Khivan campaign of 1873

Russo–Khivan War of 1873
Part of Russian conquest of Turkestan
Date 11 March – 14 June 1873 Location Khiva (present-day western Uzbekistan, southwestern Kazakhstan and much of Turkmenistan) Result Russian victory Khiva becomes a Russian protectorate
Belligerents
Russia	Khiva
Commanders and leaders
Alexander II Konstantin von Kaufman	Muhammad Rahim Bahadur II
Strength
13,000 troops	unknown
Casualties and losses
unknown	unknown

Russian victory

By the Russo–Khivan War of 1873 Russia gained control over the Khanate of Khiva. By 1868, during the Russian conquest of Turkestan, Russia had captured Tashkent and Samarkand and gained control over Khanate of Kokand in the eastern mountains and the Khanate of Bukhara along the Oxus. This left an approximately triangular area east of the Caspian, south of the Oxus (Amu Darya) and north of the Persian border. At the north of this triangle was the Khanate of Khiva. Russia had tried twice before. In 1717 Prince Bekovitch-Cherkassky marched from the Caspian and defeated the Khivan army. The Khivans lulled him by diplomacy and then slaughtered his entire army. In the Khivan campaign of 1839 Pervosky marched south from Orenburg. The winter was unusually cold, most of his camels died and he was forced to turn back.

A decision to attack Khiva was made in March 1870. The problem was that Khiva was an oasis surrounded by several hundred miles of desert. This desert had to be mapped and waterholes found before armies could move. In 1869 Radetzsky founded Krasnovodsk which later became the headquarters of the Trans-Caspian Military District and the start of the Trans-Caspian Railway. Skobelev mapped a route from Krasnovodsk to the edge of the oasis and Markozov later explored the area more thoroughly. Lomakin explored the Mangyshlak Peninsula. In September 1872 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 Kaufmann 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 of Cossack 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 from Tashkent and meet a second force moving south from (2) Fort Aralsk. The two would meet in the middle of the Kyzylkum Desert at Min Bulak and move southwest to the head of the Oxus delta. Meanwhile, (3) Veryovkin would go south from Orenburg along the west side of the Aral Sea and meet (4) Lomakin coming directly east from the Caspian while (5) Markozov would march northeast from Krasnovodsk, later changed to Chikishlyar. The reason for this odd plan may have been bureaucratic rivalry. The governor of Orenburg had always had primary responsibility for Central Asia. Kaufmann's newly conquered Turkestan Province had many active officers while the Viceroy of the Caucasus had by far the most troops.

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