Nikolai Lomakin marched 442 km to the Geok Tepe fortress, but mismanaged the attack and was forced to retreat.

After Russia subdued the Emirate of Bukhara in 1868 and the Khanate of Khiva in 1873 the Turkoman desert nomads remained independent.

Their country was bounded by the Caspian Sea on the west, the Oxus River on the east and the ill-defined Persian border on the south.

Before and after the conquest of Khiva expeditions were sent into the Turkoman country to map the area and find the waterholes that would be needed by any significant army.

He planned to march northeast through the desert along the Atrek and Sumbar Rivers and establish a large supply base in the mountain valley of Khoja Kale before crossing the Kopet Dagh to conquer Akhal and possibly Merv.

One of the civilians who supported the army was a Mademoiselle Pauline who accompanied the troops all the way to Akhal and earned 4000 rubles during the campaign.

A standard practice was to leave one side of a siege line open so that the women and children could flee and that demoralized soldiers could run away to be cut down by cavalry.

During the battle, a cannonball hit the Turkmen commander Berdi Murad Khan and he lost his life.

The Turkmen repelled the Russian troops, but the death of Murad Khan prevented the victory from being celebrated enthusiastically.

Lomakin was blamed not only for his incompetent attack but for the needless slaughter of an enemy who would probably have surrendered or run away when confronted by a larger and better managed force.

Charles Thomas Marvin, The Eye-Witnesses’ Account of the disastrous Russian Campaign against the Akhal Tekke Turkomans, 1880