“The evil will had to be broken. History of Samarkand In 1868 Samarkand was occupied

Reading 10 min.

The history of Samarkand is estimated at 2700 years. Last but not least, it is unique due to the geographical location of the city. The city, located in the valley of the Zeravshan River, has been a hub of trade routes and one of the centers of Asia's geopolitical interests since its foundation.

The city was captured by the Persians, Alexander the Great, Arabs, Mongols, Turks. Over a long history, it flourished, completely destroyed and re-created. It was part of various kingdoms as a peripheral region, was the capital of the ancient state of Sogdiana, the powerful empire of Tamerlane, the Turkic kingdom of the Karakhanids, the Uzbek SSR.

Now it is the third largest city in Uzbekistan with a population of 500,000 people. The same number lived here in the 11th century. This is an open-air museum and a concentration of monuments of culture and history.

Ancient city of Samarkand

Do not remember who was the first to call Samarkand not just an eastern city, but the pearl of the East. The definition is correct: the cultures of Asian and Eastern peoples intricately intersected in Samarkand, the history and politics of many states and rulers intertwined, there are monuments from different eras. Separate monuments of antiquity have received a new life (the Hazrat-Khyzr mosque), others are now museums in Samarkand - for example, the local history museum, located in a 20th-century mansion that once belonged to the merchant of the first guild, Abram Kalantarov. Today, the building itself is history and an example of the combination of different styles in architecture in Samarkand.

But uniqueness is not in years: the sights are scattered all over Samarkand, giving a special flavor to the city as a whole, and not just the square dominated by the central monument - the Registan.

Tourists love Samarkand not only for its history and atmosphere. They say that this is the place of power. Each era has left its mark on this earth.

How old is Samarkand: ancient history

The history of Samarkand is given several stages. The most ancient is the period when Samarkand in the 8th century BC was the capital of Sogdiana. In 546-539. BC e. was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus the Great. The empire he created lasted 200 years. Sogdiana paid tribute to the Persians, developed crafts, and organized large fairs. The population professed Zoroastrianism and spoke the Sogdian language, which belongs to the Eastern Iranian group of languages. History has preserved only fragmentary information about that distant era.

In 329 BC. e. Alexander the Great captured Sogdiana. The Sogdian commander Spitamen rebelled, the Macedonian garrison was besieged in the Samarkand region, then called Marakand in the Greek way, and almost completely destroyed. Only a small number of warriors managed to escape. Alexander the Great, under pain of death, forbade talking about what had happened.

After the death of Alexander in 323 BC. e. the empire collapsed. The eastern part, together with Samarkand, came under the command of Seleucus, the former commander of Macedonia.

In 250 B.C. e. Bactria, which included Sogdiana, is declared an independent Greco-Bactrian kingdom. It fell in 125 BC. e., unable to withstand the raid of the nomadic Tokhars, who later organically joined the settled life of the Kushan kingdom in place of the Greco-Bactrian.

The history of the kingdom ends in the 3rd century, having been defeated by the Iranian Shahinshahs of the Sassanids, who also ruled Samarkand.

This marks the end of the most ancient stage of the city's history. But the chronology does not answer the question of how ancient Samarkand is. The age of Samarkand, determined by Soviet science and indicated in history books, was changed by the Decree of the President of the country I. A. Karimov.

In 2007, Samarkand celebrated its 2750th anniversary. The date is conditional - the exact age of the city continues to cause controversy among scientists. Back in the 70s there was a celebratory event dedicated to its 2500th anniversary. Archaeologists continue to work on excavations in Afrosiab. It is possible that Samarkand will prolong its history and celebrate its 3000th anniversary.

The era of the early Middle Ages

In 651, Arab troops invaded Persian possessions. In 712 Samarkand was taken by Caliph Kuteiba ibn Muslim of the Umayyad dynasty. The lands of the Zoroastrians become Islamic, and other religions, history and beliefs are forced out.

As excavations have shown, in the 9th-10th centuries Samarkand was one of the cultural centers of the Islamic East. Mausoleums on the territory of the Shakhi Zinde ensemble began to be erected as early as the 9th century. In the western part of Afrasiab stood the royal palace. By the 10th century, the area of ​​the settlement reached 220 hectares, there was a plumbing from lead pipes, and a complex production of Chinese paper was established. To the south, a suburb was formed with mosques, bazaars, baths, caravanserais and madrasahs. In 1072, the poet Omar Khayyam came to study in one of them.

In the XI-XIII centuries Samarkand became the capital of the state of the Turkic Karakhanid dynasty. During this period, a new palace complex was being built. During the excavations, fragments of monumental painting were found.

All this was destroyed by Genghis Khan. After the capture of Bukhara, he moved to Samarkand and in March 1220 approached its walls. During the period of the seizure of Samarkand lands, the Golden Horde was still part of the Mongol Empire, and the conquered territory became part of the Mongol possessions.

There is an opinion that the reason for the attack was Genghis Khan's resentment against the subordinate Khorezmshah Otrar, who for no reason defeated the caravan of Mongolian merchants and killed the ambassador. Part of the history and monuments of the ancient city was buried under the ashes.

Residents left the ruined houses and began to build a new Samarkand - a new history.

The era of the Muslim renaissance

The rise of Samarkand coincided with the decline of the Mongol Empire. Enmity begins between the khans, attempts are made to free themselves from the Mongol empire and form their own state.

Registan. View from the minaret

In the middle of the 13th century, the first Mongol Khan Berke converted to Islam, created a Muslim army, and began to revive Muslim history and culture. Khanakas are being built on the territory of Maverannahr, Sufi brotherhoods are being supported, book markets are being opened in Samarkand, and mosques are being built. The main part of the mausoleum complex of Kusam ibn Abbas was built during this period.

During the reign of Kebek at the beginning of the 14th century, the khans settled in Maverannahr for the first time. After the death of Kebek, power passes to his brother, who makes Islam the official religion.

Samarkand: the capital of Tamerlane

Timur was born in 1336 in Kesh (Shakhrisabz), about 75 km south of Samarkand. Together with his wife's brother, Emir Hussein, they subjugate Maverannahr.

After the death of his wife, Tamerlane gets rid of Hussein (at that time - the ruler of Samarkand) and declares himself the sole ruler of the empire, and Samarkand - its capital. The best architects, builders and scientists are brought here from the lands occupied by Tamerlane.

Most trade routes converge in Samarkand. According to Timur's plan, the capital should adequately represent the power of the empire and be the most beautiful city in the world. Trade is developing here, encouraged by Tamerlane by reducing duties and strengthening the protection of roads. He punishes mercilessly for attacks on merchant caravans.

The capital is being reconstructed, orchards are being planted in the suburbs, palaces are being built. Creation embraces all. The elder wife of Tamerlane supervises the construction of a madrasah, the other - a khanaka for dervishes.

In 1398 Tamerlane decides to build the largest mosque in the capital. This was supposed to be Bibi-Khanum, named after the wife of the ruler. Then it is being built. The construction was led by the grandson of Tamerlane. He, ahead of his grandfather, was buried there first, marking the beginning of the history of burials in Gur-Emir of the descendants of Tamerlane in the male line. Now in Samarkand, not far from the mausoleum, stands.

There is also his monument in Shakhrisabz and in the capital of Uzbekistan - Tashkent, but many believe that the best sculptural composition dedicated to Timur is in Samarkand.

History of the Late Middle Ages

History speaks of the emergence of the Bukhara Khanate in 1500. The following year, Khan Sheibani began issuing silver and copper coins in Samarkand, building a large Madrasah and a bridge to Kersh. But in 1533 the new Khan Ubaydulla transferred the capital to Bukhara. The ruler of Samarkand, Abdusaid, is replaced by the son of Ubaidalla. The loss of capital status negatively affected the city's economy.

A new rise will come in the 17th century under the rule of Yalangtush Bahadur. Emir was the first ruler from the Uzbek tribe Alchin. He was born in Jizzakh, not far from Samarkand, spent his childhood in the palaces of the Bukhara khans. Under him, the construction of the famous cathedral “golden” mosque Tilla Kori began, combined with a madrasah, and with one of the most comfortable courtyards, where people enjoy relaxing today.

Yalangtush began the restoration of the Ulugbek madrasah and built the educational institution Sherdor on the Registan Square of Samarkand. But the decline was beginning to make itself felt. The city, which was located on the Great Silk Road for a long time, is losing its position along with the development of maritime trade, which has sharply reduced the significance of the thousand-year-old trade route, which is gradually becoming history.

In the middle of the 18th century, the Emirate of Bukhara was formed, which included Samarkand, rivalry with the Khiva Khanate began, and trade ties with Russia were strengthened. In the same period, England has an interest in the region. In the early 1930s, Russia moved troops to the borders of Central Asia to control the steppe regions and prevent British political expansion into Central Asia.

Under the wing of the Russian Empire

In the 19th century, the Russian Empire intensified actions in this direction, which was accompanied by wars with the Kingdom of Kokand and the Emirate of Bukhara. One of the episodes of the military campaign in 1868 was the defense of the city of Samarkand. Having begun hostilities with the emir of Bukhara, the Russian army leaves a small detachment of 600 people in Samarkand. Immediately, unrest against the Russians broke out in the city market, and enemy armies began to rally to the walls of the city. Part of the Russian detachment settled in the citadel, the other guarded the city gates and repelled the onslaught of the Shakhrisabites. After the gate was burned, an attack on the citadel began, but it was not possible to take it.

Reinforcements from the Cossacks and the army of General Kaufman were coming to the city. As they approached, they fired flares, which was a sign of their approach. By the time the enemy troops entered the city, there were no longer any on its territory, no one wanted to resist the Russian army. The defense lasted 8 days, 49 Russian soldiers died, 172 people were injured. The Samarkand bazaar was burned down.

The concept of Russian Samarkand arose in the 19th century under the governor A.K. Abramov, who divided it into two parts - "native" with local residents and European. The latter began to quickly build up, bringing its culture, history and architecture. A theater was opened, a choir and a military brass band were created, masquerades were held, shops and trade shops modern for that time grew up. In the same period, the Samarkand region (province) becomes an administrative unit of Russian Turkestan. At the beginning of the 20th century, this name disappeared, the name "Central Asia" appeared.

Archaeological excavations and the compilation of historical reference books, begun by Russian researchers in 1870, cease at the beginning of the 20th century due to revolutionary events in the Russian Empire.

After the 1920s, this activity will be continued by the forces of Soviet Russia. Architecture will change dramatically.

This is the only city in Central Asia where the administration occupies a pre-revolutionary Russian building, which has been used for its intended purpose throughout its existence. The city executive committee met here, before it - the council and the residence of the governor.

Modern history of Samarkand

With the advent of Soviet power in 1918, a civil war and the struggle against the Basmachi began. In 1924 the Uzbek SSR was formed, and Samarkand was proclaimed the capital. He will remain in this capacity until 1930, when Tashkent becomes the center.

Modern Samarkand, Mirzo Ulugbek St.

In the 1930s, schools, institutes and the University were opened, and the restoration of historical monuments began. The 35-meter minaret of the Ulugbek Madrasah is being straightened, lopsided after the earthquake. But as spiritual educational institutions, all madrasahs are closed.

During the Second World War, the military academy, art universities in Moscow, Kyiv, Leningrad, production facilities and a large number of Russian families were evacuated here, for which Samarkand becomes home.

Rashidov Sh.R. played a huge role in the development of Soviet Uzbekistan. Under him in 1970 the city celebrated its 2500th anniversary. By this date, the Museum of the History of the City of Samarkand was opened. In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, Uzbekistan opened a new page in history.

Samarkand is a popular tourist destination: a large selection of tours with an emphasis on the history of different periods, hotels of any price level, cafes and restaurants. The best time to visit is April-May and September-October.

In the USSR, we were given a picture of the friendship of the peoples of the USSR. But they hid the fact that Soviet power was imposed on the entire territory of the former Turkestan (present-day Central Asia) by coercive force. Before the October Revolution, Western (Russian) Turkestan was a flourishing outskirts with developed agriculture and processing industry. After the arrival of the Bolsheviks in Turkestan, the Civil War began, which led to significant destruction and economic decline. The introduction of fuel energy has begun.
The Soviet government actually bought the loyalty of the Central Asian republics in exchange for concessions.
After the collapse of the USSR corporation at the end of 1991, almost all the industry built during the years of Soviet power was dismantled, the able-bodied population of the former Central Asian republics works abroad, mainly in the Russian Federation.
In the period from 1918-42, the entire population of Turkestan rose to fight the red plague of Bolshevism and communism. This liberation movement was called Basmachi and had a sharply negative meaning during the years of Soviet power. But you can't hide the truth. Soviet power could not hold on to the territory of the USSR. The population of the former Turkestan is loyal to the white population of pre-revolutionary Turkestan, and not to the Jewish Red Bolshevik gangs. Before the October Revolution, Turkestan was white, Russian, after it, red, Jewish.

Samarkand 1930. There were water mills that could provide the whole city with electricity, street vendors were treated to water with ice and last year's snow, poured with syrup (similar to ice cream).
How did they manage to freeze the water and keep the ice from last winter? (see BADGIR).

Why were madrasahs and mosques destroyed, why did Ulug-bek's minaret lean?

There was a civil war, Samarkand was almost destroyed.

1929 - the Vatican was formed, religions began to be planted.

8:08-teahouse, a sign in 2 fonts: in Latin and Cyrillic.

In those days, the Soviet government carried out the Latinization of the languages ​​​​of the USSR.

What Samarkand looked like in 1930 when it ceased to be the capital

The Soviet government completed the construction of the Turksib (Turkestan-Siberian Railway) and confidently entrenched itself in the vast territory of Turkestan.

Zhirinovsky is right in asserting from the rostrum of the State Duma about the voluntary-compulsory imposition of Soviet power in Turkestan.
The money invested in Turkestan has gone like water in the sand, everything that was built during the years of Soviet power has now been dismantled, the able-bodied population of Central Asia is working in Russia. With the current political system, no one will develop and invest money in Central Asia. The Bolsheviks artificially divided Turkestan into republics and nations.

Zhirinovsky. The Uzbeks took Samarkand and Bukhara from the Tajiks. Kazakhs and Kyrgyz are one people.

Briefly about the history of Turkestan:

In 1868, Samarkand was occupied by Russian troops and annexed to the Russian Empire and became the center of the Zeravshan district, which was transformed in 1887 into Samarkand region. In the same year, the Samarkand garrison under the command of Major General and Baron Friedrich von Stempel repelled an attempt by Samarkand residents to overthrow the Russian government. In 1888, the Trans-Caspian railway was brought to the city station, which was subsequently extended to the east.

After the October Revolution, the city became part of the Turkestan ASSR. In 1925-1930 it was the capital of the Uzbek SSR, and since 1938 - the center of the Samarkand region of this union republic.

Rail transport reached Samarkand in 1888 as a result of the construction of the Trans-Caspian Railway in 1880-1891 by the railway troops of the Russian Empire in the territory of modern Turkmenistan and the central part of Uzbekistan. This railway started from the city of Krasnovodsk (now Turkmenbashi) on the coast of the Caspian Sea and ended at the station of the city of Samarkand.

It was the Samarkand station that was the terminal station of the Trans-Caspian railway. The first station of the Samarkand station was opened in May 1888.
Later, due to the construction of the railway in other parts of Central Asia, the station was connected to the eastern part of the Central Asian railway and subsequently this railway was called the Central Asian Railways.

In the Soviet years, not a single new line was connected to the Samarkand station, but at the same time it was one of the largest and most important stations of the Uzbek SSR and Soviet Central Asia.

By the time the territorial expansion of the Russian Empire began, there were three state entities on the territory of modern Uzbekistan: the Emirate of Bukhara, the Kokand Khanate and the Khiva Khanate. In 1876, the Kokand Khanate was defeated by the Russian Empire, the Khanate was abolished, and the central territories of the Khanate were included in the Fergana region.
By the beginning of the 20th century, Central Asia was part of the Russian Empire and at the beginning of the formation of Soviet power, despite the resistance of the Basmachi to the Bolsheviks, all of Central Asia became part of the Soviet Union, from the Turkestan ASSR, the Bukhara Republic and the Khorezm Republic.

From November 27, 1917 to February 22, 1918, an unrecognized independent state existed on the territory of Uzbekistan - the Turkestan autonomy.

In January 1918, after the Turkestan autonomy refused to comply with the ultimatum presented to recognize the power of the Soviets, to eliminate the self-proclaimed Turkestan autonomy from Moscow to Tashkent arrived 11 echelons with troops and artillery , under the command of Konstantin Osipov.

From February 6 to February 9, 1918, street battles took place, with significant casualties and destruction in which more than 10 thousand civilians died. This operation destroyed the trust of the local population in the Russian revolution, the central and local Soviet authorities for many decades. The response to the liquidation of the Turkestan autonomy was a powerful national liberation partisan movement, known in Soviet historiography as the Basmachi, liquidated by the Soviet government only in the 1930s.
From school, we were painted the image of the Basmachi as villains who resisted Soviet power. We were lied to about what this Soviet power really was.

