ABSTRACT
When the first brushstrokes of dawn touched the fading canvas of night, at sunrise on June 15, 1865, the commanders of the Imperial Russian army gave the order for their troops to begin the advance toward Tashkent. General Mikhail G. Cherniaev’s soldiers surged forward with hurly-burly of confidence and easily overwhelmed the disorganized and poorly equipped Uzbek and Turkish defenders.1 Holding high a huge golden crucifix, Chaplain Andrei Y. Malov of the Fourth Orensburg line battalion led the warriors in shouting “Ura! For God and Holy Russia!” as they passed through the broken down Kamalan gate and into the ancient fortress city of Tashkent.2
