Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
The enemy is most active in the Pokrovsk direction. There, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have already repelled 22 attacks in the areas of 17 settlements.
Since the beginning of the day, 84 battles with Russian invaders have taken place on the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an operational report as of 16:00 on Tuesday, May 13.
Thus, in the Kharkov direction, the enemy once tried to advance in the Vovchansk area.
In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy attacked once in the Kupyansk direction.
In the Liman direction, 11 attacks have been repelled in the areas of Novomikhaylovka, Kolodyazev, Grigorovka and in the direction of Ridkodub, Lipovoye, Zelenaya Dolina, Olgovka. Three more attacks are ongoing.
In the Seversky direction, our soldiers stopped one enemy attack in the direction of Grigorovka.
In the Kramatorsk direction, there were six enemy assaults in the areas of Chasovy Yar and in the direction of Belaya Gora. Three combat clashes are still ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, Russian occupiers carried out four assaults in the Toretsk area and in the direction of Dilievka.
In the Pokrovsk direction, 25 Russian attacks were recorded in the areas of the settlements of Malinovka, Elizavetovka, Zvirove, Kotlin, Novosergeevka, Udachnoye, Novoalekseevka, Novoaleksendrovka, Zaporozhye, Andreevka and in the direction of the settlements of Muravka, Alekseevka, Novaya Poltavka, Yablunovka, Mirolyubovka, Zarya, Promen. 22 assaults were repelled, three clashes are still ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the invaders have gone on the offensive 15 times near Constantinople, Skudnoye, Privolnoye, Volnoye Pole, Shevchenko, Bogatyr, Novopol, Otradnoye. Our soldiers have already repelled nine attacks.
In the Orekhov direction, the occupiers attacked in the directions of Novodanilovka and Malaya Tokmachka. Both attacks were repelled.
In the Dnieper direction, the enemy attacked four times in the direction of Sadovoe, but had no success.
In Kursk region, our defenders repelled four attacks by Russian troops.
Let us recall that on May 12, Russia lost almost 1,100 soldiers killed and wounded at the front. The total number of Russian losses since the beginning of the great war is approaching 1 million people.
And none, sadly, a available any longer to father children. Perhaps both Russia and the Ukraine should freeze sperm samples from their recruits (and non-recruits as well) before sending them off to fight.
#3
Biologically speaking, yes of course. BUT, given that Russia’s population was already falling significantly, every male not available to contribute to the gene pool significantly hastens the run to extinction. With frozen samples, the DNA is not lost, and a connection to the lost man for those who loved him.
The other piece of that is that the very act of making that donation leads each man to think about having a posterity, and is a nudge toward finding a way to create that without dying first.
Something to continue on this side of the ocean, too.
#4
TW. There are many reasons for birth rate decline (except among welfare recipients), but lack of sperm is not one of them. And single mothers, regardless of socioeconomic status, are not a solution.
#5
Grom, that’s all true. But Mr. Wife almost died in India once. And even as his parents and I were waiting to find out whether he was going to survive both amoebic dysentery and the hospital in Bhopal — his local colleagues called me long distance every day for several weeks and lied about his condition to keep me from getting on an airplane and flying over there— I was profoundly grateful that in the worst case we would have his baby daughter to remember him by.
It’s not the same as being a military spouse or parent, but I do have some idea what those left behind feel. And however difficult single parenthood most definitely is, Russia really needs her people to find reasons to have children.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The battle for Pokrovsk continues.
On the night of May 13, Russian occupation forces advanced within the city of Toretsk, as well as near several populated areas in the Pokrovsk direction in the Donetsk region.
Russia may be preparing for a new, larger offensive, the Financial Times reports, citing sources in Ukrainian intelligence. According to the Ukrainian monitoring project DeepState, Russian troops this week captured territory in the eastern part of the Donetsk region, around the cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk. TENSE DIRECTION
The Ukrainian project DeepState has updated the map of the advance of Russian troops and reported that they have advanced in Toretsk and in the area of populated areas in the Pokrovsk direction.
“The enemy has advanced in Toretsk, near Romanovka and Novoolenevka,” analysts write.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine previously reported that since the beginning of Monday, 133 combat clashes have occurred on the front, while in the Pokrovsk direction, the Ukrainian military stopped 50 enemy assault actions.
In the Toretsk direction, Russian troops stormed Ukrainian positions six times, and two of the clashes have not yet ended, the General Staff reported on Monday evening.