Basmachism (from the Turkic “basma” - raid + suffix -chi) is a military-political partisan movement of the local population of Central Asia in the first half of the 20th century, which arose after the 1917 revolution in the Russian Empire. The first significant centers of this movement arose after the defeat of the Kokand autonomy by the Bolsheviks in the territory of Turkestan, and after the national demarcation - in the territories of modern Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, which set as its goal the fight against Soviet power and the expulsion of the Bolsheviks.
(All the people of Turkestan rose to fight the Red Infection, but the forces were unequal.)

The tactics of the Basmachi struggle was to, based in hard-to-reach mountainous and desert areas, make horse raids into densely populated areas, kill Bolsheviks, commissars, Soviet workers and supporters of Soviet power. The rebels resorted to partisan tactics: avoiding clashes with large units of regular Soviet troops, they preferred to suddenly attack small detachments, fortifications or settlements occupied by the Bolsheviks, and then quickly retreat.

Negotiations with representatives of the people (Basmachis). Fergana. 1921

Large organized armed groups of representatives of this movement were referred to in the Soviet media as Basmachi. The members of these armed groups called themselves Mujahideen, that is, participants in jihad - the holy war of Muslims against infidels, that is, non-Muslims.

In Soviet times, the concepts of Basmach and Basmachism had a connotation of extreme condemnation . After the collapse of the USSR, the attitude towards the Basmachi in the independent republics of Central Asia is gradually being revised. Currently, this movement is called "the liberation movement of the peoples of Central Asia."
According to the official version, the Basmachi as an organized force was eliminated throughout Central Asia in 1931-1932, although separate battles and clashes continued until 1942.

Basmachi war against Soviet power (Wikipedia):

Main Conflict: Russian Civil War

Location: The whole of Western Turkestan, the territories of Eastern Turkestan, Afghanistan and Persia adjacent to Russia / USSR

Reason: The defeat of the Kokand autonomy by the Bolsheviks.

Outcome: Elimination of the Basmachi movement.

After the national-territorial demarcation of Central Asia, on October 27, 1924, the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was formed with its capital in the city of Samarkand.
On September 1, 1930, the capital of the Uzbek SSR was moved from Samarkand to Tashkent.

The peasant population of the Uzbek SSR, like other republics of the USSR, was subjected to collectivization and dispossession. In 1931, more than 3.5 thousand kulak families were evicted from the republic, mainly to the Ukrainian SSR.
The population offered resistance - in January-March 1930 alone, there were 105 armed anti-collective farm demonstrations in the republic.

Forced Latinization of the languages ​​of the USSR.

I recommend watching an excellent film of 1955: the sunset of the Emirate of Bukhara.
You won't regret the time spent. It shows the Civil War on the territory of Turkestan
and the resistance of the Basmachi (liberation movement) to the hordes of the Reds.
Lots of interesting details.

Sunset of the Emirate of Bukhara (1955)

Living now in the Trans-Baikal region, I accidentally met two Sarts in Kyakhta, eyewitnesses of the fall of Samarkand. They served hard labor, the term of settlement and now, free, occupy private places. From their words, I wrote down interesting stories about the conquest of the city of Samarkand by the Russians and about the “seven-day sitting”. These stories deserve attention just because, unfortunately, there are not many participants and eyewitnesses of those historical events that I am talking about: one by one they leave the stage, and the Sarts I met are approaching old age.

The narrations of the Sarts are interesting as an expression of the personal views and impressions of the narrators, who were not only witnesses, but also participants in the patriotic movement in favor of protecting the city of Samarkand from the approaching dangerous enemy, and at the same time, here, as in a mirror, the general mood of the then inhabitants of the city is reflected. Samarkand, their hesitations, unrest, which finally gave way to the recognition of the Russian military genius. I could evaluate the reliability of the stories after living in Turkestan for more than fourteen years, ten of them in Samarkand, and getting acquainted with the history of the region, both from written sources and from the stories of many people (I had previously recorded four eyewitness accounts in Samarkand: one Sart , two Russian retired soldiers and one Samarkand Jewess, were published in the “Turkestan Literary Collection” of 1899, published on the initiative of the late Turkestan Governor-General S. M. Dukhovsky, who personally attracted employees).

Part one

The story of Komilboy, a Sart, a native of the city of Samarkand, now a watchman in the Troitskosava police department, named Konstantin Bogdanov after his adoption of Orthodoxy.

My father was a Turk who settled in Samarkand, my mother was a Sartyan. My father was sixty years old, and I was twenty-three years old, when the rumor got around that the Russians were marching on Samarkand. My elder brother was married at that time and had two children, my mother died two years before the arrival of the Russians. My father had a butcher's shop in the market. My brother ran the field, and I helped my father in the trade. I didn’t like trade, I liked better to ride a wild horse, fight a goat (fighting a goat is one of the favorite pastimes of the Sarts. A few versts from Samarkand, in a place called Afrosiab, on a plain surrounded by high sandy hills, a daring youth gathers on horseback. brisk horses. Old men climb the tops of hills and from the top of the highest hill on the steep side they throw it to the daring, waiting at the foot of the mountain, a live goat. In this case, the goat portrayed himself as a shaitan (devil). The goat is picked up on the fly by the daring. Lucky, and sometimes and two or three, having mastered the unfortunate animal, pursued by rivals, rush across the plain in different directions until the goat is torn into small pieces. receives a prize.Since the conquest of the city of Samarkand by the Russians, "baiga" or this kind of sport has not been destroyed, but it was forbidden to flog a live goat.From the top of the Afrosiab mountain, the Russian guests of honor present, with the commander of the troops of the Samarkand region at the head, throw (the performers here are foremen aksakals) of a goat already killed earlier. From the top of the hill, the whole plain, while chasing the goat, seems like boiling porridge. Nothing can be seen in the rallied crowd of two to three thousand people, except for the moving, rushing heads of horsemen. The late Count Nikolai Yakovlevich Rostovtsev, unforgettable in the annals of Samarkand, spreading light, joy and brilliance everywhere with his presence, he himself distributed prizes, and not to one, but to several daredevils, and such prizes that the Sarts had not entrusted before him: luxurious silk robes, silver things etc.), engage in combat. I was different from my childhood.

On the settlement of Afrosiab - equestrian competition, which the author calls "baiga"
Photo: , 1907

Of course, the whole of Samarkand was excited when they learned that the Russians were moving from Jizzakh towards us. We had two Russian soldiers who fled to us in order to get rid of the heavy punishment to which they were sentenced, I don’t know for what crimes. I remember these two soldiers well. Both adopted Mohammedanism and promised to train us in military affairs. One of them is tall and skinny. They named him Usman. Another short, broad-shouldered, very strong retained his Russian surname Bogdanov. Both of them were appointed colonels: Bogdanov as commander of artillery (he was an artilleryman), and Usman as commander of infantry. They taught us to shoot, march, taught us discipline and order. Both Bogdanov and Usman said that there were few Russians, that they were tired and hungry, and that there was nothing to be afraid of.

The Samarkand bek hesitated whether to defend the city or not: he was waiting for an order from the Emir of Bukhara, and the mullahs opposite in mosques, bazaars and squares ardently appealed for the protection of his native city and famous mosques, inflamed the people, demanded war. In the Tilla-Kali madrasah, a council of elected district representatives was assembled to discuss measures to protect the city. They did it arbitrarily, without asking the bek. Our father was at this council and told us at home that there had been terrible riots. Bek became angry when he learned that the issue was being resolved without him, and sent his close associates and a detachment of sarbas (local soldiers) to the meeting. The bek's close associates argued and quarreled with the mullahs, it came to a fight, the sarbas intervened, and began to shoot at the people. The townspeople killed representatives from the bek and several sarbas. There was a general dump. The mullahs suffered the most. The soldiers not only killed and wounded many, but also plundered their property, and in the madrasah itself, the students living there also got it, they were expelled from their cells and took possession of their miserable belongings.

"Sarbas", artist Vereshchagin V.V.

Despite such opposition from the Bek, the Sarts were worried and prepared for war. They were embittered by the sending of sarbas to the council in Tilla-Kari, and they no longer turned to the bek. It was decided not to let the Russians near the city itself, and for this to occupy Chupanaty, a sandy hill near the Zeravshan River itself, which, due to its rapidity and summer floods, has neither crossings nor bridges. (Since this river is not deep, the Sarts cross on horseback to the ford or on carts). This area is about eight versts from the city.

We believed that, firstly, the Russians would not dare to ford an unfamiliar fast river, and, secondly, if they even took it into their head to dare, then during the difficult transition we would kill them all without exception from the hill. Our position was very advantageous. Bogdanov volunteered to supply artillery, gathered hunters, dug trenches, made trenches, and installed guns. There were more than twenty guns directed at Zeravshan. I was among the hunters. We all encouraged each other and reached the point of being sure that we would drive the Russians out. I was quite happy. I thought then that the best thing in the world is war, and people who are at war are the happiest. How stupid I was! I was everywhere the shadow of Bogdanov and ran away only to find out what Usman was doing. And this one gathered the mounted police and infantrymen and proposed to stand behind the mountain with her in order to attack the Russians from the rear. Both Usman and Bogdanov could not be distinguished from the Sarts. They shaved their hair and wore, like us, turbans and robes.

I don’t know whether the emir sent his consent to defend the city, or everything happened by itself, but only on the day the Russians arrived, the Samarkand bek fled the city, and the Bukhara troops, up to fifteen thousand, camped in the vicinity of the city, joined us. And so we occupied Chupanaty and the plain. We had everything ready, we were waiting for the Russians.

A cavalry dzhigit sent for reconnaissance rode at dawn to Chupanaty, and then to the city and reported that the enemy was already twenty versts from the city. It was May 1st, 1868.

We, the defenders and hunters, as well as the troops, spent the night at Chupanaty. My father gave me a pistol and a saber the day before, and armed himself with a gun. The news of the dzhigit raised everyone to their feet and excited them. It seems that many have only now realized that a terrible hour is coming, that we really have to meet a dangerous enemy and defend our hometown from him. It was as if I was being washed away, I could not stand still, I fled from the mountain to the plain and from there turned to my people. The whole mountain was dotted with defenders, red, yellow, blue, white robes and white turbans were full of them. From a distance, the mountain seemed like a flower garden or a motley carpet. Defenders from Samarkand also arrived and became anyone, anywhere. I returned to the top of the mountain and took my place beside Bogdanov. He and the other bosses were cheerful, but looking at them, they were cheerful and that's all. We were sure of victory. We said: what the people of Tashkent did not do, the people of Samarkand will do! I didn't let go of the pistol. I imagined that my weapon would hit two miles and destroy not one person, but ten at a time. Bogdanov (later Bogdanov rendered a huge service to the Russians and thus atoned for his crimes) aimed the cannons at the place where the Russians were supposed to be located.

"Waiting", artist Vereshchagin V.V.

It was ten o'clock in the morning. The enemy appeared and stopped on the banks of the Zeravshan. The Russians must have seen us at once, because all the visors turned in our direction. Several Sarts in rich clothes stood out from the enemy crowd and headed towards us in Chupatiaty. These were the ambassadors sent by the emir to General Kaufman for negotiations. I learned later that the emir promised to let the Russians into Samarkand without a fight, and meet them in the city and sign a peace trade treaty. The ambassadors were joyfully received by the defenders, and our commanders surrounded them. We were surprised that they returned alive from the Russian camp. They said that the general had sent them to find out why the emir had deceived him, and why, instead of honorary persons of the city, he was met by the army. Since the emir was neither in Chupanaty nor in Samarkand, there was no one to answer for him to the general. I do not remember whether the ambassadors returned to the Russian army or went straight to the emir in Kermin. Our cannons fired. The aim must have been good, because there was a commotion among the enemy, and the Russians retreated to another place out of range. Their riding jigits crossed to the other side of the Zeravshan and, stretching a rope behind them across the river, tied its end to the trees. The Russians began to cross, holding on to the rope and to each other. We all shot. Cannon shells seem to have flown over heads, but rifle bullets hit, though few. It was evident that a soldier was falling here and there, and Zeravshan was quickly carrying the corpses.

"Under siege" (original painting destroyed), artist Vereshchagin V.V.

But this did not prevent the Russian army from moving forward. We were surprised: the Zeravshan spread into several branches, the Russians crossed one, stepped on the ground, shook off the water and immediately went through the other branch. As if some kind of force carried them on and on. Shots rumbled from Chupanata, and they all went piece by piece. Here the first ones came out onto the plain, threw themselves on their backs, raised their legs and began to chat with them. (Pour water out of boots). And others walked and followed them, came out on the ground and did the same. We thought they were conjuring. The front ones were built in dense rows, row after row of others adjoined them. Our cores flew over their heads, rifle bullets did not reach. It seemed that these were not people, but the spirits of war. And so they lined up and moved towards us. They walk in a dense wall. We shoot, they start hitting again. I myself saw how a soldier would fall here and there, and they would close a row and not stopping the rod forward, as if our shots were nothing to them. They go and go. Their hats with large protruding visors (caps), their legs, which rise and fall in the form of a palisade, inspired fear in us. I stopped shooting, I stand, as if turned to stone. They are getting closer and closer. A dull rumble of footsteps is heard: tup-tup, tup-tup. It seemed that there was an unknown force that could not be stopped or dispelled by anything, and which itself would crush and destroy everything that gets in its way. Our horrified began to move back. I remember that in a panic I dropped my gun and started running as fast as I could. Everyone was running, trying to get ahead of each other. Hurrah was heard from behind! .. The Russians took an empty mountain, except for abandoned guns, rifles, and provisions. We were followed for some time. Sarbases threw not only weapons, but also outerwear, as they were afraid that the inhabitants, recognizing them as soldiers, would not beat them because they had fled. They did not dare to appear in Samarkand and dispersed to villages (villages) and neighboring cities. We, the militias, fled on our sakly to Samarkand. When I came home, my father was already at home. At first he looked at me gloomily, and then propped his hands on his hips and burst out laughing. - Hey defenders! he shouted.

Silently began to dine. My father patted me on the shoulder and said again:

Well, what could we, inept, do if the Bukhara army was the first to flee?

The brother was worried about what would happen now. Shame and anger boiled in my soul, but I remained silent. Thoughts swirled in my head, I held them. My brother advised us to run away from Samarkand, he pointed out that many were fleeing, some to the gardens, some to the villages. But the father was not a coward and said that one should wait for some orders from the elders and kazi. Many really ran, while others walked the streets and waited for something, like our father. The brother sent his wife and children to the village the day before, and now he himself has left, leaving me and my father to wait for events. Most of the neighbors believed that the Russians would come to ravage the city, and then disputes began: some said that it was necessary to protect their sakli, others assured that it was useless, because the Russians were helped by evil spirits.

Kazi came in the evening. He said that the foremen were conferring, that it was decided at the council to select respectable representatives of the population, send them a little before light to the Russian camp on Chupanaty and through them ask General Kaufman to enter the city peacefully and settle down in Samarkand, as at home, that he would find the inhabitants obedient and ready to fulfill all his requirements.

The foremen correctly calculated that with such obedience the people of Samarkand would save our glorious mosques, dwellings, property and the very lives of people. Kazi said that it was impossible to do otherwise, since there were no troops in the city, and the inhabitants had neither weapons nor the ability to fight.

My father was also chosen as a representative, because he was old, smart and rich. A tax was imposed on him to deliver a bull to the Russian army. All the chosen ones were rich people, and all had to pay tribute to the Russian army in the form of sheep, rice, flour for the soldiers, clover and barley for the horses. Part of the loss, of course, took on the population.

At eight o'clock in the evening a cannon (dawn) burst from Chupanat, Yes, so much so that it seemed that the whole of Samarkand trembled. People ran out of the hut, and screams and screams arose throughout the city. Everyone understood what a thunderstorm could break out over the city.

"Parliamenters", artist Vereshchagin V.V.

At dawn, having first sent provisions for the army, the foremen themselves went to the camp with elected representatives.

The youth, my peers and I, although resigned to fate, were not happy with the decision. It seemed shameful to us ourselves to invite a dangerous enemy into the city.

General Kaufman accepted the proposal of the foremen and elected officials to enter the city and appeared in it solemnly. Representatives rode ahead, followed by the general and the army. Many Sarts bowed at the sight of the Russians, others ran away, and so did I. A brother who was wandering around the city came to find out what was the matter. Father told us that General Kaufman was a very kind, good man, that he reassured the population through an interpreter, asked them to inform all the inhabitants that he had come with peaceful intentions and invited all those who fled the city to return to their studies.

Everyone liked the general's proposal, people calmed down, the bazaar opened, they began to trade and work.

