HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 193

tried to convince skeptical COSSACKS of the bene-
fits of the arrangement with Moscow. Disagree-
ments over the true meaning of the Pereiaslavl
agreement provided the foundation for the long-
standing autonomous feelings of Ukrainians and
for the development of a Ukrainian nationalist
movement in the 19th century.

power and prosperity. Its khans subjugated most
of the Turkmen tribes, but their attempts to
extend their rule to the Kazakhs, who were Rus-
sian subjects, and their attacks on Russian mer-
chants led to hostilities with Russia. A first
Russian expedition against Khorezm (1839-40)
was unsuccessful, but in 1873 the khan was com-
pelled to cede the right bank of the Amu Darya
and recognize Russian suzerainty. Russia took
over Khorezm's foreign relations, but aside from
the release of about 15,000 slaves, it did not
interfere much with Khorezm's internal life.
Thus, Khorezm did not participate in the rapid
economic transformation that Russian Turkestan
underwent as a Russian colony. In 1920 the Red
Army seized the oasis, deposed the khan, and
declared the establishment of the Khorezm Peo-
ple's Soviet Republic. With the national delimi-
tation of Central Asia in 1924, the oasis was
divided into three parts, the Khorezm oblast and
the Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Republic in Uzbek-
istan and the Tashauz oblast of Turkmenistan.
Long isolated by the desert, the construction of a
railway link from Khorezm to Chardzou on the
Amu Darya River in the 1950s greatly improved
the economic prospects of a region that now
depends mostly on irrigated agriculture, sheep
raising, horse breeding, and cotton processing.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 did
not end the political division of the Khorezm
oasis; now it is part of the republics of Uzbekistan
and Turkmenia.

Khorezm
One of the main oases and oldest centers of civi-
lization in Central Asia, situated along the delta
of the Amu Darya River, Khorezm belonged to
Russia (later the Soviet Union) from 1873 to
1991. The first mention of Khorezm appears in
Persian chronicles of the sixth century B . C . Before
the Arab conquest of 712, Khorezm had devel-
oped as an Iranian-speaking polity whose people
adhered to Zoroastrianism and whose art inte-
grated Hellenistic and Buddhist influences with
local features. The emirs of northern Khorezm
unified the area in 995, and the Khorezm oasis,
with its capital at Urgench, became a major seat
of Arabic learning, the home of Al-Birunni and
Avicenna. Under Muhammad II (1200-1220)
and other rulers known as Great Khorezmshahs,
Khorezm was the center of an empire that
included Central Asia and Iran. However, in 1220
it was conquered and laid waste by Genghis
Khan and included in the GOLDEN HORDE . Aware
of its strategic and commercial importance, the
Mongols promoted the prosperity of the oasis,
especially Urgench, until conquered by Timur in
1388. By this time the population of Khorezm
had already been Turkicized. A century of strug-
gle between the Timurids and the Golden Horde
for Khorezm was followed by Uzbek conquest in
1505. Soon Khorezm became an independent
Uzbek state, known in Russia and western
Europe as the Khiva Khanate. Internal feuds,
raids by Turkmen, Kazakh, and Kalmyk tribes-
men, and wars with neighboring BUKHARA weak-
ened the state, and in 1740 it was conquered by
Nadir Shah of Persia. Persian rule lasted only a
few years, but it was not until the beginning of
the 19th century that Khorezm again rose to

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich
(1894-1971)
Soviet ruler
The eventual successor to Joseph STALIN , Nikita
Khrushchev left his mark on Soviet politics as an
inconsistent and impulsive reformer, while the
West remembers him as a slightly buffoonish
leader who banged a table with his shoe at the
United Nations.
Khrushchev was born on April 17, 1894, to a
peasant family in Kursk province, southern Rus-
sia. In 1909, the family moved to Yuzovka, in