THE WEST THREATENS SANCTIONS
French President Emmanuel Macron said live on the French TV channel TF1 that if Russia does not agree to a 30-day ceasefire, European leaders intend to return to the issue of sanctions. Macron noted that several dozen packages of sanctions have already been introduced against Russia, but if Russia does not want to cease fire, then in the coming days they will discuss new sanctions - "in close contact with the United States of America," the French president emphasized.
Macron also spoke out against the seizure of frozen Russian assets, noting that there is no legal framework for this.
At the same time, European leaders are ready to wait until a possible meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin in Turkey before pushing the US to announce new sanctions against Moscow, Bloomberg writes, citing informed sources.
After conversations between American and European officials on Monday, it became clear that the American side wanted to provide an opportunity for talks between Russia and Ukraine on Thursday before increasing pressure on Putin, the publication said.
If Putin refuses to meet with Zelensky or Russia does not agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire on Thursday, European leaders will call on U.S. President Donald Trump to follow through on his threat to impose sanctions on Moscow, the sources said.
The Trump administration has prepared options for the US president to put more economic pressure on Russia if he decides to do so, Bloomberg reported earlier. Trump himself said on May 8 that the US and its partners would impose additional sanctions if there is no ceasefire.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said that at meetings with the heads of the Foreign Ministries of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and the European Union, as well as the French Minister for European Affairs, they discussed possible future sanctions against Russia. They could affect the banking sector, energy and the Central Bank.
The package being prepared may also include, in particular, sanctions against the Russian shadow fleet.
“Putin must understand the consequences of abandoning efforts for a peaceful settlement and continuing the war,” Sibiga emphasized.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 20:46 The Anvar unit destroys Ukrainian Armed Forces militants in Sumy and Chernihiv regions —video. 20:23 Destruction of a French wheeled tank AMX 10 by drone operators of the Siberian association. Pokrovsk direction —video.
19:27 Night footage of TOS-1A "Solntsepyok" strikes on enemy positions in the village of Chasov Yar —video.
18:53 Destruction of a group of Ukrainian Armed Forces that fled to their positions after an unsuccessful assault. Pokrovskoe direction —video.
18:21 Destruction of the enemy's rear infrastructure in the Kherson region —video.
17:25 Russian Ministry of Defense:
From 13:30 to 15:30 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type:
One over the territory of the Belgorod region and
One over the territory of the Kursk region.
16:53 Sappers of the assault detachment of the 44th army Corps of the North group of forces demined evacuation routes in the Khar'kov direction.
At night, the enemy carried out remote mining using UAVs. Using a sapper cat, the servicemen carried out trawling.
After checking the mine for the presence of tilt and vibration sensors, the attack aircraft destroyed the drop with an overhead charge.
16:27 Governor of Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov:
The village of Novaya Tavolzhanka in the Shebekinsky District fell under shelling by Armed Forces of Ukraine. A civilian was wounded.
Self-defense fighters took a woman with a shrapnel wound to her leg to the Shebekinskaya Central Regional Hospital. For further treatment, the victim will be transferred to Belgorod City Hospital No. 2. A private home was damaged, information about other consequences is being clarified.
15:56 FPV drone crew destroyed Ukrainian armored personnel carrier BTR-3DA in Krasnolimansk direction —video.
15:05 Around 13:30 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed one Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle of the airplane type over the territory of the Belgorod region.
14:45 122mm Grad MLRS crews of the 36th Army of the Vostok group hit at the temporary deployment points of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the settlements of Fedorovka and Komar in the South Donetsk direction.
The fire strike inflicted significant damage on the enemy, destroying its camouflaged shelters, ammunition depots and transport infrastructure.
14:22 Calculations of FPV drones of the Rubicon Center struck manpower, armored vehicles, UAVs and firing positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the zone of a special military operation.
13:25 From 11:00 to 12:15 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type:
Two over the territory of the Belgorod region and
One over the territory of the Kursk region.
13:15 Summary of the Russian Defense Ministry on the progress of the Special Operation in Ukraine as of May 13, 2025
Units of the North group of forces inflicted defeat of concentrations of manpower and equipment of a mechanized brigade, an assault regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the populated areas of Atynskoye, Ryzhevka, Pavlovka and Bessalovka in Sumy Oblast.
Units of the "West" group of forces improved their tactical position. They defeated formations of three mechanized, two assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Monachinovka, Nechvolodovka, Kupyansk in the Khar'kov region, Kirovsk, Redkodub and Yampol in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces' losses over the past day amounted to 1,375 servicemen, 65 vehicles, four tanks, 14 field artillery guns, 17 armored combat vehicles, three artillery guns, five ammunition depots and six electronic warfare stations.
