The HIGHEST hill above Kushka is crowned with a 10-meter stone cross, installed here for the 300th anniversary royal house Romanovs. In the ground under the cross there is a spacious chapel, on the walls of which the inscriptions left by the soldiers of the beginning of the century are still visible.
There were only four such crosses, erected according to a single project - one at each of the four extreme points Russian Empire. Kushka was the southernmost point.
Here in 1882 the Cossack patrols of the Russian expeditionary corps stopped. The first border post, which appeared on the bank of a shallow river in a lowland squeezed between hills, consisted of two companies of infantrymen, two Cossack hundreds and one battery of three-inch guns.
To settle in the conquered territories in the vicinity of Kushka, the tsarist government sent free settlers - peasants from the Poltava and Kharkov provinces. So, on the fertile lands along the river, two villages appeared with unusual names for these places - Poltavka and Morgunovka, which, fortunately, have not yet been touched by a wave of renaming.
Three years later, thanks to the victory of Russian troops over the Afghan army near the town of Tashkepri, the outpost of the Russian army received the legal status of the southernmost point of the empire, enshrined in the Russian-Afghan peace agreement. The line of the state border established at that time has not changed to this day.
The empire treated the conquered with care, and therefore, by 1892, powerful fortifications appeared on the Kushkin heights. The forts and bastions united into a single defensive knot, which received the status of a fortress in 1896. The southern gates of the old fortress have survived to this day, which remained tightly closed to the enemy throughout the history of Kushka.
As the director of the local museum of local lore, Captain Aziz Annaev, told me, the documents show that the city got its name from Ukrainian word, denoting a wooden case in which the mowers carried their whetstones. At the beginning of the century, the Kushkin "case" was stuffed to the brim with the most modern weapons for those days.
In the arsenal of the fortress by the beginning of the First World War there were 100 guns, 200 machine guns, five thousand rifles, several million rounds of ammunition, tens of thousands of artillery shells. Few people know that in 1915 the Kushka fortress had the most powerful Central Asia a radio station capable of receiving messages not only from Tashkent and Petrograd, but also from Constantinople, Calcutta and Vienna. Such armament and equipment made the fortress almost impregnable.
This was proved a few years later, but no longer by soldiers. tsarist army, but by revolutionary fighters led by red commanders, when in the summer of 1918 400 people were able to resist a two thousandth detachment of the White Guards and withstood a one and a half month siege.
The Bolsheviks got the fortress bloodlessly. Both in the garrison and in the railway workshops by the time of the October Revolution there were quite a few exiled Social Democrats. Lieutenant-General A.P., who was the commandant of the fortress in 1917. Vostrosablin accepted the revolution and voluntarily stood under its banner. Three years later, already a teacher at the School of Red Commanders in Tashkent, he was shot dead by White Guard officers, many of whom continued underground resistance to the new government until the time of the complete destruction of the counter-revolution and Basmachi in Central Asia.
Today, in the well-preserved mansion of the former commandant of the fortress, there is a local history museum. Exhibits of all historical periods coexist perfectly on its stands: tsarist, revolutionary, Soviet... You can't throw out a word from history, like from a song.
Where to put, say, a tragic chronicle afghan war when, starting in 1979, tens of thousands of soldiers, internationalist warriors, as they were then called, marched south along the only street in Kushka. Not all of them returned alive on the way back.
Being here, it is difficult to get rid of the feeling that not only museum exhibits, but also every house, every alley of the city are imbued with a kind of border, military spirit. Within the walls of the houses, many of which have survived from the moment of the first construction, the families of thousands of officers lived a difficult garrison life. Perhaps in the current command staff there is hardly a senior officer in the Russian army who has never been to Kushka during his military career.
However, now it's all in the past. With the breakup Soviet Union and the acquisition of independence by Turkmenistan, as a result of the gradual transfer of the functions of protecting the southern borders to the national armed forces and border troops The Russian military presence in the region has come to naught. A few days before the onset of 2000, the last combatant general left Turkmenistan - now the former commander of the Russian operational group of border troops, Vladimir Konovalov.
Before leaving, he expressed confidence that after several years of joint protection of the southern border with Russian specialists, the Turkmen border guards had acquired sufficient combat power and training to independently protect their land.
Turkmen officers from the Kushkinsky border detachment remember their Russian colleagues with sincere warmth, not hiding the fact that they learned real military service from them. There was a lot to learn, and now there is where to apply the acquired skills. Today's border in the Kushki region cannot be called calm. From time to time at the outposts the command "In the gun!" and alarm groups are sent in search of the next violator. Sometimes it turns out to be a porcupine that has passed through the system, sometimes a real bandit with a load of contraband or drugs.
So Kushka continues to successfully fulfill its functions as a military outpost. Except that it has become much quieter and more deserted on its streets. A local veteran, former railway worker Vyacheslav Nikanorovich Tumanov, who came to Turkmenistan as a boy during the Great Patriotic War, recalls how many times over the years military trains passed from Mary to Kushka and back along the railway, which was first laid back in 1898.
Now the rails and highways are mostly used by civilian cargo. Despite the unstable situation in neighboring Afghanistan, the transit of goods between neighboring states does not stop.
The changes that have taken place are quite understandable. The Turkmen state, which has assumed international obligations of permanent neutrality, does not need to maintain a powerful army group in Kushka. Much more attention is paid to other issues, such as the development of cotton and grain growing in the vicinity of Kushka. It is curious that the border guards themselves, in their free time from guarding external borders, become part-time farmers - each outpost in Turkmenistan has a solid subsidiary farm. Not so long ago, President Saparmurat Niyazov set the task for all military units to achieve self-sufficiency in food.
