Chapter CCCXC: Section 7 (18)

"The Russian general soon showed that he was determined not to
allow the allies to carry on their operations against the town
undisturbed. Large parties of Russian soldiers had for some
time been reconnoitring in the direction of Balaclava, showing
that an attack in that quarter was meditated. At length, on
the 25th of October, an army of 30,000 Russians advanced
against the English position, hoping to get possession of the
harbours and to cut the allies off from their supplies, or at
any rate to destroy the stores which had already been landed.
The part of the works on which the Russian troops first came
was occupied by redoubts, defended by a body of Turkish
recruits, recently arrived from Tunis, who, after offering a
very feeble resistance, fled in confusion. But when the
Russians, flushed with this first success, attempted to pursue
the advantage they had gained, they soon encountered a very
different foe in the Highlanders, commanded by Sir Colin
Campbell, who bore the brunt of the Russian attack with great
firmness. The British cavalry particularly distinguished
themselves in this action, routing a far superior force of
Russian cavalry. It was in the course of this engagement that
the unfortunate blunder occurred, in consequence of which 607
men [the 'Light Brigade' immortalized by Tennyson] galloped
forth against an army, and only 198 came back, the rest having
been killed, wounded, or made prisoners. A long,
unsatisfactory controversy was carried on some time after,
having for its object to decide who was to blame for throwing
away, in this foolish manner, the lives of so many gallant
men. It seems that the orders were not very clearly expressed,
and that the general—Lord Lucan—by whom they were received,
misapprehended them more completely than a man in his position
ought to have done. In the end, the Russians were forced to
retire, without having effected their object: but as they
retained some portion of the ground that had been occupied by
the allies at the commencement of the battle, they too claimed
the victory, and Te-Deums were sung all over Russia in honour
of this fragmentary success. However, the Russian commander
did not abandon the hope of being able to obtain possession of
Balaclava. On the very day following the affair which has just
been related, the Russians within the town made a sortie with
a force of about 6,000 men: but near the village of Inkermann
they encountered so strong a resistance from a far inferior
force, that they were obliged to retreat.
{2778}
The Russian army at Balaclava had been prepared to coöperate
with them; but the promptitude and vigour with which the
allies repelled the sortie prevented the Russians from
entrenching themselves at Inkermann, and thus frustrated the
plan of a combined attack on the allied position which had
probably been formed. The village of Inkermann, which was the
scene of this skirmish, shortly after witnessed a more deadly
and decisive contest. It was on the morning of Sunday,
November 5th, that the approach of the Russian army was heard,
while it was still concealed from view by the mists which
overhung the British position. That army had been greatly
increased by the arrival of large reinforcements, and every
effort had been made to exalt the courage of the soldiers:
they had been stimulated by religious services and
exhortations, as well as by an abundant supply of ardent
spirits; and they came on in the full confidence that they
would be able to sweep the comparatively small British force
from the position it occupied. That position was the centre of
a grand attack made by the whole Russian army. The obscurity
prevented the generals of the allies from discovering what was
going on, or from clearly discerning, among a series of
attacks on different parts of their position, which were real,
and which were mere feints. There was a good deal of confusion
in both armies; but the obscurity, on the whole, favoured the
Russians, who had received their instructions before they set
out, and were moving together in large masses. It was, in
fact, a battle fought pell-mell, man against man, and regiment
against regiment, with very little guidance or direction from
the commanding officers, and consequently one in which the
superior skill of the British gave them little advantage. The
principal point of attack throughout was the plateau of
Inkermann, occupied by the Guards and a few British regiments,
who maintained a long and unequal struggle against the main
body of the Russian army. It was, in fact, a hand-to-hand
contest between superior civilization on the one hand, and
superior numbers on the other, in which it is probable that
the small British force would have been eventually swept off
the field. Bosquet, the ablest of the French generals, with a
soldier's instinct at once divined, amid all the obscurity,
turmoil, and confusion, that the British position was the real
point of attack; and therefore, leaving a portion of his force
to defend his own position, he marched off to Inkermann, and
never halted till his troops charged the Russians with such
fury that they drove them down the hill, and decided the fate
of the battle in favour of the allies. … Meanwhile Mr. Sidney
Herbert, the minister at war, had succeeded in inducing Miss
Florence Nightingale, well known in London for her skilful and
self-denying benevolence, to go out and take charge of the
military hospitals in which the wounded soldiers were
received. Everything connected with the hospitals there was in
a state of the most chaotic confusion. The medical and other
stores which had been sent out were rotting in the holds of
vessels, or in places where they were not wanted. Provisions
had been despatched in abundance, and yet nothing could be
found to support men who were simply dying from exhaustion.
The system of check and counter-check, which had been devised
to prevent waste and extravagance in the time of peace, proved
to be the very cause of the most prodigious waste,
extravagance, and inefficiency in the great war in which
England was now embarked. The sort of dictatorial authority
which had been conferred on Miss Nightingale, supported by her
own admirable organising and administrative ability, enabled
her to substitute order for confusion, and procure for the
multitudes of wounded men who came under her care the comforts
as well as the medical attendance they needed. She arrived at
Scutari with her nurses on the very day of the battle of
Inkermann. Winter was setting-in in the Crimea with unusual
rigour and severity."

