Behind the Scenes of the Jam Expedition: Russia's Planning of Warfare in Central Asia in 1878

Abstract

The author examines Russia’s planning of warfare in Central Asia in 1878 while preparing for a possible war with the coalition of Great Britain, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. The development of the war plan was caused by the inability of the Russian army weakened by the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 to conduct active military operations in Europe. Instead, it was aimed to influence Great Britain by creating a threat to its richest colony - India. In the historical literature there is no clear answer to the question about the goals of the unsuccessful Jam expedition. In this regard, the aim of this research is to reveal the content of the failed campaign’s plan based on the available historical sources and try to reconstruct Russia’s war plan against Great Britain in Central Asia, as well as to show its significance in the further process of war planning in the region. The author comes to conclusion that the Russian military-political leadership initially expected to invade India, but due to the changed situation they conducted just demonstration actions. The failure of the Jam expedition showed the Russian commanders the need to search for a springboard for future actions against India. Moreover, based on the experience of the unsuccessful campaign, the Russian commanders began regular planning for war against Great Britain in Central Asia which provided for the conduct of offensive operations in the direction of Herat.

Keywords

• war planning
• afghanistan
• british india
• jam
• k.p. von kaufman
• turkestan military district