...unsuccessfully attacks Tashkent, one hundred and thirty kilometers farther south.

Chernyayev, a member of a noble family, had been educated at the Nicholas Staff College, entered the army in 1847, and distinguished himself in the Crimean War and in the Caucasus.

After serving as divisional Chief of Staff in Poland, he had gone to Orenburg in 1858 as assistant to the commander of the line of the Syr-Darya, and the following year had commanded an expedition to support the Kazakh tribes on the borders of the Aral Sea against the Khanate of Khiva.

He had served on the staff of the Army of the Caucasus for a time before returning to Orenburg as Chief of Staff.