_W. N. Molesworth,
History of England, 1830-1874,
volume 3, chapter 1._

ALSO IN:
_E. H. Nolan,
Illustrated History of the War against Russia,
chapters 40-48 (volume 1)._

_Chambers' Pictorial History of the Russian War,
chapters 7-8._

RUSSIA: A. D. 1854-1855.
Siege and capture of Kars.

"Everywhere unsuccessful in Europe, the Russians were more
fortunate in Asia. Towards the close of 1854, the Turkish army
at Kars was in a wretched and demoralised condition. Its
unsatisfactory state, and the reverses it had experienced,
resulting, it was well known, from the misconduct of the
Turkish officials, induced the British government to appoint
Colonel Williams as a commissioner to examine into the causes
of previous failures, and endeavour to prevent a repetition of
them. … Colonel Williams, attended only by major Teesdale and
Dr. Sandwith, arrived at Kars at the latter end of September,
1854, where he was received with the honour due to his
position. Kars, in past times considered the key of Asia
Minor, is 'a true Asiatic town in all its picturesque
squalor,' and has a fortress partly in ruins, but once
considered most formidable. On inspecting the Turkish army
there, Colonel Williams found the men in rags; their pay
fifteen and even eighteen months in arrear; the horses
half-starved; discipline so relaxed that it could be scarcely
said to exist; and the officers addicted to the lowest vices
and most disorderly habits. … Though treated with an
unpardonable superciliousness and neglect by Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe, the British ambassador at Constantinople, Colonel
Williams succeeded in promoting a proper discipline, and in
securing the men from being plundered by their officers. In
the January of 1855, the Turkish government granted Colonel
Williams the rank of terik, or general in the Ottoman army,
together with the title of Williams Pasha. The inactivity of
the Russian army at Gumri excited much surprise; but
notwithstanding the condition of the Turks, they permitted
spring to pass away, and summer to arrive, before active
hostilities were resumed. … During this period, the Turks at
Kars had been employed, under the direction of colonel Lake,
in throwing up fortifications around the town, which gradually
assumed the appearance of a formidably intrenched camp. Early
in June the Russians left Gumri, and encamped within five
leagues of Kars. They were estimated at 40,000 men; while the
Turkish troops amounted to about 15,000 men, who had been
familiarised with defeat, and scourged by fever and the
scurvy. In addition to this, their provisions were
insufficient to enable them to sustain a siege of any
considerable duration, and their stock of ammunition was very
low The Russians made a partial attack on the town on the 16th
of June, but they met with a repulse. … The road to Erzeroum
was in their possession, and the supplies intended for the
Turks fell into their hands.
{2779}
In effect, they had blockaded Kars by drawing a cordon of
troops around it. A period of dreary inaction followed this
movement of the Russians, broken only by trivial skirmishes at
the outposts. Want was already felt within the town, and the
prospect of surrender or starvation was imminent. … Omar
Pasha, and a large body of Turkish troops from the Crimea, had
landed at Batoum, and it was expected that they would soon
arrive to raise the siege of Kars. This circumstance,
occurring shortly after the arrival of the news of the fall of
Sebastopol, induced many of the officers of the besieged army
to believe that the Russians were about to retire. This
surmise was strengthened by the fact, that, for several days,
large convoys of heavily laden waggons were observed leaving
the Russian camp. General Williams, however, was not deceived
by this artifice, and correctly regarded it as the prelude to
an extensive attack upon Kars. An hour before dawn on the 29th
of September, the tramp of troops and the rumble of artillery
wheels was heard in the distance, and the Turkish garrison
made hurried preparations to receive the foe. Soon the dim
moonlight revealed a dark moving mass in the valley. It was an
advancing column of the enemy, who had hoped to take the Turks
by surprise. In this they were deceived; for no sooner were
they within range, than a crushing shower of grape informed
them that the Moslems were on the alert. The battle commenced
almost immediately. The assailants rushed up the hill with a
shout, and advanced in close column on the breastworks and
redoubts. From these works a murderous fire of musketry and
rifles was poured forth, aided by showers of grape from the
great guns. This told with terrible effect upon the dense
masses of the foe, who fell in heaps. … Riddled with shot, the
Russians were completely broken, and sent headlong down the
hill, leaving hundreds of dead behind them. … Had not the
Turkish cavalry been destroyed by starvation—a circumstance
which rendered pursuit impossible—the Russian army might have
been almost annihilated. The Turks had obtained an unequivocal
victory, after a battle of nearly seven hours' duration. Their
loss did not exceed 463 killed, of whom 101 were townspeople,
and 631 wounded. That of the Russians was enormous; 6,300 of
them were left dead upon the field, and it is said that they
carried 7,000 wounded off the ground. Though the Russians had
suffered a severe reverse, they were not driven from the
position they held prior to the battle … and were enabled to
resume the blockade of the city with as much strictness as
before. The sufferings of the unhappy garrison and inhabitants
of Kars form one of the most terrible pictures incidental to
this war. Cholera and famine raged within the town; and those
who were enfeebled by the last frequently fell victims to the
first. The hospitals were crowded with the sick and wounded,
but the nourishment they required could not be obtained. The
flesh of starved horses had become a luxury, and the rations
of the soldiers consisted only of a small supply of coarse
bread, and a kind of broth made merely of flour and water. …
Children dropt and died in the streets; and every morning
skeleton-like corpses were found in various parts of the camp.
The soldiers deserted in large numbers, and discipline was
almost at an end. … As all hope of relief from Selim Pasha or
Omar Pasha had expired, general Williams resolved to put an
end to these miseries by surrendering the town to the foe. …
Articles of surrender were signed on the 25th of November. …
The fall of Kars was a disgrace and a scandal to all who might
have contributed to prevent it."

