Kazakhstan Encyclopedia - User contributions [en]

Trans-Caspian railway

2016-09-24T09:21:49Z

Fraenir: link

[[Image:The_Station_of_Baharden_on_the_Transcaspian_Railway.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The station of [[Baharly]] on the Trans-Caspian Railway, c. 1890]]
The '''Trans-Caspian Railway''' (also called the '''Central Asian Railway''', {{lang-ru|Среднеазиатская железная дорога}}) is a [[railway]] that follows the path of the [[Silk Road]] through much of western [[Central Asia]]. It was built by the [[Russian Empire]] during its [[Russian conquest of Turkestan|expansion into Central Asia]] in the 19th century. The railway was started in 1879, following the Russian defeat of [[Khokand]]. Originally it served a military purpose of facilitating the [[Imperial Russian Army]] in actions against the local resistance to their rule. However, when [[Lord Curzon]] visited the railway, he remarked that he considered its significance went beyond local military control and threatened [[British Empire|British]] interests in [[Asia]].<ref>''Military power, conflict, and trade'' by Michael P. Gerace, [[Routledge]], 2004 p182</ref>

==History==
===Construction===
[[File:Un-Turkmenistan.svg|thumb|300px|Route of Trans-Caspian railway in [[Turkmenistan]]]]
[[File:UN-Uzbekistan.svg|thumb|300px|Route of Trans-Caspian railway in [[Uzbekistan]]]]
[[File:Uzun-Ada.jpg|thumb|300px|Uzun-Ada port and railway station]]
Construction has begun in 1879 as a narrow-gauge railway to [[Serdar (city)|Gyzylarbat]] in connection with the [[Russian Empire|Russian]] conquest of [[Transcaspian Region|Transcaspia]] under General [[Mikhail Skobelev]]. It was rapidly altered to the standard Russian gauge of five feet, and construction through to [[Ashkabad]] and Merv (modern [[Mary, Turkmenistan|Mary]]) was completed under [[General Michael Nicolaivitch Annenkoff]] in 1886. Originally the line began from [[:ru:Узун-Ада (порт)|Uzun-Ada]] on the [[Caspian Sea]], but the terminus was later shifted north to the harbour at [[Krasnovodsk]]. The Railway reached [[Samarkand]] via [[Bukhara]] in 1888, where it halted for ten years until extended to [[Tashkent]] and [[Andijan]] in 1898. The permanent bridge over the [[Oxus]] (Amu-Darya) was not completed until 1901, and until then trains ran over a rickety wooden construction that was often damaged by floods. As early as 1905, there was a [[train ferry]] across the [[Caspian Sea]] from Krasnovodsk to [[Baku]] in [[Azerbaijan]]. The [[Tashkent Railway]] connecting the Transcaspian Military Railway with the network of other Russian and European railways was completed in 1906.

==Economic Impact==
The railway permitted a massive increase in the amount of cotton exported from the region. This increased from 873,092 [[Pood|pudy]] in 1888 to 3,588,025 in 1893. Also sugar, [[kerosene]], wood, iron and construction material were imported into the area. These rising trade figures were used by Governor-General [[Nikolai Rozenbakh]] to argue for the extension to Tashkent, while the merchant N. I. Reshetnikov offered private funds for the same purpose.<ref>''Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent'' by Jeff Sahadeo, Indiana University Press, 2007, p120</ref>

===Revolution and Civil War===
The railway, as the most important means of communication in the area, and the workers on the railway became key activists during the [[Russian Revolution (1917)|Russian revolution]]. It was thirty five railway workers who founded the [[Tashkent Soviet]] on 2 March 1917.<ref>''Russian colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865-1923'', by Jeff Sahedeo, Indiana university Press, 2007, p. 190</ref> They decreed that the administration of the railway should be transferred away from Ashkhabad and sent [[Commissar]] Frolov to that city, a move that proved unpopular.<ref>[[The Times]], ''The Fighting In Trans-Caspia'', 3 March 1919</ref> In turn railway workers along the western end of the railway initiated a break away from the [[Bolshevik]] oriented Tashkent, setting up the [[Transcaspian Government|Ashkhabad Executive Committee]] on 14 July 1918.

