Russia Storms the Turkmen Fortress of Geok Tepe

On January 24, 1881 (January 12 in the Old Style calendar then used in Russia), imperial Russian troops launched a final assault against the fortified stronghold of Geok Tepe in the Akhal Oasis. Following an earlier military defeat in 1879, Russian authorities organized a renewed campaign to subdue the Teke Turkmen population. General Mikhail Skobelev assumed command of the Trans-Caspian region in March 1880, opting for a methodical siege rather than a rapid direct attack. Operating through hundreds of kilometers of semi-desert terrain north of the Kopet Dagh mountains, the Russian expedition struggled with supply lines that depended on thousands of transport camels before concentrating forces near the fort late that year.

The stronghold, also referenced in records as Denghil-Tepe, formed a massive enclosure, about 1,450 meters long and 670 meters wide by one account, surrounded by thick earthen ramparts and a dry perimeter ditch. Skobelev assembled an operational force that included 4,020 infantry, 750 cavalry, artillery pieces, rocket detachments, machine guns, and heliograph communication units. Aleksey Kuropatkin reinforced the expedition in late December after an overland march across the desert from Khiva. Estimates of the number of people sheltering in and around the fortress range from about 30,000 to 40,000, who had no artillery to answer the Russian guns and relied on the oasis streams fed by the nearby mountains.