As you know, by the time the Russian conquest of Central Asia began, its territory was divided between three feudal states - the Bukhara Emirate, the Kokand and Khiva khanates. The Bukhara Emirate occupied the southern and southeastern part of Central Asia - the territory of modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, partly - Turkmenistan. The Kokand Khanate was located on the lands of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, part of South Kazakhstan and the modern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. The Khiva Khanate occupied part of the territory of modern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Kokand Khanate and its army
In the 16th century, the territory of the Fergana Valley formally remained under the rule of Bukhara, which constantly competed with the Khiva Khanate. As the power of the Bukhara emir weakened, caused by a protracted confrontation with Khiva, the biy of the city of Akhsy Ilik-Sultan increased in Fergana. He established control over the Fergana Valley and became, in fact, an independent ruler of the region. Ilik-Sultan's descendants continued to rule Fergana. On the site of the small villages of Kalvak, Aktepe, Eski Kurgan and Khokand, the city of Kokand arose. In 1709 Shahrukh-bai II united the Fergana Valley under his rule and became the ruler of an independent state - the Kokand Khanate. As in the Bukhara and Khiva states, Uzbek tribes were in power in Kokand, while the Uzbeks constituted the bulk of the khanate's population. In addition to Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Uighurs lived in the Kokand Khanate. As for the armed forces of the Kokand Khanate, until the beginning of the 19th century, there was no regular army in the state. In the event of the outbreak of hostilities, the Kokand Khan gathered tribal militias, which were a "disorderly horde" devoid of strict military discipline and formal hierarchy. Such a militia was an extremely unreliable army, not only due to the lack of advanced military training and weak weapons, but also due to the fact that the moods in it were determined by the beks of the tribes, who did not always agree with the position of the khan.
- Kokand archer
Alimkhan ((1774 - 1809)), who ruled the Kokand Khanate in 1798-1809, acted as a reformer of the Kokand army. Young Alimkhan, descended from the Uzbek Ming dynasty that ruled in Kokand, began decisive transformations in the state. In particular, Alimkhan annexed to the Kokand Khanate the valleys of the Chirchik and Akhangaran rivers, the entire Tashkent bekdom, as well as the cities of Chimkent, Turkestan and Sairam. But in the context of this article, attention should be paid to another important merit of Alimkhan for the Kokand Khanate - the creation of regular armed forces. If before Kokand, like Bukhara and Khiva, did not have a regular army, then Alimkhan, trying to limit the power of tribal beks and increase the combat effectiveness of the Kokand army, began to create a regular army, for service in which mountain Tajiks were recruited. Alimkhan believed that the Tajik sarbazes would be more reliable warriors than the tribal militia of the Uzbek tribes, highly dependent on the positions of their beks. Relying on the Tajik sarbazes, Alimkhan carried out his conquests, going down in the history of the Kokand Khanate as one of its most significant rulers. In addition to the Tajik foot sarbazs, the Kokand Khan was subordinate to the mounted Kyrgyz and Uzbek tribal militias, as well as police officers (kurbashi), subordinate to the beks and hakims - the rulers of the administrative-territorial units of the khanate. Tashkent was ruled by beklar-bei - "bek beks", to whom the police - kurbashi and muhtasibs - supervisors of observance of Sharia law were subordinate. The armament of the Kokand army was weak. Suffice it to say that in 1865, during the capture of Tashkent, two thousand sarbaz were dressed in armor and armor. Most of the Kokand sarbazes and horsemen of the tribal militias were armed with melee weapons, primarily sabers, pikes and spears, bows and arrows. Firearms were obsolete and represented mainly by match guns.
Conquest of the Kokand Khanate
During the Tashkent campaign, Alimkhan was killed by the people of his younger brother Umar Khan (1787-1822). Umar Khan, who had established himself on the Kokand throne, gained fame as the patron saint of culture and science. During the reign of Umar Khan, the Kokand Khanate maintained diplomatic relations with the Russian Empire, the Bukhara Emirate, the Khiva Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. In the following decades, the situation in the Kokand Khanate was characterized by constant internecine power struggles. The main opposing sides were the sedentary Sarts and nomadic Kypchaks. Each side, having won a temporary victory, brutally dealt with the vanquished. Naturally, the socio-economic and political situation of the Kokand Khanate suffered greatly from civil strife. The situation was aggravated by constant conflicts with the Russian Empire. As you know, the Kokand Khanate claimed power in the Kazakh steppes, but the Kyrgyz and Kazakh tribes preferred to become citizens of the Russian Empire, which contributed to an even greater aggravation of bilateral relations. In the middle of the 19th century, at the request of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz clans who passed into Russian citizenship, the Russian Empire began military campaigns on the territory of the Kokand Khanate - in order to weaken the Kokand positions and destroy the fortresses that threatened the Kazakh steppes. By 1865, Russian troops captured Tashkent, after which the Turkestan region was formed with a Russian military governor at its head.