_T. Gaspey,
History of England, George III.-Victoria,
chapter 56 (volume 3)._

ALSO IN:
_T. H. Ward,
Humphrey Sandwith,
chapter 9._

_S. Lane-Poole,
Life of Stratford Canning,
chapter 31 (volume 2)._

RUSSIA: A. D. 1854-1856.
Unfruitful peace negotiations at Vienna.
Renewed bombardment of Sebastopol.
Battle of the Tchernaya.
Repulse of the English from the Redan.
Taking of the Malakhoff by the French.
The congress at Paris.
Peace.

In November, 1854, the Czar, Nicholas I., authorized
Gortschakoff, his Minister at Vienna, to signify to the
Western Powers his willingness to conclude peace on the basis
of "the four points" which the latter had laid down in the
previous spring. These "four points" were as follows:

"(1) The protectorate which Russia had hitherto exercised over
the Principalities was to be replaced by a collective
guarantee;

(2) the navigation of the mouths of the Danube was to be freed
from all impediments;

(3) the treaty of 1841 was to be revised in the interests of
the European equilibrium; and

(4) Russia was to renounce all official protectorate over the
Sultan's subjects, of whatever religion they might be. …

The Czar's new move was not entirely successful. It did not
prevent Austria from concluding a close arrangement with the
Western Powers, and it induced her, in concert with France and
England, to define more strictly the precise meaning attached
to the four points. With some disappointment, Russia was
doomed to find that every successive explanation of these
points involved some fresh sacrifice on her own part. The
freedom of the lower Danube, she was now told, could not be
secured unless she surrendered the territory between that
river and the Pruth which she had acquired at the treaty of
Adrianople; the revision of the treaty of 1841, she was
assured, must put an end to her preponderance in the Black
Sea. These new exactions, however, did not deter the Czar from
his desire to treat. By no other means was it possible to
prevent Austria from taking part against him; and a
conference, even if it ultimately proved abortive, would in
the interim confine her to neutrality. Under these
circumstances, Nicholas consented to negotiate. … The
conference which it was decided to hold in December did not
assemble till the following March. The negotiation which had
been agreed to by Aberdeen, was carried out under Palmerston;
and, with the double object of temporarily ridding himself of
an inconvenient colleague, and of assuring the presence of a
statesman of adequate rank at the conference, Palmerston
entrusted its conduct to Russell. While Russell was on his way
to Vienna, an event occurred of momentous importance. Sore
troubled at the events of the war, alarmed at the growing
strength of his enemies, the Emperor of Russia had neither
heart nor strength to struggle against a slight illness. His
sudden death [March 2, 1855] naturally made a profound
impression on the mind of Europe. …
{2780}
Alexander, his successor, a monarch whose reign commenced with
disaster and ended with outrage, at once announced his
adherence to the policy of his father. His accession,
therefore, did not interrupt the proceedings of the
Conference; and, in the first instance, the diplomatists who
assembled at Vienna succeeded in arriving at a welcome
agreement. On the first two of the four points all the Powers
admitted to the Conference were substantially in accord. On
the third point no such agreement was possible. The Western
Powers were determined that an effectual limitation should be
placed on the naval strength of Russia in the Black Sea; and
they defined this limit by a stipulation that she should not
add to the six ships of war which they had ascertained she had
still afloat. Russia, on the contrary, regarded any such
condition as injurious to her dignity and her rights, and
refused to assent to it. Russia, however, did not venture on
absolutely rejecting the proposal of the allies. Instead of
doing so, she offered either to consent to the opening of the
Dardanelles and the Bosphorus to the ships of war of all
nations, or to allow the Sultan a discretion in determining
whether he would open them to the vessels either of the
Western Powers or of Russia. The Western Powers, however, were
firm in their determination to prevent the fleets of Russia
from passing into the Mediterranean, and refused the
alternative. With its rejection the Conference practically
terminated. After its members separated, however, Buol, the
Austrian Minister, endeavoured to evolve from the Russian
offer a possible compromise. …The rejection of the Austrian
alternative necessitated the continuance of the war. But the
struggle was resumed under conditions very different from
those on which it had previously been conducted. Austria,
indeed, considered that the rejection of her proposal released
her from the necessity of actively joining the Western Powers,
and, instead of taking part in the war, reduced her armaments.
But the Western Powers obtained other aid. The little State of
Sardinia sent a contingent to the Crimea; later on in the year
Sweden joined the alliance. Fresh contingents of troops
rapidly augmented the strength of the French and English
armies, and finer weather as well as better management
banished disease from the camp. Under these circumstances the
bombardment was renewed in April. In May a successful attack
on Kertch and Yenikale, at the extreme east of the Crimea,
proved the means of intercepting communication between
Sebastopol and the Caucasian provinces, and of destroying vast
stores intended for the sustenance of the garrison. In June
the French, to whose command Pelissier, a Marshal of more
robust fibre than Canrobert, had succeeded, made a successful
attack on the Mamelon, while the English concurrently seized
another vantage-ground. Men at home, cheered by the news of
these successes, fancied that they were witnessing the
beginning of the end. Yet the end was not to come immediately.
A great assault, delivered on the 18th of June, by the French
on the Malakhoff, by the English on the Redan, failed; and its
failure, among other consequences, broke the heart· of the old
