The Fall of Samarkand and the Battle of Zerabulak (1868)

After the fall of Tashkent, war broke out between Russia and the Emirate of Bukhara. In May 1868 General Kaufman marched into the Zeravshan valley. The Bukharan army was beaten on the Chupan-Ata heights, and Samarkand surrendered without a fight as its people and clergy opened the gates.

Emir Muzaffar gathered some 30,000 men on the Zerabulak heights between Samarkand and Bukhara. Kaufman left a small garrison in Samarkand and marched against him with his main force. In the battle that began at dawn on 2 June (14 June new style), Russian guns and rifles forced the Bukharan infantry back, and the emir's army was defeated.

Meanwhile the small Russian garrison in Samarkand was besieged in the citadel by an uprising of townspeople and nearby tribes, and held out until Kaufman returned. By the peace of June 1868 Bukhara lost Samarkand and became a Russian protectorate, though it kept its own internal government until 1920.