For its more than a century of history, Kushka had the role of being first the southernmost point of the Russian Empire, then the Soviet Union, and now, for eight years now, it has been the southern outpost of the independent Turkmen state. But during all this time, the functions of a military city, a kind of key city, remained unchanged for Kushka.
And no matter how the geopolitical situation changes, the main population of Kushka - people in military uniform- always the main thing was one job - to protect their land.
Kushka-Ashgabat-Moscow
British soldiers unload the first batch of artillery pieces in the port of Baku. Photo from www.iwm.org.uk
“They won’t send Kushka further, they won’t give less than a platoon,” is an old proverb of officers of the imperial, and later the Soviet army. Alas, now the name Kushka says nothing to 99.99% of our high school students and students. Well, until 1991, our schoolchildren knew Kushka as the southernmost point of the USSR, the place “where geography ends” and where in July the temperature goes off scale for +40 degrees, and in January - for -20 degrees. However, few people know that it was here that Russian engineers in the late 1890s built a fortress, the most powerful in all of Central Asia.
veil of oblivion
The fortresses of imperial Russia are still in oblivion. Any church of the 18th century or the house of a merchant of the 19th century have long become sights of county towns, and tourists from the capital are taken there by bus.
Well, our fortresses have always been the "top" secrets of the empire. Even after the abolition of the fortress, it did not cease to be a closed object - a military warehouse, a prison for political prisoners, etc. So, for a long time, the Rubezh missile system was based at the Rif fort in Kronstadt. Fortresses were convenient objects for conducting experiments in the creation of chemical and biological weapons. Recall the "Plague Fort" in Kronstadt. In the 1930s in the forts Brest Fortress the Poles tested biological weapons on prisoners, etc.
Kushka did not escape this fate - there before early XXI century, there was always a Soviet, and later a Russian military base.
FOR LOYALTY TO THE RUSSIAN Tsar
The Russians came to Kushka 131 years ago. In 1882, Lieutenant General A.V. was appointed head of the Transcaspian region. Komarov. He paid special attention to the city of Merv - "a nest of robbery and destruction that hampered the development of almost the whole of Central Asia", and at the end of 1883 he sent Staff Captain Alikhanov and Tekin Major Makhmut-Kuli Khan there with a proposal to the Mervs to accept Russian citizenship. This order was carried out brilliantly, and already on January 25, 1884, a deputation of the Mervians arrived in Askhabad and presented Komarov with a petition addressed to the emperor to accept the city of Merv into Russian citizenship. The highest consent was soon entrusted, and the dead people swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar.
In 1883, emir Abdurrahman Khan, instigated by the British, occupied the Penda oasis on the Murtabe River. At the same time, Afghan troops captured the strategically important point of Akrabat, a junction of mountain roads. Akrabat was inhabited by Turkmens, and now it is in the territory of Turkmenistan.
Afghan troops occupied the post of Tash-Kepri on the Kushka River, where the city of Kushka is now located. The patience of General Komarov reached its limit, and he formed a special Murghab detachment to repulse the invaders. The detachment had eight companies of infantry, three hundred Cossacks, a hundred mounted Turkmens, a sapper team and four mountain guns, a total of about 1800 people.
By March 8, 1885, the Murgab detachment moved to Aimak-Dzhaar, on March 12 approached the Krush-Dushan tract, and the next day approached Kash-Kepri and stopped at the Russian advanced post of 30 policemen on the Kizil-Tepe hillock. Two to four versts from the Russian detachment were the positions of the Afghans under the command of Naib-Salar. Salar had 2.5 thousand cavalry and 1.5 thousand infantry with eight guns.
General Komarov tried to negotiate with the Afghans and the British officer Captain Ietta. As Komarov reported, the Afghans were getting bolder and bolder, mistaking the negotiations they had begun with them as a sign of weakness.
March 18, 1885 at 5 o'clock in the morning, the Russian units moved to the Afghans. They approached 500 steps to the enemy and stopped. The Afghans were the first to open fire. With cries of "Alla!" the cavalry attacked. The Russians met them with intense rifle and artillery fire, and then launched a counterattack.
As Abdurrahman Khan later wrote in his autobiography, as soon as the battle began, "the British officers immediately fled to Herat together with all their troops and retinue." The Afghans also ran after them. General Komarov did not want to quarrel with the emir and forbade the cavalry to pursue the fleeing Afghans. Therefore, they got off relatively lightly - about 500 people were killed and 24 were taken prisoner. The number of wounded is not known, but in any case there were many. Naib-Salar himself was also wounded.
Among the Russian trophies were all 8 Afghan guns and 70 camels. Russian losses amounted to 9 people killed (1 officer and 8 lower ranks) and 35 people wounded and shell-shocked (5 officers and 30 lower ranks).
The day after the victory, on March 19, 1885, a deputation from the independent Penda Saryks and Ersarins came to Komarov with a request to accept them as subjects of Russia. As a result, the Pendinsky district was established from the lands cleared of the Afghans.
LONDON IS HYSTERIC
After the battle on Kushka, Russia and England again found themselves on the brink of war. Any advance of Russian troops into Central Asia caused hysteria in London and an explosion of emotions in the corrupt press: "The Russians are going to India!" It is clear that this propaganda was designed for the British layman, so that he would more willingly support the military spending and adventures of his government. But a side effect of these campaigns was that the Indians actually believed that the Russians could come and free them from the British. In the 80s of the XIX century, a well-known orientalist, researcher of Buddhism Ivan Pavlovich Minaev visited India. In his travel diary, published only 75 years later, he wrote, not without irony: "The British have been talking about the possibility of a Russian invasion for so long that the Indians believed them."