The units of the "Southern" group of troops occupied more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated the manpower and equipment of three mechanized and airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Seversk, Serebryanka, Konstantinovka, Pleshcheyevka, Ilyinovka, Ivanopolye, Zarya and Chasov Yar of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The decisive actions of the units of the "Center" group of forces liberated the settlement of Mirolyubovka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Formations of four mechanized, a Jaeger, two assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a naval infantry brigade and three National Guard brigades were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Aleksandropol, Novoaleksandrivka, Ulyanovka, Novoolenovka, Novaya Poltavka, Petrovskoye, Dimitrov, Krasnoarmeysk and Novosergeevka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Units of the "East" group of forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy's defense. They defeated the manpower and equipment of three mechanized and airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a naval infantry brigade, two territorial defense brigades and a national guard brigade in the areas of the settlements of Voskresenka, Alekseyevka, Bogatyr, Komar and Volnoye Pole of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Units of the Dnepr group of forces defeated formations of a mechanized, mountain assault brigade, two coastal defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Stepovoe, Lukyanivske in the Zaporizhia region, Ponyatovka, Tokarevka and Sadovoe in the Kherson region.
Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces groups hit the assembly shop for the Bogdan self-propelled artillery units, as well as temporary deployment points for Ukrainian Armed Forces units and foreign mercenaries in 132 districts.
Air defense systems shot down eight JDAM guided aerial bombs and a US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, as well as 74 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
12:34 Russian Ministry of Defense:
From 08:20 to 11:30 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type:
Two over the territory of the Belgorod region and
One over the territory of the Republic of Crimea.
12:08 Crews of 152mm 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzers of the 1st Guards Tank Army of the West group of forces destroyed mortar crews, armored vehicles, drone takeoff points and Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel —video.
11:28 Snipers of the 18th Combined Arms Army of the Dnepr group of forces pass intensive combat training at a training ground in the Kherson region.
During training, fighters improve their skills in shooting, camouflage, observation and working in various conditions.
"The guys need to determine the distance to the target, coordinate their position. Always choose the right position for themselves. They always work in pairs, coordinate each other. There is a shooter and an observer. In case of a mistake by the shooter, the observer can always eliminate the target," said the sniper platoon commander with the call sign "Persian".
10:53 The failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region - analysis of the Telegram channel "Fisherman» about the enemy's attempt to advance into the border area
On the eve of Victory Day celebrations, Ukrainian formations made another attempt to break through the state border in Kursk Oblast, this time in Glushkovsky District. Having concentrated personnel in the border area of Sumy District, the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to break through in the area of the villages of Tetkino and Novy Put, but failed, losing several dozen armored vehicles.
More details about the chronology of battles in the area:
– On May 5, Ukrainian formations advanced from Ryzhevka to Tetkino, simultaneously attacking Russian positions from Iskriskovshchina. In the area of the latter, the engineering equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and assault groups were stopped by counter artillery fire and drone strikes.
– At the same time, the enemy concentrated forces to the north, occupying positions in the village of Otruba and the Gryadki tract, located on the right bank of the Seim River, but did not attempt to force the water barrier.
- The next day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces units began making breaches in the "dragon's teeth" on the approaches to the village of Novy Put, but here, too, they had no significant success. Thanks to the Russian Armed Forces' aerial reconnaissance, the Ukrainian equipment that had moved out of its positions was identified and destroyed in advance.
– At the moment, despite the declared three-day truce, fighting is underway in Tetkino in the area of Chapaeva and Pogranichnaya streets. In addition, according to some reports, members of Ukrainian formations are trying to attack further east, from the direction of Sumy's Bessalovka.
As we have already said earlier, the enemy command does not plan to retreat and will repeatedly issue orders demanding that they consolidate at least a small area of the Kursk region in order to neutralize the negative media effect from the loss of positions in the Sudzhansky district.
10:21 Criminal Kyiv regime continues to shell the civilian infrastructure of populated areas on the left bank of the Kherson region.
Yesterday, during the day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces released:
– Six rounds in the village of Novaya Kakhovka;
– Three rounds to the settlement of Novaya Mayachka;
– Two rounds in the village of Golaya Pristan;
– Four rounds to the settlement of Velikiye Kopani;
– Five rounds to the village of Aleshki;
– According to n.p. Gornostaevka three rounds;
- Two rounds in the village of Zavodovka.
