Winter hike (ePub)

The novel "Winter Campaign" is the first book of the "Asian Predator" dilogy.
It tells about the winter 1839-1840 campaign of the Russian detachment under the command of Adjutant General Perovsky V.A. to Khiva.
The Khiva Khanate in the 18-19th centuries not only hindered Russian expansion in Central Asia, but also pursued an aggressive policy towards Russia.
The Khiva khans encouraged the gangs of nomads Kyrgyz and Turkmens, who plundered Russian caravans heading to Bukhara. Russian subjects from the settlements of the Orenburg border line were taken prisoner and sold in the slave markets of Khiva.
One tenth of the profits from the sale of slaves were received by the Khiva khans.
All attempts by the Russian authorities to establish good-neighborly relations with Khiva always ended sadly: Russian envoys were thrown into prisons, robbed, and sometimes killed.
The campaign of General VA Perovsky was the second attempt to pacify the "predatory state", as contemporaries called the Khiva Khanate.
There are several main characters in the novel "Winter Campaign": General V. A. Perovsky, volunteer Valuev Fedor, camel driver Pashka Logvin, Lieutenant Kolchevsky, staff captain Nikiforov.
The trip to Khiva took place in the harsh conditions of an incredibly cold winter. Soldiers and officers died of disease, camels died of hunger.
The detachment managed to go only half the way to Khiva, and then had to return, continuing to lose people and draft animals.
The march of the detachment under the command of General V.A. Perovsky is a tragic page in the history of the Russian Empire.
The book is designed for the widest circle of readers.