As a result, "petitioners" were drawn to Tashkent. So, in the early 60s of the XIX century, the embassy of the Maharaja of Kashmir Rambir Singa arrived. He was received by the military governor Chernyaev. Sing's emissaries declared that the people were "waiting for the Russians." Chernyaev was forced to answer that "the Russian government is not looking for conquests, but only the spread and establishment of trade, beneficial to all peoples with whom it wants to live in peace and harmony."
Then a messenger from the Maharaja of the Principality of Indur came to Tashkent. He presented a blank sheet of paper to the Russian officers. When the sheet was heated on fire, letters appeared on it. Maharaja Indura Mukhamed-Galikhan addressed the Russian emperor: “Having heard about your heroic deeds, I was very happy, my joy is so great that if I wanted to express it all, then paper would not be enough.” This message was written on behalf of the union of the principalities of Indur, Hyderabad, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaipur. It ended with the words: "When hostilities begin between you and the British, I will greatly harm them and within one month I will drive them all out of India."
This embassy was followed by a number of others. Soon a new mission arrived in Tashkent from the Maharaja of Kashmir, headed by Baba Karam Parkaas. And in 1879, the head of the Zeravshan district received the seventy-year-old guru Charan Singh. In the binding of the book of Vedic hymns, the old man carried a thin sheet of blue paper. It was a letter written in Punjabi, unsigned and undated, addressed to the Governor-General of Turkestan. He was approached with a call for help by "the high priest and chief chief of the Sikh tribe in India" Baba Ram Singh.
Lieutenant Colonel N.Ya. Schneur, who traveled to India in 1881, wrote: “Going to the island of Elephanta, a customs official turned to me at the pier, first loudly asking if I was a Russian officer, and said that the matter had been settled at the customs. The word "Russian officer" made a strong impression on the boatmen and especially on our guide. As soon as we landed on the island, he with feverish excitement removed me from the rest of the public and asked: “Will General Skobelev soon come with the Russian army?” Remembering the order given to me to be careful, I answered that I was coming from Japan and did not know anything, I did not even know where General Skobelev should go. “Of course, you won’t say that,” he replied, “but we know that Skobelev is already close and will soon come to India.”
NEW FORTRESS
Having annexed Central Asia, the Russians began to intensively build railways there.
Kushka, the southernmost point of the Russian Empire, became an important stronghold for the fight against England.
At first, the Russian fortifications in Kushka were called the Kushkin post. In August 1890, the 6th hundred of the 1st Caucasian Cavalry Regiment was stationed there. The post was built 6 km from the Afghan border.
In the spring of 1891, the 1st company of the 5th Zakasshiy rifle battalion and 40 lower ranks of the Serakh local team from the Serakhs fortification arrived at the Kushkinsky post from Pul-i-Khatun, and the 4th platoon of the 6th mountain battery (two 2 ,5-inch guns model 1883) of the 21st artillery brigade.
In addition to the Kushkinskaya fortress company, finally formed in Askhabad on May 30, 1893, with the company artillery units region in 1894, a non-standard mobile semi-battery was formed.
By 1895, the Kushkinsky post was armed with eight 9-pound and four 4-pound copper guns mod. 1867, sixteen half-pood smooth mortars mod. 1838 and eight 4.2-linear (10.7 mm) machine guns. Then Gatling guns were also called machine guns.
In 1896, the Kushkin Post was reorganized into a Class IV fortress. There began the construction of protected batteries and forts. By 1897, Kushka was supposed to have 37 rifled guns (36 in stock), 16 smoothbore guns (16) and 8 machine guns (8).
SECRET ROAD
In 1900, the railway came to Kushka. So it is said in the History of Railway Transport in Russia. In fact, the first train arrived at the fortress in December 1898. The fact is that the first two years the railway was secret. In April 1897, soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Trans-Caspian railway battalions near the city of Merv on the 843rd verst of the Central Asian Railway began the construction of a normal gauge branch to Kushka.
For two years the road was secret, and only on July 1, 1900, it was transferred from the Military Department to the Ministry of Railways, and trains with civilian cargo began to walk along it. For the first few years, postal and passenger trains departed from Merv to Kushka twice a week: on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and back on Mondays and Thursdays. The train traveled 315 km in 14–15 hours. This was due to the difficult terrain and the weakness of the railway track. On the railway, strict passport control was carried out. It was possible to get to Kushka only with the special permission of the gendarme department.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Russian settlers settled in Kushka. Among them were Molokans and other sectarians, as well as simply people from Central Russia and Little Russian provinces. Russian villages flourished. The fact is that the War Department bought bread and other products from Russian settlers at fixed prices, regardless of fluctuations in the market.
It is curious that the secret railway on Kushka remained. But it was already a completely different road - a 750-mm gauge military field railway. At first, it was served by a field railway semi-company, which, on April 1, 1904, was reorganized into a railway company.
The Kushkinskaya military field railway was so secret that the author literally bit by bit had to collect information about it. So, for example, in October 1900, a two-axle locomotive-tank type G.1 weighing 7.75 tons for a 750-mm gauge arrived in Kushka. It was used as a shunting locomotive in the Kushkinsky field railway park. And this park was intended for the operational laying of the railway to Afghanistan up to the border with India, and, if necessary, further. The speed of laying the canvas of the military field railway could reach 8–9 versts per day, that is, to coincide with the pace of advance of infantry units. Naturally, high-speed trains could not run on military field roads, and a speed of 15 versts per hour was considered normal for a 750-mm gauge. Bandwidth Kushkinskaya military field railway - 50 thousand pounds (820 tons) per day.
