The Karakalpaks in the Amu Darya Division and their culture

In 1873, after the campaign against the Khanate of Khiva and the Treaty of Gandimian, the Karakalpak lands on the right bank of the Amu Darya were annexed to the Russian Empire and the Amu Darya Division was set up within the Syr Darya Province. According to the textbook, Karakalpaks in the division numbered about 70 thousand, 48.6% of the population; those remaining in the Khanate of Khiva were about 25 thousand (3.8%). About a thousand Russians lived there, most of them Ural Cossacks exiled in 1875 for disobeying army-service rules. More than 70% of Karakalpaks were landless peasants who worked for hire. With the entry of Russian capital the first enterprises appeared in cotton cleaning and fishing, and a large market and caravanserai developed in Chimboy. In 1914 there were only 4 general schools (200 pupils), 2 hospitals and 3 doctors at a medical post where Karakalpaks lived. Inequality grew: some rich men owned up to 15 thousand tanobs of land, while ordinary people’s plots were 1–2 tanobs; giving land for half the crop (“jarmshi”) was common. In 1881–1891 a popular uprising under Bobo Goklan lasted nearly ten years in Biybozor and the Nukus volost; in 1900 there was further unrest in the Nukus volost and Qongirot beglik. According to the textbook, these movements were put down by force.