Both railway and workers also played an important role in the [[Russian Civil War]]. Troops of the [[British Indian Army]] participated in some of the battles along the railway line. [[Tashkent]] was an important bastion for the [[Red Army]].<ref>''On Secret Service East of Constantinople'', by [[Peter Hopkirk]], John Murray 1994</ref>

===Under the Soviet Union===
During the Soviet period and beyond, the railway was administrated from [[Tashkent]].

==Route==
[[File:A newly constructed railway station in Bereket city, October 2013.jpg|thumb|right|300|[[Bereket|Bereket city]] is an important junction on the Trans-Caspian route.]]
The railway starts at the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea at [[Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan|Turkmenbashi]] (Krasnovodsk) and heads southeast, along the edge of the [[Karakum Desert]]. The important junction on the route and locomotive repair depot is located in [[Bereket|Bereket city]] (formerly Gazandjyk) some {{convert|340|km|0|abbr=on}} to the east. Also at this point the Trans-Caspian railway intersects the newly constructed [[North-South Transport Corridor|North-South Transnational Railway]] which connects Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, [[Iran]] and ends at [[Persian Gulf]]. After Bereket, the route runs parallel to the [[Karakum Canal]]. It passes through [[Ashgabat]] (Ashkhabad) and continues southeast, hugging the foothills of the [[Kopet Dagh]] mountains, and passing through [[Tedzhen]]. At Tedzhen, a modern railway link branches off, heading to the [[Iran]]ian border at [[Serakhs]], and thence to [[Mashhad]] in [[Iran]]. From Tedzhen, the Trans-Caspian heads northeast, through [[Mary, Turkmenistan|Mary]] ([[Merv]]), where a branch line built in the 1890s leads to the [[Afghanistan|Afghan]] border at [[Gushgy]], and the main line carries on to [[Turkmenabat]] (Chärjew). From there, a branch built in the Soviet period connects northwestward to [[Urganch]] and on to [[Kazakhstan]] and Russia.

The main line continues from Turkmenabat through [[Bukhoro]] (where a branch line built in 1910 leads to [[Termez]] and [[Dushanbe]]) and then carries on to [[Samarqand]]. At [[Sirdaryo]], where it crosses the [[Syr Darya]] river, a branch runs east into the fertile [[Fergana Valley]]. From there, the railway continues to [[Tashkent]]. There [[Trans-Aral Railway|another northwest bound line]] runs to Kazakhstan, which branches at [[Arys, Kazakhstan|Arys]] forming the [[Turkestan-Siberia Railway]] to [[Novosibirsk]].

== See also ==
{{Portal|Railways}}
* [[Railways in Turkmenistan]]

==References==
{{Commons category|Trans-Caspian railway}}

===Inline references===
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* [[George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|G.N. Curzon]] ''Russia in Central Asia'' (London), 1889
* [[Mikhail Annenkov]]. ''Ахал-Техинский Оазис и пути к Индии'' (Санкт-Петербург), 1881
* George Dobson. ''Russia's Railway Advance Into Central Asia''. W. H. Allen & Co, 1890.
{{refend}}

[[Category:Rail transport in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Railway lines in Turkmenistan]]
[[Category:Railway lines in Kazakhstan]]
[[Category:Rail transport in Uzbekistan]]