On September 27, 1900, the Directorate of Military Communications of the General Staff concluded an agreement with the Kolomna Plant for the manufacture of 36 steam locomotives of the 0-3-0 type with a tender and oil heating, intended for a 200-verst high-speed railway stationed in the Kushka fortress. Immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, the Kushka-Herat branch, 171 versts long, was to be laid.
In addition to locomotives, 220 platforms, 12 tanks, one service and three passenger cars, as well as materials for the upper structure of the track, semaphores, water pumps, oil pumps and 13 collapsible bridges (8 - 26 m long and 5 - 12 m long) were ordered.
In 1903, the Kolomna Plant manufactured 33 steam locomotives, which were delivered to Kushka in late 1903 - early 1904.
In the middle of 1910, due to the deterioration of the military-political situation in the Balkans, the War Ministry decided to "form two hundred-verst steam parks (in Kyiv and Baranovichi) from the property of the Kushkinskaya field railway company and convert all locomotives to coal heating." From the beginning of November 1912 to the end of February 1913, 42 narrow-gauge locomotives were delivered from Kushka to Kyiv.
Instead, on August 31, 1914, 78 narrow-gauge steam locomotives were ordered to the Kolomna Plant to complete the railway fleet in Kushka. For this, back in 1910, the Council of Ministers allocated 2.5 million rubles. gold. Alas, the First World War began a few days later, and a new batch of steam locomotives never made it to Kushka.
FOR ACTION AGAINST THE BRITNS
With the advent of the railway to Kushka, siege artillery began to be drawn there. Of course, it was intended not for battles with the Afghans, but for the bombardment of British fortresses in India. Either for the convenience of bureaucrats in the Military Department, or for conspiracy, the siege artillery in Kushka was listed as a "department of the Caucasian siege park."
By January 1, 1904, the “detachment” consisted of 16 6-inch (152-mm) guns weighing 120 pounds, 4 8-inch (203-mm) light mortars, 16 light (87-mm) guns mod. 1877, 16 half-pound mortars, as well as 16 Maxim machine guns, of which 15 were on a high fortress, and one was on a field machine. Kushka was supposed to contain 18 thousand shells, but in fact there were 17,386 shells.
In 1902, the Kushkin branch of the Caucasian Siege Park was renamed the 6th Siege Regiment. During 1904, the GAU planned to send another 16 8-inch light guns and 12 8-inch light mortars to Kushka. This was reported to the Minister of War as a fait accompli in 1905, and he included the data in the annual report. But, alas, the guns were never sent.
The artillery of the Kushkinsky siege park from January 1, 1904 to July 1, 1917 remained unchanged. Here it should be noted that the material part of the siege park (6th siege regiment) was stored on the territory of the Kushkinskaya fortress, but never mixed with the fortress artillery, including ammunition, spare parts, etc.
In January 1902, the Kushkinskaya fortress was listed from IV to III class. By October 1, 1904, the Kushkinskaya fortress artillery was armed with 18 light (87 mm) and 8 horse (87 mm) guns mod. 1877, 10 6-inch field mortars, 16 half-pound mortars, as well as 48 10-barreled and 6 6-barreled 4.2-line Gatling machine guns.
By July 1, 1916, the armament of the fortress was reinforced to 21 light guns, two battery (107-mm) guns, 6 2.5-inch mountain guns mod. 1883 and 50 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns. Mortar weapons remained unchanged. By the beginning of 1917, over 5,000 rifles and up to 2 million rounds of ammunition were stored in the Kushkinskaya fortress.
UNDER SOVIET AUTHORITY
In 1914, a super-powerful (for that time) spark radio station (35 kW) was installed in the fortress, which provided stable communication with Petrograd, Sevastopol, Vienna and Calcutta.
Late in the evening of October 25 (November 7), 1917, the Kushkinskaya radio station received a message from the Aurora cruiser radio station, which spoke of the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Thus, the officers of the fortress were the first in Central Asia to learn about the October Revolution in Petrograd. The most curious thing is that the senior officers of the fortress immediately and unconditionally took the side of the Bolsheviks.
The commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant-General Alexander Pavlovich Vostrosablin, ordered to radio to Petrograd about the transition of Kushka to the side of the Soviet government. Well, the chief of staff of the fortress, captain Konstantin Slivitsky, was elected chairman of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies of the fortress. He would later become the Soviet diplomatic representative in Afghanistan.
In some ways, such a position can be explained by the fact that not entirely politically reliable officers were sent to Kushka. So, for example, in 1907, at the age of 33, Vostrosablin was already a major general, was the head of the Sevastopol fortress artillery. And in 1910 he was removed from command in Sevastopol and poisoned in God-forgotten Kushka. The fact is that Alexander Pavlovich was fundamentally against taking cruel measures against revolutionary soldiers and sailors.
On the night of July 12, 1918 in Ashkhabad (Ashgabat) began anti-Soviet rebellion, headed by the Socialist-Revolutionaries: locomotive driver F.A. Funtikov and Count A.I. Dorrer. The rebels managed to capture a number of cities, including Askhabad, Tejen and Merv. started mass shootings supporters of the Soviet government. The "Trans-Caspian Provisional Government" was formed, headed by Funtikov. Well, the fact that Fedya came to the meetings pretty drunk did not bother anyone.
