Konstantin Petrovich Kaufman, first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan

Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman (Константин Петрович фон-Кауфман in Russian) (1818 - 1882) was the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan. 1818 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Governor-General (or Governor General) is a term used both historically and currently to designate the appointed representative of a head of state or their government for a particular territory, historically in a colonial context, but no longer necessarily in that form. ... Russian Turkestan (Russian: Ру́сский Туркеста́н), also known as Turkestansky Krai (Туркеста́нский край), was a subdivision (Krai or Governor-Generalship) of Imperial Russia, comprising the oasis region to the South of the Kazakh steppes, but not the Protectorates of Bukhara and Khiva. ...

Early life

His family was Austrian in origin, but had been in the service of the Tsars for over 100 years, and had long since converted to Orthodoxy. Von Kaufman entered the military engineering field in 1838, served in the campaigns in the Caucasus, rose to be colonel, and commanded the sappers at the siege of Kars in 1855. On the capitulation of Kars he was deputed to settle the terms with General William Fenwick Williams. Tsar, (Bulgarian цар�, Russian царь; often spelled Czar or Tzar in English), was the title used for the autocratic rulers of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires since 913, in Serbia in the middle of the 14th century, and in Russia from 1547 to 1917. ... The word orthodoxy, from the Greek ortho (right, correct) and doxa (thought, teaching , Glorification), is typically used to refer to the correct theological or doctrinal observance of religion, as determined by some overseeing body. ... The Entholinguistic patchwork of the modern Caucasus - CIA map The Caucasus, a region bordering Asia Minor, is located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. ... Colonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with the corresponding ranks existing in nearly every country in the world. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with combat engineering. ... Kars (Armenian: Ô¿Õ¡Ö€Õ½) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of the Kars Province, formerly at the head of a sanjak in the Turkish vilayet of Erzurum. ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Surrender is when soldiers give up fighting and become prisoners of war, either as individuals or when ordered to by their officers. ...

In 1861, he became director-general of engineers at the War Office, assisting General D.A. Miliutin, the Minister of War, in the reorganization of the army. Promoted lieutenant general in 1864, he was nominated adjutant-general and Governor of the military conscription of Vilna, where at that time the Tsarist state had begun a policy of expropriating the Polish aristocracy in an attempt to break its influence in the countryside. Vilnius Old Town Vilnius (sometimes Vilna; Polish Wilno, Belarusian Вільня, Russian Вильнюс, see also Cities alternative names) is the capital city of Lithuania. ...

Conquest of Turkestan

In 1867, he became Governor-General of Turkestan, and held the post until his death, making himself a name in the expansion of the empire in Central Asia. The Khanate of Kokand north of the Syr Darya 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 Bukhara, capturing Samarkand and gradually subjugating the whole country. 1867 (MDCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Russian Turkestan (Russian: Ру́сский Туркеста́н), also known as Turkestansky Krai (Туркеста́нский край), was a subdivision (Krai or Governor-Generalship) of Imperial Russia, comprising the oasis region to the South of the Kazakh steppes, but not the Protectorates of Bukhara and Khiva. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Khanate of Kokand is a formar state in Asia that existed from 1709-1876 within the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. ... Syr Darya (also known as Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river in Central Asia. ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... The Emirate of Bukhara (1747-1920) was a state in Central Asia, with its capital in Bukhara and was a Russian protectorate from 1868. ... Colour photograph of Ulugh Beg Madrasa taken in Samarkand ca. ...

The painter Vasily Vereshchagin accompanied Kaufmann in his campaigns.

In 1872-1873, he attacked Khanate of Khiva, took the capital, and forced the khan to become a vassal of Russia. 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 close proximity to Afghanistan, and the reception of Kaufman's emissaries by the emir was a main cause of the British war with Afghanistan in 1878. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (823x476, 187 KB) Pust Voidut (1871) by Vasili Vereshchagin. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (823x476, 187 KB) Pust Voidut (1871) by Vasili Vereshchagin. ... Vasily Vereshchagin Vasili Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842 - 1904) was the most famous Russian battle painter and the first Russian artist to be widely recognized abroad. ... 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calaber). ... Khiva (alternative names include Khorasam, Khoresm, Khwarezm, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Chiwa and Chorezm) is the former capital of Khwarezmia, which lies in the present-day Khorezm Province of Uzbekistan. ... Khan (sometimes spelled as xan, han, Polish chan) is a title meaning ruler in Mongolian and Turkish. ... 1875 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Fergana Valley (also Ferghana Valley) is a region of Central Asia spreading across Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. ... For the Star Trek character see Khan Noonien Singh. ... Entrance to the emirs palace in Bukhara. ... 1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

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 Steppe 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 bureaucracy, that was loosely superimposed on a largely unreformed native administration. 1867 (MDCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... A steppe in Western Kazakhstan in early spring In physical geography, a steppe (Russian степь or step and pronounced in English as steppy) is a plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); it is similar to a prairie, although a prairie is generally considered as being dominated by... Bureaucracy , or red tape is a concept in sociology and political science. ...

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 Skobelev was despatched from Tiflis in 1880 and 1881 against the Turkomans of the Akhal-Teke Oasis, but died suddenly at Tashkent in May of 1882, shortly before the annexation of Merv. General Cherniaev, the conqueror of Tashkent in 1865, was appointed as his successor. Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev (Russian: ) (September 29, 1843 – July 7, 1882; September 17, 1843 — June 25, 1882, O.S.) was a Russian general famous for his conquest of Central Asia and heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. ... View of Tiflis from the Grounds of Saint David Church, ca. ... There are several meanings to Turkmen: Related to the country Turkmenistan Turkmen language Turkmen people A breed of horse called the Turkoman This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Tashkent Tashkent (Toshkent or Тошкент in Uzbek, Ташкент in Russian; its name translates from the Turkoman language to Stone City in English) is the current capital of Uzbekistan and also of Tashkent Province. ... Merv (Persian name: مرو), in current-day Turkmenistan, was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near todays Mary. ... Mikhail Grigorievich Chernyayev (1828-1898) was a Russian general, who, together with Konstantin Kaufman and Mikhail Skobelev, led the Russian conquest of Central Asia under Alexander II. In 1864 Chernyayev was sent to capture Chimkent but he proceeded further and took Alma-Ata and Tashkent as well. ...

Further reading

«Кауфман» in the Русский Биографический Словарь. Ибак – Ключарев (С.Пб.) 1897

Евгений Глущенко "Герои Империи" (Москва) 2001

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.