"Shir-dor Madrassah on Registan Square", artist Vereshchagin V.V.

I soon learned that Bogdanov had been caught by the Russians at Chupanaty and that he had been arrested.

It was not for nothing that they said about my father that he was smart. He managed to enter into favor with the Russian commanders and became a supplier of food for the army; he honestly delivered fresh goods and received good money, in gold. Both parties were pleased. In Samarkand, in general, everything went well: the Russians were kind and affectionate, they paid generously for everything, the Sarts tried to please them.

But in neighboring villages and other cities, the Sarts were worried. They did not participate in the defense of Samarkand, and now they expressed their displeasure to us and reproached us for not being brave enough in Chupanaty, and then they gave Samarkand without a fight. They did not want to recognize the dominance of the Russians and were going to revolt and liberate the city from foreigners. The Kitab bek, or ruler, Jurabek, enjoyed the fame of an intelligent and brave man. It was he who incited disobedience. He gathered an army and, through jigits, invited Samarkand people under his command. I ran to Jurabek. He led the army he had assembled to Mount Karatyube, forty versts from Samarkand, where more militia detachments from nearby villages were expected to arrive. The Russians somehow found out about it. The general sent a detachment to disperse Jurabek's gang. The Russians had to go across the Dorgom River. There was a village in the Mukhalinsky volost, and the gardens of the village adjoined the road. The Mukhalin people broke the bridge across the Dorgom to detain the Russians, but this did not stop them. They crossed the river into a ford and began to climb the Karatyube. From above we again saw a dense wall of soldiers, which, it seemed, would reach us and crush us. Our riders jumped out in all directions, shot at them and galloped back to load their guns, but the Russians kept walking. When they approached the shot and fired a volley, when some of ours fell either dead or wounded, Jurabek galloped away, and his whole gang dispersed. Many fled to the gardens of the Mukhalinsky volost, including me. The Mukhalin people were waiting for us as winners, but when they found out that Dzhurabek had fled, they were indignant at his act and took up arms themselves. They expected to shoot from ambushes at the time when the detachment would return, and destroy it. We have joined them. Everyone sat down, there were about five hundred of us, who hid at the cracks of the duval (clay fence), who climbed the trees and hid in thick branches, who lay down on the flat roofs of the sakley.

The Russians suspected nothing. When the detachment returned, they walked merrily, freely, even sang songs, and when they passed the duvala of the gardens, they were showered with shots: they killed an interpreter, several soldiers and wounded two officers. I was standing at the duvala, shot at someone and was about to load the gun again, when over my very head there were shouts: hurrah! The Russians climbed through the duval. They did not run away and did not disperse from our shots, but decided to punish the Mukhalins. They were angry and did not spare anyone, did not pay attention to gender or age. There was a hunt. The soldiers ran through the gardens, caught our people, beat them with rifle butts, stabbed with bayonets, shot at those who were sitting in the trees. Up to three hundred people were beaten, including women and children. They searched for the guilty by sakly, but those who managed to escape were far away at that time. I got caught by an officer who wanted to shoot me with a revolver, but I dropped the gun and folded my hands, kneeling before him. He ordered me to be tied up and taken to Samarkand. I confessed that I was from Samarkand, who expressed humility. They put me in jail.

Father, having learned about this, began to fuss and ask for me, referring to my youth and stupidity. The commanders, who knew my father personally, took pity and handed me over to him on bail.

I gave my father the word to sit quietly at home and trade in the shop. I tried to keep my word and did not participate in the uprising of other volosts that sent gangs.

But I was really stupid and young. I got carried away.

"Main street of Samarkand" (view from the fortress), artist Vereshchagin V.V.

Dzhurabek, although he was defeated on Karatyube, did not leave his intention to face off with the Russians. He worked in secret. He entered into relations with the Chilik bek, Omar-bek, with the Shahrisyab Baba-bek and with Omar-Khadzha. Omar-Khadja was an imam, a descendant of the holy Martum-Azam. Everyone respected and obeyed him. He lived in Dagbit (a village twenty versts from Samarkand). There were secret negotiations between them. Persian Abdul-Samat, mirokhur (a colonel under the former Samarkand bek), and Shukur-bek (a ruler who had long since retired) lived in Samarkand. Omar-Khadzha must have won over these two influential persons to his side, and everyone noticed that jigits from Omar-Khadzhi often came to them at night. In Dagbit, in the house of Omar-Khadzhi, meetings were held, where beks and Abdul-Samat from Samarkand with Shukur-bek gathered. We knew nothing, but only guessed that something was being prepared. I burned with curiosity, and the spirit of war woke up in me again. Finally, rumors began to spread that a great general uprising was being prepared, and they were only waiting for an opportunity. I willingly began to sit in the shop all day long, since the news could most likely be heard in the market. News most often carried sofas, or duvans (holy fools). They sing sacred songs, speak texts from the Koran, reproach people for sins, preach repentance and life according to the Koran. Sometimes they tell fairy tales of religious content. They live by alms. Sofano wears such strange clothes that he is different from everyone else and can be recognized from afar. For example, he wears a shirt sewn from multi-colored patches, a hat in the form of a cap from a sugar loaf, yellow, red, sometimes with bells at the end, a dressing gown half yellow, half blue, he almost always walks barefoot, even in winter.

While the uprising was being prepared, especially many holy fools appeared. The sofas sang brand new songs. They began to preach an uprising, spoke passionately, set the inhabitants on a warlike footing, branded with shame those who hesitated to take part in the general popular movement. The youth eagerly listened to them, each Sart tried to catch such a duvano and make him speak in front of his shop. They were treated, they were given money much more than usual. Maybe not all real duvans were here: only mullahs and students, students living in a madrasah could speak so cleverly.

The Russians did not know anything, they did not understand our language and could not listen to the talk in the bazaar. Sometimes a soldier or officer passed by a sofa at a time when it called for the total extermination of the Russians, but, not knowing the Sart language, the passer-by was involuntarily deaf. Sometimes, if an ardent speech with exclamations and gestures attracted the attention of one of the Russians, and we were asked, pointing to the duvan, what he was saying, then usually someone would point to the sky and answer: Alla, Mohammed. We, not knowing the Russian language, guessed what the Russian was asking, by gestures, and he, knowing the words of Alla and Mohammed, understood what they were answering him, and nodded his head with a smile. It also happened that the slow-witted did not answer anything, but only shook their heads negatively. The Russians weren't angry about that either, they knew that each of us had learned to speak Russian only what he needed for trade. For example, I learned: beef, lamb, bacon, pounds, pounds, rubles, kopecks, and nothing else; the seller of fabrics knew: silk, mata, adras, arshin, rubles, kopecks; also others. The sermons of the holy fools aroused the heroic spirit and hatred of the Russians almost throughout the city, as the news from the bazaar was carried home and discussed in families. But the Russians were not allowed to notice our mood; they were polite and considerate.

I didn’t say anything to my father about the impending uprising, but he pretended not to know anything and continued to deliver provisions to the Russian army.

Everyone was waiting from day to day for the announcement of the uprising.

Almost a month has passed since the Russians occupied Samarkand. At this time, General Kaufman was forced to send detachments several times to pacify the rebellious volosts and succeeded in this. Imagining that the inhabitants of Samarkand were completely submissive, and the surrounding volosts were pacified, the general in the last days of May went with an army to Katta-Kurgan, where he was supposed to meet the emir. In Samarkand, only one (VI-th) battalion remained in the fortress. This was considered an opportunity. Everyone understood that the work of liberation must be done now, otherwise we will never be liberated. Immediately after the departure of the general, it was announced to us that we were armed, that Omar-Khadja would lead us, the assembly point was appointed near Chupanat, and the day was June 2nd. The mullahs, announcing this decision of the leaders of the uprising, explained the plan of action at the same time.

They heard that the general was going to Katta-Kurgan to sign a peace treaty, but they thought that the emir would deceive, as was the case before Samarkand. They were sure that the emir, instead of signing a commercial peace treaty in Katta-Kurgan, would meet General Kaufman at the city walls with an army and defeat him. We, among forty thousand people, will destroy the abandoned battalion and move behind enemy lines. Well, what is one battalion? - we thought: - we wave our hand, and it will not be!

Cooking boiled. Wealthy Sarts buried their valuables in pits, drove cattle into reeds and gardens, wives and children were sent on carts to neighboring villages or gardens. People armed themselves with what they could. We were confident of victory again. I did not hear the feet under me, but I flew as if on wings.

Before leaving, General Kaufman gathered the precinct and volost foremen and announced to them that he was leaving the city calm and entrusting them with the duty to look after order in their areas. In the event of the appearance of any gang, immediately let Baron Shtempel, the commandant of the fortress, know so that he can disperse it. Otherwise, the precinct was threatened with personal liability. They promised to strictly follow. Probably, as a result of such an order from the general and the promise of the elders, the remaining Russians were confident in their safety and did not pay attention to the fact that immediately after the general’s speech, a large movement began in the city, people scurried back and forth, carts creaked, taking wives, children and home belongings, bleating and mooing cattle driven out of the city. Dzhigits galloped in different directions.

My father was supposed to deliver several rams to the fortress on June 2, but on the evening of the 1st he disappeared. All the Sarts locked their shops in the bazaar so as not to open them until everything calmed down. They left the Russians without food supplies and on the night of June 2 they took water away from the fortress. On the same night, everyone who did not have weapons was gathered in the Rukhobod mosque, and there Shukur-bek and mirokhur armed the people. Who got a gun, who got a knife, who got a stick with a metal ball on the end. Immediately after arming, everyone went to the assembly point.

On the morning of June 2, we approached the city and, having divided into three parts, began to simultaneously enter Samarkand from three different sides. We, the people of Samarkand, were commanded by Omar-Khodja. To save their heads, the foremen ran to the fortress to warn the commandant when we entered the city. As a result of this warning, one or two companies of Russian soldiers left the fortress to disperse, as they thought, a gang, but, seeing the incoming mass of the enemy, they fled back to the fortress and did not go out during the entire uprising (in Samarkand and especially in the 6th battalion, standing now in the city of Osh, the defense of the Samarkand fortress with all the hardships that the besieged suffered and with a huge number of besiegers, is called the “seven-day sitting”.). However, we fired at them, several people fell, but the Russians picked up the fallen and carried them away with them.

"The entry of Russian troops into Samarkand", artist Karazin N.N.

We stopped at some distance from the fortress. The beks climbed up the madrasah and commanded from there. Fifty men jumped forward from our cavalry, fired at the fortress and immediately galloped back to load their guns. They were replaced by others, there are third ones, in order to haunt the Russians. The footmen also moved forward, fired and hid to load their guns. Omar-Khoja ordered us, the Samarkand people, to occupy the shops leaning against the fortress wall, and from there to shoot through the cracks in the wall directly into the fortress. In peacetime, these little shops sold small things, but now they were empty. We were also ordered, if possible, to drill carefully, so that the Russians would not notice, a passage through the wall into the fortress. We occupied all the shops and thus surrounded the fortress. We were very comfortable. The shots did not reach us, but we could shoot freely. There were many cracks in the old clay wall. In the shop where I sat with my comrades, the fortress wall gave a wide and deep crack. We stopped firing and set about expanding this crack and clearing it of clay. Our knives have been hard at work. Near the wall it was possible to run from hut to hut without fear of shots. We were not visible from the fortress. Comrades looked at us. We have an iron shovel and kitmen. Everyone understood what important work we had begun. Although we were in a hurry, we still worked carefully so that we would not be noticed and heard from the fortress ahead of time. We decided to dig a corridor through which, one by one, we could imperceptibly find ourselves in the fortress in a whole mass. The comrades told us that on the opposite side of the fortress the Sarts had broken the gate and had already taken possession of the only cannon that was there, and that the Russians were all busy there. We began to tap more boldly with a shovel. Everyone was eager to rush at the Russians from this side. The wall in this place was two fathoms thick. We worked alternately. I rested in the sakla when the passage was ready. Here ours crawled, and one by one they disappeared into the passage, it was quiet. We thought that there were no Russians here at all, and that our work would succeed. A hundred people must have disappeared behind the wall. I made my way through the crowd and also crawled, but before I had time to crawl any arshin to the exit, I heard noise, screams, groans. I wanted to move back, but my legs rested on someone's head, someone was crawling after me. At the same moment, one of the comrades who were in the fortress wanted to save himself and rushed into the passage in order to crawl back, but hit his head on my head and remained in that position. The Russians dragged him by the legs for reprisals. I gave a kick to the head of the one who followed me, and felt that the passage was freed; backing away, I got out into the shop and saw a terrible picture. Sarts flew through the wall from the fortress to the square. The old people were thrown out dead, and the young alive, and these young people all became crippled: some broke their arms, some broke their legs, their backs, and some broke their skulls and died immediately. No one else dared to crawl towards the Russians, and they filled up the passage with bags of earth. There was almost no one left in the sakly, but soon, by order of the authorities, the shops were again occupied, but we almost did not shoot, but huddled against the side walls, because the Russians guessed what was the matter, looked for the cracks themselves and fired at us.

"At the fortress wall", artist Vereshchagin V.V.

By the evening I was very tired, and everyone was tired. After the prayer, we began to rest and did not go to the fortress anymore.

At night, our watchmen on the road to Katta-Kurgan caught a Russian horseman sent to General Kaufman, probably with the news that there was an uprising in Samarkand. The papers were taken away, the horseman was killed.

In the morning, when I woke up, I saw a change in the fortress. All our shops around the wall were destroyed, and those cannons that we abandoned at Chupanaty were now visible on the fortress wall. We realized that the Russians were prepared and it would be difficult to deal with them. They were following us now. Lone riders, galloping for a shot, they deftly removed from the saddle with rifle bullets, and the infantrymen, moving in a crowd, were broken and scattered by a shot from a cannon. Our confidence was gone, and we began to act more carefully: no one could approach close to the wall.

Jurabek called the hunters to dig the wall of the fortress from one side and knock it down, but no hunters were found. There was a quarrel between him and Omar-Khadzhey. Omar-Khadja appointed a detachment of Samarkand for this purpose. I joined the party. Usman led us. We made our way safely to the wall and began to dig for a long distance, sitting down, maybe half a verst. Rifle shots did not grab us, and at first things went well, but then the Russians began to throw hand grenades at us vertically from the wall (the fortress was then saved by Bogdanov. He was still under arrest. Several times he tried to join the ranks of the defenders of the fortress, but he when the Sarts began to dig into the steppe, and the besieged began to say that it was impossible to drive them away with a sortie because of their small numbers, and shots from the wall were useless, and they began to prepare to die without exception with weapons in their hands, Bogdanov begged himself from arrest, having given his word to disperse the Sarts, who were digging in the wall, he took hand grenades, climbed to the ledge of the wall so that he would not be a target for shots from below by the guarding Sarts with ready guns, and began to throw grenades vertically behind the wall.Thus he went from the Bukhara gate to Samarkand sazhens three hundred , along the entire length where the Sarts worked. The workers were indeed partly killed, part fled. The frightened Sarts did not resume their work. By this act, Bogdanov made amends for his past. He was not only forgiven, but also awarded George. This episode was given to me by a retired non-commissioned officer of the 6th battalion, Vasily Petrov, whose story I placed in the “Turkestan Literary Collection” in 1899. - approx. L. Simonova.). I remember that I grabbed one such grenade and threw it into the ditch, but I also remember that Usman and many others were killed, many were injured, only a few people managed to escape, including me. No one else wanted to go to certain death, to continue the work begun.

"After failure" (original painting destroyed), artist Vereshchagin V.V.

Jurabek said at first that the eldest son of the emir, who was in a quarrel with his father, was coming to our aid with an army, that he would take Samarkand and become the emir of Samarkand. But this turned out to be wrong. We learned that the emir's son, having quarreled with his father, fled to Persia.

Jurabek was very angry that no one would come to our aid, that the Samarkand people were not acting energetically enough, and that, finally, his sarbas (soldiers) were grumbling about a fruitless war. Bababek agreed with him in everything. I do not remember: on the third day or on the fourth, both beks with their troops left. But before the Sarbas left, they plundered the city. They ran from hut to hut and took with them everything that came to hand: donkeys, horses, camels, clothes, provisions. There were no fights and no killings. The Samarkand militias and those residents who did not take part in the uprising and remained in the city resisted the Sarbas, defended their property, so that this morning the war was transferred to the city itself and the Sarts beat the Sarts. Shouts, commotion, noise, I think, were heard in the fortress.

"Mortally wounded", artist Vereshchagin V.V.

After the departure of the beks, Omar-Khadja divided us into parts and chose the chiefs, while he himself remained at the head of the movement.

Almost every night our watchmen on the road to Katta-Kurgan caught Russian horsemen sent to General Kaufman. We took care that news of what was happening in Samarkand did not reach the general. Although the Russians held firm, they had neither water nor provisions, and sooner or later they had to either die of hunger and thirst or surrender. Even Jurabek sent them an offer to surrender and promised to leave everyone alive, but neither under Jurabek nor after him did they give up.

