Fight on the jackpot 1885. Victorious battle of the Russians on the jackpot with the Anglo-Afghan army. The work of strategy and tactics

The battle that took place between the detachment of Lieutenant General A.V. Komarov with the Afghan army on the Russian-Afghan border near the river. Kushka March 18 (30), 1885 and ended with the victory of the Russian troops.

In 1884, the Merv oasis (Turkmenistan) was annexed to Russia, and it was faced with the question of delimitation with Afghanistan. This issue was also very important for Great Britain, which saw Afghanistan as a buffer zone protecting British India. The annexation of the Merv oasis gave Russia strategic advantages in the region, namely the ability to control Herat, which lies to the south, which served as a corridor through Afghanistan to India. Great Britain, wanting to maintain control over Herat, could not come to terms with the presence of Merv as a springboard for Russian forces on the way there.

Thus, the issue of the Russian-Afghan border was already reaching the international level. In 1884, an entire cartographic expedition was sent to the area of ​​the future border, which was accompanied by British officers, some of whom remained in Kabul and became unofficial advisers to the Afghan emir, who decided to take more active steps. For example, in the fall of 1884, an English detachment occupied Gurlen, a junction of routes from Turkmenistan through the passes of the Herat mountains. Afghan troops were gathered there, and the forces of local khans occupied the Zulfarat Pass - a key position in Herat, and the most important route junction in these parts - Akrabat. Taking advantage of the fact that the tribes of Merv were tributaries of the emir, the Afghans increased their raids on the Russian borders, which led to a number of small skirmishes.

Following this, the Russians began to strengthen the troops of the Trans-Caspian region, highlighting 2 field detachments - Murgab and Serakh, each numbering 4,000 people, with 4 guns to protect Turkestan from possible invasion attempts by Anglo-Afghan troops. On January 22, 1885, the military governor of the Transcaspian region, Lieutenant General A.V. Komarov moved to the border a military detachment of 4 companies of Trans-Caspian riflemen, the 3rd Turkestan linear battalion, the Caucasian Cossack regiment, the Provisional Merv police and the 21st mountain battery, which consisted of 4 guns. The detachment camped on the left bank of the river. Kushka, near the village of Tash-Kepri not far from the brick bridge across the river, where Afghan troops were gathered (2,600 horsemen and 1,900 infantry, with 8 guns and about 100 English instructors) under the command of Naib-Salar.

The Afghans built 4 redoubts that approached the Russian posts and moved their camp to encircle the left flank of the Russian camp. On March 12, Komarov put forward an ultimatum: either the Afghans themselves will clear the right bank of the river or Russian troops will do it in five days. He also tried to send his chief of staff, Colonel N.I., to the Afghan camp. Zakrzhevsky for negotiations, which ended without results. On March 14, the Afghans posted their sentries on the Russian bank of the river. On March 17, Komarov sent a letter to the commander of the Afghan detachment, in which he asked the Afghans to remove all posts on both banks of the river and withdraw troops across the Mugrab River to the mouth of Kushka. The response was the intensive preparation of the Afghans for a clash - digging trenches and pulling troops to crossings. In the evening, Komarov gathered the officers of the detachment and ordered an attack on the Afghan positions at dawn the next day.

At 4 a.m. on March 18, the Russians entered their positions, and by 6 a.m. the Afghans appeared. On the right flank, against the Afghan cavalry near the bridge, the Turkestan battalion took up positions under the cover of artillery, the center of the Russian positions was occupied by Cossacks and mounted militia, and the left flank was made up of riflemen.

The Afghans opened fire first. On the Russian side, they were answered by dismounted cavalrymen under the command of Colonel Alikhanov, then riflemen and Turkestans. The desperate resistance of the Russian units of the attacking Afghan cavalry led to its retreat. The Turkmen mounted police set off in pursuit and captured the bridge over Kushka. On the right flank, the Turkestans were the first to open fire on the column of Afghan troops and forced it to retreat, and also helped the Turkmen police repel the Afghan attack with flank fire.

When the cavalry, on the orders of Alikhanov, began pursuing the retreating cavalry, an assault on the Afghan camp followed. The battle for the Tash-Kepri hill, where the trenches and redoubts of the Afghans were located, took place mainly in a fierce firefight, during which the Turkestans were able to knock the Afghans out of the trenches with a bayonet strike, and together with the Cossacks and Turkmens, knock them out of the hill. The companies encircled the Afghans, cutting them off from crossings, and put the rest to flight. On the left flank, riflemen began attacking the Afghan redoubts. The chain of riflemen was able to destroy the gun servants with rifle fire and, during a bayonet attack on the redoubts, capture all 3 guns (2 of them were English) and then join the Turkestans, who were pursuing the retreating enemy. Russian troops captured the bridge, and a few volleys into the camp were enough to completely disperse the Afghan detachment. The persecution was organized by the Turkmen police of Alikhanov.

