Kaufmann

Kaufmann, Constantine von (1818-82), Russian general and administrator, was born at Maidani, in Poland. He first distinguished himself in the Caucasus during the Crimean War, at the beginning of which he was a lieutenant and at the end a major-general. Having been successively director of engineers and Governor of Lithuania, he entered upon the field of his greatest exploits, when in 1867 he became Governor of Turkestan. In the following year he occupied Samarkand; in 1873 he made an expedition to Khiva, and forced the Khan to become a vassal of the Tsar; he next, unmindful of British protests, subdued the Tekke Turkomans and the Khan of Khokand; and finally succeeded in embroiling England with Afghanistan by inducing the latter to receive a Russian mission. Although he had extended Russian influence from the Sea of Aral to the borders of Afghanistan, his designs upon Merv were considered premature by the advisers of the Tsar, and he was on a visit to Moscow to put forward his views at headquarters when he died.