As a result of the attack by Ukrainian drones on Chelburda, four civilians were killed and one was injured, in Golaya Prystan one person was injured, in Novaya Kakhovka two apartment buildings and one private house were damaged.During the night, the Kiev regime continued to shell civilian infrastructure in the villages of Novaya Kakhovka, Kazachi Lagerya, Korsunka, Velyka Lepetikha, and Dnepryany, firing a total of 20 rounds from cannon artillery.
Civilian casualties and infrastructure destruction are being clarified.
9:55 Russian operators destroyed Ukrainian T-72 tank deployed to support combat groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Liptsov direction.
9:31 Bomber aviation of the 11th Guards Army of the Air Force and Air Defense Group "Vostok" struck Ukrainian positions in the areas of Novoukrainka and Shevchenko.
9:00 In the South Donetsk direction, servicemen of the 29th Army of the Vostok group are smashing the enemy and taking control of his strongholds in the area of the settlement of Bogatyr.
8:35 AM Summary for May 13, 2025
There is an enemy in the Bryansk region continues shelling of the border area. The enemy is also remotely mining roads. Yesterday, the regional governor reported that a remote explosive device detonated while a civilian vehicle was moving on the Suzemka-Strachovo highway, and two civilians were injured by shrapnel.
– A difficult situation is developing in the Kursk border area in the Tetkino area. The enemy is trying to isolate the combat zone, has disrupted supplies by striking bridges and crossings, and is cutting off our forward units with drones.
The enemy does not abandon attempts to break through to the territory of the Kursk region, despite losses, reports the GrT Sever. Our forces are inflicting complex fire damage on the approaching enemy reserves, preventing them from engaging in combat.
Our troops are also disrupting the logistics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Sumy region along the route: Sumy-Putivl-Glukhov, movement is carried out through the city of Konotop. The Ukrainian authorities have announced the evacuation of civilians from the settlements of Novaya Sloboda and Maryanovka.
In another direction, Pavlovka-Novy Put, an attempt to advance an assault group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the state border has been uncovered. Most of the enemy infantry has been destroyed, four Ukrainian servicemen have been taken prisoner.
– In the Sumy direction, the Russian Armed Forces are conducting offensive operations in strongholds in the villages of Belovody and Loknya, as well as in nearby forest plantations.
- In the Krasnolimansk direction, they report battles near the villages of Kolodezi, Lipovoye, Novomikhaylovka and in the direction of Grekovka. The enemy records the arrival of our reserves.
– In the Konstantinovsky direction, the ongoing offensive of the Russian Armed Forces is known. There are battles at the Mirolyubovskoye Reservoir, the villages of Vodyanoye Vtoroye, Malinovka and Novaya Poltavka.
– In the Dnepropetrovsk direction, the Group of Forces “Center” has planted a flag in Kotlyarovka, and assault operations are continuing in the northern and southwestern directions.
- In the South Donetsk direction, there are battles for the settlement of Bogatyr, our units of the GrV "Vostok" are advancing from the southern part of the development. To the southeast, the Russian Armed Forces have formed a salient of the front in the direction of the settlement of Komar, wedging themselves between the settlements of Vesyoloye and Otradnoye.
In Kherson, they reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces' strike on the settlement of Chelburda in the Oleshky district resulted in the death of four people and one was injured. In Hola Prystan, a local resident was also injured. The enemy also shelled Novaya Kakhovka, Oleshky, Kakhovka, Kairy, Kazachi Lagerya, Kamenka, Korsunka, Knyaze-Grigoryevka, Malokakhovka, Novaya Zburyevka, Novaya Mayachka, Novofedorovka, Rybalche.
8:00 Units of the Russian Armed Forces broke through enemy defenses in Verkhnekamenskoye and entered the industrial zone in the southern part, as well as at the school.
Further north, up to Grigorovka, our units continue to conduct active offensive operations and attack in the direction of Belaya Gora, south of Grigorovka.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Daniil Pelymov
[REGNUM] One hundred years ago, on May 13, 1925, the III All-Union Congress of Soviets unanimously decided to include two new republics into the Soviet Union - the Uzbek SSR and the Turkmen SSR. But this was not an expansion of borders.
Later, in 1939-1940, the number of union republics and the size of two of them expanded along with the state's borders (the annexation of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, the Baltics and Bessarabia). But that was still a long way off.
