Syr-Darya Oblast

The Syr-Darya Oblast was one of the oblasts of the Russian Empire, a part of Russian Turkestan. Its center was Tashkent. History The Syr-Darya Oblast was founded after annexing the northwestern part of Khanate of Kokand, Chimkent ( established in 1709, declaring independence from Emirate of Bukhara) and the northwestern part of Khanate of Khiva (for Amu Darya Okrug at present Karakalpakstan) in 1867. Khiva was conquered by the Russians in 1873 who made Sayyid Muhammad Rahim Bahadur Khan II vassal ruler of the region. From 1905, Pan-Turkist ideologues like Ismail Gasprinski aimed to bridge differences among the peoples who spoke Turkic languages, uniting them into one government. This idea was supported by Vladimir Lenin, and on April 30, 1918, with support of the Bolsheviks in Tashkent, the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) was established with Tashkent as the capital. During the Russian Empire, the Turkestan ASSR's territory was governed as Turkestan Krai, the Emirate of Bukhara, and the Khanate of Khiva.