For three days, under the command of Omar-Khadzhi, we approached the fortress and fired at the Russians, but they continued to shoot back, and it was not noticeable that they were discouraged or became lethargic.

The secret horseman sent by Omar-Khadja to Katta-Kurgan brought the news that General Kaufman and the Emir of Bukhara had made peace and signed a trade agreement, and that General Kaufman was going to return with his army to Samarkand. And after this news, the general himself returned. Omar-Khadja fled to Bukhara, and many chiefs fled. The militias who remained in Samarkand, who did not want to lay down their arms, fought with the Russians on the streets of the city.

Yes, it was not so easy to fight with a handful of Russians, whom we thought to brush off with our hands! The general restored calm in the city. The mullahs told us that although Samarkand was pacified, it was still possible to harm the Russians in another way: to walk in small detachments along the roads, beat off their provisions and destroy those soldiers who would accompany this provisions. I do not know how many such detachments were formed, only the party of the Sarts, to which I joined, consisted of seventeen people.

We learned that the Cossacks were buying up clover and other products near Karshi. We went to Karshi with the intention of preventing this convoy from reaching the Russians. We settled in the kishlak (village) of Shurcha, by which the convoy was supposed to pass, and began to wait. The inhabitants of the village were afraid to let us in, so as not to be responsible for this matter before the Russians, but they allowed us to set up a hut near the village near the road and gave us cakes. We all had loaded guns. We hoped to do our job exactly, especially since we heard that five or six Cossacks would accompany the convoy, no more.

The whole day we guarded, night fell, we were afraid to fall asleep, so as not to miss the Russians. At last the convoy appeared. We heard the creak of arbyan wheels and the voices of Russians. Three Cossacks rode ahead. In the darkness it was impossible to see how many of all the Cossacks were with the convoy. We jumped out of the hut and fired at the advanced. One of the comrades grabbed the first horse by the bridle and stopped the convoy. Shots rained down on us. Cossacks turned out to be twenty-five people. Seven of us managed to escape, and ten were killed and wounded.

This was the last venture against the Russians, in which Sart Komel-boy participated.

The narrator was sentenced to hard labor in Siberia for the robbery and murder of a wealthy Sart.

He served a term of hard labor and settlement and is now free.

The first years I worked in the mines of Algach, - said Komel-boy, - then I lived as a worker in the villages along the river. Chico. Peasant labor seemed to me very difficult, and as soon as it was possible to move to the city, I found a place as a watchman at the Troitskosava police department, where I serve to this day.

Seventeen years ago, Komel-boy converted to Orthodoxy and married a peasant woman from the village of Bellut. His real name is Konstantin Bogdanov. By general accounts, he is a good old man, honest and sober, taking his duties seriously.

I asked him if he would like to return to Samarkand to his sarts. He answered in the negative.

Now, - he said, - I am of the Russian faith, my wife is Russian, I have two children, a boy and a girl. I love my children and wife very much. My grandmother is hardworking, kind, we live together. Why should I leave? Yes, there is now no one left with me. My father probably died a long time ago, and my brother didn't love me before. I wrote to my father twice from here, but received no answer. Of course, he died a long time ago, he was an old man even then. The first years it seemed to me very cold here, but then I got used to it. In addition, there is a fur coat, a warm hut, hot food ...

Part two

The story of Mohammed Sufi, a Samarkand resident, weaver of silk fabrics.

I was twenty years old when the Russians took Samarkand. My father Mohammed John was a mullah and an imam in a mosque. I just got married. We lived comfortably. My father received from each house of the parishioners 2 rubles a year and, in addition, for the requirements: circumcision, weddings, etc., especially. I sowed bread, mowed clover. My young wife, she was only fourteen years old, ran our small farm and bred silkworms. She spun silk, and I wove fabrics and sold them to buyers. I could dye silk and make patterns. All three of us looked after the garden and in the summer we went out to live in the garden, about three versts from the city.

A few days before the arrival of the Russians, my father came (on a donkey) from the city to the garden, extremely excited. He said that he was at a meeting in the Tilla-Kari madrasah, where he learned that the Bukhara emir Muzafar, together with the Samarkand bek Shir-Ali-Inak, sold Samarkand to the Russians and did not want to defend their homeland, faith and holy mosques, but the people were going on their own face off with the enemy. It was decided that every honest person should arm himself and go at the first call, together with others, to Chupanaty to meet uninvited guests, and that we, like other honest people, are also going.

Of course, the emir's accusation of selling Samarkand turned out to be slander. But we understood this only when we saw that the Bukhara army, encamped near Samarkand in the number of 12,000 people, went with us to Chupanaty. Yes, in addition, two regiments arrived to us, one from Korki, the other from Chardzhuy.

At the appointed time, my father and I moved to the assembly point and stood under the command of Usman. We had several Russians, but I clearly remember only two: long, thin Usman and short, fat Bogdanov with a white face and ruddy cheeks. Bogdanov, like an artilleryman, climbed the mountain where our guns were placed. Uthman with his army stood behind the mountain.

The plan of military operations on the Chupanata heights near Samarkand

I remember well how the Russians came, how they crossed the Zeravshan River, and how they were shot at from the mountain. We all saw well, but the Russians did not see us. The head of our army was hiding behind the bushes, and the tail was behind the mountain. We stood for a long time and did not move or shoot. Usman strictly forbade us to give even the slightest sign of life. Here, finally, there were a few soldiers left, as I later found out, one 6th battalion and the entire convoy. Usman rode along his army and said that now it was time for us to work, disperse the remaining soldiers and take possession of the convoy. He commanded: “come on”, and with shouts: “ur-ur!” we rushed from our ambush. The Cossacks saw us and did not let us close to the convoy, and the soldiers began to shoot at us. Our people scattered across the field and from behind the bushes and from the reeds began to shoot at the Russians alone. The father was wounded in the leg and fell. My friends and I picked it up and carried it away. We wanted to bring him into the city saklya, but he ordered to be carried into the reeds, away from Chupanat. We put him in such high reeds, in which a man on horseback could easily hide. Although it was safe there, my father did his best not to moan, and his leg hurt a lot; he tossed about, not finding a place, how to put it more conveniently. I wanted to leave to see what kind of convoy ours got, and what happened to the Russians. But my father took my hand and pulled me down, gesturing to lie down next to him. Here and there cautious voices were heard in the reeds: it turned out that many were hiding there. Soon the shots stopped, but a horse's stomp was heard, which was getting closer and closer to us. Through the reeds, we saw the Bukhara sarbas, who were galloping straight through the reeds, wherever their eyes looked. They seemed to think only about how to get away. They didn't look like winners, we understood that.

A neighbor ran past us. I recognized him and stopped him. He was so out of breath that at first he could not speak, and then he told that the Samarkand people and the troops fled, and the Russians occupied Chupanaty. More Sarts crawled up to us cautiously. They brought water to my father, he was very thirsty, they washed his wound and bandaged his leg. Someone got some cakes. In the evening such a cannon shot rang out from the Russian camp that it seemed that the whole earth under the reeds trembled.

In the morning, my father still could not get up and would not let me go. Some sarts made of reeds cautiously made their way into the city, others came from the city to us and told us everything that was happening there. So, not being in Samarkand, we learned that there were no troops in Samarkand, everyone fled, that the inhabitants understood the futility of further resistance and decided to invite the general to take the city without a fight, and the foremen and elected representatives went to Chupanaty to express the obedience of the city population to General Kaufman. Now my father no longer held me back. I ran away to the city, to the market. In all the streets, and most importantly in the bazaar, people crowded. Everyone was waiting for the general's passage. People were worried, everyone wanted to get ahead. Finally, the solemn entrance reached the bazaar. Our elected representatives in rich clothes rode ahead, followed by a general with an interpreter, and then the army went. The general was short and thin. He answered the bows of the Sarts and looked attentively into the crowd. He stopped in the middle of the market. The elected officers surrounded him, the translator stood beside him. Here is what he said through an interpreter: “Let the inhabitants not be afraid, let everyone take up their occupations, let crafts and trade go the same way as before. Tell the fugitives to return quietly to their homes. The Russians will not ruin you, but on the contrary, they will save you from ruin. Our troops will protect Samarkand from external enemies.”

The general's speech made a strong impression on everyone, everyone believed him. My father was very pleased when I ran to him in the reeds and conveyed the general's words. Immediately he asked to be transferred to the city saklya. First of all, those who hid in the reeds and in neighboring gardens returned to the city, and then fugitives from distant places began to appear. I went for my wife to a neighboring village, where I took her the day before the arrival of the Russians. Carts with wives and children creaked, carts with property were pulled, empty huts began to fill with people. The bazaar opened, and we began to live as before.

The Russians camped not far from the fortress, and in the fortress they put the sick and wounded, set up an infirmary there. It was quite calm in the city, but in the volosts the inhabitants raised an uprising, as, for example, in the Mukhalinsky volost and in Urgum. The general sent a detachment and pacified them.

My father was ill for a long time, but despite the pain in his leg, after a week he began to get up and walk, limping and leaning on a stick. Three weeks later, only he could go to the city and perform his duties as imam and mullah.

We lived in the garden. Almost every day I carried fruit to Russian officers on a donkey. They always took everything that I brought, and often ordered either peaches, or grapes, or melons. I also sold to them two pieces of silk fabric that I had left from last year. They paid me much more than our merchants. In general, our trade has risen. The Russian army had to deliver meat, and rice, and flour, and clover, and barley. They all paid well.

It's been about a month. Father something began to return from the city gloomy. I thought his leg hurt worse again. Rumors about a new uprising began to circulate in the city, but it was so calm around, the Russians treated us so well that I paid no attention to these rumors and did not say anything to my father about this. I had no idea that these rumors were exactly what bothered him.

Once all three of us were sitting in the garden in the evening, at the door of the sakli and having supper with melon, when suddenly two students quickly entered the garden (students - students of the madrasah, older.). My wife Aisha was uncovered and hid in a saklya; they approached us. The father was very excited, but he gestured to sit down. The young people squatted down opposite us.

Samarkand man at his house (from " Turkestan Album ")

Speak! - said the father and began to listen. One, who was older, spoke:

Qazi sent many students through the gardens, and the two of us also. Kazi, foremen, aksakals and many imams and mullahs ordered us to announce to everyone that the work of liberating Samarkand from the Russians is ready. One of these days, General Kaufman leaves for Katta-Kurgan, leaving one battalion here: we will use this. Beks from the volosts will come to us with an army, and Omar-Khadja calls on the people of Samarkand to stand under his command. You, Imam, are invited to join the patriots and influence others, as you did to protect Samarkand.

The father listened gloomily and answered:

Then there was one time, and now another. Now I disagree with those who sent you. And in vain you came to me. I know much more about the conspiracy than you do. I was at secret meetings, there is no secret from me, because I am a mullah. But I eschew conspiracies and will not participate in your rebellion. I am old and I understand that it will bring harm to the Sarts, not good. And my son is young and does not know military affairs. He perfectly weaves materials, dyes silk, draws patterns, but he does not know how to shoot. Yes, finally, I've had enough! .. He pointed to his bad leg.

Our father, imam, wise mullah, we want to drive out the Russians, they are of a different faith.

What do you care about their faith? They not only do not prevent the Mohammedans from believing, as their fathers believed from the time of Mahomet, but they also promised to repair our ancient mosques in those places where they began to crumble and collapse. In addition, with them we are calmer, and trade is better. I am not the only one, but many experienced people with whom I spoke find that life is much better under the rule of the Russians than under the rule of the Emir of Bukhara and his Bek. That's all I think and what I said at the meeting. You can pass this on to Omar-Hajah himself,

Father, imam! - the students said: - there will be many of us, but few of them.

What of this? They are imbued with a military spirit, brave, they know how to fight, as we cook a stick. They were already skillful from Russia, and until they reached Samarkand, they fought under every city, but we don’t know how to fight. Well, what kind of warriors we are, when a month ago our militia on Chupanaty and beyond the mountain, together with the Bukhara sarbas, were frightened by one kind of Russian soldiers. And they abandoned their guns and the convoy, just to run away far away. But there were a lot of us then, much more than Russians. I am ashamed to remember our defense of Samarkand, but my leg reminds me ... And your real undertaking will only lead to the fact that many people will fall, many families will become orphans, many households will go bankrupt ...

The father's words must have had an effect on the students. They quietly left the garden and did not participate in the uprising. Together we went to see how things were going, and together we hid from the shots. Aisha was most glad that my father wouldn't let me in. She was afraid for me. My wife loved me very much.

The Russians knew nothing and believed us.

We have a Jewish quarter in Samarkand where only Jews live. They dress, like us, in a robe and skullcap, but we shave our heads, and they have sidelocks on their temples. In addition, they are forbidden to wear belts, as we have: they are required to gird themselves with a rope. Now, by the sidelocks and by the rope, they can now be distinguished from us, even from a distance. We heard that the Jews, having learned that an uprising was being prepared, ran stealthily to the fortress and warned the Russians. But the Russians did not believe the Jews and drove them away.

From many cities conquered by the Russians, we heard rumors that the winners of religion do not touch, do not take anything from anyone, but pay money for everything, that they are kind and cheerful people, but in the war everyone was afraid of them, they were terrible. The same thing happened in Samarkand. Until the uprising began, ours were brave, and when the militia entered the city with Omar-Haja and the beks with their troops, then first of all all the chiefs hid in the minarets, and the troops were afraid of those who were in the fortress, they were afraid to approach the wall. We used to shoot from behind a duval, from a sackel, or jump out on a horse, shoot and quickly gallop away, hide, but here we had to attack in an open area. However, as it was not to be afraid, a thunderstorm was sitting behind the wall. After the departure of the general, the 6th battalion was concluded there. My comrades and I went to look at the siege of the fortress, and we saw how the Sarts, who were bolder, were paid. In front of our eyes, the Sarts burned the Bukhara gates of the fortress and grabbed the cannon, as the Russians took the cannon away, beat the front ones with butts and with a shot from the same cannon dispersed the crowd and laid down dozens, and the gates were immediately blocked with bags of earth. I saw how the Sarts were thrown from the fortress through the wall, both the dead and the living, who had climbed into the fortress through the gap. I heard the groans of the dying and the crippled. Somehow we learned that Usman would lead a party to undermine the wall of the fortress. Together with my friends, I went to look. Work began, the sound of kitmen and iron shovels was heard, but grenades were thrown from the fortress, from the wall: many were killed, others fled. The wall began to seem to us bewitched, and besieged by sorcerers. Many argued that it was impossible to penetrate the fortress. The troops of the beks began to grumble, the beks themselves lost patience, quarreled with Omar-Khadzhey and left with their sarbas, plundering Samarkand out of annoyance. In general, our ardor began to cool down, and the attacks on the wall became weaker.

Gate to the Samarkand citadel (from " Turkestan Album ")

Father, when I came home and told what I saw, sadly shook his head and said:

I knew it would!

General Kaufman returned from Katta-Kurgan and sent troops to pass through the city, clear the streets. Here, they say, there were hot fights, but I didn’t see it: it was dangerous to walk around the city, the soldiers could take for a rebellious Sart and shoot. An exception was made only for the Jews, they were not touched. They, while our militia and beks with sarbas entered the city, managed to get into the fortress and declare there that the Jews were not participating in the rebellion. In addition, they were useful in the fortress, they worked there. By the way, the Russians remembered their warning. Russian soldiers, bypassing the streets of the city, did not even look into the Jewish quarter. Jews walked along with the soldiers. They now proudly raised their heads and dropped their ropes. They pointed out to the soldiers the houses of ardent patriots-instigators, as well as the places where money and valuables were buried by the Sarts. After all, they knew, heard and saw everything.

According to General Kaufman, the next day the Sarts began to return to their homes. My father and I also came to see our city shaklya. It turned out to be intact, because, fortunately for us, no one was hiding there and no one was shooting at the Russians with a sakli. The father dug up a chest in which he buried Aisha's silk clothes, her dowry and some of his own money. All this was not touched, since we were not reputed to be rich, and the Jews did not spy on us. You have to be surprised how quickly things got back to normal. Everyone began to work and trade, they began to build a new large bazaar, since the old Russians had burned down, they began to plaster those places of mosques where tiles had fallen out, they began to build a Russian city, they laid out streets, contractors began to build houses for Russians.

Everything went well in my Samarkand. Oh, how hard it was for me to leave him!

I was sent here on my own business, for murder.

I had a dishonest neighbor. He used to grab a piece of my wheat field and sow it for himself, then block up a ditch and not give water to my plot, then mow down part of my clover. I complained about him to the qazi more than once, but he was so cunning, so dexterous that he always knew how to be right in front of the qazi.

