[2] During the engagement, a Russian garrison successfully repelled multiple attempts by the besieging allied army to storm the city.

[3][4] Despite the end of the Ruso-Bukharan War and the signing of a peace treaty, fighting continued in parts of the new Russian province.

Seizing upon this weakness, nearby holdouts of Kokandi, Bukharan soldiers, and anti-Russian tribes consolidated their forces and marched on the lightly-defended city.

The commander of the garrison, Baron Stempel (Russian: Shtempel), withdrew his forces from more vulnerable parts of the city to defend Samarkand's citadel; this position was highly defensible, armed with 25 cannon captured from the Bukharans and stocked with provisions for two months.

More territory was ceded to the Russian Empire, and in the following years a civil war broke out in Bukhara as a result of the Amir's political weakness.