After the battle, part of the Afghan detachment still tried to shoot at the Russians from under the bridge, but this soon stopped. As a result, 2 banners, a horsetail, 8 guns, a convoy and prisoners were captured. Afghan losses amounted to 500 people, and the Russian detachment lost only 9. On March 21, reconnaissance was carried out, which showed that the area was completely cleared of Afghans. A warlike mood reigned in the Russian camp; in Herat they were preparing for a Russian invasion, just as in London they were preparing for a war with Russia. Through the efforts of diplomacy, the conflict was resolved, and the Russian-Afghan border drawn in this region has not changed to this day. General Komarov and Chief of Staff Colonel Zakrzhevsky were awarded golden weapons with diamonds, Colonel Alikhanov - the Order of St. George, 3rd degree, and 50 more people became Knights of St. George for this battle.

In general, the battle greatly shook the authority of Great Britain in Afghanistan, and the lack of allies on the continent forced London to look for diplomatic ways to resolve the conflict, which ended with the demarcation between Russia and Afghanistan and showed St. Petersburg and London that problems can be resolved peacefully.

Gorny Mikhail

Campaign against the Afghans and the battle on Kushka (1885)

Gorny Mikhail

Campaign against the Afghans and the battle on Kushka (1885)

Memoirs of former private Andrei Bolandlin

From the text: The bridge was covered with the corpses of the fugitives. Our soldiers tried not to even look at them. Silently, with serious faces, maintaining an alignment, they walked, clutching their berdans with hands blackened by gunpowder, in their damp greatcoats. “One, two, three, four... one, two, three, four!..” - counted most of them, stepping over the corpses of Afghans, foot and horse, trampled, tormented by horse hooves, artillery shells and boots of the Pkhotin soldiers.

Hoaxer: The armed conflict of 1885 was the only clash of this kind that occurred during the reign (1881-1894) of Alexander III the Peacemaker. In some reference books (for example, V. Pokhlebkin “Foreign policy of Rus', Russia and the USSR for 1000 years”, M., 1995) this conflict is called a “Russian-English armed conflict” (due to the presence of hundreds of English advisers in the ranks of the Afghans ), in other works this is called the Russian-Afghan armed conflict (which, in my opinion, is correct, unlike the previous name). But the fact that the British were among the Afghans, and were beaten, is beyond doubt. Which is reflected in the song given in the text of this book: “The enemy will always remember, / The British and Afghans will never forget...”.

Notes

Campaign against the Afghans and battle on Kushk

"And we passed the steppe like the sea,

Through the sand hurricane...

So he walks into the open space,

Rushing from mound to mound...

The bird rarely flies there,

There the sand is flying like a column...

(Cossack song).

One of the early January days of 1885, in the Samarkand barracks of the 3rd linear Turkestan battalion, “literature” classes were going on. At the white wooden tables sat about thirty students, students already mustachioed and bearded, however, they had just begun to write on slates. The teacher of these strange schoolchildren was a young, dark-haired ensign Degtyarev, who stood near two black boards with large cardboard letters.

Well, brothers, what letter is this? - he asks, raising the letter b up.

Would! If only!.. - shouts a chorus of the most diverse voices.

Which one is this? - the ensign raises another letter.

A! A! - the soldiers shout.

What syllable, brothers, will it be if we take these letters together? the teacher speaks again.

Bah! - the students respond.

The students, however, are not particularly attentive: some move away, others give each other clicks, others push each other. But there are also attentive people who try to understand for themselves the whole abyss of wisdom. The jokers tell them:

What to study? If they haven’t taught the little ones, it’s all the same: they won’t get it into the heads of the big ones!

Nah, that's not it, guys! - they respond: better late than never. The diploma will come in handy - at least write a letter home or something else...

After the mental exercises, the physical exercises began. The entire third half-company, young and old, had already been gathered.

The red soldier Chernousov deftly pulled himself up on the rings. Then the turn came to the clumsy Vyatka fat soldier Volkov, who always had trouble doing pull-ups.