In 1868, the Kokand Khan Khudoyar was forced to sign a commercial agreement proposed to him by Adjutant General Kaufman, which gave the right to freely stay and travel both for Russians in the territory of the Kokand Khanate and for Kokand residents in the territory of the Russian Empire. The treaty actually established the dependence of the Kokand Khanate on the Russian Empire, which could not please the Kokand elite. Meanwhile, the socio-economic situation in the Kokand Khanate itself has seriously deteriorated. Under Khudoyar Khan, new taxes were introduced on residents who were already suffering from the khan's oppression. Among the new taxes were even taxes on reeds, on steppe thorns, and on leeches. The khan did not even strive to maintain his own army - the Sarbaz were not paid a salary, which prompted them to independently seek food for themselves, that is, in fact, engage in robberies and robberies. As historians note, “Khudoyar Khan not only did not moderate the cruelty in government, but, on the contrary, took advantage of a purely Eastern cunning, his new position as a friendly neighbor of the Russians for his despotic goals. The powerful patronage of the Russians served him as a guard against the constant claims of Bukhara, on the one hand, and on the other, as one of the means of intimidating his recalcitrant subjects, especially the Kirghiz (Incidents in the Kokand Khanate // Turkestan collection. T. 148).
- Kokand sarbazes in the courtyard of the khan's palace
Khudoyar's policy turned against the khan even his closest associates, headed by Crown Prince Nasreddin. An army of four thousand, sent by the khan to pacify the Kyrgyz tribes, went over to the side of the rebels. On July 22, 1874, the rebels besieged Kokand, and Khan Khudoyar, who was accompanied by Russian envoys, including General Mikhail Skobelev, fled to the territory of the Russian Empire - to Tashkent, which was already under Russian rule at that time. The Khan throne in Kokand was taken by Nasreddin, who condoned the anti-Russian policy of the Kokand aristocracy and clergy. In the Kokand Khanate, a real anti-Russian hysteria began, accompanied by pogroms of post stations. On August 8, 1875, the 10,000-strong Kokand army approached Khojent, which was part of the Russian Empire. Gradually, the number of Kokand residents gathered at Khujand increased to 50 thousand. Due to the fact that the khan declared a ghazavat - "holy war", crowds of fanatical residents of the Kokand Khanate, armed with anything, rushed to Khojent. On August 22, a general battle took place, in which the Kokand people lost fifteen hundred killed, while on the Russian side only six soldiers died. The fifty thousand army of the Kokands, commanded by Abdurrahman Avtobachi, fled. On August 26, Russian troops under the command of General Kaufman approached Kokand. Realizing all the hopelessness of his position, Khan Nasreddin went to meet the Russian troops with a request for surrender. On September 23, General Kaufman and Khan Nasreddin signed a peace treaty, according to which the Kokand Khanate renounced an independent foreign policy and the conclusion of treaties with any state other than the Russian Empire.
However, the leader of the anti-Russian resistance Abdurrahman Avtobachi did not recognize the agreement concluded by the khan and continued the hostilities. His troops retreated to Andijan, and on September 25 the rebels proclaimed the new khan of Kirghiz Pulat-bek, whose candidacy was supported by the all-powerful Avtobachi. Meanwhile, in January 1876, it was decided to liquidate the Kokand Khanate and annex it to Russia. The resistance of the rebels led by Avtobachi and Pulat-bek was gradually suppressed. Soon, Abdurrahman Avtobachi was arrested and sent to settle in Russia. As for Pulat-bek, known for his extreme cruelty towards Russian prisoners of war, he was executed in the main square of the city of Margelan. The Kokand Khanate ceased to exist and became part of the Turkestan General Governorship as the Fergana Region. Naturally, after the conquest of the Kokand Khanate and its incorporation into the Russian Empire, the armed forces of the Khanate also ceased to exist. Some of the Sarbazes returned to a peaceful life, some continued to engage in the service of protecting caravans, there were also those who went into criminal activity, organizing robberies and robberies in the vastness of the Fergana Valley.