soldier [Lord Raglan] who for nine months had commanded the
English army. … His capacity as a general does not suffer from
any comparison with that of his successor, General Simpson.
That officer had been sent out to the Crimea in the preceding
winter; he had served under Raglan as chief of the staff; and
he was now selected for the command. He had, at least, the
credit which attaches to any military man who holds a
responsible post in the crisis of an operation. For the crisis
of the campaign had now come. On both sides supreme efforts
were made to terminate the struggle. On the 16th of August the
Russian army in force crossed the Tchernaya, attacked the
French lines, but experienced a sharp repulse. On the 8th of
September the assault of June was repeated; and though the
British were again driven back from the Redan, the French
succeeded in carrying the Malakhoff. The Russians, recognising
the significance of the defeat, set Sebastopol and their
remaining ships on fire, and retreated to the northern bank of
the harbour. After operations, which had lasted for nearly a
year, the allies were masters of the south side of the city.
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to prolong any further the
narrative of operations which had little influence on history.
The story of the defence of Kars and of the bombardment of
Sweaborg have an interest of their own. But they had no effect
on the events which followed or on the peace which ensued.
Soon after, the Vienna Conference was dissolved, indeed, it
became evident that the war was approaching its close. The
cost and the sacrifices which it involved were making the
French people weary of the struggle, and the accidental
circumstances, which gave them in August and September the
chief share in the glory, disposed them to make peace. The
reasons which made the French, however, eager for peace, did
not apply to the English. They, on the contrary, were
mortified at their failures. Their expectations had been
raised by the valour of their army at Alma, at Balaklava, and
at Inkerman. But, since the day of Inkerman, their own share
in the contest had added no new page of splendour to the
English story. The English troops had taken no part in the
battle of the Tchernaya; their assaulting columns had been
driven back on the 18th of June; they had been repulsed in the
final attack on the Redan; and the heroic conduct of their own
countrymen at Kars had not prevented the fall of that
fortress. Men at home, anxious to account for the failure of
their expectations, were beginning to say that England is like
the runner, never really ripe for the struggle till he has
gained his second wind. They were reluctant that she should
retire from the contest at the moment when, having repaired
her defective administration and reinforced her shattered
army, she was in a position to command a victory. Whatever
wishes, however, individual Englishmen might entertain,
responsible statesmen, as the autumn wore on, could not
conceal from themselves the necessity of finding some
honourable means for terminating the war. In October the
British Cabinet learned with dismay that the French Emperor
had decided on withdrawing 100,000 men from the Crimea. About
the same time the members of the Government learned with equal
alarm that, if war were to be continued at all, the French
public were demanding that France should secure some advantage
in Poland, in Italy, and on the left bank of the Rhine. In
November the French ministry took a much more extreme course,
and concerted with Austria terms of peace without the
knowledge of England. …
{2781}
It was impossible any longer to depend on the co-operation of
France, and … it was folly to continue the struggle without
her assistance. The protocol which Austria had drawn up, and
to which France had assented, was, with some modifications,
adopted by Britain and presented, as an ultimatum, to Russia
by Austria. In the middle of January, 1856, the ultimatum was
accepted by Russia; a Congress at which Clarendon, as Foreign
Minister, personally represented his country, was assembled at
Paris. The plenipotentiaries, meeting on the 25th of February,
at once agreed on a suspension of hostilities. Universally
disposed towards peace, they found no difficulty in
accommodating differences which had proved irreconcilable in
the previous year, and on the 30th of March, 1856, peace was
signed. The peace which was thus concluded admitted the right
of the Porte to participate in the advantages of the public
law of Europe; it pledged all the contracting parties, in the
case of any fresh misunderstanding with the Turk, to resort to
mediation before using force. It required the Sultan to issue
and to communicate to the Powers a firman ameliorating the
condition of his Christian subjects; it declared that the
communication of the firman gave the Powers no right, either
collectively or separately, to interfere between the Sultan
and his subjects; it neutralised the Black Sea, opening its
waters to the mercantile marine of every nation, but, with the
exception of a few vessels of light draught necessary for the
service of the coast, closing them to every vessel of war; it
forbade the establishment or maintenance of arsenals on the
shores of the Euxine; it established the free navigation of
the Danube; it set back the frontier of Russia from the
Danube; it guaranteed the privileges and immunities of the
Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia; it similarly
guaranteed the privileges of Servia, though it gave the Sultan
the right of garrison in that province; and it undertook that
Russia and Turkey should restore the conquests which they had
made in Asia [Kars, etc.] one from another during the war.
Such were the terms on which the war was terminated. Before
the plenipotentiaries separated they were invited by Walewski,
the Foreign Minister and first representative of France, to
discuss the condition of Greece, of the Roman States, and of
the two Sicilies; to condemn the licence to which a free press
was lending itself in Belgium; and to concert measures for the
mitigation of some of the worst evils of maritime war."

