Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1873-02-13
Khiva and the Khivans---The Russian
Invading Force.

Some of the circumstances of the i'm
pending contest between the Empire of
Russia and the Khanate of Khiva are
sufficiently singular to merit attention.
1t seems absurd at first sight to speak of a
contest between a colossus and a dwarf,
especially as the Sovereign of Khiva
stands alone, and can command no 81
lies, except a few from among the un-
certain and feeble n0mad tribes who sur
round his little dominion. Yet it must
not be forgotten that thirty years ago, in
the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, these
very Khivans not only repulsed but de-
stroyed Russian invading force of IL 900
men, and purchased for themselves by
that successful resistance an immunity
from similar attacks which has lasted to
this day. There can, however, be no
doubt of the triumph of Russian STRAIT
egy and perseverance in the end; still,
there are many preliminary difficulties to
be contended with. The first of these
arises from the geographical position of
Khiva itself. The Khanate occupies an
oasis of extremely fertile soil, highly pro-
ductive and well peopled, owing all its
prosperity and its very existence, indeed,
to irrigation from the river Oxus, which
passes through the heart of it, feeding and
Tue Ou DduhS, NGIN
mixed people of Touranian and Iranian
elements. strongly welded together, not
by sympathies of race, but by long sub
mission to hereditary government and by
fanatical adherence to the tenets of Is.
lam. Khiva, the capital, consists only,
according to Vambery, of "three or four
thousand mud houses standing in differ
ent directions in the most irregular man.
ner, with uneven and unwashed walls,
and surrounded by a wall ten feet high,
also made of mud" But the environs are
rich and populous. The people are born
horsemen, inheriting all the habits of
their Tartar ancestors, except that they
have exchanged a vagrant for an agricul-
tural life; and have become accustomed
to war as well as robbery. "The Khivan
character" says Vambery, ''though
rough drawn. is the finest in Central
Asia" The Uzbeks are the leading race,
not only here but in the Khanate OF Box
hara also. "The Khivsn Uzbek betrays
the mixture of his blood with the Iran
elements, for he has beard, always TO
be regarded in the Turanis as a foreign
popularity; but his complexion and form
of countenance indicate very often genu-
inc Tartar origin" 1t is remarkable that
some of the finest, or, at least, most ener-
getic, of races have been produced by the
intermixture of Tartar blood with that OF
southern and western neighbors; the
Turks, the Uzbeks and other hybrid
tribes in Asia, the Magyars in Europe.
1t is not, however, by their personal
qualities or their military strength that
the Khivans form an impediment in the
way of Russia. 1t is their geographical
position which renders their statea STUN
bling block in the road of Muscovite con
/ quest, and a sort of constant annoyance
/ Khiva is, as we have said, an oasis sur
rounded on all sides by desert. But those
portions of the desert which lie west an6
/ north of the Khanat care within the nomi
nal limits of Russia. Khiva intrudes itsel
and interoepts communication between
sundry outlying sections OF the Czar''
Asiatic provinces; and, from its centra
position, it threatens several surrounding
points at the same time. The chief port
of Russia on the western shore of tn
Caspian, Alexandroysk to the north