And in 1925, there was talk of “redevelopment with the transfer of walls” within the recently established USSR. The Soviet government, on the orders of the ruling All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), redrew the borders in the sands and oases of Turkestan.
This was done in fulfillment of Lenin’s principles of national policy, which were based on the right of nations to self-determination, including secession, as well as “indigenization,” that is, the implantation of the languages of the titular peoples, and the creation (sometimes from scratch) of national elites.
Those who, against the backdrop of the war with the Basmachi, drew the administrative borders of the Central Asian republics, of course, did not predict that 65 years later the country would disintegrate along these borders. That the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century would be marked by new civil wars, uprisings (similar to the Andijan rebellion of 2005), the death and exodus of the “alien population” – the Russians.
And that “low-intensity conflicts” will regularly flare up on the borders of the former fraternal republics.
TO THE BORDERS OF THE 17TH CENTURY
At first glance, to understand the scale of national-territorial demarcation, it is enough to look at two maps of Soviet Central Asia.
Until 1925, the territory of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (as the abbreviation RSFSR was then deciphered) extended to the borders with Persia and Afghanistan. Within the RSFSR were the Kirghiz (Kazakh) ASSR with its center in Orenburg and the Turkestan ASSR with its center in Tashkent.
Two people's Soviet republics were included in the territory of the Russian Federation: the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic, created on the site of the Khiva Khanate occupied by the Bolsheviks, and the Bukhara People's Soviet Republic, organized, accordingly, on the territory of the former Bukhara Emirate.
After the territorial demarcation, Orenburg was "withdrawn" from the Kazakh ASSR, whose capital moved to the city of Perovsk (renamed then to Kzyl-Orda, or - translated from Kazakh - Krasnoarmeysk). To the south of the Kazakh Autonomous Republic, two autonomous regions were allocated - Karakalpak and Kara-Kyrgyz. For now, part of the RSFSR.
Eleven years later, in 1936, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan went from being autonomous regions to full-fledged union republics, and the Russian border acquired its current form, roughly corresponding to the borders of the Russian kingdom in the first half of the 17th century.
But in order to appreciate the significance of this shift in the administrative boundaries of the union republics, it is necessary to briefly recall how Russia moved to the southeast from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century.
SEMEY AND PETROPAVL
In the last year of Ivan the Terrible's life, in 1584, several hundred Don and Lower Volga Cossacks marched east and occupied the lands of the Nogai Khans along the Yaik River. The history of the Yaik Cossack Host began from that moment. After the suppression of the Pugachev rebellion in 1775, the Yaik Host was renamed the Ural Host, and the military capital, Yaitsky Gorodok, founded in the same 1584, was named Uralsk. This city, which retained its historical name, is the oldest in the European part of independent Kazakhstan.
During the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, in 1640, the merchant Guriy Nazaryev built a fort at the mouth of the Yaik River into the Caspian Sea - the city of Guryev that arose here bore this name until 1991. Now it is the regional center of Atyrau.
Under Peter the Great, in 1718, a detachment of the voivode Vasily Cheredov built the Semipalatnaya fortress in the southern Siberian steppe near the Irtysh, around which the city of Semipalatinsk (now Semey in Kazakhstan) arose. In those same years, in the same place, in the Irtysh region, the Cossacks built the Koryakovsky outpost, where a village of the same name would later arise, which in the 19th century became a city named Pavlodar.
In 1720, by decree of Peter I, the "capital" of Rudny Altai, the fortress of Ust-Kamenogorsk, was founded to strengthen the borders of the Russian state and explore gold veins in the upper reaches of the Irtysh. It is still known as the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk (now the center of the East Kazakhstan region).
Simultaneously with the advancement of the Russian Tsardom, and then the Russian Empire, into the steppe, there was also a counter movement.
In 1731, the Chingizid Abulkhair, khan of the Younger Zhuz (a Kazakh tribal union that roamed from the Southern Urals to the Syr Darya), asked for Russian citizenship, counting on help in the fight against the Dzungar Khanate. Abulkhair and the heads of 27 clans swore allegiance to Empress Anna Ioannovna on the Koran.
But even after this, the southeastern steppes remained permeable to raids on the Russian frontier by slave traders from three Central Asian states, fragments of Tamerlane’s empire – from Bukhara, Khiva and the Kokand Khanate.