See DECLARATION OF PARIS.

_S. Walpole,
History of England from 1815,
chapter 24. _

ALSO IN:
_E. Hertslet,
The Map of Europe by Treaty,
volume 2, documents 263-272._

RUSSIA: A. D. 1855.
Accession of Alexander II.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1859.
Improved treatment of the Jews.

See JEWS: A. D. 1727-1880.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1859-1876.
Conquests in Central Asia.
Subjugation of Bokhara, Khiva and Khokand.

"The original cause of Russia's appearance in Central Asia or
Turkestan may be considered either the turbulence of the
Kirghiz tribes, or the ambitions and clearly defined policy of
Peter the Great. … Although the Czarina Anne received in 1734
the formal surrender of all the Kirghiz hordes, it was not
until the present century had far advanced that the Russian
Government could so much as flatter itself that it had
effectually coerced them. … When the Kirghiz were subjugated
Russia found no difficulty in reaching the lower course of the
Jaxartes, on which [in 1849] … she established her advanced
post at Kazala, or Fort No. 1. With her ultimate task thus
simplified, nothing but the Crimean War prevented Russia's
immediate advance up the Jaxartes into Turkestan. … The
conquest of the Khanate of Turkestan began with the siege and
capture of the forts Chulak Kurgan and Yani Kurgan in 1859;
its successful progress was shown by the fall of the fortified
towns of Turkestan and Auliata in 1864; and it was brought to
a conclusion with the storming of Tashkent in 1865. The
conquest of this Khanate, which had been united early in the
century with that of Khokand, was thus speedily achieved, and
this rapid and remarkable triumph is identified with the name
of General Tchernaieff."