Khiva Khanate - heir to Khorezm
After the Russian conquest of Central Asia, the statehood of only the Bukhara Emirate and the Khiva Khanate, which became protectorates of the Russian Empire, was formally preserved. In fact, the Khiva Khanate existed only in the lexicon of historians, political and military leaders of the Russian Empire. Throughout its history, it was officially called the Khorezm state or simply Khorezm. And the capital was Khiva - and that is why the state, created in 1512 by nomadic Uzbek tribes, was called the Khiva Khanate by domestic historians. In 1511, the Uzbek tribes under the leadership of the sultans Ilbas and Balbars - Chingizids, descendants of Arab Shah ibn Pilad, captured Khorezm. So a new khanate appeared under the rule of the Arabshahid dynasty, which ascended through the Arab Shah to Shiban, the fifth son of Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan. At first, Urgench remained the capital of the khanate, but during the reign of the Arab Muhammad Khan (1603-1622) Khiva became the capital, which retained the status of the main city of the khanate for three centuries - until its end. The population of the khanate was divided into nomadic and sedentary. The dominant role was played by nomadic Uzbek tribes, however, part of the Uzbeks gradually settled and merged with the ancient sedentary population of the Khorezm oases. By the middle of the 18th century, the Arabshahid dynasty gradually lost its power. Real power was in the hands of the Atalyks and Inaks (tribal leaders) of the Uzbek nomadic tribes. The two largest Uzbek tribes - the Mangyts and the Kungrats - competed for power in the Khiva Khanate. In 1740 the territory of Khorezm was conquered by the Iranian Nadir Shah, however, in 1747, after his death, the power of Iran over Khorezm ended. As a result of the internecine struggle, the leaders of the Kungrat tribe prevailed. In 1770, the leader of the Kungrats, Muhammad Amin-biy, was able to defeat the warlike Turkmen-Yomuds, after which he seized power and laid the foundation for the Kungrats dynasty, which ruled the Khiva Khanate for the next one and a half centuries. However, at first, the formal rule of the Chingizids, who were invited from the Kazakh steppes, remained in Khorezm. Only in 1804, the grandson of Muhammad Amin-biy Eltuzar proclaimed himself a khan and finally removed the Chingizids from ruling the khanate.
Khiva was an even more underdeveloped state than its southern neighbor, the Emirate of Bukhara. This was due to a lower percentage of the sedentary population and a significant number of nomads - Uzbek, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Turkmen tribes. Initially, the population of the Khiva Khanate consisted of three main groups - 1) nomadic Uzbek tribes who moved to Khorezm from Desht-i-Kypchak; 2) Turkmen tribes; 3) the descendants of the ancient settled Iranian-speaking population of Khorezm, who at the time of the events described had adopted the Türkic dialects. Later, as a result of territorial expansion, the lands of the Karakalpak tribes, as well as a number of Kazakh lands, were annexed to the Khiva Khanate. The policy of subordinating the Karakalpaks, Turkmens and Kazakhs was carried out by Muhammad Rahim Khan I, who ruled from 1806 to 1825, and then his heirs. Under Eltuzar and Muhammad Rahim Khan I, the foundations of a centralized Khiva statehood were laid. Thanks to the construction of irrigation facilities, the gradual settling of the Uzbeks took place, new cities and villages were built. However, the general standard of living of the population remained extremely low. In the Khiva Khanate, food products were more expensive than in the neighboring Bukhara Emirate, and the population had less money. In winter, the Turkmens wandered around Khiva, buying bread in exchange for meat. Local peasants - Sarts grew wheat, barley, garden crops. At the same time, the level of development of urban culture, including crafts, also remained unsatisfactory.
