Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman (
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
: Константин Петрович фон-Кауфман,
Konstantin Petrović fon-Kaufman; 1818 - 1882) was the first
Governor-GeneralA governor-general, also known as governor general, is a vice-regal representative of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription...
of
Russian TurkestanRussian Turkestan was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire , comprising the oasis region to the south of the Kazakh steppes, but not the protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva.-History:Although Russia had been pushing south into the steppes from...
.
Early life
His family was
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n in origin, but had been in the service of the Tsars for over 100 years, and had long since converted to
OrthodoxyThe word orthodox, from Greek orthodoxos "having the right opinion", from orthos + doxa , is typically used to mean adhering to the accepted or traditional and established faith, especially in religion.The term did not conventionally exist with any degree of formality The word orthodox, from Greek...
. Von Kaufman entered the military engineering field in 1838, served in the campaigns in the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
, was promoted to the rank of
colonelColonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
, and commanded the sappers at the
siege of KarsThe Siege of Kars was the last major operation of the Crimean War. On June 1855, in an attempt to alleviate pressure on the troops at Sevastopol, Emperor Alexander II ordered General Nikolay Muravyov to lead his troops against areas of Turkish interest in Asia Minor...
in 1855. On the
capitulationCapitulation or Capitulations may have the following special meanings.*Capitulation **Stock market capitulation*Capitulation **Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire...
of Kars he was deputed to settle the terms with General
William Fenwick WilliamsSir William Fenwick Williams, 1st Baronet GCB was a British military leader of the Victorian era.-Early life:...
.
In 1861, he became director-general of engineers at the War Office, assisting Count
Dmitry MilyutinCount Dmitry Alekseyevich Milyutin was Minister of War and the last Field Marshal of Imperial Russia...
, the Minister of War, in the reorganization of the army. Promoted lieutenant general in 1864, he was nominated adjutant-general and Governor of the military
conscriptionConscription is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by an established authority. It is most often used in the specific sense of requiring citizens to serve in the armed forces...
of Vilna, where at that time the Tsarist state had begun a policy of expropriating the Polish aristocracy in an attempt to break its influence in the countryside.
Conquest of Turkestan
In 1867, he became Governor-General of
TurkestanRussian Turkestan was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire , comprising the oasis region to the south of the Kazakh steppes, but not the protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva.-History:Although Russia had been pushing south into the steppes from...
, and held the post until his death, making himself a name in the expansion of the empire in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
. The
Khanate of KokandThe Khanate of Kokand was a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709–1876 within the territory of modern eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan...
north of the
Syr DaryaSyr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water...
had already been annexed to Russia, and the independence of the rest of that country became merely nominal. He accomplished a successful campaign in 1868 against the
Emirate of BukharaThe Emirate of Bukhara was a Central Asian state that existed from 1785 to 1920. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, known formerly as Transoxiana. Its core territory was the land along the lower Zarafshan River, and its urban centres were the ancient cities of...
, capturing
SamarkandSamarkand is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province. The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque remains one of the city's most famous...
and gradually subjugating the whole country.
In 1872-1873, he attacked
Khanate of KhivaThe Khanate of Khiva was the name of a Central Asian state that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Persian occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740–1746. It was ruled over by the Kungrads, a branch of the Astrakhans, themselves a Genghisid dynasty,...
, took the capital, and forced the
khanKhan is an originally Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, first used by medieval Altaic-speaking nomadic tribes living to the north of China and the center of Rumelia Kailar yoruks are mentioned as yorukkhans in Ottoman arvhives...
to become a vassal of
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Then followed in 1875 by the campaign against Kokand, in which Kaufmann defeated the usurping khan, Nasreddin, after an anti-Russian uprising against the previous ruler, Khudoyar. The fiction of Kokand's independence was ended, and the remaining rump of the Khanate in the Ferghana Valley was annexed. This rapid absorption of these khanates brought Russia into proximity to Afghanistan, and the reception of Kaufman's emissaries by the
Sher Ali KhanSher Ali Khan was Amir of Afghanistan from 1863 to 1866 and from 1868 until his death in 1879. He was the third son of Dost Mohammed Khan, founder of the Barakzai Dynasty in Afghanistan....
was a main cause of the British war with
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
in 1878.
Administration
The various temporary statutes under which Turkestan was administered from 1867-1886 gave Von Kaufman a great deal of latitude in policy. Initially he was allowed to carry out negotiations with neighbouring states on his own account, to establish and oversee the expenditure of the budget, set taxes and establish the privileges of Russian subjects in the
General-Gubernatorstvo: he also had the power to confirm and revoke death sentences passed in the Russian military courts. Nowhere else in the Russian Empire did a Military Governor-General have this kind of independence from central control, and nowhere else was there such obvious pessimism about the region’s potential for integration into the main body of the Empire. Isolated geographically from European Russia by an expanse of
SteppeIn physical geography, a steppe is a biome region characterised by grassland plain without trees . The prairie can be considered a steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude...
that took two months to cross, it was isolated still more decisively in the minds of Tsarist officials by its dense, ancient and settled Islamic culture. In its early years under Von Kaufman, Turkestan was thus also administratively isolated, with many distinctive institutions within the military
bureaucracyBureaucracy is the collective organizational structure, procedures, protocols, and set of regulations in place to manage activity, usually in large organizations and government...
, that was loosely superimposed on a largely unreformed native administration.
Although Kaufmann was unable to induce his government to support all his ambitious schemes of further conquest, he was still in office when General
Mikhail SkobelevMikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev was a Russian general famous for his conquest of Central Asia and heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Dressed in white uniform and mounted on a white horse, and always in the thickest of the fray, he was known and adored by his soldiers as the "White...
was despatched from Tiflis in 1880 and 1881 against the
TurkomansThe Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northern Iraq and in northeastern Iran...
of the Akhal-Teke Oasis, but died suddenly at
TashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.- History :...
in May 1882, shortly before the annexation of
MervMerv , formerly Achaemenid Satrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria and Antiochia in Margiana , was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan...
. General Cherniaev, the conqueror of Tashkent in 1865, was appointed as his successor.
Further reading
- «Кауфман» in the Русский Биографический Словарь. Ибак – Ключарев (С.Пб.) 1897.
- Евгений Глущенко "Герои Империи" (Москва) 2001.
- Jean-Marie Thiebaud, Personnages marquants d'Asie centrale, du Turkestan et de l'Ouzbékistan, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2004. ISBN 2-7475-7017-7