The Liquidation of the Kokand Khanate
In the spring of 1873-1874, uprisings repeatedly broke out in the Kokand Khanate, but the khan managed to cope with them somehow. The rebels often sought help from the Russian authorities but always received a refusal. In the spring of 1875, even the Kokand nobility rose against Khudoyar: the conspiracy was led by the son of the once all-powerful regent Muslimqul, Abdurrahman Avtobachi, the mullah Issa-Auliye, and the khan's brother, the ruler of Margilan, Sultan-Murad-bek. They also managed to win over the heir to the throne, Nasreddin-khan.
On July 15, 1875, the Russian ambassador Weinberg arrived in Kokand, accompanied by M. D. Skobelev, who was heading to Kashgar, and a convoy of 22 Cossacks. Two days later, news came that mullah Issa-Auliye and Abdurrahman Avtobachi, sent at the head of a 4,000-strong army against the rebelling Kyrgyz, had united with the insurgents.
The leader of the Kyrgyz, Mullah-Iskhak, declared himself a distant relative of the khan, Pulat-bek. The khan's son Nasreddin, who was with a 5,000-strong army in Andijan, also sided with the conspirators. The cities of Osh and Namangan opened their gates to them. On July 20, it became known that the rebels had entered Margilan without a fight, which is only 77 km from Kokand, and mullah Issa-Auliye called the people to jihad against the Russians and their accomplices. Weinberg immediately sent a letter to General Golovachev, describing the situation and requesting a detachment from Khojent to protect the khan.
On the night of July 22, the rebels approached Kokand. Half of the khan's army immediately defected to their side along with Khudoyar's second son, Mukhammed-Alimbek. In the morning, unrest began among the townspeople. Khudoyar decided to seek refuge under the protection of the Russian authorities. Leading an 8,000-strong army with 68 cannons and a caravan loaded with treasures from the treasury, he set off on the road to Khojent. The Russian embassy accompanied the khan: Weinberg, Skobelev, 22 Cossacks, 9 merchants, and 6 Kazakh caravan drivers. Six kilometers from Kokand, the khan stopped to give battle to the rebels, but his entire army, following the example of others, defected to the enemy. Only his entourage of about 500 people and the Russian embassy remained with Khudoyar. Under constant attacks from the insurgents, the small detachment managed to reach the territory controlled by Russian troops by the evening of July 23, and the next day arrived in Khojent.
After Khudoyar's flight, the uprising engulfed the entire khanate. Soon, power in Kokand was seized by an aristocratic-clerical group oriented towards England. The pro-Russian Khudoyar-khan was overthrown and fled. The flourishing Fergana Valley, the ancient cities of Namangan, Margilan, and Kokand became the scene of fierce fighting.
On August 22, Russian troops entered the Mahram area and, under the personal leadership of the governor-general, defeated the insurgents. The relatively easy victory was determined by the unwillingness of the majority of the common people to fight against the Russians for the rights of their own exploiters. Therefore, the Kokand troops fled at the first clash.
After the defeat, the new khan Nasreddin sent a message of his capitulation to the Turkestan governor-general with a delegation. Kaufman quickly brought troops into Kokand and, keeping the throne for Nasreddin, revised the borders of the Kokand Khanate. He cut off part of the khanate's lands, and the Namangan beylik was annexed to Turkestan under the guise of the Namangan department, headed by M.D. Skobelev. This pushed the borders away from Tashkent from 100 to 250 versts and strengthened positions in mountainous Kyrgyzstan.
Nasreddin was proclaimed the ruler. Of course, he had no thoughts of reducing taxes, but he resolutely blamed the Russians for all the troubles and immediately declared the need to restore the khanate within its old borders from Ak-Mechet on one side to Pishpek on the other. The Russian administration understood perfectly that in the current situation, delay was "like death." Already on July 23, the district chief of Khojent, Nolde, placed 50 soldiers of the 7th Turkestan Line Battalion on horses requisitioned from the population and sent this improvised cavalry to the border fortress of Mahram. Following this detachment, the entire battalion and the division of the 2nd artillery battery moved under the overall command of Colonel Savrimovich. It was the approach of these forces to the border that forced the rebels to abandon the pursuit of the khan and the embassy.
The Emir of Bukhara, Muzaffar, saw Kurmandzhan in Osh and awarded her the highest title - datka. According to X. Bobobekov, "... from this moment, the fame of Kurmandzhan made her a recognized leader of the Kyrgyz of Alai and Gulchi. Khudoyar-khan, in order to win her over to his side, sent her a letter granting her the title of datka. Thus, Kurmandzhan was twice honored with the title of datka." And at the beginning of 1876, Kaufman urgently left for St. Petersburg. There, on February 3, bypassing all administrative instances, he received from Emperor Alexander II permission to abolish the Kokand Khanate and annex it to the Russian Empire as a constituent part. On February 19, 1876, a decree was published on the liquidation of the Kokand Khanate and the inclusion of its territory into the Russian Empire as the Fergana region of the Turkestan Territory. Thus, another chapter in the history of the Kyrgyz and the political biography of the clan leader Alai - Kurmandzhan datka - was closed.
The Ascension of Khudoyar-khan to the Throne of the Kokand Khanate