Although a titular ruler, Sayid Abdullah had no real power because the Khanate was effectively controlled by the Basmachi leader Junaid Khan, a Turkmen general, following a coup in 1918.

Said Abdulla Khan and nine (according to other sources seven) of his closest male relatives were deported and exiled from the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic for a period of 3 to 5 years.

The remaining members of the Khan's large family, the less influential men, the women, old people and children, were separated from them and left in the republic itself.

Upon learning of this, in July 1925 they applied to the Krivoy Rog department of the GPU, the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR and the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee for permission to return home to Khorezm.

In a cover letter, the head of the administrative department of the NKVD wrote that "if there are no obstacles, then take all measures to satisfy their request."

However, the Ukrainian GPU decided to play it safe and forwarded all materials to the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.

Said Abdulla Khan himself did not start a family in Krivoy Rog, and continued to work as a watchman at the Bolshevik mine.

The younger brother of Said Abdullah Khan - Ibadulla, who was also expelled from Khorezm, was deaf from childhood and, unable work throughout his life, also took to begging at the local market next to the mine shop.

In 1933, the exiles were allowed to return to Central Asia or settle in other parts of the USSR without restrictions, and the sons of Said Abdulla Khan - Rahmatullah and Yusuf Yakub moved to Tashkent, where some of their relatives lived.

Throughout the Soviet era, all exiles continued to be prohibited from re-entering Khiva, while there were no restrictions on entry to the rest of the USSR.

He died in the 1990s, still living in Ukraine, having shortly before his death visited the grave of his grandfather Muhammad Rahim Khan II in Khiva in 1990.

The book also contains numerous photographs, documents and manuscripts provided to Grigory Huseynov by the descendants of Abdurasul.