Kushka ended up deep in the rear of the rebels and Basmachi. The nearest red units were at least 500 km away.
The "government" of Transcaspia instructed the commander of the Murgab section of the rebel front, Colonel Zykov, to take away the military property of the fortress. On August 9, 1918, with a detachment of two thousand soldiers and Basmachi, the colonel arrived under the walls of Kushka, hoping that 400 defenders of the citadel would immediately give up weapons and ammunition.
The Kushka radio station intercepted the conversations of the head of the British military mission, General W. Mapleson, with the commanders military units in Mashhad (Persia). From them it was clear that on July 28 the British troops crossed the border. A battalion of the Punjab Regiment and companies of the Yorkshire and Hampshire Regiments, cavalry and artillery are moving towards Askhabad.
After reviewing the text of the radio intercept, Vostrosablin relayed the answer to the rebels: “I am a lieutenant general of the Russian army, the honor of a nobleman and officer commands me to serve my people. We remain loyal to the people's government and will defend the fortress to the last opportunity. And if there is a threat of seizing the warehouse and transferring property to the invaders, I will blow up the arsenal.
The two-week siege of Kushka began.
On August 20, a combined Red Army detachment under the command of the former staff captain of the tsarist army, S.P., approached Kushka from the north. Timoshkova. The detachment consisted of two rifle companies, a horse-pack machine-gun team and a cavalry squadron. But fear has big eyes: at the approach of the Red Army, Colonel Zykov fled with a small group of Basmachi through the mountains to Askhabad. Timoshkov's cavalrymen and arrows quickly dispersed the remnants of the besiegers. From the released Kushka to Tashkent for the Red Army of Turkestan, 70 guns, 80 wagons of shells, 2 million rounds of ammunition and other property were sent.
For heroic fighting against the White Guard troops, the Kushka fortress was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In 1921 commandant A.P. Vostrosablin and commander consolidated detachment S.P. Timoshkov "For military distinctions on the Trans-Caspian front against the White Guards" were awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the RSFSR. Unfortunately, Alexander Pavlovich received the award posthumously.
In January 1920, Vostrosablin received a new appointment - he became a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Turkestan Republic and an inspector of the troops of the Turkestan military district. During his service in Tashkent, the general took part in the suppression of the Social Revolutionary rebellion raised in January 1919 by the former ensign K. Osipov.
Vostrosablin's merits before the revolution were great, and in August 1920 he was elected a delegate from Turkestan to the regional congress of the peoples of the East, held in Baku. On the way back, Vostrosablin was killed on the train by unknown people.
"Tricks" of INTERVENTIONS AND TREASURE SEARCH
Now a number of historians are painstakingly looking for figures who could lead Russia along the "third" path in the Civil War. Here, they say, if they were obeyed, there would be neither red nor white terror, the birds would sing, and the peasants would dance. Whom they just do not pull up under the "third force" - either the Kronstadt rebels, or Old Man Makhno. And now wise historians are telling us tales about a "real" workers' government in the Caspian Sea, headed by the boorish Funtikov and Count Dorrer.
Alas, all the characters who took the "third" path had the same fate - either the Red Army blocked the path, or white generals and royal marines were waiting for them.
It was the same with the "Trans-Caspian government". The British units occupied the south of Central Asia. On January 2, 1919, the British arrested the "provisionals". And in return, General W. Mapleson found a "directory" of five real gentlemen.
Having kept the Transcaspian ministers under lock and key for a week, the "enlightened navigators" let them go, giving them a good kick as parting. Count Dorrer went to Denikin and became his secretary of the court-martial. Died in Cairo. Funtikov went to be a peasant on a farm under Nizhny Novgorod. In January 1925, his own daughter handed him over to the GPU. Since it was Funtikov who ordered the execution of 26 Baku commissars, a show trial took place in Baku, which was broadcast on the radio throughout the republic ...
The defense of the Kushkinskaya fortress in 1918 was continued in the autumn of 1950. Even before Funtikov's rebellion, the Bolshevik leadership of Askhabad ordered the transfer of jewelry and gold from the Transcaspian region to Kushka. By order of Vostrosablin, the treasures were walled up in an underground passage that connected the Kushkin citadel with the Ivanovo fort.
About why after civil war the burial place was forgotten for a long time and how in 1950 the "organs" found out about them, there are many legends. But, alas, none of them has documentary evidence. The treasure was found in sealed zinc boxes from cartridges. At night, MGB officers took the boxes out of the dungeon and loaded them onto the covered Studebaker. No one has seen more of these boxes and “MGEBshnikov”.
Now the forts of Kushka are almost completely destroyed, and a 10-meter stone cross on the very high point Kushki and two monuments to Lenin in the village. In honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in the four most extreme points The Russian Empire decided to put up huge crosses. As far as I know, only one cross was erected at the southernmost point of the empire, south of Gibraltar and Crete.
City of Kushka, 1970
I started posting on my LiveJournal interesting photos from my father's travels. Kushka is the southernmost point of the USSR, in my opinion, in the topic of this community - who are interested, see.
Kushka begins the box with the inscription Central Asia 1971 - and I'll probably start with it. Because this place is not at all simple: firstly, the southernmost point of the former Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union, the place where Russia stopped its seemingly unstoppable run to the Indian Ocean, and secondly, a garrison city on the border with Iran, a tough border zone in the USSR, but in our times of Sovereign Neutral Turkmenistan, I honestly am afraid to think what difficulties must be overcome in order to see her.
