Konstantin von Kaufman

Konstantin von Kaufman
Konstantin Petrovich Kaufman, first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan
Born	2 March 1818
Died	16 May 1882 Tashkent, Syr-Darya Oblast
Nationality	German-Russian
Occupation	Governor-General of Russian Turkestan

Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann (Russian: Константи́н Петро́вич фон-Ка́уфман; 2 March 1818 – 16 May 1882) was the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan.

His family was German in origin (from Holstein), but had been in the service of the Tsars for over 100 years, and had long since converted to Orthodoxy. Kaufman graduated from Nikolayev Engineering Institute, now Military Engineering-Technical University (Russian ), as a military engineer. Von Kaufman entered the military engineering field in 1838, served in the campaigns in the Caucasus, was promoted to the rank of colonel, and commanded the sappers at the siege of Kars in 1855. On the capitulation of Kars he was deputed to settle the terms with General William Fenwick Williams.

In 1861, he became director-general of engineers at the War Office, assisting Count Dmitry Milyutin, the Minister of War, in the reorganization of the army. Promoted lieutenant general in 1864, he was nominated adjutant-general and Governor of the military conscription of Vilna, where at that time the Tsarist state had begun a policy of expropriating the Polish aristocracy in an attempt to break its influence in the countryside.

At the high point of the Russian conquest of Turkestan, in 1867, he became Governor-General of the new province of Turkestan, and held the post until his death, making himself a name in the expansion of the empire in Central Asia. The western part of the Khanate of Kokand along the Syr Darya had already been captured, and the independence of the rest of that country became merely nominal. He accomplished a successful campaign in 1868 against the Emirate of Bukhara, capturing Samarkand and gradually subjugating the whole country.