_D. C. Boulger,
Central Asian Questions,
chapter 1._

"Khudayar Khan, the ruler of Khokand, a noted coward even in
Central Asia, had soon lost his spirits, and implored
Muzaffar-ed-din-Khan for assistance. Bokhara, reputed at that
time the very stronghold of moral and material strength in
Central Asia, was soon at hand with an army outnumbering the
Russian adventurers ten or fifteen times; an army in name
only, but consisting chiefly of a rabble, ill-armed, and
devoid of any military qualities. By dint of preponderating
numbers, the Bokhariots succeeded so far as to inflict a loss
upon the daring Russian general at Irdjar, who, constrained to
retreat upon Tashkend, was at once deposed by his superiors in
St. Petersburg, and, instead of praises being bestowed upon
him for the capture of Tashkend, he had to feel the weight of
Russian ingratitude. His successor, General Romanovsky, played
the part of a consolidator and a preparer, and as soon as this
duty was fulfilled he likewise was superseded by General
Kauffmann, a German from the Baltic Russian provinces, uniting
the qualities of his predecessors in one person, and doing
accordingly the work entrusted to him with pluck and luck in a
comparatively short time. In 1868 the Yaxartes valley,
together with Samarkand, the former capital of Timur, fell
into the hands of Russia, and General Kauffmann would have
proceeded to Bokhara, and even farther, if
Muzaffar-ed-din-Khan … had not voluntarily submitted and
begged for peace. At the treaty of Serpul, the Emir was
granted the free possession of the country which was left to
him, beginning beyond Kermineh, as far as Tchardjui in the
south. … Of course the Emir had to pledge himself to be a true
and faithful ally of Russia. He had to pay the heavy war
indemnity. … he had to place his sons under the tutorship of
the Czar in order to be brought up at St. Petersburg. … and
ultimately he had to cede three points on his southern
frontier—namely, Djam, Kerki, and Tchardjui. … Scarcely five
years had elapsed when Russia … cast her eyes beyond the Oxus
upon the Khan of Khiva. … A plea for a 'casus belli' was soon
unearthed. … The Russian preparations of war had been ready
for a long time, provisions were previously secured on
different points, and General Kauffmann, notoriously fond of
theatrical pageantries, marched through the most perilous
route across bottomless sands from the banks of the Yaxartes
to the Oxus [1873]. …
{2782}
Without fighting a single battle, the whole country on the
Lower Oxus was conquered. Russia again showed herself
magnanimous by replacing the young Khan upon the paternal
throne, after having taken away from him the whole country on
the right bank of the Oxus, and imposed upon his neck the
burden of a war indemnity which will weigh him down as long as
he lives, and cripple even his successors, if any such are to
come after him. Three more years passed, when Russia … again
began to extend the limits of her possessions in the Yaxartes
Valley towards the East. In July, 1876, one of the famous
Russian embassies of amity was casually (?) present at the
Court of Khudayar Khan at Khokand, when suddenly a rebellion
broke out, endangering not only the lives of the Russian
embassy but also of the allied ruler. No wonder, therefore,
that Russia had to take care of the friend in distress. An
army was despatched to Khokand, the rebellion was quelled,
and, as a natural consequence, the whole Khanate incorporated
into the dominions of the Czar. The Khokandians, especially
one portion of them called the Kiptchaks, did not surrender so
easily as their brethren in Bokhara and Khiva. The struggle
between the conquerer and the native people was a bloody and
protracted one; and the butchery at Namangan, an engagement in
which the afterwards famous General Skobeleff won his spurs,
surpasses all the accounts hitherto given of Russian cruelty.
Similar scenes occurred in Endidjan and other places, until
the power of the Kiptchaks, noted for their bravery all over
Central Asia, was broken, and 'peace,' a pendant to the famous
tableau of Vereshtchagin, 'Peace at Shipka,' prevailed
throughout the valleys of Ferghana, enabling the Russian eagle
to spread his wings undisturbedly over the whole of Central
Asia, beginning from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Issyk
Kul in the east, and from Siberia to the Turkoman sands in the
south."

_A. Vambéry,
The Coming Struggle for India,
chapter 2._

ALSO IN:
_F. von Hellwald,
The Russians in Central Asia,
chapters 7-11. _

_J. Hutton,
Central Asia,
chapters 12 and 18._

RUSSIA: A. D. 1860-1880.
The rise, spread and character of Nihilism.

See NIHILISM.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1861.
Emancipation of serfs.

See SLAVERY, MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN:
RUSSIAN SERFDOM.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1864.
Organization of Public Instruction.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.—RUSSIA.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1867.
Sale of Alaska to the United States.

See ALASKA: A. D. 1867.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1869·1881.
Advance in Central Asia from the Caspian.
Capture of Geok Tepe.
Subjugation of the Turkomans.
Occupation of Merv.