A little explanation - this whole box of slides from Central Asia is a trip with lectures from the Knowledge Society. For those who are not in the subject of the historical context, there was such an all-Union society. one of the goals of which was to popularize science and its achievements among the masses. The 60s are undoubtedly the peak of interest in the USSR and throughout the world in science and scientific and technical progress. Accordingly, the lectures of the "Knowledge" society were, of course, entertainment on a level lower than the Fantômas show, but still never a boring drag. Moreover, remote labor collectives, like the frontier post on Kushka, wrote letters so that they would be sent such lecturers, and papers to the frontier zone were given to such lecturers at a time. Dad figured out this topic quite early and back in 1960 he went with lectures along the Pamir Highway from Khorog to Osh, and another employee of Kurchatnik at the same time went with lectures from Osh to Khorog, and they were completely unaware of each other and crossed paths somewhere in the region the highest pass, a la the children of Lieutenant Schmidt, to the great surprise of the head of the frontier post, where they were to perform with a double benefit performance. I know little about the lectures in Kushka, but I remember my father's anecdote about his lecture in order to popularize the latest achievements in nuclear physics among the monks of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. There were many questions about the uncertainty principle, about Schrodinger's cat, and after the lecture, libations in the basement of the Lavra followed, and in between discussions of the shortage of various goods, including some church goods, the monks complained in a whisper about the dominance of the Chekists in their ranks.
About Kushka herself, I remember that my father was told that she ended up in the Russian Empire as a result of the rare luck of one of the officers Russian Army. At the time of the demarcation of the border with Persia (at the end of the 19th century?), the alleged colonel who was responsible for this event from the Russian side liked to exchange cards with the colonel who was responsible for this event from the Persian side. Well, being extremely lucky at cards, he cleaned the Persian clean. Then the Persian, in order to recoup, put Kushka on the line, but lost her too, and the border was demarcated 10 miles south of what was originally planned. Surely all this is one of the folk legends that have no basis - but beautiful.
So we look - the signatures of the pope, I can not vouch for the authenticity.
Road to Kush
Entrance to Kushka
Kushka from the hill
Monument to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty (1913)
View of Kushka from the monument to the Romanovs.
Poltava Gates (why Poltava - does anyone know????)
Monument to the Soldier and garrison barracks in the foreground
Kushka: on the way to the Cossack village
Animal farm in the Russian village
Former officers' church
Hotel (apparently they made a hotel in the church)
Making a trip to the city of Kushka Turkmenistan is not only for those who are interested in military history century-old border outpost.
Around Kushka (aka Gushgy or modern Serhetabat) there are about two hundred historical monuments. Suffice it to say that this town is located in the south of the Mary velayat (that is, the region), on the territory of which the most interesting archaeological complexes of antiquity were discovered, as well as a large number of natural and historical attractions.
So, not far from Kushka, there is the ancient settlement of Abiverd, where there is a unique fortress monument Altyn-Depe, created in the form of a legendary ziggurat.
You can also visit the archaeological complexes of Gara-Depe and Namazga-Depe in this area and, of course, the Badkhyz Reserve, famous for its flora and fauna, where you can also find Neolithic sites. By the way, in Kushka itself there is a museum of the Badkhyz Reserve, so those who wish get acquainted with the natural wealth of the region in the order of a brief presentation - they can look here.
But still, ancient Kushka is a border town, famous for its military history. The objective wise attitude of the authorities of Turkmenistan to the past was reflected in the fact that the monuments of the tsarist and Soviet eras remained intact. At the highest point above the city, there is still a ten-meter-long stone cross erected at the beginning of the 20th century to commemorate the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. 
Nearby is an old chapel, judging by the inscriptions of the soldiers on the walls of which, the habit of leaving such autographs existed in the army of pre-revolutionary Russia.
It should be noted that in 1912 only four such crosses were erected - at the four extreme points of the Russian Empire.
The southernmost was Kushka. It was here that the Russian expeditionary forces stopped in 1882 and later, after the victory at Tashkepri, the border with Afghanistan was established. It was the Russian outpost in Kushka, turned into a powerful defensive complex by 1896 and officially recognized then as a fortress, that became for Britain a symbol of the “Russian threat” in relation to its colonial empire.
And not in vain: it is known, for example, that before the First World War in the Kushka fortress there was a powerful radio station that received messages not only from Tashkent or Petrograd, but also from Istanbul, Calcutta and Vienna.
Despite the fact that a lot of Turkmen blood was shed during the establishment of the power of the Russian Empire here, in modern Turkmenistan to historical memory treated with care. It is characteristic that the villages of Poltavka and Morgunovka, once founded by peasants resettled from the Poltava region and near Kharkov, on the banks of the local river, have survived to this day under these names.
Today, Mr. Kushka Turkmenistan considers not only historical monument, but also a strategic frontier of its border. The gates of the fortifications of the old Kushka, facing the south, have never been opened to the enemy. Truth, Soviet authority was established here without shedding blood - the presence in the region played a role a large number political exiles before the revolution.
Even the military commandant of Kushka, General A.P., took the side of the Soviets and the new government. Vostrosablin, later killed in Tashkent by the White Guards for training commanders for the Red Army. Like many other former officers of the tsarist army who served in the so-called Turkestan, A.P. Vostrosablin apparently considered it more important to maintain the borders of his fatherland in a strategically important region.
With money and with the support of those from whom the border was once guarded, the White Guards and Basmachi fought with the new order until the 1930s. Many remarkable events of those days, including the fascinating twists and turns of the Great Game in Central Asia, can be found in the local history museum of Serhetabat, located just in the pre-revolutionary building former home commandant of the Kushka fortress. Here you can also see evidence of the tragic pages of the Afghan epic Soviet army. 