Kazakhstan in the Russian Empire

2016-09-24T09:08:27Z

Fraenir: link

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[[Russia]]n traders and soldiers began to appear on the northwestern edge of [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] territory in the 17th century, when [[Cossacks]] established the forts that later became the cities of [[Oral, Kazakhstan|Oral]] (Ural'sk) and [[Atyrau]] (Gur'yev). Russians were able to seize Kazakh territory because the khanates were preoccupied by [[Kalmyks]] ([[Oirats]], [[Dzungars]]), who in the late 16th century had begun to move into Kazakh territory from the east. Forced westward in what they call their [[Great Retreat (disambiguation)|Great Retreat]], the Kazakhs were increasingly caught between the Kalmyks and the Russians. Two of Kazakh Hordes were depend of [[Oirats|Oirat]] Huntaiji.
In 1730 [[Abul Khayr]], one of the khans of the Lesser Horde, sought Russian assistance. Although Abul Khayr's intent had been to form a temporary alliance against the stronger Kalmyks, the Russians gained permanent control of the Lesser Horde as a result of his decision. The Russians conquered the Middle Horde by 1798, but the Great Horde managed to remain independent until the 1820s, when the expanding [[Kokand]] [[Khanate]] to the south forced the Great Horde khans to choose Russian protection, which seemed to them the lesser of two evils.

The [[Russian conquest of Turkestan|colonization of Kazakhstan]] by Russia was slowed down by numerous uprisings and wars in the 19th century. For example, uprisings of [[Isatay Taymanuly]] and [[Makhambet Utemisuly]] in 1836 - 1838 and the war led by [[Eset Kotibaruli]] in 1847 - 1858 were one of such events of anti-colonial resistance.

In 1863 [[Russian Empire]] elaborated a new imperial policy, announced in the [[Gorchakov Circular]], asserting the right to annex "troublesome" areas on the empire's borders. This policy led immediately to the Russian conquest of the rest of Central Asia and the creation of two administrative districts, the ''General-Gubernatorstvo'' ([[Governor-General]]ship) of [[Russian Turkestan]] and that of the [[Governor-Generalship of the Steppes|Steppe]]. Most of present-day Kazakhstan was in the Steppe District, and parts of present-day southern Kazakhstan, including [[Almaty]] (Verny), were in the Governor-Generalship.

In the early 19th century, the construction of Russian forts began to have a destructive effect on the Kazakh traditional economy by limiting the once-vast territory over which the nomadic tribes could drive their herds and flocks. The final disruption of [[nomadism]] began in the 1890s, when many Russian settlers were introduced into the fertile lands of northern and eastern Kazakhstan. In 1906 the [[Trans-Aral Railway]] between [[Orenburg]] and [[Tashkent]] was completed, further facilitating Russian [[colonisation]] of the fertile lands of Semirechie. Between 1906 and 1912, more than a half-million Russian farms were started as part of the reforms of Russian minister of the interior [[Petr Stolypin]], putting immense pressure on the traditional Kazakh way of life by occupying grazing land and using scarce water resources. The Russian settlements have distorted the fundamentally important routes of nomadic seasonal repositioning that Kazakhs have employed for many centuries. Russian appropriation of Kazakh-raised livestock was not uncommon, as was forced separation of young Kazakh women from the tribes to work as slaves or as entertainers.

Starving and displaced, many Kazakhs joined in the general [[Central Asian Revolt]] against conscription into the [[Russian imperial army]], which the [[tsar]] ordered in July 1916 as part of the effort against [[Germany]] in [[World War I]]. In late 1916, Russian forces brutally suppressed the widespread-armed resistance to the taking of land and conscription of Central Asians. Thousands of Kazakhs were killed, and thousands of others fled to [[China]] and [[Mongolia]]. Some have succeeded, but many have failed and died in travel.

{{Kazakhstan topics}}

[[Category:Kazakhstan in the Russian Empire| ]]

Lepsy River

2016-09-07T07:43:01Z

Fraenir: The Lepsy is one of the main rivers of the historic region of Zhetysu.