"Down to 1869 the Russian advance into Central Asia was
conducted from Orenburg and the various military posts of
Western Siberia. Year by year the frontier was pushed to the
southward, and the map of the Asiatic possessions of Russia
required frequent revision. The long chain of the Altai
Mountains passed into the control of the Czar; the Aral Sea
became a Russian lake; and vast territories with a sparse
population were brought under Russian rule. … The Turcoman
country extends westward as far as the Caspian Sea. To put a
stop to the organized thieving of the Turcomans, and more
especially to increase the extent of territory under their
control, and open the land route to India, the Russians
occupied the eastern shore of the Caspian in 1869. A military
expedition was landed at Krasnovodsk, where it built a fort,
and took permanent possession of the country in the name of
the Czar. Points on the eastern coast of the Caspian had been
occupied during the time of Peter the Great, and again during
the reign of Nicholas I., but the occupation of the region was
only temporary. The force which established itself at
Krasnovodsk consisted of a few companies of infantry, two
sotnias of Cossacks, and half a dozen pieces of artillery.
Three men who afterwards obtained considerable prominence in
the affairs of Central Asia, and one of whom gained a
world-wide reputation as a soldier, were attached to this
expedition. The last was Skobeleff, the hero of Plevna and the
Russo-Turkish campaign of 1877-78. The others were Stolietoff'
and Grodekoff. … The Yomut Turcomans in the Caspian region
made no resistance; they are far less warlike than the Tekke
Turcomans farther to the east, who afterwards became the
defenders of Geok Tepe. … From 1869 to 1873 there were
numerous skirmishes and reconnoitrings, during which the
steppes were pretty well explored as far as Kizil-Arvat.
General Stolietoff' was in command until 1872, when he was
succeeded by Colonel Markusoff, who pushed his explorations to
the wells of Igdy, then bending to the southwest, he passed
Kizil·Arvat on his return to Krasnovodsk. There appeared to be
no obstacle to a Russian advance into the heart of the
country. But when General Lomakin was ordered there during the
years between 1873 and 1879, he found that beyond Kizil-Arvat
were the Tekke Turcomans, who seemed determined to make a
decided opposition to the Muscovite designs. … He advanced
with 4,000 men and reached Geok Tepe without resistance, but
no sooner was he in front of it than the Turcomans fell upon
him. He was severely defeated and made a hasty retreat to
Krasnovodsk with the remnant of his army. General Tergukasoff
was next appointed to the command, but when he saw the
difficulties confronting him he resigned. He was succeeded by
General Petrussovitch under the chief command of Skobeleff.
Thus from Stolietoff to Skobeleff there were no fewer than
seven generals who had tried to conquer the Tekke Turcomans.
Skobeleff, seeing the vast difficulties of the situation,
matured a skilful and scientific plan of operations, for which
he obtained the imperial sanction. … Skobeleff's first work
[1880] was to secure a safe transport, establish a regular
line of steamers across the Caspian, to build suitable docks,
secure 20,000 camels, and build a railway from Michaelovsk to
Kizil-Arvat. Michaelovsk is a small bay near Krasnovodsk and
better suited as a harbor than the latter place. Skobeleff's
first reconnoitring convinced him that Geok Tepe could only be
taken by a regular siege. … Geok Tepe, sometimes called Goek
Tepe ('The Green Hills'), is situated on the Akhal oasis, in
the Turcoman steppes, 387 versts (250 miles), east of the
Caspian Sea. The chain of hills called the Kopet·Dag, lies
south and southwest of Geok Tepe, and on the other side it
touches the sandy desert of Kara Kum, with the hill of Geok on
the east. The Turcomans, or rather the Tekke Turcomans, who
held it are the most numerous of the nomad tribes in that
region.
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They are reported to count about 100,000 kibitkas, or tents;
reckoning 5 persons to a kibitka, this would give them a
strength of half a million. Their great strength in numbers
and their fighting abilities enabled them to choose their
position and settle on the most fertile oases along the
northern border of Persia for centuries. These oases have been
renowned for their productiveness, and in consequence of the
abundance of food, the Tekkes were a powerful race of men, and
were feared throughout all that part of Asia. … The fortress
of Geok Tepe at the time of the Russian advance consisted of
walls of mud 12 or 15 feet high towards the north and west,
and 6 or 8 feet thick. In front of these walls was a ditch, 6
feet deep, supplied by a running stream, and behind the walls
was a raised platform for the defenders. The space between the
first and second interior wall was from 50 to 60 feet wide,
and occupied by the kibitkas of the Tekke Turcomans and their
families. The second wall was exactly like the outer one." The
Russian siege was opened at the beginning of the year 1881.
"The first parallel, within 800 yards of the walls, was
successfully cut by January 4th. From that date it was a
regular siege, interrupted occasionally by sallies of the
Tekkes within the fort or attacks by those outside. In one of
these fights General Petrussovitch was killed. The besieging
army was about 10,000 strong, while the besieged were from
30,000, to 40,000. … Throughout the siege the Turcomans made
frequent sallies and there was almost continuous fighting.
Sometimes the Turcomans drove the Russians from the outposts,
and if they had been as well armed as their besiegers it is
highly probable that Skobeleff would have fared no better than
did Lomakin in his disastrous campaign. … The storming columns
were ordered to be ready for work on January 24th. … At 7
o'clock in the morning of the 24th, Gaidaroff advanced to
attack the first fortification on the south front, supported
by 36 guns. The wall had already been half crumbled down by an
explosion of powder and completely broken by the firing of a
dynamite mine. At 11.20 the assault took place, and during the
action the mine on the east front was exploded. It was laid
with 125 cwt: of gunpowder, and in its explosion completely
buried hundreds of Tekkes. … About 1.30 P. M. Gaidaroff
carried the southwestern part of the walls, and a battle raged
in the interior. Half an hour later the Russians were in
possession of Denghil-Tepe, the hill redoubt commanding the
fortress of Geok Tepe. The Tekkes then seemed to be
panic-stricken, and took to flight leaving their families and
all their goods behind. … The ditches to Geok Tepe were filled
with corpses, and there were 4, 000 dead in the interior of
the fortress. The loss of the enemy was enormous. In the
pursuit the Russians are said to have cut down no less than
8,000 fugitives. The total loss of the Tekkes during the
siege, capture, and pursuit was estimated at 40,000. …
Skobeleff pushed on in pursuit as far as Askabad, the capital
of the Akhal Tekkes, 27 miles east of Geok Tepe, and from
Askabad he sent Kuropatkin with a reconnoitring column
half-way across the desert to Merv. Skobeleff wanted to
capture Merv; but … he did not feel strong enough to make the
attempt. Kuropatkin was recalled to Askabad, which remained
the frontier post of the Russians for several months, until
circumstances favored the advance upon Sarakhs and the Tejend,
and the subsequent swoop upon Merv, with its bloodless capture
[February, 1884]. The siege and capture of Geok Tepe was the
most important victory ever achieved by the Russians in
Central Asia. It opened the way for the Russian advance to the
frontier of India, and carried the boundaries of the empire
southward to those of Persia. In the interest of humanity, it
was of the greatest importance, as it broke up the system of
man-stealing and its attendant cruelties, which the Turcomans
had practised for centuries. The people of Northern Persia no
longer live in constant terror of Turcoman raids; the slave
markets of Central Asia are closed, and doubtless forever."