It was through Kushka that the troops of the 40th Army went in 1979 to foreign territory in a new geopolitical clash of old opponents. Through Kushka, many Soviet soldiers returned back in 1988.
For another 12 years after that, the city remained the place of deployment, first of the Soviet military group, then of the Russian border guards.
Once, in Soviet times, Kushka was the talk of the town in the armed forces of the USSR. For an officer with a rank higher than a major, it was considered something shameful not to visit this town at least once on a business trip. But times have changed, the number of soldiers here has decreased. And so, in 2000, the last Russian soldiers, led by General Vladimir Konovalov, left the famous outpost.
According to agreements with the authorities of independent Turkmenistan, Turkmen soldiers and officers trained by Russian colleagues took up the border watch. It must be said that Turkmenistan fulfills its obligations to Russia and the international community regularly: smugglers and drug couriers rarely manage to slip through the border, here they have a reliable barrier, despite all their attempts.
However, military life in modern Serhetabat and its environs is much less than in the time of Kushka. But here, thanks to the fertility of the earth, actively developing Agriculture and you can get acquainted with the local traditions of growing grain and cotton even near the border outposts, which are processed by the forces of the military personnel themselves. Interestingly, even the previous president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, encouraged the military to engage in food self-sufficiency at the expense of their own labor and even issued a corresponding decree.
But in any case, Kushka, which has become Serhetabat, is a strategic border line and you should not forget about it. Although the living antiquity itself and the spirit of these beautiful places will remind you of this yourself. Even though the words “Mr. Kushka Turkmenistan” have now become not a prescription in the travel documents of the military, but the destination of an increasing number of tourists, the border of a large geopolitical entity, the Commonwealth of Independent States, still passes here.
Video: Kushka
Kushka is a fortress of the empire "They won't send Kushka further, they won't give less than a platoon" An old officer's saying Socialist republics. Now it is located on the territory of the sovereign state of Turkmenistan and is called Serhetabat. But the majority (still the majority) of the citizens of those countries that once made up the USSR know and remember its former, short and sonorous name - Kushka. Our answer to the British Until 1885, this place was called the Panjsheh oasis, which belonged to Afghanistan. However, Afghanistan itself at the end of the 19th century was under the protectorate of the British Empire, over which, according to the popular expression, "the sun never set." Many have already forgotten, but in those days there were only two empires comparable in power on the planet - British and Russian. And it is natural that these two "monsters" constantly fought for spheres of influence. And mostly just in Central Asia. The British pressed from the south, we - from the north. In history this kind of cold war XIX century was called the Great Game, and on March 30 (18th according to the old style) March 1885 in the Pandsheh oasis, on the banks of the Kushka River, the cold war almost turned into a real one. Then the Russian troops under the command of General Komarov clashed with the Afghan armed detachments, who acted on the direct orders of the British government: "Do not let the Russians gain a foothold in this territory!" After the Afghans lost about 600 people killed and wounded in battle (the Russian losses amounted to 40 people) and retreated from the western bank of the river into the interior of the country, the diplomats of both empires hastily intervened in the conflict. A full-scale war was prevented, and after long negotiations, the piece of land reclaimed by the soldiers of General Komarov remained with Russia. There, in 1890, the Russian fortress Kushka was founded - an outpost and the last point in our then advance to the south. And already in 1900 to Kushka from the city of Mary (heir ancient city Central Asia Merv, founded more than 4 thousand years ago and mentioned in cuneiform manuscripts) laid railway , connecting the fortress with the civilized world. Cross Kushka has always been small. It will take twenty-five to thirty minutes to pass the city at a leisurely pace from end to end from north to south (or vice versa). And from east to west - no more than fifteen. It is understandable. Although Kushka was called a city, but in its inner essence it has always, from its very foundation to the present day, been a fortress, the main purpose of which is to stand inviolably on the southern borders. Once the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and now sovereign Turkmenistan. And the symbol of this inviolability, of course, is the Cross. That's right, with a capital letter. The cross is the cross. Stone, orthodox outlines. About ten meters high. Instead of the crucified Christ on the side that looks at the valley and the city, there is a steel sword nailed exactly in the center. The cross is installed on the highest hill nearby the city and is visible not only from anywhere in Kushka, but also far beyond its borders. It was erected in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, and once it had twin brothers who guarded the most western, eastern and northern borders of the empire. Now he is left alone. And thanks to the wise people of friendly Turkmenistan for preserving this, seemingly alien to them, symbol of power, faith and state will. Or maybe that’s why they kept it, because it’s not so alien to them? Still rising on the neighboring hill "Alyosha" - a monument to the Soviet soldier who guarded these borders for more than seventy years! Be that as it may, it is simply impossible to visit Kushka and not climb to the foot of the Cross. And not only to enjoy the views from the top of the hill. But also in order to feel the former strength and absorb it from the feet to the very top of the head. By the power of the land and the state to which this land once belonged. Seasons Winter in Kushka is often rainy and very dull. Even if snow falls, it quickly melts, and walking along the surrounding hills, which are slushy with moisture, is not much fun. No, there are frosts here in winter, reaching minus twenty, and the snow lies for a week, or even two, and creaks underfoot no worse than in Russia. But what are we, we didn’t see snow in winter, or what? And Kushkin's summer... Of course, if you like extreme weather conditions, then you are welcome. 