{{Distinguish|Lepsa River}}
{{Infobox river
| name = Lepsy River
| image = Лепсы.jpg
| image_caption = A dam on the upper Lepsy
| source1_location = [[Dzungarian Alatau]] Mountains
| mouth_location = [[Lake Balkhash]]
| basin_countries = [[Kazakhstan]]
| length =
| source1_elevation =
| discharge1_avg =
| basin_size =
}}
[[File:Balkhash labeled eng.jpg|thumb|left|350 px|Lake Balkhash with the Lepsy River]]
The '''Lepsy River''' ({{lang-kk|Лепсі}}; {{lang-ru|Лепсы}}) also known as the '''Lepsa River''' or the '''Lepsi River''', is a river in south-eastern [[Kazakhstan]]. It originates in the [[Dzungarian Alatau]] Mountains north of the border with [[China]] and flows into [[Lake Balkhash]].<ref name="Great Soviet Encyclopedia">{{GSE|Лепсы%20(река%20в%20Казахской%20ССР)|Lepsy}}</ref> The Lepsy is the easternmost of the two small rivers that flow into the eastern Balkhash on the south bank, the other being the [[Aksu River (Kazakhstan)|Aksu River]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Balkash|quote=The Karatal, the Aksu and the Lepsa also enter from the south-east, and the Ayaguz from the north-east.|title=1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balkash - Wikisource, the free online library |publisher=En.wikisource.org |date=2012-12-23 |accessdate=2014-05-08}}</ref> The Lepsy is one of the main rivers of the historic region of [[Zhetysu]].

The river flows north from the border with China before turning north-westward north of [[Sarkand]] and then west before turning north northward when it reaches the [[Saryesik-Atyrau Desert]], a large sand desert south of Lake Balkhash. The river empties into Lake Balkhash just east of the Aksu River on its southern side. Lepsy freezes up in December and stays icebound until March. Because of the amount of water taken for irrigation, the river's flow into Lake Balkash is limited.
[[File:Lakebalkhashbasinmap.png|330px|thumb|Map of the Lake Balkhash [[drainage basin]]]]

== References ==
<references/>

{{coord|46.364659|78.339132|region:KZ_type:waterbody_source:kolossus-dewiki|display=title}}

[[Category:Rivers of Kazakhstan]]

{{Kazakhstan-river-stub}}

Karatal River

2016-09-07T07:40:57Z

Fraenir: +Zhetysu

{{Infobox river
| name = Karatal River
| image = karatal balkhash.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| image_caption = Satellite image of Karatal River [[river delta|delta]] as it enters [[Lake Balkhash]], September 1996. The darker areas within the river valley [[floodplain]] are areas of irrigation.
| map = Lakebalkhashbasinmap.png
| map_size = 250px
| map_alt =
| map_caption = Map of the Lake Balkhash [[drainage basin]]
| source1_location = [[Dzungarsk-Alatau Mountains]]
| mouth_location = [[Lake Balkhash]]
| basin_countries = [[Kazakhstan]]
| length = {{convert|390|km|mi|abbr=on}}
| source1_elevation =
| discharge1_avg =
| basin_size = {{convert|19100|km2|mi2|abbr=on}}
}}

The '''Karatal River''' ({{lang-ru|Каратал}}; [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]]: Хартал, ''"Black Steppe"''), also known as the '''Qaratal River''', is a river in [[Kazakhstan]] that originates in the [[Dzungarian Alatau]] Mountains near the border of with [[China]] and flows into [[Lake Balkhash]]. It is the easternmost of two large rivers that flow into the lake; the other is the [[Ili River]].<ref name=NASA/> The Karatal is one of the main rivers of the historic region of [[Zhetysu]].

The river flows west-south-west from the border with China before turning north-westward south of [[Taldykorgan]] and then northward when it reaches the [[Saryesik-Atyrau Desert]], a large sand desert south of Lake Balkhash. The river empties into Lake Balkhash near the centerpoint of its southern side. Karatal freezes up in December and stays icebound until March. Because of irrigation, the river's flow into Lake Balkash is limited.<ref name=NASA>[http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-79/html/sts079-781-100.html STS-79 Shuttle Mission Imagery] (STS079-781-100) NASA</ref>

== References ==
<references/>

==External links==
* ''[[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]''
* [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]]

{{coord|46|28|31|N|77|13|07|E|region:KZ_type:waterbody_source:kolossus-dewiki|display=title}}

{{Rivers of Kazakhstan}}

[[Category:Rivers of Kazakhstan]]

{{Kazakhstan-river-stub}}