Chapter 7 - Page 2

talking to a Parisian--"

"Of Petersburg, Monsieur Bombarnac."

And we cordially shook hands. A minute afterwards, we were on our way
through the town, and this is what Major Noltitz told me:

It was towards the end of 1885 that General Annenkof finished, at Kizil
Arvat, the first portion of this railway measuring about 140 miles, of
which 90 were through a desert which did not yield a single drop of
water. But before telling me how this extraordinary work was
accomplished, Major Noltitz reminded me of the facts which had
gradually prepared the conquest of Turkestan and its definite
incorporation with the Russian Empire.

As far back as 1854 the Russians had imposed a treaty of alliance on
the Khan of Khiva. Some years afterwards, eager to pursue their march
towards the east, the campaigns of 1860 and 1864 had given them the
Khanats of Kokhand and Bokhara. Two years later, Samarkand passed under
their dominion after the battles of Irdjar and Zera-Buleh.

There remained to be conquered the southern portion of Turkestan, and
chiefly the oasis of Akhal Tekke, which is contiguous to Persia.
Generals Sourakine and Lazareff attempted this in their expeditions of
1878 and 1879. Their plans failed, and it was to the celebrated
Skobeleff, the hero of Plevna, that the czar confided the task of
subduing the valiant Turkoman tribes.

Skobeleff landed at the port of Mikhailov--the port of Uzun Ada was not
then in existence--and it was in view of facilitating his march across
the desert that his second in command, Annenkof, constructed the
strategic railway which in ten months reached Kizil Arvat.

This is how the Russians built the line with a rapidity superior, as I
have said, to that of the Americans in the far west, a line that was to
be of use for commerce and for war.

To begin with, the general got together a construction train consisting
of thirty-four wagons. Four of these were two-decked for the officers,
twenty more had two decks and were used by the workmen and soldiers;
one wagon served as a dining room, four as kitchens, one as an
ambulance, one as a telegraph office, one as a forge, one as a
provision store, and one was held in reserve. These were his traveling
workshops and also his barracks in which fifteen hundred workmen,
soldiers and otherwise, found their board and lodging. The train
advanced as the rails were laid. The workmen were divided into two
brigades; they each worked six hours a day, with the assistance of the
country people who lived in tents and numbered about fifteen thousand.
A telegraph wire united the works with Mikhailov, and from there a
little Decauville engine worked the trains which brought along the
rails and sleepers.