Unlike the cities of the Bukhara Emirate, Khiva and three other cities of the khanate were not of interest to Iranian, Afghan and Indian merchants, since due to the poverty of the population, goods were not sold here, and there was no home-made products that could interest foreigners. The only really developed "business" in the Khiva Khanate was the slave trade - there were the largest slave markets in Central Asia. Periodically, the Turkmens, who were vassals of the Khiva Khan, made robber raids into the Iranian province of Khorasan, where they captured prisoners who were later turned into slavery and used in the economy of the Khiva Khanate. The slave raids were caused by a serious shortage of human resources in the sparsely populated Khorezm lands, but for neighboring states such activities of the Khiva Khanate posed a serious threat. Also, the Khivans inflicted serious damage on the caravan trade in the region, which was one of the main reasons for the beginning of the Khiva campaigns of the Russian troops.
Khiva army
Unlike the Bukhara Emirate, the history and structure of the armed forces of the Khiva Khanate have been studied very poorly. Nevertheless, according to separate recollections of contemporaries, it is possible to recreate some details of the organization of the defense system of the Khiva Khanate. The geographical position of Khiva, constant participation in wars and conflicts with neighbors, a low level of economic development - all this together determined the militancy of the Khiva Khanate. The military power of the khanate was made up of the forces of nomadic tribes - Uzbeks and Turkmens. At the same time, all authors - contemporaries recognized the great militancy and inclination to participate in hostilities of the Turkmen population of the Khiva Khanate. The Turkmens played a crucial role in organizing slave raids on Persian territory. The Khiva Turkmen, penetrating into the territory of Persia, got in touch with representatives of the local Turkmen tribes, who acted as gunners and pointed out the least protected villages, where it was possible to profitably profit from both things and products, and “live goods”. The hijacked Persians were then sold in the Khiva slave markets. At the same time, the Khiva Khan received a fifth of the slaves from each campaign. The Turkmen tribes constituted the main and most efficient part of the Khiva army.
- horseman-Karakalpak from Khiva
As historians note, there was no army in the modern sense of the word in the Khiva Khanate: “The Khivans do not have a permanent army, but if necessary, Uzbeks and Turkmens, who make up their own warlike population, are taken, by order of the khan, for weapons. Of course, there is no discipline in such a cathedral army, and as a result, there is no order and subordination … The lists of soldiers are not kept (Quoted from: History of Central Asia. Collection of historical works. M., 2003, p. 55). Thus, in the event of the outbreak of war, the Khiva Khan mobilized the tribal militias of the Uzbek and Turkmen tribes. Uzbeks and Turkmens performed on their own horses and with their own weapons. In the horse hordes of the Khivans, there was practically no military organization and discipline. The most skillful and brave warriors made up the personal guard of the Khiva Khan, and the commanders of the advanced detachments that raided enemy territory were also selected from them. The leaders of such detachments were called sardars, but had no power over their subordinates.
The total number of the army gathered by the Khiva khan did not exceed twelve thousand people. However, in the event of a serious threat to the khanate, the khan could mobilize the Karakalpak and Sart population, which made it possible to increase the number of troops by about two or three times. However, the numerical increase in the army as a result of the mobilization of the Sarts and Karakalpaks did not mean an increase in its combat capability - after all, the forcibly mobilized people did not have special military training, the desire to comprehend the military craft, and also, given the self-sufficiency in weapons adopted in the Khiva army, they were extremely poorly armed. Therefore, from the mobilized Sarts and Karakalpaks, the Khiva khan had only problems, which forced him to collect a militia from civilians only in the most extreme cases. Since the Khiva army was actually a tribal militia, the issues of its material support lay entirely with the soldiers themselves.
- Turkmen horsemen present the booty to the khan
Usually a Khiva warrior took a camel laden with food and utensils on a campaign, poor Khivans limited themselves to one camel for two. Accordingly, on the march, the Khiva cavalry was followed by a huge baggage train, consisting of loaded camels and their drivers - as a rule, slaves. Naturally, the presence of a huge convoy influenced the speed of movement of the Khiva army. In addition to the extremely slow movement, another feature of the Khiva army was the short duration of the campaigns. The Khiva army could not withstand more than a month and a half of the campaign. After forty days, the Khiva army began to disperse. At the same time, given that there was no record of personnel and, accordingly, the payment of salaries in the Khiva army, its soldiers quietly dispersed one by one and in groups to their homes and did not bear any disciplinary responsibility for this. The Khiva campaigns usually did not last more than forty days. However, even this period was enough for the Uzbek and Turkmen soldiers to get hold of good during the robbery of the population of the territories they pass.
