Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman, first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan

Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman (Константин Петрович фон-Кауфман in Russian)

Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman (1818 - 1882) was the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan. 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. 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. 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. Khokand 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 Bukhara, capturing Samarkand and gradually subjugating the whole country. In 1872-1873, he attacked Khiva, took the capital, and forced the Khan to become a vassal of Russia. Then followed in 1875 the campaign against Khokand, in which Kaufmann defeated the usurping Khan, Nasreddin, after an anti-Russian uprising against the previous ruler, Khudoyar. The fiction of Khokand's independence was ended, and the remaining rump of the Khanate in the Ferghana Valley was annexed. This rapid absorption of the khanates brought Russia into close proximity to Afghanistan, and the reception of Kaufman's emissaries by the Amir was a main cause of the British war with Afghanistan in 1878. 1818 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1882 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. ... 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), is typically used to refer to the correct observance of religion, as determined by some overseeing body. ... The Caucasus is a region in West Asia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea which includes the Caucasus mountains and surrounding lowlands. ... A Colonel is also a non-military honorary title awarded by some U.S. Southern states. ... Kars 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 Erzerum. ... 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. ... Vilnius Old Town Vilnius (sometimes Vilna; Polish Wilno, Belarusian Вільня, Russian Вильнюс, see also Cities alternative names) is the capital city of Lithuania. ... 1867 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Türkistan (also spelled Turkistan or Turkestan) is a region in Central Asia, largely inhabited by Turkic people. ... Map of Central Asia outlined in orange showing one set of possible borders Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ... Kokand (or Khokand or Kokhand or Quqon) is a city in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southwestern edge of the Fergana Valley. ... Syr Darya (also known as Syrdarya or Sirdaryo) is a river in Central Asia. ... 1868 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Bukhara (بُخارا in Persian, Buxoro or Бухоро in Uzbek (the Cyrillic alphabet was officially phased out for Uzbek after independence); Бухара in Russian; also Boxara in Tatar) is one of the major cities of Uzbekistan, and capital of the Bukhara region (Bukhoro Wiloyati). ... Samarkand (Samarqand or Самарқанд in Uzbek, in Persian سمرقند) (population 400,000) is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan, capital of the Samarkand region (Samarqand Wiloyati). ... 1872 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Khiva (alternative names include Khorasam, Khoresm, Khwarezm, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Chiwa and Chorezm) is a city in present day Uzbekistan, in the Khorezm Province. ... Khan (sometimes spelled as xan, han) 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. ... Emir (also sometimes rendered as Amir or Ameer, Arabic commander) is a title of nobility historically used in Islamic nations of the Middle East and North Africa. ... 1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

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 sat loosely on a largely unreformed native administration. 1867 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1886 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. ... The steppe of Western Kazakhstan in early spring In physical geography, steppe (from Slavic step) is a plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); it is similar to a prairie, although a prairie is generally reckoned as being dominated by tall grasses, while short grasses are said... In sociological theories, bureaucracy is an organizational structure characterized by regularized procedure, division of responsibility, hierarchy, and impersonal relationships. ...

Although Kaufmann was unable to induce his government to support all his ambitious schemes of further conquest, he was still in office when 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 (1843-1882) 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 (Toshkent or Тошкент in Uzbek, Ташке́нт in Russian-meaning Stone City in English), the current capital of Uzbekistan, has in the past been called Chach, Shash and Binkent. ... Merv was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the Silk Road, located near todays Mary, Turkmenistan. ...

Further Reading

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

Евгений Глущенко "Герои Империи" (Москва) 2001

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...