776 



RUSSIA. 



name of the English Government, said the Rus- 

 sian Government had formally assured Lord 

 Salisbury that there was no intention of ad- 

 vancing upon Merv. One of the leading Rus- 

 sian newspapers, the " Golos," had, however, 

 previously shown that the expedition could 

 carry out its ostensible aim of chastising the 

 Turkomans only by capturing and destroying 

 their chief place of refuge ; and a St. Peters- 

 burg correspondent to the " Norddeutsche All- 

 gemeine Zeituug" of Berlin (July 8th), the 

 organ of Prince Bismarck, explicitly stated 

 that General Lazareff had been commissioned 

 to capture and destroy Merv. 



Before the expedition was ready to start, a 

 severe blow was struck by the Turkomans. 

 General Lomakin had collected 3,000 camels 

 near the wells of Burnak, Kabil, and Sulmen, 

 about 27 miles northeast of Krasnovodsk, where 

 they were to await the beginning of the expe- 

 dition. The Tekke Turkomans, having closely 

 watched the proceedings of their enemy, on 

 April 15th attacked Burnak, defeated the Rus- 

 sian guard, consisting of 2,000 men, and cap- 

 tared a large number of camels, which they 

 carried away with them. Pursuit being made 

 by reinforcement? immediately sent from Kras- 

 novodsk, the Tekke, whose march was impeded 

 by the captured animals, were overtaken, and 

 forced to confront the Russians. And now- 

 happened an event which forms a period in the 

 history of Central Asiatic warfare. Instead of 

 having recourse to their usual tactics of dis- 

 persing the camels and attacking the Russians 

 in loose order, the Tekke dismounted, occupied 

 a strong position half-way up a hillside, and, 

 making the camels kneel down in front, fired 

 from behind this living wall with the steadi- 

 ness and rapidity of European sharpshooters. 

 The encounter lasted till night, when the Tekke 

 as well as the Russians retreated in opposite 

 directions. The Tekke, leaving a dozen dead 

 and some forty camels on the spot, marched 

 east, carrying the rest of their booty with 

 them ; the Russians, having buried their dead, 

 retraced their steps to the west, finding it too 

 dangerous to follow an enemy whose strength 

 had suddenly so very much increased. 



The expedition did not get fairly under way 

 until August. Owing to the glare of the sun 

 and the sand, which was continually being 

 blown about in the desert, large numbers of 

 the troops suffered with diseases of the eyes, 

 while the unwholesome water which they had 

 to use also caused a great deal of sickness. On 

 August 12th General Lazareff, the commander- 

 in-chief of the expedition, died, and was re- 

 placed ia September by General Tergukasoff. 



The news received from the seat of war 

 was very meager, owing to the strict censor- 

 ship exercised by the Russian military officials. 

 Enough was known, however, to prove that 

 the ultimate object of the expedition was the 

 oasis which was the center of the operations 

 of the Akhal Tekke Turkomans. In the first 

 engagements the Turkomans were everywhere 



defeated, and disappeared in the desert. The 

 Russians, commanded by General Lomakin 

 (who temporarily succeeded General Lazareff 

 after the sudden death of the latter), pursued 

 them, and penetrated to the oasis, where they 

 found signs of comparative prosperity and 

 peace. Following the enemy from one desert- 

 ed village to another, threatened only by guer- 

 rilla troops of horsemen, the expeditionary 

 force proceeded to attack the fortified position 

 of Dengel Tepe, which appeared to be held by 

 a strong body of Turkomans. No sooner did 

 they do so than the surrounding hills began to 

 swarm with hostile cavalry, and, though the 

 assailants were repeatedly repulsed, the Tekke 

 horsemen suffering losses after every charge 

 and flying before the Russian fire, they were 

 not discomfited. They retired upon a strong 

 position, which General Lomakin attacked. 

 The Russian forces were too weak for the task, 

 and after vainly wasting their powers on the 

 capture of some outworks, a combined assault 

 was defeated by the Turkomans. During the 

 retreat the latter fell furiously upon the retir- 

 ing Russians, who barely escaped a terrible dis- 

 aster. 



A fact which was closely connected with 

 the opening of the Turkoman expedition, and 

 is of great importance in itself, is the turning 

 of the Attrek River into its old bed, which took 

 place in June. In former times this river fell 

 into the Caspian not far from the bay of Has- 

 san-Kullin, about twelve versts from Tchikislav, 

 the starting-point of the expedition ; but nine 

 years ago, in consequence of the Russians hav- 

 ing taken possession of Krasnovodsk, the Tur- 

 komans, with enormous efforts, constructed a 

 dike or dam near Bent, at a distance of about 

 sixty versts from the mouth of the Attrek, and 

 by this means diverted it through the region 

 of their winter quarters. 



The internal condition of the empire con- 

 tinued to be one of revolutionary discontent. 

 The Nihilists were as bold and aggressive as in 

 any former year. Another great shock to pub- 

 lic feeling was given on April 14th, when Alex- 

 ander Solovieff attempted to shoot the Czar in 

 front of the house of the military staff in St. 

 Petersburg. The assassin was arrested, and 

 was found to have capsules containing poison, 

 which he could break in an instant, in his 

 mouth. When asked why he had made the 

 attempt, he answered that the task had fallen 

 on him by lot, and he had no alternative. 



This plot led to the adoption of some new 

 extraordinary measures. Generals Todleben, 

 Loris-Melikoff, and Gourko were appointed 

 Governors-General with exceptional powers at 

 Odessa, Kharkov, and St. Petersburg, and sim- 

 ilar powers were conferred on the Governors- 

 General of Moscow, Kiev, and Warsaw. These 

 officers were authorized to remove from their 

 districts all persons whose presence they con- 

 sidered pernicious ; to subject civilians to mar- 

 tial law ; to arrest on their own responsibility 

 any person of whatever rank; to suppress 