45-50 degrees in the shade will suit? How many in the mad sun - it's scary to say. The air is dry, burning, you can’t even dream of rain or a cool breeze - it won’t happen until autumn. And I really don't want to do anything. Just lie in the shade with plenty of soft drinks at arm's length. And so week after week, month after month. Even the night does not save. It was fifty - it became forty. The difference is small. If there is no air conditioning The best way to fall asleep is to wrap yourself up in a wet sheet at night. It will be dry by morning. Right on the body. Summer in Kushka is like one endless day going crazy with heat and one short and stuffy night. Except for the time when the Afghan blows in from the south - a strong hot wind, carrying with it clouds of sand and dust. This is where the real "fun" begins. dust storm seen in the cinema? This, in fact, is what she is. Just a little weaker. But it does take much longer. An Afghan, like our Russian blizzard, can lie down in a day, or maybe not subside for a week. And then turn off the lights. In the truest sense of the word: electricity is cut off in the city while the Afghan is blowing. So, you understand, you and I immediately find ourselves in the 19th century. And what kind of entertainment did the families of Russian officers have then, who were forced to wait out the Afghan behind closed doors and windows? Reading books, playing cards, backgammon, chess and checkers, lotto and charades. And all this by the light of a kerosene lamp. In this sense, families Soviet officers thirty or forty years ago they were no different - in the same way they sat for three days or more at home for books and backgammon cards, until the brown-yellow haze calmed down outside the windows (it’s better not to go outside during the Afghan without extreme necessity - there is nothing breathe, the wind knocks down, and visibility is no more than a meter or two). However, even now, in the 21st century, little has changed. Unless double-glazed windows appeared on the windows, which protect the house from dust much better than wooden frames, and laptop and mobile phone batteries will allow you to feel like a relatively modern person for some time. No, you need to come to Kushka in early spring or autumn. At the beginning of spring, when a resident of the central Russian zone is only still dreaming of the sun and green grass, celebrating International Women's Day on March 8, the Kushkinsky hills are already covered with lush green grasses, in which scarlet, fresh, like a morning dawn, tulip buds flare up here and there. These are not the long-stemmed greenhouse tulips we all know. This tulip (it is called Kushkinsky) hides in the ground for almost the entire length of the stem. Outside - only a bright red bud. And just like that, a flower cannot be pulled out of the ground. If you pull or pull hard, the stem will break, and only one bud will remain in your hands, which you can neither put in a vase nor give it to your beloved. Therefore, clasping the stem near the ground with your fingers, you first need to pull it sharply, but not strongly, and then slowly and smoothly drag it up, pulling it out. It is very similar to hooking when catching trout or grayling, if anyone understands. True, tulips quickly run out on the nearby hills, and in order to collect a good bouquet, you need to walk or drive several kilometers inland. But be careful. Firstly, if you walk far on foot, you can get lost in the hills no worse than in our forests - there are no roads, no signs, no streams along which you can get to the river. By the way, the Kushka river itself, which you can step over in summer, in March, when the snow begins to melt in the mountains of Afghanistan, turns into a stormy, wide and dangerous stream, which we would not advise anyone to wade through. The city itself, as well as its two satellite villages Poltavka (in the south) and Morgunovka (in the north) are located on the right, eastern bank of the river. Therefore, it is better and more convenient to collect tulips and make walks on the hills of the right bank. At the same time, do not forget that very close - state border with Afghanistan, and if you accidentally wander into the border strip, you can run into a mounted border patrol and rake in a lot of trouble. Not to mention the fact that God forbid you will be brought to neighboring Afghanistan ... Secondly, geographically Kushka and its environs are part of the famous Badkhyz reserve, and in spring the hills are full of not only beautiful tulips and other endemics, but also a variety of living creatures, in a very active phase of existence. For example, in the vicinity of Kushka there are quite a lot of snakes. Including poisonous: gyurza, Central Asian cobra, efa. Of course, they do not come across at every step, but looking under your feet while walking along the spring hills is highly recommended. Just like that, a poisonous snake will not touch a person, but it is better not to step on it, even by accident. In fact, wild animals try to avoid encounters with bipedal upright bearers of intelligence, but here, in the Badkhyz Reserve, they feel relatively safe. Therefore, if you spend a lot of time in the hills, you can meet not only snakes, scorpions and tarantulas, but also the cutest Central Asian hedgehogs on high paws and long ears, like those of fabulous elves, and foxes, and eagles, and all kinds of lizards with monitor lizards , and turtles, and a steppe cat, and even a real porcupine! As for the "kings" of Badkhyz - kulans, they will not be so easily caught in the eye. You need to know the watering places and go to look at these rare representatives of wild donkeys and horses on purpose. And, of course, pistachio groves! Those who have not seen how pistachio trees bloom (some of them are over 500 years old!) on the gentle green slope of a hill lost in the depths of Central Asia have lost a lot. Kushka forever There are places where you feel how you are filled with strength and energy. There are those where, on the contrary, you lose strength. In some you want to return, and others, although you remember, but there is no particular desire to come there again. The kushka does not belong to any of the above types. She is completely different. In order to get here, even as a tourist, you need to overcome both yourself and circumstances (Kushka - Serhetabat is a border town and, in addition to a visa, you need special permission from the authorities). In order to feel its spirit, all the true beauty and strength of the local nature, you need to live here for some time, and not just stay for a few days. And then, if you manage to tune in correctly and prove yourself worthy, Kushka will repay you a hundredfold. Not only with its energy, the beauties of nature and the hospitality of the locals, but also with good memories and wonderful dreams that will last you a lifetime.