Once - it was a year or two after the Russians took Samarkand - I came to my field to mow clover, I look, and my neighbor had already cut a whole strip and dragged it to his site. I was terribly angry and rushed at him, we had a fight. I fell, he bent down and grabbed me by the throat, I pulled out a knife, stabbed him and killed him. He only screamed once, but the worker heard his cry, ran and began to scream. People came running, grabbed me and tied me up. Russian law sentenced me to hard labor, then to a settlement in Siberia.

We say and believe that each person has his own bet, which sometimes makes him do evil deeds. I remember that the pari whispered to me during the fight: kill! kill him! I said this in court, but the Russians did not believe that there was a bet.

Aisha, saying goodbye to me, wept very much. I told her to marry someone else, that I would not return. My father was also very sad. I endured a lot dear, we walked for a long time. We were caught by winter with such frosts that I had no idea about. I fell ill and was in the hospital in Krasnoyarsk, I don’t know how long, and then I went again. Sometimes an officer will take pity and hire a cart, but most of them went on foot. I was assigned to the Ust-Kara silver mine.

Now I am a free man, where I want, I can go. I work at the Valov brick factory.

I never forgot my homeland and now I miss Samarkand. At least not for a long time to visit the house! I think my father has already died, Aisha has grown old with another husband, but still ... another time my heart will ache so much, my soul will ache so much, I will so want under my sky, in my gardens ... But I have no money to go, this it’s expensive, but it’s a long walk, I’m old ... I can’t walk ...

The text is reproduced from the publication: Eyewitness accounts of the conquest of Samarkand by the Russians and the seven-day sitting // Historical Bulletin. No. 9, 1904

See also:

MEMORIES ABOUT SAMARKAND PROTECTION

in 1868.

The defense of Samarkand, as one of the outstanding events in Central Asia, deserves full attention from everyone who is interested in the affairs of our Turkestan region. We boldly say “everyone”, because it represents an important moment in the history of Russian conquests in the East. Pointing out the situation that accompanied this event, recalling many, even minor, episodes related to it - a matter, in our opinion, is not only not superfluous, but necessary. After all, only a detailed study of the subject gives an accurate concept of it; after all, only the clarification of trifles can give real illumination to an accomplished fact. In military affairs, this is especially important. Here often the most insignificant incident, the impulse of one person, a happy resourcefulness, change the situation to such an extent that completely unexpected results are obtained. There are many facts to confirm what has been said, but they are more or less known to everyone, but we mention their meaning, meaning to explain the purpose of these notes on the defense of Samarkand. But since something has already been said on this subject, we consider it necessary to make some reservations. Reading the article by Mr. Cherkasov “Defending Samarkand in 1868” and “Essays on military operations in 1868 in the Zaryavshan Valley” by Mr. Lyko, we came across such thoughts with which we cannot agree. Far from becoming, in relation to the articles mentioned, on critical ground, or presenting our opinion as immutable, we only wish to point out some details otherwise understood by us. The opinions we intend to express may be wrong, the facts

not so interpreted, but this will not interfere with the clarification of the matter: one of the former participants in the siege will point out our mistakes or misunderstandings, and we will be satisfied. We repeat: citing some ideas from the mentioned articles and challenging them, we will have in mind only the clarification of a fact that is so important for the history of the Russian conquests in Central Asia.

Since 1854, i.e. from the time when it was decided to unite the Orenburg and Siberian borders, and when clashes between our troops and the Central Asians began to occur, in the intervals between offensive skirmishes in the field and storming of cities, the Russians had to act defensively, moreover, the enemy, who in such cases had a huge numerical superiority , sometimes inflicted considerable damage on us (the case of Serov near Ikan). In all such clashes, we successfully used the superiority of our firearms, which allowed us to emerge victorious from a difficult situation. In addition, our dense, disciplined troops showed a clear superiority over the disorganized crowds of Muslims, in which panic developed at the first energetic offensive of the Russians. After many setbacks, the Asians finally got used to considering us invincible and fled from the battlefield after the first, for the most part, insufficiently stubborn resistance. Only the extreme fanaticism aroused against us forced them sometimes, after the most capital pogrom, such as, for example, the Irjar, to take up arms again.

It is clear that the fight against such an enemy could not, strictly speaking, be a good school for the Russian troops operating in Central Asia. A number of risky and extremely happy undertakings (the assault on Tashkent, the Irdzhar case ...) gave rise to contempt for the enemy forces in them. The opinion emerged, shared by people who enjoy a well-deserved military reputation in Turkestan, that in dealing with the Central Asians, any precautions (in the sense of ensuring communications with the rear, etc.) are, if not superfluous, then not necessary. that one has only to go forward - and everything will work out as well as possible. How fair this view is, is left to judge for everyone. For our part, we consider it necessary to point out only one circumstance, which, in our opinion, is very important. It is known that the people of Bukhara on the Zyrabulak heights were no longer the same as they fought

near Irjar. Under Irjar, the enemy had no order; its crowds, although very numerous, were without any connection with each other. We see something completely different in the case of "June 2. Sarbaz of the Emir of Bukhara were located in line, in ranks, fired in volleys, keeping under the fire of our shooters almost to hand-to-hand combat; they withstood even two or three shots with buckshot. As you wish, this is significant progress "And who can guarantee that such improvements will not continue, that the linear battle order adopted by the Bukharians at Zyrabulak will not give way to more modern forms? For this, it seems to us, only someone's outside help, some kind of leadership is needed. Bukharians will not refuse various military innovations: they have so many good reasons for this.

The siege of Samarkand, closely connected with the event of June 2, is, on the one hand, the result of an excellently conceived deception, by the execution of which the enemy could put us in the most critical, let's say More, hopeless situation; on the other hand, it represents in itself a fact that goes beyond the ordinary, as we have already noted above.

In a word, the lessons given to the enemy before 1868 did not go unnoticed for him. He learned a lot, stopped blindly relying on one superiority of forces and began to use them in a more rational way. As a result, in the year mentioned, he is already an adversary deserving a certain respect. Concerning the last circumstance, we will allow ourselves to remind the reader of some details.

The most advanced point that we occupied in 1868, in the month of May, was Kata-Kurgan; at that time there were 13 1/2 infantry companies (1,500 people), three hundred Cossacks (270 people) and 12 guns in it. For other points, our troops were then distributed as follows:

At the main point of all our operations in the newly conquered region, in Samarkand, there were eleven companies of infantry (1,200 people), two hundred Cossacks and eight guns; on the way of communication with Tashkent: in Yany Kurgan, two companies, in Jizzakh, a battalion; the troops stationed in Chinaz, Tashkent and other places could not help the active detachment in case of emergency, and therefore we do not mention them.

The distance between the mentioned points is as follows; between Kata-Kurgan

and Samarkand about 70 versts; between Samarkand and Yany-Kurgan about 60 versts; between this latter and Jizzakh there are 22 versts. Behind Dzhizak, in an area of ​​110 versts, stretches the hungry steppe, ending in the Syr Darya at Chinaz and serving, due to the lack of water and any kind of vegetation in it, a significant obstacle to communication between the named points. From Chinaz to Tashkent 60 versts.

The enemy had from 30 to 40,000 on the Zyrabulak heights, between Bukhara and Kata Kurgan, twelve versts ahead of the latter, where all the forces of the emir had gathered, and 20 thousand from the Kara-Tube side. To this we must add the inhabitants of the region occupied by us, who, at the first opportunity, were ready to rise up without exception. The Shahrisyab people were especially dangerous. The movement of the units of the active detachment to Urgut and Kara-Tube, although they were successful in the tactical sense, did not reach their main purpose - to ensure Samarkand from this warlike tribe. Separated from the Zaryavshan valley by a mountain range, it held itself completely independently, was proud of its independence and, with the help of Bukhara, hoped to successfully compete with the Russian troops. This hope was even stronger after the movement of part of the detachment to Kara-Tube, which was interpreted by the Shakhrisyab people in their favor.

The division of the Russian troops, the exaggerated pain in them, the hopes for the support of the population, all encouraged the enemy to take bolder actions. To this end, the leader of the Shakhrisyab people, together with the emir, drew up a plan that deserves attention. It was decided, by attacking Kata-Kurgan, to call the main Russian forces into the field, to lure, without accepting a battle, as far as possible into the possessions of Bukhara, and, meanwhile, to strike at Samarkand and take possession of it. The emir had to fulfill the first: his task was, as far as possible, to delay the decisive moment of the clash with the Russians; the second part of the plan - the capture of Samarkand - was to be carried out by the people of Shakhrisyab. After capturing Samarkand, it was supposed, with combined forces, to act against the detachment moving towards Bukhara, and on its communications with Tashkent. Thus, the capture of Samarkand became the main goal of the enterprise and, as a means of decisively changing the position of the Russians in the theater of war, was to serve as a signal for a general uprising, perhaps, of the entire Turkestan population.

It is obvious that Samarkand, during the hostilities of 1868, had a paramount role; it is obvious that at this moment, for the whole of Central Asia, not to mention the Russian possessions, he was to become a heart, the beating of which could not but resonate throughout the whole organism.

The enemy's considerations were very sound. The Russians, occupying Samarkand and Kata-Kurgan at the end of May, have not yet dealt a decisive blow to either the Bukharans or the Shakhrisyabians. Both of them still possessed considerable means for the struggle. The first, as has already been noted, stood near Kata-Kurgan, disturbing the detachment located in it; the second concentrated between Kara-Tyube and Samarkand, threatening our rear in the event of offensive operations. The position of the Russians was becoming critical. It was possible to get out of it only through a decisive blow, and, moreover, a blow directed at the most sensitive point of the enemy disposition. Where was this point? Obviously, in Bukhara, where the main leader of the military operations against us nestled, where his funds were concentrated. A decisive blow should have been directed here. And for this it was necessary, sparing no means, to form in Samarkand such a stronghold, which, with the most limited garrison, would be completely safe from any attempt on the part of the enemy, while the rest of the troops were moving towards Bukhara. It would, in our opinion, not be too difficult to bring Samarkand into a position that meets the stated need. For this, it would be necessary, immediately after his occupation, to form an esplanade near the walls of the citadel, from the side of the city, to lay in the walls (albeit in haste, in clods) a number of small, but very harmful, in a defensive sense, landslides, to pour, where possible , barbets, and break through, in the existing towers, loopholes. The time from May 2 to May 30 was absolutely enough for this, especially if, to help the troops tired of the transitions, civilian workers were attached. However, if there were not enough time, then the action of the main forces against the emir, perhaps, would not interfere with postponing for eight days, and in eight days a lot can be done. The emir at that time would not have increased his hordes so much as to stop ours; troops. However, we are talking about the postponement of the detachment’s march to Bukhara as an extreme, to which, using twenty-eight

daytime stay in Samarkand, there was no need to resort.

We have indicated in part what should have been done for the defense of Samarkand, and what was done on this subject, the reader can see from Mr. Cherkasov's article. We consider it not superfluous to cite the opinion of Mr. Lyko, expressed by him in "Essays on military operations", when assessing various circumstances of the defense. This assessment “cannot,” says the author, “not lead us to regret that excessive confidence in the inhabitants of the city was the reason that the commandant refrained from destroying the dwellings adjacent to the walls of the citadel, and from clearing the necessary esplanade: this, depriving the garrison of the opportunity to hit enemies with well-aimed fire, made the attacks prolonged, stubborn, and the shooting at the garrison was continuous, deadly and almost unpunished. Let us make a few remarks.

From the plan attached by Mr. Cherkasov to the article “Protection of Samarkand” (which Mr. Lyko also refers to), it is clear that part of the defensive fence of the citadel, where the sakli stretched directly behind the wall, extends for half a mountain of a verst. It is known that the Asians build their dwellings quite closely and leave the streets narrow, therefore, in order to form an esplanade for a mile and a half, at least 300 sakels would have to be broken, which would require major work and a lot of time, with a small number of people available. Baron Shtempel.

It seems to us that such work was beyond the power of the Samarkand commandant. He had to: 1) take care of supplying the citadel with water, which he did and which required both time and hands; 2.) cut off the sole of the sloping wall, where it represented a full opportunity for an escalade; 3) to pour two barbettes (the capital nature of this work, taking into account the three-yard height of the embankment being erected, is obvious), which again required both time and hands; 4) to clear the communication between different points of the citadel ... Whoever did the work will understand that in some two days with 658 people of the garrison it is difficult to do all of the above, while maintaining guards at the same time. We believe that the commandant could not even think about clearing the esplanade. So it seems to us that the reproach made by Mr. Lyko to the commandant, if it can be a reproach, is not to Baron Shtempel.

However, be that as it may, the esplanades were not cleared, many breaches were not laid, and the garrison had to substitute

chest where one could substitute a bag of earth. It is clear that the defenders, with their limited number, would have to lie down without a trace under the ruins of Samarkand if the siege continued for all eight days as it was conducted for the first two days. Fortunately, the plan, so well conceived by the enemy, was not destined to come true, because the emir changed his original assumption at the very beginning, and the Samarkand garrison honestly fulfilled the share assigned to him.May 1st case. - The reasons that prompted the enemy to surrender Samarkand without a fight. - Samarkand and its citadel. - Our camp life. - Occupation of Kata-Kurgan by General Golovachev. - Speech by the commander of the troops in Kata-Kurgan. - The mood of the garrison.

On May 1, as is known, the action took place on the Chapan-Atyn heights, adjacent directly to the Samarkand gardens in the place where the road to Tashkent emerges from them. It was believed that Chapan-ata was the advanced position of the enemy, where he wanted to give field work so that later, with a high probability of success, he could stand outside the walls of Samarkand. Whether the commanders of the emir thought so, giving battle to the city of Samarkand, or they counted on the impregnability of the position, due to the spilled Zaryavshan, and considered it possible to give a proper rebuff to the Russians, not allowing them to reach the city, it is rather difficult to say definitively. Perhaps the latter is more likely, because the Bukharians strongly hoped for their position, while it was rather difficult to count on the defense of the city. The reasons for the latter circumstance are obvious. The city walls, as we will see later, were in a very deplorable state: there were no places for placing guns on them; and most importantly - after the assault, if one had followed, there would have been an inevitable ram, which would have ruined the inhabitants, without bringing any benefit to the emir.

So, we were met at Chapan-ata. The matter did not last long ... The enemy fled, leaving in our hands almost all the artillery and the camp, in which we found a lot of different rubbish: tents, rugs, felts, various utensils, and most of all dressing gowns and boots (chegov) abandoned by the brave troops of the emir , for the sake of ease of running when leaving position. Thanks to this measure, the enemy retreated very quickly, so that, having ascended the heights, we saw only the heels of the fleeing flickering in the distance.

In the evening of the same date, a deputation came from Samarkand to the commander of the troops, declaring the complete obedience of the city. The faithful did not dare to try their luck again at the very tomb of Timur. In the desire to defend the Samarkand shrines, many were looking for very subtle reasons. By the way, according to the author of "The Defense of Samarkand in 1868", the main reason that prompted the people of Samarkand to surrender the city to the Russians was that they saw only this as a means of "saving the historical monuments of their city from destruction." In our opinion, this is not entirely true. Even if the chiefs of the Bukhara army, which fought on Chapan-ata, had intended to take it beyond the walls of Samarkand, they would not have succeeded: the discordant crowds, which were seized by panic after the May 1 affair, could not be stopped for new resistance . Hence, from this point of view, there could be no question of direct defense of the city or its voluntary surrender. In addition, it seems to us that there is nothing to say about saving historical monuments. As far as we know, none of all the assaults in Central Asia (Chemkent, Tashkent, Dzhizak) damaged any historical monument; of course, this could not have happened in Samarkand, if it had come to a siege. The Sarts knew about all this from experience. And in addition, the Central Asians, oppressed for many centuries by the boundless despotism of their rulers, are unable to take care of the preservation of the historical monuments of their cities. Fanaticism can be kindled in them for a while, but feelings of pride and national independence are far from the concepts of an Asian, at least those who know them closely are convinced of this.

In the same fact - in the surrender of Samarkand without a fight - many saw the beginning of a cunningly conceived plan. It is also difficult to agree with this. The plan of action we have already mentioned came much later. In a hot moment, there could be no talk of him.

We have expanded a little on this, because the question itself is quite important. Its correct resolution provides a means of forming a correct conception of the subsequent events of the region, and indirectly of the extent to which the battle of May 1 had a decisive character. In any case, the surrender of Samarkand without a fight put its inhabitants in an inviolable position.

On May 2, the Russians moved into the city. With songs and music, we passed the streets, on both sides of which came across

sometimes residents who made low bows. For the most part, they were Jews and Persians. Both those and others rejoiced at our arrival. The Muslims, though, held on, according to custom. by their bellies, but on their faces one could read one hostility. Each of them looked like a wolf cornered by dogs. The huts were locked. In general, there was a noticeable emptiness in the city.