Well, you, Vyatka,” Degtyarev mumbled: don’t mess up your Vyatka!

Yes, Mr. Ensign, I didn’t learn it from a young age, but now I’m going to go home soon...

Home, not home, but still it’s a shame for the old soldier to do such a thing. You are supposed to serve as a prime minister for others, but it turns out that the young soldiers are better than you.

The soldiers grinned.

The time was approaching 12 o'clock. Suddenly the horn began to play: - Gathering!

The recruits, not knowing whether they were playing for obed or for "collection", assumed the former, grabbed copper cups and rushed to the kitchen, because, according to the established order in almost all troops, recruits go behind the obel. The old people quarreled.

Where are you going, you fucking devils?

For volume!

What a size for you! Do you hear that they are playing the gathering, not obd! Roll your overcoats, take your bags and mice.

The soldiers began to fuss, grabbed guns and other ammunition and marched to the courtyard. And other companies were already forming in the yard. At the first company, in a carriage drawn by a pair of blacks, sat the Colonel himself, Mikhail Petrovich Kav, a gallant man, wearing glasses, with a black and gray beard, who had just arrived here. The officers also gathered, each to his own unit. Finally, the army lined up. Company commanders also came. Then the colonel cheerfully jumped out of the carriage, said something to them, and then turned to all the soldiers, who eagerly wanted to know why the authorities had gathered them, and said:

Congratulations on your campaign, brothers! I received a telegram from the commander of the troops: we are moving to the city of Merv.

We are glad to try, your honor!.. - the battalion roared loudly.

Gg. Disband the company commanders, company schoolchildren and the training team into companies, stop classes and prepare for the campaign!..

The soldiers were dismissed.

Eh, brothers, let's go on a hike... - some said.

To Merv, probably to the parking lot,” the others responded.

Well, hardly for parking... - the first ones did not agree. The 3rd battalion in other Samarkand troops (1) had quite a few fellow countrymen.

Let's go on a hike, brothers! - the soldiers of the 3rd battalion announced to them.

Well, lie! Kava always goes on hikes, goes racing every year.

In fact, the efficient colonel did annual practice, and walked twenty or thirty miles in full march with his battalion, with all the baggage and provisions.

On the same day, the colonel received a second telegram, in which the soldiers were allowed to take things with them. The delighted Turkestanis, assuming that they were going to the parking lot, were already thinking of taking with them beds, boxes, and other equipment, when a new telegram dispelled their dreams: it ordered each soldier to have no more than a pound of his own belongings.

The married men were also ordered to be taken on the march at first, but later an order came out to leave the married men behind and replace them with people from other units.

They will kill you, brothers,” the bachelors first laughed at the married, “and your wives will remain.”

Shall we go to war? - they snapped.

What about the parking lot? Let's go to war...

The women, having heard that their husbands were being taken to war, started howling. When they left the married women, the soldiers were dissatisfied with this too...

And, indeed: the soldiers will serve their term, go home, but their wives will hide and remain in Turkestan. However, the husbands who were transferred from their comrades to other units were also dissatisfied and almost cried.

18.3.1885 (31.3). – The victorious battle of the Russians on Kushka with the Anglo-Afghan army.

At the final stage, Russia reached natural mountain boundaries in the south. The border with Iran was established on the Kopetdag mountains, to the north of which the Russian Trans-Caspian region was formed on Turkmen lands (the southern part of modern Turkmenistan). In February 1884, as a result of negotiations with local residents, the Merv oasis near British-controlled Afghanistan was also annexed. At the beginning of January, the Mervians sent their deputation to the Russian command with a request to accept them as Russian citizenship:

“To the Illustrious Great Tsar, the Highest Ruler of the Russian and other peoples. May his prosperity and power continue, may his mercy and favor not dry up, may the blessing of Allah be upon him.

We, the khans, elders and representatives of all clans and tribes of the Merv people, having gathered today (January 1, 1884) at the gengesh and having listened to the captain-captain Alikhanov sent to us, unanimously decided to voluntarily accept Russian citizenship. Giving ourselves, our people and our country under Your mighty hand, Great King, we place before Your throne a request to make us equal with all the peoples subject to You, to appoint rulers over us and to establish order between us, for which, at Your command, we are ready to set the required number armed horsemen.

To present this resolution to the people’s representatives, we have authorized 4 khans and 24 elders, each from two thousand tents.”

