to breach the wall; at least 14,000 Tekes were killed.

He occupied Ashgabat in May 1881, and the area was annexed as the Transcaspian Oblast, with its eastern boundary undefined.