The detachment settled down outside the city, along the Bukhara road. Part was left in the citadel. Everyone rejoiced at the opportunity to rest and recover. The tedious marches across the hungry steppe, and especially the reinforced march and then the battle on May 1, required a stop. In addition, it was necessary not only to strengthen in Samarkand, but also to extend power to the surrounding areas in order to have support in the further struggle. It was also necessary to arrange a secured communication with Tashkent. That is why it was decided to stop in Samarkand for a rest. Samarkand was the most convenient for this. Its luxurious gardens, beautiful spring water, the ability to get it necessary for the troops, could not but be to the taste of the detachment. Except. these, so to speak, purely material considerations. Samarkand attracted educated people with its sights, and although one could only point to the colossal mosques built under Tamerlane, this was enough for lovers of antiquity.

The city itself was no different from other cities. Central Asia. The same narrow streets, on both sides of which stretch low clay huts with flat roofs; the same bazaar as everywhere else, with shops open on the street where you can find native and imported goods; the same unbearable dust in dry weather, and inaccessible mud during rains; you come across the same dressing gowns in multi-colored or white turbans and women in dressing gowns thrown over their heads and with their faces covered - in a word, everything is the same as in Tashkent, Chemkent and other cities ... The city is surrounded by clay a wall that had collapsed in places and presented completely prepared breaches. For defense, she was not adapted; Apparently, they didn't think about it. Embracing the entire almost built-up space of the city and making up a significant stretch in length, this wall required a large number of troops for its occupation, therefore, it could not, in the future, serve as a Russian support, even if proper

corrections and adjustments. The citadel was important, which, due to its position and the relatively small length of the defensive fence, could be turned into a stronghold. About her we intend to say a little more, because later, during the seven-day siege, she played an important role.

Mr. Cherkasov's article "The Defense of Samarkand in 1868", it seems to us, did not sufficiently explain two very important questions: 1) when Samarkand, during the seven-day siege, was in the greatest danger? and 2) where was the weakest point of our location, where the enemy was supposed to direct the most energetic blows? To not give oneself a direct and definite answer to these questions means to enumerate a multitude of episodes in a certain order without elucidating their inner content; to mix individual, more or less fragmentary, efforts of the enemy with an assault on his 3rd, in which all forces participated at once and which was undertaken by the Shahrisyab people, as the last decisive blow before retreating into the mountains; in short: it means not to get a picture of the general course of the siege.

A direct solution of the proposed issues is also important in another respect: on the one hand, it will indicate the leading role that the people of Shahrisyab played during the siege, on the other hand, it can justify a significant concentration of defenders at the Bukhara Gates. We have always thought that the latter circumstance was entirely justified. To be convinced of this, you need to look at the location of the citadel and the meaning of its various points. The citadel is located in the northwestern part of the city (see drawing). In plan, it has a polygonal outline with two large incoming parts facing west. The hill on which the citadel is built generally commands the city and the surrounding gardens. From its highest point, from the location of the kok-tash (Khan's palace), you can see a significant part of the city. The wall surrounding the citadel reaches up to two fathoms in thickness and up to four fathoms in height. In it, at a fairly close distance from one another, semi-towers protruding outward are arranged. These are monolithic clay masses, on which, along the height of the wall, thin walls are folded; the latter can be occupied by 10-12 shooters. The half-towers, due to the insignificance of their release due to the outer line of the fence, could not deliver the last flank defense, so that the strength of the Samarkand citadel could only be the height of the surrounding

its walls and the depth of the ravine located on the eastern side. From the southern part of the latter, which was very important in terms of defense, there was no barrier lying in front, and here the city sacks directly adjoined the citadel wall itself. An attack on the citadel in this direction offered the best chance of success. Here it was possible to keep close to the wall in the husks, almost without being shot; it was possible to cut off the wall and in general to carry out the desired work, which could not be fired upon by the defenders; besides, for the besieger there was a very convenient and safe communication along the wall. The western part of the defensive fence of the citadel faces the Bukhara road. Here, ten sazhens wide, an elevated bridgehead was formed, built up close with sacks and bordered near the Bukhara road itself, by the remains of a city wall, unsuitable for defense, but very useful for the besiegers, because it completely hid their movements from shots from the citadel. From this side, access to the citadel was very convenient, especially since here, at the very Bukhara Gates, as we will see later, there was a rather wide gap. The mentioned bridgehead continues against the northern part of the wall; but further on it is somewhat wider and is separated from the gardens lying in front by a ravine, which was once a moat, in front of the city wall. This ditch ends at the Sarbaz court, near a large tower, located at the very keys. The tower is quadrangular, built, perhaps, even under Tamerlane, in several tiers; from time to time, the vaults separating the tiers collapsed, as a result of which a depression formed on the upper platform. The platform, five sazhens squared, could be adapted for artillery fire on the city, because it had some command over it. The entire space from the northwest corner to the keys is most secure; here, although there were loopholes in some places that the besieger could take advantage of, it was not difficult to defend them, and even with a small number of people, especially since part of the wall here looks like an incoming corner and several turrets. From the mentioned tower to the Samarkand Gates, and further to the southeastern corner of the citadel, as already mentioned, in front of the wall there is a deep, with steep banks, a ravine separating the citadel from the city in this place. In this direction, despite this kind of obstacle, the assault was possible at three points: directly on the Samarkand Gate, which could not be fired upon by flank fire; near the cemetery, where the defensive wall provided the possibility of an escalade and where the area was open to shots from the city, and at the springs. The attack from the keys could not be as dangerous as the first two. In this sense, throughout the eastern part of the fence, the Samarkand Gates acquired a special significance. But their attack did not present the besieger with any special chances of success, since the gate, located between two towers built of burnt bricks, is a rather capital structure. The towers are divided into two tiers; 3-4 loopholes were pierced in each with very limited shelling. Opposite the middle of the towers, between them, there were door leafs, and further, inside, a covered gallery with stone walls on the sides, which were one with the towers. In front of the gate, across the creek of the ravine, there is a bridge. From it, the area to the gate and further into the interior of the citadel is a rather steep climb. Thus, the besieger, leading an attack on the gate, had to pass through a narrow gallery, fired upon by a gun, which, if necessary, could be placed here. The same gun could fire at the bridge and part of the street leading to it.

The Gates of Bukhara were not in such a position (see the devil). Built less capitally, but according to the same plan as Samarkand, they did not have any barrier in front of them and access to them was completely free; in addition, the wall adjoining directly to the gate was incomparably more in a worse position than the same wall near the Samarkand gate. On the right side, at the very gates, it represented, as it were, a gap built up with sacks. Sakli, located inside the citadel, had windows and doors on the roofs of the sakli, built directly behind them in the city, so that, having climbed the latter, it was already easy to get into the interior of the citadel. Somewhat further behind the mentioned sakli, the front to the Bukhara road was a wide gap, which was very easy to climb. On the left side of the gate, the defensive fence also collapsed significantly and in one place was no higher than two arshins. Here, steps were even made on the outside, which served as a good communication route for dogs and people, at a time when the gates were locked. Having ascended from the city along these steps, it was possible to take possession of the left tower, and from it it was free to enter the citadel. Thus, in the smallest extent, in fact

at the Bukhara Gate, there were three loopholes. It was quite difficult to defend them without any preparation, especially since we only got to know them well during the siege.

To all that has been said, other circumstances must be added that made it difficult to defend the Bukhara Gates. The road to the city, leaving the gate, turned rather sharply to the right, so that the gun placed here could fire at the most insignificant space in front; consequently, it was easy for the attacker to approach him, with complete impunity, at the closest distance. All together made the Bukhara Gate the weakest point, and it is not surprising that the enemy attacked here more energetically than anywhere else.

The interior of the citadel was divided by narrow and crooked streets, which could greatly contribute to shelter from shots from the city. At first, they thought not to take possession of all the buildings located in the citadel, but to divide the latter into two parts by a wide street: one to give to the garrison, the other to those residents who owned the sakli in this part. For this purpose, it was necessary to build a street from the Samarkand Gates to the western incoming corner of the defensive wall and assign the southern part of the citadel to the natives, the northern garrison. The idea of ​​dividing the citadel into two halves, Russian and Muslim, had humane beginnings: by selecting only half of the sakels built in the citadel, and not all, for the garrison, we deprived the property of two times fewer people and, consequently, made the inhabitants twice as easy. But there were also minor inconveniences in the fulfillment of such a plan: it was difficult to guarantee that the sakli would be occupied by such personalities. whose views and intentions would be well known to the garrison: it was even more difficult to say that frequent quarrels and major misunderstandings would not occur between the garrison and its close neighbors, separated by one street. Such inconveniences, perhaps minor and repulsive in peacetime, became quite important during the siege. Imagine that the fortress, defended by the French from a German attack, is half occupied by the Germans. Will it be good for the French? All these inconveniences were probably well understood by the people of Samarkand, because the separated part of the citadel was not occupied by anyone. From the intention to divide the citadel into parts, only one trace remained - a wide street or esplanade, as it was called. During the siege, the esplanade had some disadvantages: it

all was open to shots from the city, so that the message on it was unsafe.

In a very short time, the city began to fill up. Near the camp, a temporary bazaar was formed with the most necessary items: cakes, dumplings, various vegetables, unripe fruits, gingerbread, nuts. A lively activity boiled here, trade opened.

Near the basket with cakes is a soldier. - “Hey, tamyr (1),” he says very seriously, being convinced that his knowledge in the native language is completely sufficient: - “tamyr, how much does a bir (2) cake cost? no need for humpty-baltai."

- "Uh, tamyre," he says, not understanding what was going on. “Here is a cake,” the soldier explains, poking his finger into the basket: “bir cake, how much?”

In another place, having nothing to do, an artilleryman is talking with a green apricot (apricot) merchant. - “Urus sarbaz - yakshi (3), Samarkand - yaman (4). Urus-sarbaz will give maklash (5) to your sarbaz. And now they gave you all haman (6).

- "Aman, aman," says the Sart, nodding his head approvingly. - "Now you are a merchant, well, trade: satu (7) is possible."

Everything took on the appearance of a somewhat original camp life. Only the smoking wicks by the guns reminded the detachment of its purpose. The time dragged on monotonously.

Expeditions to Chilek and Urgut greatly diversified our bivouac life. Hopes for further skirmishes and differences made them willingly endure many inconveniences. They talked about the movement to Bukhara. A lot of guessing, thinking, arguing. The movement to the emir's capital was considered positively necessary. Few people doubted the possibility and feasibility of this enterprise.

Finally, we moved forward to Kata-Kurgan, with the aim of taking this point and stopping at it. For this purpose, a company, 3 hundred and 12 guns were sent there, under the command of General Golovachev. Hopes for an assault on the city, which, as was known, were occupied by the enemy, revived the detachment. Despite the southern

heat and dust, people walked cheerfully and cheerfully. On the third day, in the morning, we approached Kata-Kurgan. On a hill, in view of the Kata-Kurgan gardens, the detachment turned around and lined up. The artillery stood in the intervals between the infantry.

A beautiful picture spread out before us. In a small valley, bordered on the side of Bukhara by the elevated bank of the Narpay, luxurious gardens stretched, which, in the direction of Zaryavshan, occupied an ever larger strip. Between the trees, as if showing off their luxurious clothes, thick-leaved elms stood out, and near, leaving peaks in the sky, slender poplars flaunted. Right there, next to these two beautiful plants of the south, fruit trees modestly crowded, allowing the first to show their beauty and grandeur even more. Here and there peeped out of the dense greenery were city huts and earthen walls, built, as usual, on both sides of the streets. The huts, the gardens, and the hills that stretched further on were illuminated by the bright morning sun, which gave everything an extremely picturesque appearance. But there was no time to admire them. Many hearts beat in anticipation of a shot from the city. Arbachs settled down not far from the troops and stroked their beards with pleasure in anticipation of a harvest. One of them, still dear, kept asking if the Russians would storm the city. At the same time, he usually lowered his voice and made a serious face. What was his indignation when it became known that the soldiers of the emir left Kata-Kurgan just before our arrival, and the inhabitants sent a deputation? The detachment occupied the city and settled down on the left bank of the Narpay, near the road leading to Bukhara. This part of the country is a completely bare slope facing the river. Ahead, parallel to the front of the disposition of troops, was the ridge of the hill; from it it was possible to survey a considerable space towards the side of the enemy.

At first, only on the right, and then on the left bank of the Narpai, the city itself is located. A small fortress was built in the middle; it can be defended by one company. This is the so-called citadel. It all fit on a natural hillock, which has four sazhens heights above the surrounding gardens. The slopes of the mound are completely sheer. A wide stone staircase leads to the gates of the citadel. The citadel served as a quarter for the Kata-Kurgan bek and his entourage.

In Kata-Kurgan, the emir's garden is remarkable. Better than this garden, we did not happen to see either in Samarkand or in Tashkent.

An almost square space about 50 sazhens aside is planted with poplars, elm and fruit trees: a pond is dug in the middle, filled with water through grooves or, as they are called here, ditches; from the pond there are alleys planted on both sides with grapes, which, rising along the trellises, form a dense green canopy over the alleys with hanging bunches of fruit. Full shade in the garden. Toward the side of the citadel, the garden is lined with buildings. These are the former premises of the emir during his stay in Kata-Kurgan: a small harem, two small reception rooms connected to each other by an open gallery, and various services with a courtyard behind them. From the gallery, the emir could view both the garden and the courtyard at the same time. Here he showed himself to the people who had gathered to bow and received the beks.

The garden was occupied by General Golovachev and his staff. From here to the camp located on the other side of the Narpai, about a verst.

In the twentieth of May, the first enemy attack was made on the troops stationed at Kata-Kurgan. A small gang of horsemen attacked the detachment pack camels and intended to steal them. Hit the alarm. The troops quickly gathered in alarm rushed. pursue the attackers. There was a small skirmish and a fight with the Cossacks. The camels were recaptured. An hour later, everything calmed down in the camp again.

Meanwhile, on May 27, part of the troops was sent from Samarkand to Kara-Tube. The village, occupied by the people of Shakhrisyab, defended itself very stubbornly. We suffered significant damage and, retreating to Samarkand, could only say that we had defeated the enemy, but not just so that he would not dare to accompany us on the way back.

A similar outcome of the case, and at the same time the news from Kata-Kurgan that attacks on the detachment stationed there were repeated more and more stubbornly and on a larger and larger scale, required decisive measures. It was decided, leaving the 6th battalion and 100 sappers with two battery guns in Samarkand, to move all the other troops to Kata-Kurgan, and, joining General Golovachev’s detachment there, follow the road to Bukhara and defeat the emir, who, as it was It is known that with all his strength he stood on Zyrabulak.

On May 31, the commander of the troops set out for Kata-Kurgan. The garrison left in Samarkand was extremely upset that he would have to sit idly by, while others would

fight. Some, however, were not discouraged. - “Just wait: when they leave for Kata-Kurgan, they will attack Samarkand and we will be under siege,” those who remained comforted themselves. Those who left just laughed. Almost no one believed in the possibility of a siege. With a few exceptions, they treated the matter very lightly, and did not understand that the attack on Samarkand was a necessary consequence of the state of affairs and that the only question could be how dangerous this attack would be. With envy, we saw off those who left, not assuming that a more brilliant fate was being prepared for us.The appearance of the enemy. - The location of the inhabitants. - Hadji-Arar Gates. - First assault on the citadel.On the very next day, after the speech of Adjutant General Kaufman, we noticed a significant concentration of the enemy on Chapan-ata. He had two guns with him, from which he fired from time to time. Since the distance was very significant. about five miles in a straight direction, we saw only smoke, and sometimes the sound of a shot was barely audible. This firing was carried out by the enemy for the sole purpose of showing the garrison that he had guns.

At the same time, from the side of the road in Kara-Tube, Shakhrisyab residents appeared. Every now and then new information came about. In the north, in the direction of the Chelek road, dust also appeared, and in general a lively movement of horse and foot people was noticed. It became obvious that Samarkand was surrounded by significant forces. What consequences could result from this could be partly judged by the mood of the inhabitants.

Even the day before, driving through the city, it was easy to notice a special emptiness in the streets. The young and old seem to have never been here. If you came across residents - always in groups, near the mosque, then they were all young and strong subjects capable of handling cartoons or batik.

When passing by such a gathering, it was useful not to pay attention to the fact that the lively conversation that had been carried on up to that time ceased. The stern faces and the impudent look of the faithful showed that between them ripening towards the Russians - if not already ripe - an extreme dislike, followed by an open uprising. And: and such a crowd, during the passage of a Russian, large curses were already heard, uttered, although not quite loudly, but rather

boldly. A certain hesitation about the final attack, it seems to us, was due to the fact that the enemy did not seem to yet fully believe in his own strength and in our unenviable position. The fact that would have clearly proved the latter circumstance to him was not slow to present itself.

