Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky leads an invasion of…
November 1839 CE
Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky leads an invasion of the Khanate of Khiva in 1839, in name to free the slaves captured and sold by Turkmen raiders from the Russian frontiers on the Caspian Sea, but also as an attempt to extend the Russian borders while the British Empire entangles itself in the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1839.
This is the first Russian invasion of Turkestan in one hundred and twenty-two years.
Knowing the climatic and topographical difficulties which had confronted his predecessors, Perovsky decides to wage a winter campaign.
His expeditionary force, consisting of fifty-two hundred infantry and ten thousand camels, sets off in November 1839, into one of the worst winters in memory.
The Russians had hoped for light snows, expecting to feed their animals on the grasses underneath, but heavy snowstorms and ice will prove as daunting as the summer heat.
Running short of forage for the animals and having lost a good portion of his column, Perovsky will be forced to return to Orenburg without coining close to Khiva.
As it is, almost two-thirds of the men and nearly all the pack camels will perish.
Shortly thereafter, Perovsky will be transferred.