752 



RUSSIA. 



treason approach it from any quarter. Most gracious 

 Sire! the nobility of Moscow appear before your 

 Majesty at the call of their sacred duty as faithful 

 subjects, having only the advantage of the State in 

 view. We speak, Sire, in the full conviction that 

 our words correspond with your own policy, and 

 with the spirit of your great reforms. 



A commission of four members, headed by 

 Count Orloff Davidoff, grand master of cere- 

 monies at the imperial court, was named to 

 present the petition. By the Czar it was 

 received most ungraciously, and the following 

 rescript was sent in reply : 



The reforms which have been prepared, and those 

 already realized, sufficiently prove my solicitude for 

 the improvement, as far as possible, of the political 

 organization of the countrv. The past must be a 

 guaranty for the future. No subject has a right to 

 anticipate my resolutions, nor is any class legally 

 entitled to speak in the name of others. Such vio- 

 lations of the law can but retard my plans. I am 

 fully convinced that I shall never again meet with 

 such obstacles on the part of my faithful nobility. 



The Minister of the Interior was instructed 

 to communicate the rescript to all the govern- 

 ors of provinces, in order to communicate it to 

 the Assemblies of Nobles on their meeting. 

 This severe censure of the Moscow nobility did 

 not, however, have the desired effect. Other 

 provincial assemblies openly declared their 

 concurrence in the resolutions passed at Mos- 

 cow. The Government was so much incensed 

 at this course, that when eighteen members of 

 the Assembly of Nobles in the government of 

 Pskoff joined the request of the Moscow no- 

 bility for a national representation to be granted 

 to Russia, legal proceedings were taken against 

 them. The editor of a Moscow newspaper, the 

 Viezi (Despatch), which published the Moscow 

 address, and Count Orloff Davidoff, the chief 

 of the deputation, were sentenced by the first 

 tribunal to two months' imprisonment. 



The progress of the Russians in Central Asia, 

 an account of which was given in the ANNUAL 

 CYCLOPEDIA for 1864, is also a marked feature 

 of the history of Russia in 1865. In October, 

 1864, the town of Chemkend was occupied by 

 the Russians, who thus became the masters of 

 the region which in official reports is described 

 as " the granary of all the country between the 

 Chu and the Syr-Daria." In the succeeding 

 month, Prince Gortchakoff drew up a circular 

 to the diplomatic agents of Russia, instructing 

 them to represent to the Governments near 

 which they were accredited, the advance of 

 Russia in Central Asia as proceeding not from 

 a desire of conquest, but of rectifying the fron- 

 tier, and securing it against unceasing attacks 

 from uncivilized hordes. In February, 1865, the 

 province of Toorkestan was constituted under 

 Gen. Tchernaieff. On May 9th, the same gen- 

 eral defeated and slew the Khokand leader, the 

 regent during the Khan's minority, close to 

 Tashkend. On Juno 15th this important place 

 itself was taken by assault, and with it the 

 independent State of Khokand ceased to exist. 

 The " Invalide " of St. Petersburg gave the fol- 



lowing account of the occupation of this town, 

 and of the events following the capture : 



Tashkend was occupied in accordance with the ex- 

 pressed desire of the inhabitants. The latter, find- 

 ing it impossible to shake ofi' the yoke of Zadyk Ken- 

 isarin, a Khokand chief of mountaineers, who had 

 made himself master of their quiet and industrious 

 town, had repeatedly sent to Gen. Tchernaieff, so- 

 liciting his protection and interference. The gen- 

 eral at first would not meddle with the intejnal af- 

 fairs of the Turkish tribes, although, as he was well 

 aware, Russian exports to Tashkend had considerably 

 fallen off in consequence of the ascendency of Zadyk 

 Kenisarin ; but when he found that the people of 

 Tashkend, rather than submit to the arbitrary rule of 

 their new master, were inviting the Emir of Bokhara 

 to come and take possession of the town, he, very 

 much against his will, discovered the necessity of 

 protecting his own interests in a more forcible way, 

 and took Tashkend by storm. The Russian columns 

 were headed by a priest, carrying aloft a crucifix, 

 and the enemy, after some resistance, evacuated the 

 place. The Russians had twenty-five men killed, 

 eighty-nine wounded, and twenty-eight bruised. This 

 occurred in the night of the 27th of June (old style), 

 and as the Russian general hoped and trusted, was 

 to be the last and concluding scene of his military 

 activity in those parts. But the Emir of Bokhara, 

 the proud chief of a fierce and fanatic tribe, resented 

 the capture of the contested city as an insult offered 

 to him and his race, and in most offensive language 

 claimed Tashkend, which, it is true, had asked for 

 his assistance a few weeks before, as a place to which 

 he had a lawful title. His troops appeared at the 

 same time in the neighborhood of the city, and things 

 looked as though he was going to vindicate his claim 

 by force of arms. To have diplomatized with an 

 Asiatic prince would have been useless under these 

 circumstances, and so the Russian general resolved 

 to have recourse to reprisals without loss of time. 

 The Bokhara merchants in Orenburg were placed 

 under arrest, their goods sequestrated, and those on 

 their way to Nijni Novgorod prevented from proceed- 

 ing on their journey. The Emir was visibly over- 

 awed by the energy of the Russian general," and in 

 his intercourse with M. Tchernaieff began to observe 

 again the ordinary^ forms of politeness, which he had 

 neglected for a time. His troops have since been 

 withdrawn, and his claims, it is possible, will be 

 abandoned for good. 



Later Russian accounts state that on the 30th 

 August (12th September) General Tchernaieff 

 gave a grand banquet, at which 30,000 persons 

 were present, without any disorder whatever 

 taking place ; that this event made a great im- 

 pression upon the inhabitants; that industry 

 began to recover from the consequences of the 

 former internal dissensions; that the popula- 

 tion was rapidly increasing, already numbering 

 more than 100,000; and that Tashkend was be- 

 coming the commercial metropolis of Central 

 Asia. The Khan of Bokhara, according to the 

 same accounts, was peaceably disposed, and had 

 sent presents to Gen. Tchernaieff. 



A great concession was made, in 1865, to the 

 principle of religious toleration. Twenty years 

 ago the Emperor Nicholas caused some 50,000 

 Livonians and Esthonians to secede from the 

 Protestant Church, to which their ancestors had 

 been converted centuries ago by the Teutonic 

 Knights. The proselytes were regarded as or- 

 thodox ever after, and a law was enacted at 

 the same time that a Greek church should be 

 built whenever sixty believers could be col- 