On the morning of the 2nd, the commandant, listening to the insistent requests of several residents who wanted the Russians to protect the city from the invasion of the Shahrisyabians, with two companies and two guns moved to the Hadji-Arar Gates, where, according to the same Sarts, the enemy accumulated in significant numbers. forces. Having passed through the empty streets of the city and approaching the gates, we believed that our mere presence would force the enemy, if there really was one, to retreat. We were wrong. The column had just pulled out of the Haji Arar Gates, shots rang out from the gardens, at first rare, then more and more frequent. Scattered shooters. They put a gun on a hill and fired two grenades into the gardens. The firefight intensified. Our position was very disadvantageous. We had to more or less group on the road, on both sides of which stretched rather high walls, which did not allow us to see everything that was happening in the gardens. On the contrary, the enemy, hiding in the gardens, could surround us and cause significant harm. Therefore, we retreated, occupied the gates, closed them and scattered the shooters behind the battlements of the walls. It was clear that the enemy was getting stronger. We have, despite our closed position, a few people out of action. At last the huts and gardens in front of the gate were filled with the enemy. Separate individuals rushed to the walls occupied by us. One daredevil, dissatisfied with the sack, from which he initially shot from his cartoon, began to make his way to the gate. A soldier standing behind the battlements noticed this and fired. The wounded Sart first fell, but then got up again and took up his gun. - "Hurry, brethren!" he shouted, in broken Russian.

Having spread to the right and to the left, the enemy could cut us off from the citadel, and therefore the commandant ordered us to retreat to the citadel. Our retreat was the signal for the attack. Everything that until that time had been kept at a respectful distance rushed to Samarkand. The enemy realized his strength, and from that moment the struggle was to take on a serious character.

We dare not say that Baron Stempel must not

was to move from the citadel: perhaps the reasons that prompted him to do so were very respectful; but we allow ourselves to think that before leaving the citadel, it was necessary to decide the question: is it not possible to risk moving to meet the enemy in the gardens, drive him out with a bold blow and, if possible, even pursue to a certain extent? If, after a mature discussion, this question had been decided in the negative, then, it seems to us, there would be nothing to think about moving towards the Hadji-Arar Gates. In the reverse solution of the same question, the course of action is itself clear.

As soon as we had time, as they say, to get out, the citadel was immediately surrounded and the porridge was brewed.

The enemy, following directly behind the retreating companies and then spreading to the right and left, rushed straight to storm the walls and gates. The first push was terrible. The most rapid fire directed at the citadel; desperate attempts to seize the cemetery with open force, scratching at coolness with the help of so-called cats; a friendly onslaught on the Samarkand and Bukhara gates, which had just managed to close; the menacing, incessant cries of the besiegers, from whose side zurns were played, drums were beaten, the trumpet rattled - all this was only the beginning ....... For each of us, these were the most difficult minutes.

As soon as we arrived at the Samarkand Gates, a non-commissioned officer ran up.

- “Your honor! broke in!"

- “Here, now,” he said, choking ... “there is no one there ......

Appropriate orders are made; people run in the indicated direction, rush to the gap, overturn the enemy into the city, climb the wall in order to be able to shoot back; many of them fall back and rise no more, their place is taken by others.

So, from the other side, a Russian “cheers” is heard, a shot is heard, another. The rattling of the guns gets louder and louder. Screams are heard again, this time not Russian; then everything merges into a general rumble and din, among which nothing can be disassembled. Increasingly, the wounded and the dead are being dragged along. The enemy is pushing harder and harder.

At about two o'clock, the enemy, having opened fire near the very Samarkand

gate, began to throw bags of gunpowder there. Gate cloths. knocked together from completely dry wood, and the pillars supporting them quickly caught fire. It was not possible to extinguish the fire, because, as we will see, there were no funds for this. Not limited to the fire of the Samarkand Gates, the besieger tried to fire it inside the citadel as well. To this end, he threw over the wall, near the southeast corner of the citadel, a special rocket device, which, due to the irregularity of the flight, resembled crackers arranged from ordinary paper. These rockets, having burned one or two people, did not bring us any harm.

Right here. only a little closer to the Bukhara Gates, the besieger began to actively cut off the wall, in the hope of causing a collapse. We heard his work clearly. To prevent the production of these works, by order of Captain Mikhnevich, a ladder was placed against the wall so that hand grenades could be thrown at the work from it. The gunners got used to it very quickly. One of them, almost Mikhnevich himself, played a very funny joke with the enemy: standing on the stairs and holding a prepared grenade in his hands, he called out to the Sarts who were working on the other side of the wall. The knocking of the ketmens subsided, the enemy listened. - "Here's a present for you," the joker shouted, throwing a grenade over the wall: "eat!" Curses were heard and several stones flew over the wall. Apparently, they did not like the meal. The one who proposed it was very pleased. Similar jokes were repeated, and almost always with the same success. In general, hand grenades, not only here, but also at other points, brought enormous benefits to the garrison. They were used on time and with full knowledge of the matter. Of course, it was not without curiosities, as we will see later. But the curiosities, funny in themselves, were nothing more than particulars and were lost in the general, which was far from comforting.

By the evening of the 2nd, Lieutenant Colonel Nazarov, with a weak ninth battalion and 100 sappers, was sent to the Bukhara Gates, where the enemy directed more and more efforts

Bukhara Gate. - Morning of June 3rd. - The state of affairs by the evening of the same number. - Sorties - Subsequent days of defense. - Return of Adjutant General Kaufman to Samarkand.

When Lieutenant Colonel Nazarov arrived at the Bukhara Gates, they presented a striking picture. Produced here by the enemy

the fire was in full swing (8). It's already dark. The burning gate illuminated a small area and part of the street inside the citadel. Our gun was standing on the platform, and a little further, in the street, a crowd of defenders gathered in serious and stern faces. on which one could notice some strange interrogative expression. Everyone was silent, waiting for something extraordinary.

The hunters-sappers called in tore off the burning curtains of the gates and made a blockage from the bags, behind which the gun was placed from the torn sheets and the ceiling that then collapsed in front of the blockage, a fire was formed that burned until the morning of the next day. The enemy tried to keep the fire going. We happened to see how a ten-year-old Sart boy, hiding from our shots with a ledge of the tower, threw firewood and chips on the fire at the very time when we were making a blockage a few steps from the daredevil.

In the city, near the enemy, there was the busiest traffic and noise. His militant cry was echoed by drums, zurns and a terribly roaring trumpet, calling the faithful to battle. In a large stone mosque, opposite the Bukhara Gates, the leader of the Shahrisabians, Jura-biy, made a holiday (tamasha) in honor of the successful course of the siege. We heard the sounds of tambourine and zurn entertaining the dignitaries of Kitab. The enemy, having not yet done anything decisive, was already triumphant and behaved extremely boldly. Every now and then people on foot and even on horseback flashed past the opening of the gate; about a hundred paces from the citadel, near the pond, several Sarts made a fire and settled down, having cooked pilau, to have supper and rest after the day's work. From the right tower of the gate you can (it hurts to see this group, illuminated by a blazing fire. One of the officers of the 9th battalion, having climbed one of the sakels located directly at the very gates, with 6-7 soldiers fired a volley into the robes and dispersed them.

The dark southern night has come. As if illuminated, the city and the citadel were ablaze with fire: there was a most frequent exchange of fire, and cannon shots were heard from the barbettes of the citadel. Clearly, none of us thought about sleep, It was beginning to get light. The enemy moved somewhat away from the walls and gathered strength. The shots from his side thinned out, although they did not stop during the whole night. There was a calm for three or four hours, after which, everyone felt it, a hurricane should come.

From seven or eight o'clock, the shooting began to flare up. The enemy fumbled. Busy traffic and running around were noticeable along the streets of the city. At times, at the very walls of the citadel, in the general noise, one could distinguish the orders made by the enemy and the orders given. Sarts were preparing for the assault.

Soon, as on the eve, the Shakhrisyab trumpet roared, zurns began to play, drums beat. Enemy with ur cry! (bey) threw himself on the walls of the citadel. His arrows, seated in high two-story shacks, inflicted enormous damage on the garrison. A hail of stones rained down on the defenders from three directions. With difficulty, they managed to remove the wounded and the dead and replace their places. In particular, the people who occupied the sakli on the right side of the gate endured. Here, as has already been noted, the windows and doors opened onto the roofs of the city sakels, climbing on which it was already easy for the enemy to get into the citadel. At twenty minutes past ten the aforementioned saklis were occupied by him; a friendly onslaught was made on the gates and the bags covering them were scattered; part of the wall to the left of the gate also passed into the hands of the besiegers, who fired almost point-blank at the defenders; our gunners, by accident, loaded the gun with gunpowder to the muzzle - no shot was fired; our people recoiled and crowded in the street leading to Kok-tash. Two or three people from among the attackers rushed to the abandoned gun and grabbed its wheels. A formidable moment came: our soldiers stood still, shouted hurray and died ... The courage of Lieutenant Colonel Nazarov and the personal example of Ensign Vereshchagin corrected the matter. The latter, with a gun in his hands, at the head of several people, rushed into the hut, occupied by the enemy, and knocked him over with bayonets into the city; the rest unanimously hit the gate. The enemy could not withstand the onslaught: panic seized him, and several of our men who jumped out of the gate fired at the fleeing.

The morning of June 3 will long remain in the memory of those who were at the Bukhara Gates that day. To this day, certain episodes are extremely vividly recalled to us, as if everything that had happened had happened very recently. It is especially difficult to forget the Handmaid. At the very beginning of the assault, he was not at the Bukhara Gates, but he came to them at the very moment when his subordinates so unsuccessfully loaded the gun and backed away from it. Sluzhenko was riding a dark brown horse and wearing a white tunic. The expression on his face was

something special. For some reason, the fatalist Lermontov came to my mind ....... "They will kill the Servant," I thought. In a white clean tunic, and, moreover, on horseback, it was indeed difficult not to attract the attention of the enemy. No sooner had Sluzhenko left for the site than he was mortally wounded in his left side. He swayed in his saddle, turned pale, turned his horse back into the street, but did not let go of the reins. - "Are you injured"? I asked him, but got no answer. He was taken off his horse and sent to the infirmary, where he did not live to see the evening.

The fate of this officer is remarkable. Almost at the beginning of his service in the Turkestan region, he was captured in Bukhara, he endured there for quite a long time, suffered a lot of grief and hardship, which it was even difficult for him to talk about. The maid, despite his reserved and somewhat unsociable nature, was loved by everyone and was extremely upset by his death.

I also remember Nazarov, whose presence at the Bukhara Gates on the 3rd was of such great importance for the defense: he was in a yellow silk shirt, with a cover on his head instead of a cap and in shoes, a Caucasian saber over his shoulder, a revolver in his belt. "Forward guys! Behind me!" he shouts to the soldiers with his energetic voice...

And here is the bugler of the sapper company: he trumpets the offensive and blushed like cancer from the effort; taking the horn from his mouth, he says to his comrades in a plaintive, breathless voice: "What are you, brothers?..." mouth half open, lips dry and white; he clings to his comrades and does not even scream ....... One of the soldiers reads the Mother of God ....... The Ural Cossack complains about his fate ... “They take the gun, they take the gun, you can hear it in the back rows .. .” - “Who is with me, guys, come here!” says Vereshchagin; his face is pale, his eyes are burning; he has an open head, his hair flutters in the wind ...

But the picture has changed. The enemy retreated. We rest. Someone said that a detachment was coming to our rescue. A loud, joyful "cheers" is heard between the defenders. A team is formed, which must go towards the detachment. Vesky wants to be in its ranks. Tired faces perked up....... The news turned out to be wrong. Again the picture is changing.

No matter how hard it was for the defenders who stood directly at

walls, but the sick and wounded, placed in Kok-Tash, were even worse. Each new wounded sent there announced that everything was lost, there was no hope for a successful outcome of the case. One soldier of the 6th battalion, who ran there, announced that Nazarov and all the officers at the Bukhara Gate had been killed, the enemy had taken away the gun, and he had finally broken in. The uproar that the Jewish families raised, who had taken refuge in the citadel from the very beginning, was terrible. There were also comic cases. So, one sick officer, who was lying during the siege in Kok-Tash, slept very soundly next to his comrade. A cat climbed onto the latter, which frightened the patient so much that he screamed at the top of the hut. The one lying next to him woke up and, assuming that the decisive moment had come, jumped up, began to look for a saber and call for a batman. - "Farwal, farwal!" he said in a breathless voice. But when it was explained to him that the cat was the cause of his commotion, he began to calm down. - “And I thought they were farted. Sergei, a glass of vodka! ...... Even more comical was one clerk who happened to be in Samarkand during the siege. He was small, frail, and generally very unrepresentative. With a double-barreled shotgun over his shoulders, this volunteer walked importantly around the citadel, considering himself among the most important and necessary defenders. Talking to the soldiers, he adopted a warlike posture, twirling his mustache, repeating loudly every now and then: - “We will set the bells to these smuggling dogs! Let's try again." It happened to this warrior, on the 2nd, after the assault, to stop opposite the opening of the Bukhara Gate. One of the bullets that kept flying in that direction must have whistled just above his ear. The warrior first bent over and sat down, and then rushed to the side. - “What, brother, is this not to sell cigarettes?” asked a soldier sitting nearby. - “This, brothers, he bowed to us: forgive me, they say, that I sell dearly,” quipped another. Everyone laughed. The embarrassed volunteer cringed and quietly left.

About noon we noticed something unusual in the city. There was some turmoil going on; terrible dust rose from running around, screams were heard. The enemy supported the skirmish with the citadel very weakly. Only in the evening did we find out what it all meant. It turned out that the people of Shakhrisyab, who had learned about the defeat of the emir at Zyrabulak on the 2nd, launched the third, last desperate assault, which was supposed to decide the fate of Samarkand. Failing, they decided to retreat. Why did the emir, contrary to the previously accepted

intention, did not refrain and accepted the fight on June 2, we do not know. Maybe this was done for some very good reasons, or maybe just one whim of Muzafar, in any case, the failure to fulfill the original plan greatly irritated the people of Shakhrisyab, who, having robbed the Samarkand bazaar, went to the mountains.

With their departure, our situation has changed significantly for the better. The enemy weakened, at least by half, because the people of Shakhrisyab were distinguished by relatively serviceable weapons and a warlike spirit. We, for our part, looked around somewhat and began to get used to our position. Previous assaults have pointed out to us points that require the best protection, and found out the reason for the advantage that the besieger had over the defender. The reason was that there was no gap between the wall of the citadel and the city, as a result of which the enemy could secretly approach the citadel, occupy the highest sacks near it and, breaking through loopholes in them, at 25-30 paces of distance, surely beat every soldier forced protrude from behind the wall or stand against a wide, hastily punched loophole in order to act on the besieger. In order to destroy the disastrous value of the sakels located near the citadel, and on the other hand, to entertain the soldiers and plant greater confidence in their strength, on the 3rd of the evening, at the initiative of Lieutenant Colonel Nazarov, a sortie was made from the Bukhara Gate, which ended very successfully.

Thus, after the departure of the Shakhrisyab people, the nature of the defense changed: instead of defending every point of the defensive fence with huge losses and not daring to think about any enterprise outside it, from the evening of the 3rd, we begin to make sorties, which is already clearly proves a significant change in the situation. From this it can be seen that the eight-day siege of Samarkand can be divided into two acts: the day of the 2nd and half of the 3rd - the most difficult and serious time of defense, which had tremendous moral significance for the garrison - the first act; the next days, when I had to think mainly about whether or not there would be enough water in the ponds and salt in the warehouses - the second.

We usually got ready for our trips before dark. The soldiers collected straw, small chips, took several packs of matches. Kindling was tied in bunches and put on bayonets. When it got dark, they pushed back the door that closed the hole between the bags,

against which the cannon stood, and, one by one, without noise, they went out into the city. By nightfall, the enemy was withdrawing further into the city, and therefore we did not meet resistance. Having gathered outside the gates, we set off along a pre-selected street, dispersed through the yards and kindled a fire in the sakly, where it seemed most profitable. Completely dry parts of buildings caught fire extremely quickly. The growing flames illuminated the part of the street that was being destroyed. People flitted along it, fussing around the bonfires. Soon the fire developed completely. It was glowing over him. The enemy finally paid attention to the sortie and intensified the shooting in this direction. Bullets began to whistle in the vicinity. Having done the job, we returned to the citadel, and, as far as I remember, we had no losses. Only the sortie of the 4th did not go completely unpunished.

It was produced by Nazarov from the Samarkand Gates. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. The enemy kept up a lively exchange of fire with our men who occupied the gates. Nazarov ordered to make three shots of cannonballs at the nearest sacks from the cannon standing here, after which, having formed a team, he led it to the city. At the very first steps, we stumbled upon the enemy, who, apparently, did not expect an attack and began to hastily retreat into the depths of the city. While chasing him and pushing him further towards the bazaar, we lit the sakli in the meantime.

