THE RUSSIANS IN CENTRAL ASIA.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1796, 22 November 1879, Page 3

THE RUSSIANS IN CENTRAL ASIA.

The “Tnvalide Ru=ae ” publishes another letter from the Turkoman expedition. It states that at the present moment there are two Russian soldiers as prisoners among the Tekkes, one name Pettin, at Akkal, and the other Kidaieff, at Mery. Pettin was captured with six others near Tohat last year, and Kidaieff was taken in 1873 on the right bank of the Amu Darya. One of the former Russian prisoners among the Tekkes now at Tchikishlar has related his experiences to the correspondent of the Russian military journal. He is an artilleryman, who formed one of sis prisoners taken near Tchat last year, and recounts that he and his fire comrades were cutting grass about ten versts from the camp at Tchat early one morning when they were suddenly fallen upon by fire mounted Turcomans, who made their appearance from behind a mound. The Russians, being without arms, were easily secured -and made to run on foot by the side of the Turcoman horsemen for a day and a half, with little interruption, till they came to the fortress of Kara Kal. One Russian soldier, who was rather ill and weak, began to lag behind, and a Turcoman cut him down with his sabre, and after taking off the Russian’s boots and garments, and dealing him several other parting blows, left him_ a mutilated corpse. At the fort of Kara Kal the Russians were ill-treated and threatened; most of their clothes were taken off, and they were made to run along still further in their shirts and under garments. At last they found themselves in a fort near Kizil Arvat, and here the Turcoman population beat them, spat in their faces, and otherwise maltreated them in the most approved Asiatic fashion. Their heads were shaved, and they were asked to change their religion to that of the Turcomans, and to undergo circumcision. They were all put in chains and severely belaboured for persisting in the orthodox creed. They went through a variety of persecution and torture, until the artilleryman was bought by a more humane Turcoman, and was at last conducted back to Russian territory. At Kara Kal there are three Persians always kept in chains, and two women prisoners without eyes. For the Russian prisoner Kidaieff at Merv the Tekkes are asking 24,C00 roubles. The “Daily News” publishes a telegram from its special correspondent with the Russian Expedition in Central Asia, announcing the death of the General in command, and says —“ This incident may seal the fate of the enterprise. The loss of a distinguished officer specially selected to conduct a difficult campaign would be a heavy blow in any circnmstances, hut the death of General Lazareff does not stand alone. It is the climax of a long series of misfortunes, the most disheartening item in huge bill of mortality. In the telegram our correspondent says that the season is extremely bad, and typhoid and dysentery are prevalent. The pestilential climate to which General Lazareff has succumbed had already more than decimated his forces before he fell a victim to it. A former report stated that 23 per cent, of the whole force engaged in the expedition had died; and, startling as the proportion is, it does not appear an incredible exaggeration when we consider the number and nature of the diseases which were raging among them. Marching under a burning sun through a sandy desert, with few watering places on the line of advance,. must try the hardiest constitutions, and it is not surprising that so many should have succumbed •to the strain. Dysentery, fever, scurvy, ophthalmic affections produced by the dust and the glare of the hot sand, have made sad havoc in the ranks of the unfortunate expedition. Its history from first to last has been a woful record of failure. It is all the more striking as an illustration of the difficulties with which the Russians have to contend in Central Asia that the enterprise was undertaken, not suddenly, but ofter deliberate forethought and elaborate preparation. Every precaution was taken to ensure success. The failure of previous expeditions on a smaller scale had taught the Russian generals, it was supposed, how to deal with the difficulties of transport. The route was carefully chosen ; and yet the expedition has all but, if not altogether, broken down—broken down solely from the effect of natural obstacles, without coming in sight of the enemy. The Turcomans, whom it was intended to chastise, made a bold effort to cripple the expedition at the outset by carrying off its indispensable beasts of burden, but that attempt having failed, they seem to have left their invaders since then to the tender mercies of the desert. The Russians have had nothing but natural obstacles to contend with in their advance from the Caspian base, yet all their large expenditure of men and money has gone for nothing.”