Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky

Russo–Khivan War of 1717
Date 1717 Location Khiva (present-day western Uzbekistan, southwestern Kazakhstan and much of Turkmenistan) Result Khivan victory Russian invasion of Khiva repelled
Belligerents
Khiva	Russia
Commanders and leaders
Shir Ghazi	Peter the Great Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky †
Strength
24,000	unknown, but significantly lesser than that of Khiva
Casualties and losses
unknown	almost all the troops killed or captured

Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Беко́вич-Черка́сский), born Devlet-Girei-mırza (Russian: Девлет-Гирей-мурза) (died 1717), was a Russian officer of Circassian origin who led the first Russian military expedition into Central Asia.

A Muslim by birth, and the son of one of Kabarda's rulers, Alexander converted to Christianity and joined the Russian service, although the dates and circumstances of these events are not on record. In 1707, he was commissioned by Peter the Great to study navigation in Western Europe, and towards the end of 1711 he was back in Russia. From there, he was sent back to his native Kabarda and persuaded some powerful men there to support the Russian Tsar in his operations against the Ottoman Empire.

Two years later, a Turkmen traveller arrived in Astrakhan and announced to local authorities that the Oxus River, formerly flowing to the Caspian Sea, had been diverted by the Khivans to the Aral Sea in order to extract golden sand from the river waters. Prince Gagarin, who was a local governor at that time, sent his envoys to the Khanate of Khiva in order to verify the fable. They returned with a sack of golden sand, allegedly extracted from the Oxus.

The fable was then given credit, and the Turkmen brought to St. Petersburg. Tsar Peter, informed about the fabulous wealth of Khiva, was desperately in need of gold to proceed with the Great Northern War. On 14 February 1716 a contingent of 7,000 troops was placed under the command of Prince Bekovich-Cherkassky as a Muslim by birth and an expert in the art of warfare.

...
Wikipedia