On this day, it was planned to go around the citadel in the direction of the Bukhara Gates and try to burn the sakli so as to form continuous ruins in front of the citadel wall, between the Samarkand and Bukhara gates, where the enemy held on especially tightly and from where they caused us a lot of harm. The goal, this time, although not quite, but was achieved.

Vereshchagin and the merchant Trubchaninov took part in the sortie. The latter completely entered the role of the most fierce warrior and every now and then shouted to the soldiers: “Beat them guys, beat them! Ten people of children, guys, hit! At one of the mosques, he stumbled upon an armed Sart, did not get lost, kissed and killed him on the spot. - “Beat them, dogs, guys! ten children!...” the venerable father of the family spoke with great conviction, loading his gun again.

Two small incidents happened to Vereshchagin, which, however, ended happily. Looking around one of the side courtyards, he saw a sart armed with batik, on which,

of course, and was not slow to attack. But since Vereshchagin's gun was not loaded, he had to use a bayonet. He had little strength, and the bayonet had no effect on the sart wrapped in robes. The latter, grabbing the gun barrel with his hand, was already preparing to deal with Vereshchagin's batik and did not do this only because he was in the corner and could not swing. The soldiers arrived in time to rescue "his degree", as they called Vereshchagin. Another case with him is also not without interest. Passing by a two-tiered hut, Vereshchagin saw five armed Sarts on the second floor, watching the movement of the Russians through a small opening. Vereshchagin immediately jumped up to the sakla and thrust his bayonet into the hole. Sarts grabbed the barrel of the gun and dragged the warrior up. I would have had to lose my gun if the soldiers had not come to the rescue again. Those who wanted to take advantage of someone else's property were, of course, persecuted, and they did not even put up much resistance. In general, Central Asians die somehow passively. On the same sortie, we happened to be a witness to a remarkable, in this respect, fact.

One soldier, probably not distinguished by great courage, lagged behind the others and walked at a considerable distance behind, four Sarts, hiding in one of the sackels and unnoticed by the people in front, jumped out of their ambush and attacked the lagging one. Three of them were armed with batiks, the fourth, it seems, had a cartoon. The soldier's gun was unloaded. He apparently did not expect the attack and was completely at a loss. - "Brothers, help!" he shouted to his comrades ahead. Five people who heard the scream rushed to help. But while they ran to the scene, one of the Sarts (the other three, seeing the approach of the Russians, fled) managed to hit the bewildered soldier with batik on the head and was about to repeat the blow. Wounded by one of the running up soldiers with a bullet in the arm, he lowered the batik, did not budge, and surrendered without resistance to the fate that awaited him .......

Religious fanaticism sometimes leads Asians to extremely bold, even reckless antics. On the fourth day, on a sortie, some of the people were left by Nazarov at the crossroads to cover the other half, moving further from the bazaar, since there were always large crowds at the latter. The people left in this place busied themselves with lighting the sakels and watching

behind the street leading to the market. Unexpectedly for everyone, three sarts appeared on the roof of the corner hut; everyone in the field had stones with which they began to bombard us. It is clear that the stones could not equal the bullet, and the daredevils remained in place.

The sortie on the 4th was especially useful in regard to the moral significance it had on the garrison. This was not a stealthy movement at night, but a bold and successful offensive during the day, which gave the garrison the right not to consider itself completely enclosed in the citadel.

The commandant, as it turned out, did not know about Nazarov's movement into the city. He became very alarmed by this and even sent a team to ensure a sortie of free retreat to the citadel. This measure, however, turned out to be unnecessary, since the enemy, puzzled by the bold movement of Nazarov, did not dare to attack his people.

The night from the 2nd to the 3rd, as already noted, we did not close our eyes, and therefore everyone was extremely tired. In the following nights, in order not to exhaust the people, it was decided to divide them into shifts so that one would stay awake and support the skirmish, and the rest would rest. At the same time, of course, sleeping was located at the very gate behind the bags and along the edges of the site. But since any accident has a stronger effect on a person who has just woken up than on a waking person, Colonel Nazarov ordered to bring his bed, ordered to put it near the gun itself and went to bed. Such an act had a double meaning: firstly, in case of alarm, Nazarov was where his presence was considered absolutely necessary; secondly, the soldiers, seeing the “colonel” next to them, fell asleep quite calmly, in full confidence that nothing special would happen to them. In such a mood, no nighttime alarm could stun the soldier. - “Look, guys,” Nazarov told the soldiers, sitting on the bed, “do not dare to make noise, I want to sleep; and these scoundrels (he nodded his head towards the city) should not be allowed to interfere with my rest.

In general, Nazarov knew how to talk with soldiers; they were always pleased and often laughed heartily after some of his jokes. With his cheerful character, and more, of course, courage in critical moments, Nazarov gained great respect for himself not only from soldiers, but also from officers. With the latter, he was on the shortest leg, he said “you” to many and did not hesitate to scold,

if he felt it was necessary. Merchants and clerks hoped for him as for a stone mountain. Nazarov used this very well. - "Bring, brother, a box of cigars: you see, the soldiers want to smoke." - Or: - “Here, brothers,” he addresses the soldiers, in the presence, of course, of the same merchant: “they want to treat you with vodka before dinner.” - It is clear that both cigars and vodka immediately appeared on the stage.

Despite the departure of Shahrisyab residents, the enemy continued to besiege the city with great energy. Attempts to break into the citadel were repeated several times a day. The last of them, made on June 7, on the eve of the return of the commander of the troops to Samarkand, was the most desperate. Having gathered for saklys against the Bukhara Gates, the enemy began to read prayers that were heard to us from word to word. Having finished them, op rushed to the gate. Buckshot and hand grenades stopped the attackers. His arrows lay down along the ditch fifteen paces from our obstruction with a gun and fired at the gates; the rest crowded behind the left tower until they were finally dispersed by grenades. Fireworks was in charge of this business. One of the sapper soldiers, Ivanov, I remember, offered his help to the artilleryman. - "Give it, he says, I'll throw it." - “If you please, drop it,” the artilleryman answered him, “only you look ... - “What to watch? let the sarts watch, and I'll quit," Ivanov quipped and took the grenade in his hands. The fireworks lit the pipe. Everything was in order so far. Ivanov swung to throw a grenade over the wall, but, unexpectedly for all those present, he was confused and dropped it on the floor in a circle of ten comrades. We barely had time to jump out of the tower, otherwise it would have been bad.

The Samarkand citadel presented a terrible, amazing picture to the detachment returning from Kata-Kurgan. Smoky piles of collapsed sakels that we set on fire on sorties; burnt, mutilated corpses scattered among the ruins and emitting an unbearable stench that polluted the air; the emaciated and smoky faces of the defenders, who kept on their feet only due to moral stress - that's what the detachment imagined on June 8th. Fresh traces of the struggle were eloquent proof of her tenacity. The garrison was happy, realizing that the share entrusted to it was fulfilled honestly.

E. Voronets

We remember our deeds!

145 years ago, a handful of Russian soldiers led by General Kaufman did the impossible: they brought the Emirate of Bukhara to its knees and conquered Samarkand.

The conquest of Samarkand and the entire Emirate of Bukhara occupies a completely undeserved place in Russian history - or rather, no place, because after Russia left Central Asia, Russian historians preferred to pretend that the Russian Empire had never been there.Meanwhile, the Turkestan general Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann is such an example of Russian military prowess, in comparison with which all the Persian campaigns of Napoleon and Alexander the Great seem like children's games in the sandbox. Still, behind the back of the French emperor and the ancient Greek king stood the army, but behind Kaufman - 3,500 people. That is, 25 companies of infantry, 7 hundred Cossacks and 16 guns. And ahead is the whole of Turkestan.

And on May 1, 1868, this handful of brave men went on a campaign against the Bukhara army, which numbered 40-50 thousand people. Moreover, General Kaufman, in accordance with all the rules of military diplomacy and the officer's code of honor, first sent a letter to the emir, in which he generously offered to surrender.

The emir only laughed at the impudent infidel.

In April 1868, an army of thousands led by the emir headed for the river. Zeravshan, leaving Samarkand in his rear. A Russian detachment under the command of Kaufman himself, consisting of 25 companies of infantry and 7 hundred Cossacks with 16 guns (a total of 3,500 people) moved towards her from Julek.

On May 1, 1868, the Russians reached the northern bank of the Zeravshan and saw an enemy army across the river. The ambassador, who arrived from the Bukharans, asked Kaufman not to start hostilities, but the emir was also in no hurry to withdraw the troops. At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the Bukharians opened fire from cannons. In response, Russian batteries began to speak, under the cover of which the infantry began the crossing. Passing first through the river chest-deep in water, and then through the swampy rice fields, the Russian soldiers struck the Bukharians at the same time in front and from both flanks. The Bukhara writer and diplomat Ahmad Donish wrote with caustic mockery: “The fighters found it necessary to flee: everyone ran as best they could, ran wherever they looked, threw all their property and equipment. Some fled towards the Russians, and the latter, having learned their position, having fed and watered them, let them go. Emir, having soiled his pants, also fled. Nobody wanted to fight." The victory of the Russian detachment was complete, and with minimal losses: two were killed. The remnants of the emir's army retreated to Samarkand, but the townspeople closed the gates in front of them. When Russian troops approached the former capital of Tamerlane, the people of Samarkand surrendered.

K. Kaufman thanked the residents on behalf of the sovereign, and presented the chief judge and spiritual head of the city Kazi-Kalyan with a silver medal. On May 6, a small detachment of Major von Stempel was sent from Samarkand, who captured the small Bukhara fortress of Chelek at the foot of the Nurata Mountains. On May 11, Kaufman equipped another, larger expedition consisting of 6 companies of soldiers and 2 hundred Cossacks with 4 guns under the command of Colonel Abramov. This detachment went to the city of Urgut, located 34 km southeast of Samarkand.

On May 12, the detachment collided under the walls of the city with a large Bukhara army, which they inflicted a crushing defeat on. After that, Abramov's soldiers stormed the city, partially dispersing, partially exterminating its garrison. On May 14, the expedition returned to Samarkand. On May 17, the Russians occupied Kata-Kurgan, 66 km northwest of Samarkand. All these successes greatly frightened the rulers of the city of Shakhrisabz. This large craft and trade center, the birthplace of the great warrior Tamerlane, tried more than once to overthrow the power of the Bukhara emirs. Now the Shakhrisabz beks decided that the power of Bukhara was over, but it was necessary to get rid of the Russians. To do this, they supported the son of Emir Abdul-Malik.

On May 27, a 10,000-strong army of Shakhrisabz attacked a detachment of Colonel Abramov (8 companies and 3 hundred Cossacks) near the village of Kara-Tyube, not far from Samarkand. But it was rejected. This clash encouraged Emir Muzaffar, who felt that the time had come for revenge. On June 2, 1868, on the Zirabulak heights, between Katta-Kurgan and Bukhara, a decisive battle took place between the emir's army and the detachment of Kaufman himself. Demoralized by previous failures, the Bukharans acted extremely indecisively and were again defeated. The road to Bukhara was open, and Muzaffar himself was about to flee to Khorezm.

However, Kaufman could not attack the emir's capital, since in the rear he himself suddenly had a center of resistance. Departing for the Zirabulak heights, the governor-general left a very small garrison in Samarkand, consisting of 4 companies of the 6th line battalion, 1 company of sappers and 2 artillery batteries under the general command of Major Shtempel. In addition, non-combatant and sick soldiers of the 5th and 9th line battalions were in the city, as well as Lieutenant Colonel N. N. Nazarov, who, due to frequent quarrels with his colleagues, submitted his resignation, but did not have time to leave. In total, the Russian detachment consisted of 658 people, among whom was a prominent battle painter V.V. Vereshchagin with the rank of ensign.

#June 2nd@mirror_history this handful of Russian soldiers was besieged by a 25,000-strong army under the command of Baba-bek, who came from Shakhrisabz. In alliance with the Shahrisabzians, a 15,000-strong detachment of the Kirghiz led by Adil-Dahty, as well as the rebellious residents of Samarkand, whose number also reached 15,000, came forward. Thus, for every Russian soldier there were more than 80 opponents. Not having the strength to hold the entire city, the garrison immediately retreated to the citadel, located at its western wall.

The thickness of the walls of the citadel reached 12 meters in some places and the attackers obviously could not break through it. The weak point of defense was two gates: Bukhara in the southern wall and Samarkand in the east. The Russian detachment had enough ammunition and food for a long defense. The besiegers made the first attack on the Bukhara Gate, which was defended by 77 soldiers under the command of Major Albedil.

Shakhrisabz residents tried three times to break down the gate and get over the wall, but each time they were beaten off with well-aimed rifle fire. Albedil himself was seriously wounded. Finally, the attackers managed to set fire to the gate. At the same time, the enemy was also pressing at the Samarkand gates, where 30 soldiers of ensign Mashin were holding the defense. Here the attackers also set fire to the gates, tried to get through them, but the soldiers knocked them out with bayonets. In the midst of the battle, a platoon of the 3rd company arrived in time to help the defenders of the Samarkand Gates under the command of Ensign Sidorov, which constituted a mobile reserve. He helped repel the enemy onslaught, and then quickly rushed to the Bukhara Gate and supported Albedil's detachment.

In addition to the gates, the Shahrisabzians tried to enter the citadel through gaps in the eastern wall. They also climbed directly onto the walls, for which they used iron hooks that were put directly on their arms and legs. However, everywhere the attackers were met by the well-aimed fire of the soldiers. By evening, the attacks had ceased, but this temporary success cost the Russians dearly: 20 privates and 2 officers were killed.

On the morning of June 3, the assault resumed. The defense of the Bukhara Gate was headed instead of Albedil by Lieutenant Colonel Nazarov, who officially did not hold any position. This officer had a reputation as a brave man, but very impudent, arrogant, who did not recognize any authorities, in a word, "a true Turkestan." To encourage the soldiers, he ordered to place his camp bed at the gate, emphasizing that he would not leave his position even at night. Sleep Nazarov, however, did not have to. At 8 o'clock in the morning the inhabitants of Shakhrisabz, having broken the charred remains of the gate, dismantled the barricade erected by the Russians and seized one cannon. The soldiers rushed to the bayonets, and V. Vereshchagin was in front of everyone. After a fierce hand-to-hand fight, the besiegers retreated, but soon resumed the assault in other directions.

The attacks continued for the next two days, and they were combined with constant shelling of the citadel. The garrison, thinned by enemy bullets, had not only to repulse attacks, but also put out fires, fill up the gates with bags of earth, and make sorties beyond the fortress walls.

"Major Shtempel ... every night sent native messengers to General Kaufman with a report on the plight of the garrison. In total, up to 20 people were sent, but only one reached Kaufman. The rest were intercepted and killed or changed. The messenger brought Kaufman a laconic a note on a tiny piece of paper: "We are surrounded, the assaults are continuous, the losses are heavy, help is needed ..." The report was received on the evening of June 6 and the detachment came to the rescue immediately. Kaufman decided to go 70 miles in one transition, stopping only for halts .. ." RGVIA. F.165. Op.1. D.1741. L. 53-54.

Only on June 8, Kaufman's army returned to Samarkand, putting the Shakhrisabz and Kirghiz people to flight. During the 8-day defense, the Russians lost 49 people killed (including 3 officers), and 172 people wounded (5 officers).

On June 10, a representative of the Emir of Bukhara arrived in Samarkand to negotiate. On June 23, 1868, a peace treaty was concluded, according to which Bukhara recognized for Russia all its conquests since 1865, and undertook to pay 500 thousand rubles. indemnity and give Russian merchants the right to free trade in all cities of the emirate. From the territories captured in 1868, the Zeravshan district was formed with two departments: Samarkand and Katta-Kurgan. A.K. was appointed the head of the district and the head of the military people's administration. Abramov, promoted to major general.

The Emirate of Bukhara was placed in vassal dependence on Russia. When the eldest son of Seyid Muzaffar Katty-Tyurya, dissatisfied with the terms of the treaty of 1868, rebelled against his father, Russian troops came to the rescue of the emir. On August 14, 1870, the detachment of A.K. Abramov stormed Kitab, the capital of the Shahrasyab beks, who planned to secede from Bukhara. In 1873, the Khiva Khanate fell under the protectorate of Russia.

The rulers of the vassal states of Central Asia obediently followed in the wake of Russian policy. And no wonder! After all, the population subject to them did not strive for independence, but, on the contrary, for joining the Russian Empire. Their brothers on the territory of Turkestan lived much better: without feudal strife, they could use the achievements of Russian industry, agricultural technology, culture, and qualified medical care. The construction of roads, especially the Orenburg-Tashkent railway, contributed to the rapid development of trade, drawing the Central Asian region into the all-Russian market.