(Battle on Kushka on March 18, 1885 and territorial acquisitions during the reign of Emperor Alexander III // Russian Antiquity, No. 3. 1910)

In confirmation of its sincerity, the deputation represented by the khans of the Tekin family and the honorary elders of Merv arrived in Ashgabat, where, according to the Highest permission, they swore an oath of unconditional citizenship to His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign. The Turkmen were happy, since they were not infringed upon in their previous rights and Russian patronage saved them from constant conflicts with the Afghans.

England was afraid of Russia's further advance towards India and tried to incite the local border population against the Russians. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared a war with England and demanded that the Russian military command exclusively peacefully resolve disputed border issues, with a strict ban on starting hostilities first. However, during the negotiations, England demanded that Russia give Afghanistan the Penjdeh oasis and some other Turkmen territories. The Russians refused, saying that the Turkmen lands never belonged to Afghanistan, but rather were in conflict with neighboring Afghan tribes. Persevering, the British advisers encouraged the Afghan emir to oppose the Russians, promising him help, and actually handed over an artillery battery to the Afghans. British officers led the Afghan army, which captured the Penjdeh oasis, which previously belonged to Merv.

Head of the Transcaspian region, General A.V. Komarov demanded that they leave Russian territory, and when they ignored his demands, on March 18 he gave the command to Russian troops to move into the territory captured by the Afghans, without opening fire without a command. Seeing the Russians, the Afghans were the first to open rifle fire on them. Then the order was given and the Russian troops were ordered to return fire (thus the requirement of the St. Petersburg Ministry of Foreign Affairs was met).

In this battle on the Kushka River, the Afghans advanced with a detachment of 4 thousand people (2.5 thousand cavalry and 1.5 thousand infantry), the Russians had 1840 soldiers (four infantry battalions, Cossacks and Turkmen militia fighters). But the Afghans were armed mostly with old guns, while the Russians had more modern rifles. The Afghan troops were put to flight with huge losses: up to one and a half thousand people. Russian troops lost 9 people killed and 22 wounded, 23 were shell-shocked. The Russians also received British artillery as a trophy. On April 6, Russian soldiers staged an Easter fireworks display using Anglo-Afghan cannons.

The Russians did not pursue the Afghans on their territory. The Russian command sent a polite message to the Afghan authorities with a promise to limit themselves to the liberation of their Turkmen territories and not to cross the border unless the Afghans themselves attack again. The wounded Afghans were provided with medical assistance, the prisoners were sent home, and they were given provisions for the journey. The British were assigned an escort to ensure their safety along the way. In Europe, in connection with this battle, there was a stir about the start of a new war between Russia and England, but the Russian Foreign Ministry pretended that nothing had happened, there was only a minor skirmish.

Battle of Kushka, also known in Western historiography as Penjde incident(English) Panjdeh incident) - a military clash that took place on March 18 (30), 1885 after the Russian army, according to Western historiography, occupied Afghan territory south of the Amu Darya River and the Merv oasis, near the village of Penjdeh. The confrontation between Russian and British interests in Central Asia, known as the “Great Game,” lasted for decades, and the battle for Kushka brought this confrontation to the brink of a full-scale armed conflict.

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An excerpt characterizing the Battle on Kushka