The structure and armament of the Khiva army
As for the internal structure of the Khiva army, it should be noted the complete absence of infantry. The Khiva army always consisted of one cavalry - the mounted militias of the Uzbek and Turkmen tribes. This nuance deprived the Khiva army of the opportunity to conduct hostilities by methods other than a clash in an open field. Only sometimes the dismounted horsemen could ambush, but the Khivans were not able to storm the enemy fortifications. However, in horse battles, the Turkmen cavalry of the Khiva khans showed themselves very effectively. The Turkmen horsemen, as noted by the authors of that time, moved very quickly, being excellent riders and archers. In addition to the Turkmen and Uzbek cavalry, the Khiva Khanate also had its own artillery, though very few in number. In the khan's capital, Khiva, there were seven artillery pieces, which, according to the description of contemporaries, were in an unsatisfactory condition. Even during the reign of Muhammad Rahim Khan, experiments on casting their own artillery pieces began in Khiva. However, these experiments were unsuccessful, since the guns were cast with vents and often burst when tested. Then artillery pieces were cast on the advice of Russian prisoners of war and a gunsmith ordered by the Khiva khan from Istanbul. As for the production of gunpowder, it was made in workshops owned by the Sarts. Saltpeter and sulfur were mined on the Khiva territory, which caused the cheapness of gunpowder. At the same time, the quality of the gunpowder was very low due to non-compliance with the proportions of its constituent substances. The khans entrusted the maintenance of artillery guns during the campaigns exclusively to Russian prisoners, recognizing the technical literacy of the latter and their greater suitability for artillery service in comparison with the Uzbeks.
The Khiva cavalry was armed with melee weapons and firearms. Among the armaments, sabers should be noted - as a rule, of Khorasan production; spears and lances; bows with arrows. Even in the first half of the 19th century, some horsemen wore damask armor and helmets, hoping to protect themselves from enemy sabers and pikes. As for firearms, before the Russian conquest of Central Asia, the Khiva army was armed mainly with match guns. Obsolete firearms negatively affected the firepower of the Khiva army, since it was impossible to shoot from the horse with most of the guns - only lying down, from the ground. As noted by N. N. Muravyov-Karsky, “therefore they are used only in ambushes; their butts are quite long; a wick is wound on these, the end of which is grabbed by iron tongs attached to the butt; these tweezers are applied to the shelf by means of an iron rod drawn to the shooter's right hand; suction cups in the form of two large horns are attached to the end of the barrel to the bed. “They love to decorate the barrels of their rifles with a silver notch” (Quoted from: Travel to Turkmenistan and Khiva in 1819 and 1820, by the Guards General Staff of Captain Nikolai Muravyov, sent to these countries for negotiations. - M.: type. August Semyon, 1822).
Three "Khiva campaigns" and the conquest of Khiva
Russia three times tried to assert its position in the region controlled by the Khiva Khanate. The first "Khiva campaign", also known as the expedition of Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, took place in 1717. On June 2, 1714, Peter I issued a decree “On the sending of the Preobrazhensky regiment, the captain of the lieutenant prince. Alex. Bekovich-Cherkassky to find the mouths of the Darya River … ". Bekovich-Cherkassky was assigned the following tasks: to study the former course of the Amu Darya and turn it into the old channel; to build fortresses on the way to Khiva and at the mouth of the Amu Darya; to persuade the Khiva Khan into Russian citizenship; to persuade the Bukhara khan to allegiance; to send under the guise of a merchant Lieutenant Kozhin to India, and another officer to Erket, in order to discover gold deposits. For these purposes, a detachment of 4 thousand people was allocated to Bekovich-Cherkassky, half of which were Greben and Yaik Cossacks. In the area of the Amu Darya estuary, the detachment was met by the Khiva army, several times superior to the Bekovich-Cherkassky expedition in number. But, given the superiority in weapons, the Russian detachment managed to inflict serious damage on the Khivans, after which Shergazi Khan invited Bekovich-Cherkassky to Khiva. The prince arrived there accompanied by 500 people from his detachment. Khan managed to persuade Bekovich-Cherkassky to place Russian troops in five cities of Khiva, which required the division of the detachment into five parts. Bekovich-Cherkassky succumbed to the trick, after which all the detachments were destroyed by the superior forces of the Khivans. The warriors of the Turkmen tribe Yomud, who were in the service of the Khiva Khan, played a decisive role in the destruction of the Russian troops. Bekovich-Cherkassky himself was stabbed to death during a festive feast in the city of Porsu, and the Khiva khan sent his head as a gift to the Bukhara emir. Most of the Russians and Cossacks were captured in Khiva and were enslaved. However, in 1740 the Persian Nadir Shah took Khiva, who freed the Russian prisoners who were still alive by that time, supplied them with money and horses, and released them to Russia.
