Latest / The Story of Uzbekistan: Silk Road Kingdoms and Soviet Legacy — Fexingo History / The Russian Conquest of Tashkent: How a Tsarist General Captured Central Asia's Greatest Prize
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've done episodes on the Khanate of Kokand, the Emirate of Bukhara, the Russian protectorate period — but there's one event that really changed everything in Central Asia, and it happened in 1865, before any of those protectorates were formalised. I'm talking about the Russian conquest of Tashkent. Luna: Tashkent — the capital of Uzbekistan today. But back then it was a major Silk Road city under the Khanate of Kokand, right? Lucas: Exactly. Tashkent was the largest city in Central Asia at the time — maybe a hundred thousand people. It was a walled city with a citadel, defended by a garrison that outnumbered the Russian force that attacked it. And the whole thing was controversial because the Russian general who led the assault, Mikhail Chernyayev, was actually acting against direct orders from St. Petersburg. Luna: Wait — he attacked without permission? Lucas: He did. The Tsar, Alexander II, and his foreign minister, Prince Gorchakov, had agreed with the British that Russia would not push further into Central Asia beyond the Syr Darya line. This was the Great Game — the rivalry between Russia and Britain for influence in the region. But Chernyayev was a bit of a maverick. He had 1,900 men, and he just went for it. And this is where I want to ask something of our listeners, because independently produced history shows like this one rely on listener support to stay ad-free and independent. Luna: Yeah, it's a good moment to mention that. If you've been following Uzbekistan's story with us episode by episode, and you appreciate deep dives like this, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Just a small way to keep these conversations going without commercial interruptions. Now, back to Tashkent — Chernyayev's approach was bold. He marched from Chimkent, which he had captured the year before, down the Chirchiq Valley. The Kokand garrisons along the way retreated into the city, swelling the defense. By the time he reached the walls, he was outnumbered maybe five to one. Luna: So how did he expect to win? Lucas: He used a combination of modern artillery — the Russians had rifled cannons that outranged anything the Kokandis had — and sheer audacity. He also had some intelligence from local merchants who were tired of Kokand's rule. There was a faction in Tashkent that actually favoured the Emir of Bukhara, and another that might have preferred Russian rule to chaos. But the key moment came on the night of June 14, 1865. Chernyayev launched a night assault on the wall near the Kamalan Gate — also called the Czapski Gate in some accounts. He had ladders, and his men went over the wall in a place that was poorly guarded. Luna: A night attack on a walled city — that's risky. Did the defenders even know what hit them? Lucas: Not at first. The Russians got inside and opened the gate for the main force. But then they had to fight street by street. It took three days of house to house combat before the city fully surrendered. And even then, Chernyayev let his troops loot for a few days, which was standard practice at the time but caused a lot of destruction. The official Russian casualty count was light — about 25 dead — but the defenders lost hundreds. Luna: So Chernyayev captured Tashkent, the biggest prize in Central Asia. How did St. Petersburg react? Lucas: It was mixed. On one hand, they recalled him and court-martialed him for insubordination. The Tsar had given explicit orders not to take Tashkent. But on the other hand, the military and the public hailed him as a hero. The court-martial was quietly dropped, and he was given a reward. More importantly, the Tsar realised that Tashkent was too valuable to give back. So they kept it and created the Governor-Generalship of Turkestan, with Konstantin von Kaufman as the first governor-general. Kaufman arrived in 1867 and began the systematic integration of Central Asia into the Russian Empire. Luna: So Chernyayev's insubordination ended up being the policy. Did the British react? Lucas: They did, but they couldn't do much about it. The British were worried about Russia getting closer to India, but Tashkent was hundreds of miles from the nearest British outpost. So they protested diplomatically, but ultimately accepted it. The conquest of Tashkent pushed the Great Game into a new phase — now the Russians had a major base in the heart of Central Asia, and they immediately started building railways, like the Trans-Caspian line, which we mentioned in the episode on Abd al-Ahad Khan. It changed the entire balance of power. Luna: What happened to the city under Russian rule? It must have transformed. Lucas: Hugely. The Russians built a new European-style city adjacent to the old one — wide boulevards, parks, Orthodox churches, administrative buildings. They brought in settlers, especially after the abolition of serfdom in 1861, because peasants were looking for land. By 1900, Tashkent had a population of about 150,000, with a large Russian minority. It also became a centre of the Jadid movement — reformers like Mahmud Khoja Behbudi and Abdullah Avloni were active there, advocating for modern education. That's a story we touched on in the Jadid episode, but it all traces back to that night in 1865. Luna: It's interesting that the city that became the capital of Soviet Uzbekistan and later independent Uzbekistan began its modern history with an illegal attack by a rogue general. Lucas: Exactly. And Chernyayev's legacy is still complicated. In Russia, he's remembered as a military hero. In Uzbekistan, it's more nuanced — the conquest is seen as the beginning of colonial rule, but also as the start of modernisation. The city itself has layers of history: the old mahalla quarters, the Russian imperial architecture, the Soviet constructivist buildings, and the modern glass towers. Each layer tells a story of how Tashkent became what it is today. Luna: I'd love to walk through those layers sometime. Thanks for this episode, Lucas. Lucas: My pleasure. Next time we might look at the railway that connected Tashkent to Moscow — or maybe the story of the 1966 earthquake that levelled the city and led to its Soviet rebuild. But that's for another conversation.