Under Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine the Great, fortified lines were built to protect against the nomadic Dzungars and Kyrgyz-Kaisaks of the Middle Zhuz: the Tobolsk-Ishim and Irtysh lines, from Tomsk and Omsk through Ust-Kamenogorsk to Semipalatinsk. A logical continuation were the defensive lines in the steppes near Orenburg, founded in 1730.
Note that in the first half of the 18th century, with a difference of 12 years, the empire founded two outposts with the same name - Petropavlovsk: on Kamchatka and on the bank of the Irtysh tributary, the Ishim River. In modern Kazakhstani documentation, this city is called Petropavl.
At the beginning of the 19th century, on the frontier from the lower reaches of the Yaik-Ural to Altai, on the lands of the Orenburg and Siberian Cossack troops, there were 46 fortresses and 96 redoubts. But the logic of history prompted the empire to move further south.
OUTRUN THE LION
In the early 1820s, the Kokand Khan carried out a devastating raid on the Kazakh nomad camps. At the same time, the ruler of the Middle Zhuz, Vali Khan, transferred his subjects under the protection of Russia. According to the "Charter on the Siberian Kirghiz" developed under Alexander I, the Kazakhs were introduced to Russian-style governance and legal proceedings. A little later, in 1830, the Cossack outpost of Akmolinsk appeared on the Ishim River, which, after changing many names, became the capital of Kazakhstan - Astana.
In 1839–1840, Russia organized its first campaign against Khiva, the center of the slave trade in Central Asia. Vasily Perovsky’s expedition was unsuccessful, but it was only the beginning of counterattacks in response to the raids.
It was no longer just a matter of protecting villages, peasant settlers and "peaceful foreigners" who had sworn allegiance to Russia, but also of the great game that had begun between two empires, the Russian and the British. The Chinese Qing Empire also laid claim to Central Asia, but its forces were incomparable with the might of the "bear" and the "lion".
The empire was forced to move further, relying on new southern outposts such as Lepsinsk (founded in 1846), the Perovsk fort (Kzyl-Orda) built in 1853, the Vernoye fortification built a year later (also known as the Cossack village of Vernaya, the city of Verny), and, finally, the southern capital of Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata.
In 1865, General Mikhail Chernyaev took Tashkent by storm, which became the main stronghold in the region. Cossacks of the new Semirechye army (with its center in Verny) and settlers from Central Russia rushed here. Thus, in 1868, peasants from the Penza, Samara, Voronezh and Tambov provinces founded the settlement of Pishpek (now the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek) near the Verny tract. Only later did the Sarts join the Great Russians - sedentary Turks from Tashkent and the centers of the Fergana Valley: Namangan, Kokand and others.
The imperial government abolished the remainder of the Kokand Khanate in 1876. In response to a series of uprisings, troops under the command of the "white general", the future hero of the Russo-Turkish War Mikhail Skobelev, entered the Khan's headquarters. The Russians began to develop the former Kokand lands much earlier. So much so that already in 1869 Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin could satirically describe the " Tashkent gentlemen " - officials in the newly annexed territories.
"WHO BUILDS SCHOOLS, BUILDS THE FUTURE"
Events in the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara developed somewhat differently. In 1866, in the battles of Irdjai and Chapan-Ata, the troops of Adjutant General Konstantin Kaufman routed the army of the Emir of Bukhara, Muzaffar. Two years later, Samarkand was captured. In all cases, Russian soldiers released slaves. In 1868, the Emir of Bukhara concluded an agreement with Russia: the ruler of the faithful retained the throne, but Russia received the right to station garrisons and determine foreign policy. The territories from the Pamirs to the middle reaches of the Amu Darya were no longer in danger of becoming another pearl of the British crown.
A similar fate awaited the Khiva Khanate. After a quick campaign in 1873, Kaufman signed a treaty with Khan Seid Muhammad Rahim II : Khiva freed the slaves and transferred most of its possessions to Russian Turkestan.
In the late 1870s and early 1880s, it was time to "pacify" the warlike Turkmens (some of whom were vassals of Khiva). The port of Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea, now called Turkmenbashi, was founded in 1869 by the expedition of General and scientist-geographer Nikolai Stoletov. And since the 1880s, the border village of Askhabad has turned into a fast-growing city, the center of the Trans-Caspian region.
At the same time, "soft power" was taking root in the vassal states. "Whoever builds schools in Bukhara, builds the future" - so said the participant of the Central Asian campaigns, artist Vasily Vereshchagin.
Always.
