page_title: Khivan campaign of 1873
section_title: Preparations
hierarchical_section_title: Khivan campaign of 1873 / Preparations
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a map of area around the Aral Sea including the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. The Aral Sea boundaries are circa 1960 but the political boundaries are the present-day ones. Countries that are at least partially in the Aral Sea watershed are in yellow.
context_page_description: In the Russo–Khivan War of 1873, Russia conquered the Khanate of Khiva, and it became a Russian protectorate.
context_section_description: In 1869, Fyodor Radetsky founded Krasnovodsk, which later became the headquarters of the Trans-Caspian Military District and the start of the Trans-Caspian Railway. In March 1870, the decision was made to attack Khiva. Because Khiva was an oasis surrounded by several hundred miles of desert, this desert had to be mapped and waterholes found before armies could move. Mikhail Skobelev mapped a route from Krasnovodsk to the edge of the oasis, and Colonel Vasily Markozov later explored the area more thoroughly. Nikolai Lomakin explored the Mangyshlak Peninsula. In September 1872, Colonel Markozov started from Krasnovodsk and Chikishlyar; he planned to make a dash to Khiva, but was called back by the Viceroy of the Caucasus. In the east, Konstantin Kaufman sent parties into the desert south of the Syr-Darya.
  In December 1872 the Czar made the final decision to attack Khiva. The force would be 61 infantry companies, 26 of Cossack cavalry, 54 guns, 4 mortars and 5 rocket detachments. Khiva would be approached from five directions. (1) General von Kaufmann, in supreme command, would march west from Tashkent and meet a second force moving south from (2) Fort Aralsk. The two would meet in the middle of the Kyzylkum Desert at Min Bulak and move southwest to the head of the Oxus delta. Meanwhile, (3) Veryovkin would go south from Orenburg along the west side of the Aral Sea and meet (4) Lomakin coming directly east from the Caspian while (5) Markozov would march northeast from Krasnovodsk (later changed to Chikishlyar). The reason for this odd plan may have been bureaucratic rivalry. The governor of Orenburg had always had primary responsibility for Central Asia. Kaufmann's newly conquered Turkestan Province had many active officers, while the Viceroy of the Caucasus had by far the most troops.
caption: The Khanate of Khiva was south of the Aral Sea in the Amu-Darya delta
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