Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-07
gUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA.
ucr progress Across the Deserts
and over the Great Gases of
TuFkeStan.

the natives Inc ANN, VI VIC hOOl OI TN
Vivid This wonderful plateau, fur
owed bv deep valleys, through which
Gow the head streams of great rivers, i
!ho Ioftiest in the world, and stretches
a,rov for some hundreds of miles from
~ 01O TO 5000 feet above the sea. 1t il
~ elevated isthmus connecting those
"imost impossible mountain systems O
Is;a the Than Shan and Altai on the
nth with the Hindoo Koosh and Hima.
Las on the south. Here history places
,%a cradle OF the European races. Here
t;,ad our Arvan forefathers, who, leaving
tba Pamir slopes, followed great rivers
westward, and finally pastured their
herds in Europe. Hitler are returning
NOW their descendants, the Slavs and
incIo-Saxons, sooner or later to contend
f,r the supremacy of Asia upon the his
torir ground from which their primitive
rroCenitors are believed to nave migrated.
The Pamir sent its waters west to fer
tiIize the Turkestan desert, gave the ma
tons a passage-way through the noun
tain barriers, along its streams that
noured eastward into the Tarim and
southward into the Ganges and the In
Ans, nurtured the civilization that Geng-
his Khan and Tamerlane founded in
Turkestan, and made possible the adj
vance of Russia into Central Asia.
Though Peter the Great dreamed of ex-
tending Russia's power far beyond the
Caspian, it was not greed of conquest or
commerce. but the need of defending
herself against barbarous neighbors across
the Ural that first turned Russia towards
Central Asia Ivan III. put an end to
the terrible Tartar invasions that for CEN
turies wasted half of Russia and laid its
chief cities in ashes. But his successors
did not free Russia from the pest of pill
laying Kirghiz and TurkOman tribes I'M
til they established the Muscovite power
in the large territory between the Ural
river and the Aral sea. They sunk wells
in the Ust Urt plateau to facilitate the
operations Of their army, marched against
the turbulent Kirghiz, and after several
hard campaigns subdued these 1900, 900
nomads, who for over twenty years have
paid their conquerors without a murmur
their annual tax of three roubles a tent.
Beyond the Kirghiz steppes that bor-
dered Russia stretched far eastward across
: .
witch ljow two great rivers, the ancient
UAI. .iri The JaXartes, now known as
The Amu jaria and the Syr-Daria. The
one rising on the southern and the other
on the northern slopes of the Pamir, had
for ages distributed over their banks al
lWium borne on rapid tides from their
creating long and continuous
)aSes in the midst of the most desolate
lesert of the world. Here were rich
ands and populous and half-civilized
nations. Here were the routes to inner
Asia, caravan roads that lead to China,
he highways over which great camel
rains from Bokhara had for many years
orne to Orenburg and Astrakhan their
)ads of cotton, silk, skins and shagreen
Gather to exchange for Russian hard
Sare, chintz and guns. Here was a
nance for vast expansion of MuscOvite
wer and commerce. Russia's motive
rs no longer sclf-protectiOn, but the
lbjugatiOn of the khanates OF Turkestan
nd the extension of trade.
Her expedition against Khiva in 1889
as disastrous. The bitter cold of the
st Urt plateau ruined Perowski's army.
ussia, repulsed in her attempt to ac-
uire the Oxus, turned to the Syr-Daria.
fter she planted her foot upon that
ver, her forward march was slow,
.eady and persistent. Her line of forts
long the left bank of the river length
ned year by year. She made the river
er ally in her warfare upon the
,hanates. Twelve years after the first
russian gun was leveled at the walls of
he first town in Khokand, this rich
hanate, including its metropolis, fash
end, became the Russian province of
'erghana. Then Bokahara, after bitter
truggle, lost its independence. Two or
hree khanates of Turkestan were now
aimed, the Syr Daria, from its mouth to
is source, was a Russian stream, and the
'luscovite arms were once more turned
Oward the Oxus. General Kaufmann's
lttack upon Khiva was crowned with
success. The khanate was added to the
Russian conquests in Turkestan, and the
DXus passed into Russia's control.
What are the countries and the peoples
whom Russia has conquered, at terrible
'ost and after many years of bitter war
are? The three khanates are estimated
10 contain from 100000 to 100000
people Vambery says that in the rich
hess Of their soil and in the variety of
their productions it would be difficult to
md in Europe a territory that would sur
pass the oasis countries of Turkestan.
bokhara, ancient seat of Mohammedan |
learning, attracts thousands of students |
from India, Afghanistan, Cashmere and |
lima. The town has Us mosques, and !
When Vambery visited it 5000 students
We're studying theology, logic and philos-
Ophy in its eighty colleges. The chief |
cities of the Khokand oasis, Tashkend,
Lchemkent, Khodiend and others, are
scattered along the rich valley of the
Hyr-Daria. Several thousand Russian
and Cossack peasants have, with govern
mental assistance, become tillers OF the |
SOL near Tashkend and Samarcand. lash
Aend has 100000 population, IL inns, 10 |
colleges and many mosques, and 1T eX-
EorlS and imports in 1878 amounted to |
S-4,OOO, 0C0. The Khivan oasis, though
Kept within narrow limits by the sur
funding desert, is large and rich enough |
" support a populace of about l,00O,OO0 |
people. Since Russia conquered Kho-
A@ y She has placed upon the Syr-Daria
f., meet OF steamers that ply up the river
- !. distance of 300 miles from the
; ;,l' sea. Sand bars in the lower Oxus
jIu H. navigation, but Russian boats
n no,, assembled the greater part of its
L Lnae as far as Choja Saleh, now well
t alo|n as the point on the river where
tbe Aighans assert their frontier joins
s sraC ol Russia. Both these great rivers
I1 valuable arteries of trade, but the
ba nJS, though the fertile lands along its
n nuns are not so extensive nor so pop
da deus as those along the Syr-Daria, is
no ort.iled TO be commercially the more i'm
.SSait Stream. While the Syr-Daria
ba rGo only toward the comparatively bar
Thu countries of East Turkestan and
Of Re- Hs, the ,Oxus will carry the freightage
is e ,,ISsla almost to the gates of India. 1t
in CSueht to all students of her progress