At the end of the 19th century, with the demarcation of the borders in the Pamirs, the "Great Game" in Central Asia seemed to be won by Russia. According to the 1897 census, of the 7 million 746 thousand inhabitants of Turkestan (present-day Central and Southern Kazakhstan and Central Asia), 770 thousand were Russian-speaking - Great Russians, Little Russians, Belarusians, Poles and Germans.
By 1913, the settlers were cultivating the fields of Semirechye and Fergana, working in the mines of Rudny Altai and in the oil fields of the Ural-Embinsky region, and working on the Trans-Caspian, Semirechye, and Altai railways (the last two lines would serve as the basis for the Soviet Turksib). One of the elements of Pyotr Stolypin's agrarian reform was the project to resettle 100,000 peasants from the central provinces to Turkestan.
ANOTHER "BALKANS"
As for the indigenous population, the situation was almost as confusing as the infamous ethnic patchwork in the Balkans.
Under the rule of the rulers of Bukhara and Khiva and in Russian Turkestan lived the Turkic-speaking Uzbeks and "Kipchaks" (as the ruling class called themselves), Turkmens and Karakalpaks close to the Kazakhs. But in the same Bukhara and Samarkand lived many who spoke Persian and called themselves Tajiks. Often people who spoke different languages settled in different quarters of the same city. This was the case, for example, in the settlement of Dushanbe-Kurgan, the current capital of Tajikistan.
The ethnonyms were not established either - the Kazakh zhuzes were called Kyrgyz and Kyrgyz-Kaisaks for a long time, and the modern Kyrgyz ethnic group was called Kara-Kirghiz. It was quite complicated with the above-mentioned Sarts, who simply spoke "Turkic", but often had Persian roots.
And this ethnic diversity, after the upheavals of the civil war and the “march of Soviet power,” had to be territorially demarcated.
According to a number of authors, the civil strife in Central Asia lasted not from 1918 to 1922, but from 1916 (a series of uprisings of the local population against mobilization for rear work, the Russian administration and settlers) until the suppression of organized Basmachi by the end of the 1930s.
The history of the civil war in Turkestan requires a detailed description. Let us just note that, for example, the Fergana Peasant Army under the command of Konstantin Monstrov, a migrant from Syzran, managed to fight for both the Reds and Kolchak's forces. Both times against the Basmachi, who were slaughtering settlers.
And the former leader of the Young Turks, Enver Pasha, who had moved to Turkestan, first acted on the side of the Red Army as an emissary of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR to combat the Basmachi, and soon as a kurbashi (general) of the Basmachi with the blessing of the Emir of Bukhara. But in all cases, this nationalist pan-Turkist acted against the settlers. "Things are going the way I wanted... Many Russians were killed," Enver reported in 1921.
"THERE WAS A FIERCE STRUGGLE"
Despite all the confusion “on the ground,” the Soviet government steadfastly followed the general line formulated in Vladimir Lenin’s letter to the communists of Turkestan in November 1919: “Make every effort to prove… the sincerity of our desire to eradicate all traces of Great Russian imperialism.”
As in other outskirts of the former empire, the party in the 1920s relied on the nationally minded intelligentsia. In the case of Bukhara and Khiva, this was the left wing of the Jadids (“enlighteners,” nationalists, and Islamic modernists), who, in particular, proposed using the original Turkic ethnonym “Uzbek” instead of the word of unclear origin “Sart.”
In 1920, under the supervision of Mikhail Frunze and his troops, "revolutions" took place in the multi-ethnic Bukhara and Khiva. But the overthrow of the emir and khan and the creation of republics under flags with a crescent, star, sickle and hammer were only an interim solution. Then it was time for "national building".
As Vyacheslav Molotov recalled at the end of his life, the implementation of Lenin’s national policy in Central Asia was entirely the merit of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Joseph Stalin, as a great specialist in nationality affairs (and the People’s Commissar for the field in 1917–1923).
"The creation of the Central Asian republics and the border was entirely Stalin's work. There was a fierce struggle. The Kazakhs, for example, their top brass, fought for Tashkent, wanted it to be their capital... Stalin gathered them... looked at the borders and said: Tashkent to the Uzbeks, and Verny, Alma-Ata to the Kazakhs," Molotov said. An equally difficult task was how to divide the Khorezm oasis between the new national states, the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs. Or how to divide the Fergana Valley between Uzbekistan and the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Region, still part of the Russian Federal Republic.
However, as recent history has shown, the “filigree” of national borders with enclaves and semi-enclaves did not protect against ethnic cleansing (for example, the massacre in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, in 1990) or border conflicts in the 2020s.
