Skobeleff, then a captain, was one of those who landed at Krasnovodsk in 1869. He made more successes in the fighting with the Turcomans than anybody else; but in 1873 he was called away in the campaign against Khiva, and from that time to 1879 nothing of moment was accomplished.
"In 1878 Tekme Sardar, a Turcoman chief, submitted to the Russians, and was received into their camp at Krasnovodsk. He remained there several months, and then, for some real or fancied injury, fled from the
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camp, and collected his followers with the determination to make war on the invaders. At a place called Geok Tepé he formed a junction with other chiefs, and established a camp.
"Tekme Sardar had made good use of his eyes during his stay among us. He showed his people how to build forts. About forty thousand Turcomans, with their families, collected at Geok Tepé, and threw up an immense earthwork exactly like the defences built by the Russians. General Lomakin advanced against this earthwork in 1879, and after a series of skirmishes outside the walls he attacked the Turcomans in their stronghold, and was severely repulsed. He retired to the shores of the Caspian, and thus ended the campaign for that year.
"General Skobeleff was then appointed to the command of the Turco-
