On December 18, 1864, the Ikan battle between a hundred of the esaul Vasily Serov and the army of Alimkul ended
The advance of Russia deep into Central Asia, which began after the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates and the Great Horde, proceeded slowly but steadily. Span by span, bridgehead by bridgehead, the Russians advanced eastward, securing new boundaries by building fortresses.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Russians were already at the mouth of the Syr Darya River, which was the main water communication of the Khiva and Kokand khanates, which could not but cause the concern of local residents and intensified the activity of the Khiva and Konkand people against the Russians. To protect the Russian pioneers and settlers from the predatory raids of the Asians, a plan was developed according to which the movement of Russian troops began from the Siberian and Orenburg lines.
In 1854, the Verny fortress (Alma-Ata) was founded, which became the basis for further Russian advancement, which led to the inclusion of nomadic Kirghiz in the citizenship of the Russian Empire, which in turn aggravated relations with the Kokand Khanate. The war, which resumed in 1860, led to the loss of the cities of Turkestan (now in the South Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan) and Chimkent by the Kokands, however, they managed to repulse the assault on Tashkent, after which they set out to return the city of Turkestan with its shrine mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasavi.
For these purposes, the actual ruler of Kokand, Alimkul, gathered a 10,000-strong army and secretly moved towards Turkestan. At the same time, the commandant of the Russian garrison, having learned about the actions of the bandit gang in the vicinity of the city, sent a hundred Ural Cossacks, headed by the captain Vasily Rodionovich Serov, to capture them. The Cossacks took with them a "unicorn", a smooth-bore artillery piece and a small amount of provisions.
The Cossacks learned from the counter Kirghiz that the village of Ikan, located 16 versts from Turkestan, was already occupied by the Kokand people, but the Kirghiz could not tell the exact number of them. The Cossacks estimated the number of the enemy only when they came very close to the village. They were noticed, it was too late to withdraw, the Cossacks quickly unloaded the camels and took up a position. The Kokand detachment undertook several attacks on the Cossack camp, but they were all repulsed. It is noteworthy that the fugitive sergeant of the Siberian Cossack army, who converted to Islam, led the attack of the Asians. In Kokand, he was probably hiding from Russian justice.
For three days a detachment of brave Cossacks held the defense, the Russians were battle-hardened soldiers, among them were the participants in the defense of Sevastopol. The Cossacks aptly filmed the Kokands who were too close to the camp, removed the artillerymen and military leaders, who were identified by their rich decoration. The enemy did not immediately understand that only a hundred Cossacks were hiding in the camp, stubborn and skillful resistance, spoke of a large detachment, which follows from Alimkul's note, in which he offered the Esaul to surrender.
“Where will you go from me now? The detachment sent from Azret was defeated and driven back, out of your thousand not one will remain, surrender and accept our faith, I will not offend anyone!"
Indeed, a small detachment sent to help Serov from Turkestan could not provide assistance, the garrison of the fortress was small in number, and therefore the Cossacks at Ikan had to rely only on their own strength and the help of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, just approaching December 6, the day of his memory.
On this day, the battle began to boil from the very morning, the enemy pressed on from three sides, 37 Cossacks died in the battle, and the survivors made a desperate attempt to break through the enemy's line. And they succeeded, a group of 42 Cossacks marched on foot towards the Turkestan fortress, breaking into three ranks. Some of the Asians pursued the Cossacks, but even here they received a tough rebuff.
As Lieutenant General Mikhail Khorokhoshin notes, “lone enemy men at arms and chain mail sometimes burst into the very middle of the Cossacks, for which some paid with their heads, but others, thanks to their armor, rode away, having managed to injure several Cossacks. The less resolute threw lances and lances at the Cossacks, inflicting accidental harm on the retreating in this way. So, when the Cossack P. Mizinov bent down to pick up the fallen ramrod, the thrown spear pierced his left shoulder through and through, pinning him to the ground, but he nevertheless jumped up and ran with her to his comrades, who pulled the spear out of his shoulder."
The Cossacks approached the city when it got dark, and here the help from the fortress arrived in time.
As the military historian Konstantin Abaza writes in his work “The Conquest of Turkestan”: “God knows how Alimkul’s venture would have ended if the Urals had not stopped him. Their feat stopped the campaign of the Kokand hordes, it thundered throughout Central Asia and restored the glory of Russian weapons."
During a three-day battle, a hundred, consisting of 2 officers, 5 non-commissioned officers, 98 Cossacks, 4 attached artillerymen, a paramedic, a transport train and 3 Kazakhs, lost half of their composition. The surviving Cossacks were awarded the Badge of Military Distinction of the Military Order, Basil Serov, the Order of St. George, IV degree. On the site of the Ikan battle, a monument to the heroes was erected (blown up by the Bolsheviks), and the song "In the wide steppe near Icahn" was composed and an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was written. The Cossacks are sure that such an outcome of the battle was possible, among other things, thanks to the help of the saint.