The fact that the city of Skobelev (Fergana) should go to Uzbekistan, Krasnovodsk to Turkmenistan, and Przhevalsk (modern name Karakol) to Kyrgyzstan, did not raise any questions in 1925. It is also not surprising that, in fulfillment of the “desire to eradicate traces of Great Russian chauvinism,” the Kazakh ASSR with its capital in Orenburg included cities of the former Ural, Omsk and Semipalatinsk regions of the Russian Empire.
As is known, in the discussions of 1922 on the principles of creating the Soviet state, "People's Commissariat of Nationalities" Stalin defended the plan of autonomization. National formations were to become a garland of autonomies around the Russian SFSR without the right to secede.
But - again, as is well known - in Moscow in 1922, the Leninist approach of creating equal Soviet states (as the core of the communist " United States of the World ") with the right of each national republic to secession prevailed. Stalin accepted this principle and continued to adhere to it in the 1930s and 1940s, when creating new SSRs - Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tajik and others.
The Central Asian countries that emerged in 1991 within the administrative borders drawn in 1925 have emerged as national states with which modern Russia maintains friendly and, in some cases, allied relations. But for the fact that in the 1990s Russians and other “non-titular peoples” who had lived here for generations found themselves in the position of unwanted migrants, one cannot help but say “thank you” to the creators of Lenin’s national policy.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] May 13th arrived and all the threats of the cocaine coalition remained just threats. And so yesterday they were amusingly kicking their legs, counting down, threatening.
As a result, the fighting is still ongoing. And the talks in Istanbul scheduled by Putin for May 15 are in the process of preparation. Russia, the United States, China, Brazil and Turkey support these talks.
Accordingly, the Russian Federation has quite skillfully defused the ultimatum about a 30-day truce.
The cocaine coalition now has to restructure itself and threaten sanctions if Putin does not meet with Zelensky or if Russia does not agree to a truce in Istanbul.
Putin has no reason to meet with Zelensky now. Judging by publications in domestic media, the delegation will include Lavrov, Ushakov and possibly Medinsky (aha-ha). Zelensky said that he will not meet with anyone in Istanbul except Putin. But he may not meet. The issue of negotiations between delegations has been raised, Zelensky is not needed there.
As for the truce, Russia is not against discussing it, but subject to the fulfillment of specific conditions related to the cessation of arms supplies and verification of violations of the truce. Which is unlikely for now.
So for now the war is going on as usual, and on the 15th and a little later we will find out how much the Russian Federation and the US were able to bring their positions closer together and how much the US was able/wanted to bend the cocaine coalition.
More from regnum.ru US State Department considered the meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul a favorable opportunity
The US State Department considers the likely meeting of Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul a critically favorable opportunity for direct negotiations on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. This statement was made by Deputy Head of the State Department Press Service Tommy Pigott, broadcast by C-SPAN.
"The President [of the United States Donald Trump ] has spoken out on this issue. He has made it clear that the meeting in Istanbul is a critical opportunity for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine," he said.
According to Pigott, the head of the White House has already expressed his desire for Russian-Ukrainian talks in Turkey to take place. At the same time, Trump would like a ceasefire to be achieved first.
The diplomat did not disclose any details about the role of the American side at the upcoming meeting in Istanbul. Pigott also did not answer whether the direct participation of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the negotiations is planned.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on May 13, Trump announced that Rubio would be traveling to Istanbul from the United States, but did not disclose the details of his trip. Also, the media, citing American sources, wrote that the US President's special envoys for the Middle East and Ukraine, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, were preparing for a visit to Istanbul. This has not been officially confirmed.
On May 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to journalists in the Kremlin following the work on the sidelines of the Victory anniversary, suggested that Ukraine return to the negotiation process, which was interrupted in the summer of 2022. The Russian leader noted that he does not put forward any additional conditions to Kiev for starting negotiations.
The head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, did not immediately agree to Putin's proposal, arguing that a 30-day ceasefire must first be concluded. The result was Trump's words addressed to the Ukrainian authorities, who said that Kiev should "immediately" agree to negotiations on May 15.
The United States wants to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine and only then move on to territorial issues, Trump's special envoy said.
Possible direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul could be a "wonderful meeting."
In the context of the conflict in Ukraine, it is necessary to achieve recognition of the realities “on the ground,” including the incorporation of new territories into Russia, said Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov.
Kyiv's inability to negotiate remains one of the key obstacles to the start of negotiations, he noted.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