Several tens of thousands of people lay dead in different positions and uniforms in the fields and meadows that belonged to the Davydovs and state-owned peasants, in those fields and meadows in which for hundreds of years the peasants of the villages of Borodin, Gorki, Shevardin and Semyonovsky had simultaneously harvested crops and grazed livestock. At the dressing stations, about a tithe of space, the grass and soil were soaked in blood. Crowds of wounded and unwounded different teams of people, with frightened faces, on the one hand wandered back to Mozhaisk, on the other hand, back to Valuev. Other crowds, exhausted and hungry, led by their leaders, moved forward. Still others stood still and continued to shoot.
Over the entire field, previously so cheerfully beautiful, with its sparkles of bayonets and smoke in the morning sun, there now stood a haze of dampness and smoke and smelled of the strange acidity of saltpeter and blood. Clouds gathered and rain began to fall on the dead, on the wounded, on the frightened, and on the exhausted, and on the doubting people. It was as if he was saying: “Enough, enough, people. Stop it... Come to your senses. What are you doing?"
Exhausted, without food and without rest, the people of both sides began to equally doubt whether they should still exterminate each other, and hesitation was noticeable on all faces, and in every soul the question arose equally: “Why, for whom should I kill and be killed? Kill whoever you want, do whatever you want, but I don’t want any more!” By evening this thought had equally matured in everyone’s soul. At any moment all these people could be horrified by what they were doing, drop everything and run anywhere.
But although by the end of the battle people felt the full horror of their action, although they would have been glad to stop, some incomprehensible, mysterious force still continued to guide them, and, sweaty, covered in gunpowder and blood, left one by three, the artillerymen, although and stumbling and gasping from fatigue, they brought charges, loaded, aimed, applied wicks; and the cannonballs flew just as quickly and cruelly from both sides and flattened the human body, and that terrible thing continued to happen, which is done not by the will of people, but by the will of the one who leads people and worlds.
Anyone who looked at the upset behinds of the Russian army would say that the French only have to make one more small effort, and the Russian army will disappear; and anyone who looked at the behinds of the French would say that the Russians only have to make one more small effort, and the French will perish. But neither the French nor the Russians made this effort, and the flames of the battle slowly burned out.
The Russians did not make this effort because they were not the ones who attacked the French. At the beginning of the battle, they only stood on the road to Moscow, blocking it, and in the same way they continued to stand at the end of the battle, as they stood at the beginning of it. But even if the goal of the Russians was to shoot down the French, they could not make this last effort, because all the Russian troops were defeated, there was not a single part of the troops that was not injured in the battle, and the Russians, remaining in their places , lost half of their army.
The French, with the memory of all the previous victories of fifteen years, with the confidence of Napoleon's invincibility, with the consciousness that they had captured part of the battlefield, that they had lost only one-quarter of their men and that they still had twenty thousand intact guards, it was easy to make this effort. The French, who attacked the Russian army in order to knock it out of position, had to make this effort, because as long as the Russians, just like before the battle, blocked the road to Moscow, the French goal was not achieved and all their efforts and the losses were wasted. But the French did not make this effort. Some historians say that Napoleon should have given his old guard intact in order for the battle to be won. Talking about what would have happened if Napoleon had given his guard is the same as talking about what would have happened if spring had turned into autumn. This couldn't happen. Napoleon did not give his guards, because he did not want it, but this could not be done. All the generals, officers, and soldiers of the French army knew that this could not be done, because the fallen spirit of the army did not allow it.

On March 30, 1885, the Russian troops of General Komarov defeated the Afghans at the Kushka River, securing the Merv oasis (Turkmenistan) for Russia. This was the only military conflict during the reign of Emperor Alexander III.

The confrontation between Russian and British interests in Central Asia, known as the “Grand Game,” lasted almost the entire 19th century. One of its first victims was the Russian plenipotentiary minister Alexander Griboyedov, who was killed in Tehran in 1829.

The battle for Kushka became one of the critical moments of this confrontation between the two empires and almost led to a full-scale armed conflict.

It all started with the fact that at the end of 1883, the head of the Transcaspian region (present-day Turkmenistan), General Komarov, annexed the city of Merv (now Mary in the south of Turkmenistan) to the Russian lands.

Since this city was previously considered an Afghan possession, and Afghanistan itself was under the protectorate of Britain, the British demanded that the Afghan emir provide armed resistance to the “aggression.” In London they feared that further Russian advance would lead them to invade India.

Afghanistan sent troops to Panjdeh, which infuriated Komarov. He declared that the oasis belonged to Russia and ordered the Afghan troops to leave immediately. The Afghan commander, instigated by the British Commissioner in Afghanistan, General Lamsden, refused to do this.

On March 30, 1885, Komarov ordered his units to go on the offensive, but not to open fire first. As a result, the Afghans opened fire first, wounding the horse of one of the Cossacks. After which the Russian troops were ordered to open fire on the Afghan cavalry, which could not withstand the deadly fire and fled in disarray.

Despite the persistent resistance of the Afghan infantry, by morning the enemy was driven back beyond the Pul-i-Khishti bridge, suffering approximately 600 casualties. The losses of Komarov's troops amounted to only 40 dead and wounded.

This international incident brought Russia to the brink of war with Great Britain. This did not happen largely due to the position of the Afghan emir Abdur-Rahman. He tried in every possible way to hush up what happened and present everything as a minor border misunderstanding.

As a result, war was averted through the efforts of diplomats who received assurances from representatives of the Russian Tsar of their intentions to respect the territorial integrity of Afghanistan in the future.

To resolve the incident, a Russian-British border commission was established, which determined the modern northern border of Afghanistan. As a result, Russia retained the territory conquered by Komarov, on which the city of Kushka was subsequently founded. It became the southernmost populated area of ​​both the Russian Empire and the USSR.

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