_T. W. Knox,
Decisive Battles since Waterloo,
chapter 22._

"There is a vast tract of country in Central Asia that offers
great possibilities for settlement. Eastern Afghan, and
Western Turkestan, with an area of 1,500,000 square miles,
have a population which certainly does not exceed 15,000,000,
or ten to the square mile. Were they peopled as the Baltic
provinces of Russia are—no very extreme supposition—they would
support 90,000,000. It is conceivable that something like this
may be realized at no very distant date, when railroads are
carried across China, and when water—the great want of
Turkestan—is provided for by a system of canalisation and
artesian wells. Meanwhile it is important to observe that
whatever benefit is derived from an increase of population in
these regions will mostly fall to China. That empire possesses
the better two-thirds of Turkestan, and can pour in the
surplus of a population of 400,000,000. Russia can only
contribute the surplus of a population of about 100,000,000;
and though the Russian is a fearless and good colonist, there
are so many spaces in Russia in Europe to be filled up, so
many growing towns that need workmen, so many
counter-attractions in the gold bearing districts of Siberia,
that the work of peopling the outlying dependencies of the
empire is likely to be very gradual. Indeed it is reported
that Russia is encouraging Chinese colonists to settle in the
parts about Merv."

_C. H. Pearson,
National Life and Character,
pages 43-44._

ALSO IN:
_General Skobeleff,
Siege and Assault of Denghil-Tépé
(Geok-Tépé): Official Report._

_C. Marvin,
The Russians at the Gates of Herat,
chapter 1-2._

RUSSIA: A. D. 1877-1878.
Successful war with Turkey.
Siege and reduction of Plevna.
Threatening advance towards Constantinople.-
Treaty of San Stefano.
Congress and Treaty of Berlin.

See TURKS: A. D. 1861-1877; 1877-1878; and 1878.

RUSSIA: A. D. 1878-1880.
Movements in Afghanistan.

See AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1869-1881.

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RUSSIA: A. D. 1879-1881.
Nihilist attempts against the life of the Czar Alexander II.
His assassination.