The Khanate of Khiva: Russia's Steppe Conquest

In 1717, a Russian expedition under Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky marched into the Khiva Khanate, seeking to open a trade route to India. It ended in disaster: Bekovich was killed, his head sent to the khan, and the survivors enslaved. This episode of The Story of Uzbekistan tells the full story of that failed mission, the Khiva slave trade that thrived for centuries, and how Russia finally subjugated the khanate in 1873. We explore the geopolitical context of the Great Game, the role of the Yomud Turkmen in the slave economy, and the brutal conquest that ended Khiva's independence. Along the way, we meet figures like Muhammad Rahim Khan II, who surrendered to Kaufman, and the Russian generals who turned the khanate into a protectorate. Drawing on accounts from Russian officers, Central Asian chroniclers, and British spies, we uncover a forgotten chapter of imperial expansion and Central Asian resistance.

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