- General Kaufman and Khiva Khan conclude an agreement
The second attempt to establish itself in Central Asia was made more than a century after the unsuccessful and tragic campaign of Bekovich-Cherkassky. This time, the main reason for the Khiva campaign was the desire to secure the southern borders of the Russian Empire from the constant raids of the Khivans and to ensure the safety of the trade communication between Russia and Bukhara (Khiva detachments regularly attacked caravans passing through the territory of the Khiva Khanate). In 1839, on the initiative of the Governor-General of Orenburg Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky, an expeditionary corps of Russian troops was sent to the Khiva Khanate. It was commanded by Adjutant General Perovsky himself. The number of the corps was 6,651 people, representing the Ural and Orenburg Cossack troops, the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army, the 1st Orenburg regiment of the Russian army and artillery units. However, this campaign did not bring victory to the Russian Empire over the Khiva Khanate. The troops were forced to return to Orenburg, and the losses amounted to 1,054 people, most of whom died from disease. Another 604 people on their return from the campaign were hospitalized, many of them died of illness. 600 people were captured by the Khivans and returned only in October 1840. However, the campaign still had a positive consequence - in 1840 the Khiva Kuli Khan issued a decree prohibiting the capture of Russians and even forbade buying Russian prisoners from other steppe peoples. Thus, the Khiva Khan intended to normalize relations with a powerful northern neighbor.
A second Khiva campaign was undertaken only in 1873. By this time, the Russian Empire conquered the Bukhara Emirate and the Kokand Khanate, after which the Khiva Khanate remained the only independent state in Central Asia, surrounded on all sides by Russian territories and the lands of the Bukhara Emirate, which took over the protectorate of the Russian Empire. Naturally, the conquest of the Khiva Khanate remained a matter of time. In late February - early March 1873, Russian troops with a total number of 12-13 thousand people marched on Khiva. The command of the corps was entrusted to the Turkestan Governor-General Konstantin Petrovich Kaufman. On May 29, Russian troops entered Khiva, and the Khiva Khan capitulated. This is how the history of the political independence of the Khiva Khanate ended. The Gendemi Peace Treaty was signed between Russia and the Khiva Khanate. The Khiva Khanate recognized the protectorate of the Russian Empire. Like the Bukhara Emirate, the Khiva Khanate continued its existence with the preservation of the previous institutions of power. Muhammad Rahim Khan II Kungrat, who recognized the power of the Russian emperor, in 1896 received the rank of lieutenant general of the Russian army, and in 1904 - the rank of general from the cavalry. He made a great contribution to the development of culture in Khiva - it was under Muhammad Rahim Khan II, in the Khiva Khanate printing began, the Madrasah of Muhammad Rahim Khan II was built, and the famous poet and writer Agakhi wrote his “History of Khorezm”. In 1910, after the death of Muhammad Rahim Khan II, his 39-year-old son Seyid Bogatur Asfandiyar Khan (1871-1918, pictured) ascended the Khiva throne.
He was immediately awarded the rank of Major General of the Imperial Retinue, Nicholas II awarded the Khan with the Orders of St. Stanislav and St. Anna. The Khiva Khan was assigned to the Orenburg Cossack army (the Bukhara Emir, in turn, was assigned to the Terek Cossack army). Nevertheless, despite the fact that some representatives of the Khiva nobility were listed as officers of the Russian imperial army, the situation with the organization of the armed forces in the khanate was much worse than in the neighboring Emirate of Bukhara. Unlike the Bukhara Emirate, a regular army was never created in Khiva. This was explained, among other things, by the fact that the nomadic tribes, which formed the basis of the Khiva army, were extremely alien to conscription and constant military service. Turkmen horsemen, distinguished by great personal courage and individual skills of excellent riders and shooters, were not adapted for the daily hardships of military service. It was not possible to create regular military units out of them. In this regard, the sedentary population of the neighboring Bukhara Emirate was a much more convenient material for building up the armed forces.
Khiva after the revolution. Red Khorezm
After the February Revolution in the Russian Empire, Central Asia was also affected by tremendous changes. It should be noted here that by 1917 the Khiva Khanate continued to suffer from internecine wars between the Turkmen leaders - serdars. One of the main culprits in the destabilization of the situation in the khanate was Dzhunaid Khan, or Muhammad Kurban Serdar (1857-1938), the son of a bai from the Dzhunaid clan of the Turkmen Yomud tribe. Initially, Muhammad-Kurban served as a mirab - water manager. Then, in 1912, Muhammad-Kurban led a detachment of Turkmen horsemen who plundered caravans passing through the Karakum sands. Then he received the Turkmen military title "Serdar". In order to calm down the Yomuds and stop the robbery of caravans, Khan Asfandiyar undertook a punitive campaign against the Turkmen. In revenge, Muhammad-Kurban Serdar organized a series of attacks on the Uzbek villages of the Khiva Khanate. After Asfandiyar Khan, with the help of Russian troops, managed to suppress the resistance of the Yomuds in 1916, Muhammad Kurban Serdar fled to Afghanistan. He reappeared in the Khiva Khanate after the 1917 revolution and soon entered the service of his former enemy, Asfandiyar Khan. A detachment of 1600 Turkmen horsemen, subordinate to Dzhunaid Khan, became the basis of the Khiva army, and Dzhunaid Khan himself was appointed commander of the Khiva army.
Gradually, the Turkmen serdar acquired such significant positions at the Khiva court that in October 1918 he decided to overthrow the Khiva khan. Dzhunaid Khan's son Eshi Khan organized the assassination of Asfandiyar Khan, after which Khan's young brother Said Abdulla Tyure ascended the Khiva throne. In fact, power in the Khiva Khanate was in the hands of Serdar Dzhunaid Khan (pictured).
Meanwhile, in 1918, the Khorezm Communist Party was created, which was not distinguished by its large numbers, but maintained close ties with Soviet Russia. With the support of the RSFSR, in November 1919, an uprising began in the Khiva Khanate. However, initially, the forces of the rebels were not enough to overthrow Dzhunaid Khan, so Soviet Russia sent troops to help the Khiva rebels.
By the beginning of February 1920, the Turkmen detachments of Dzhunaid Khan suffered a complete defeat. On February 2, 1920, Khiva Said Abdullah Khan abdicated the throne, and on April 26, 1920, the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic was proclaimed as part of the RSFSR. At the end of April 1920, the Red Army of the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic was created, subordinate to the People's Nazirat for military affairs. Initially, the Khorezm Red Army was recruited by recruiting volunteers for military service, and in September 1921, general conscription was introduced. The strength of the Red Army of the KhNSR was about 5 thousand soldiers and commanders. By the summer of 1923, the KhNSR Red Army consisted of: 1 cavalry regiment, 1 separate cavalry division, 1 infantry regiment. Units of the Red Army of the KhNSR helped the Red Army units in the armed struggle against the Turkestan Basmach movement. On October 30, 1923, in accordance with the decision of the 4th All-Khorezm Kurultai of Soviets, the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic was renamed into the Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic. From September 29 to October 2, 1924, the 5th All-Khorezm Kurultai of Soviets was held, at which a decision was made to liquidate the KhSSR. This decision was prompted by the need for national-territorial delimitation in Central Asia. Since the Uzbek and Turkmen population of the KhSSR vied for dominance in the republic, it was decided to divide the territory of the Khorezm Soviet Socialist Republic between the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic and the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. The territory inhabited by the Karakalpaks formed the Karakalpak Autonomous Region, which was originally part of the RSFSR, and then annexed to the Uzbek SSR. Residents of the former Khorezm Soviet Socialist Republic on a general basis began to serve in the ranks of the Red Army. As for the remnants of the Turkmen detachments subordinate to Dzhunaid Khan, they took part in the Basmach movement, in the process of the elimination of which they partly surrendered and went on to a peaceful life, partly they were liquidated or went to the territory of Afghanistan.
