CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 47-53, May 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-13 ISSN 2767-472X ©2021 Master Journals Accepted 25th May, 2021 & Published 31th May, 2021 CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY ISSN – 2767-472X 47 https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH WATER TRANSPORT IN KARAKALPAKSTAN: HISTORY AND MODERNITY Aman Jarylkapovich Matjanov Assistant, Karakalpak State University INTRODUCTION Thanks to the selfless work of many generations of scientists, the lands of the Aral Sea region were discovered; the most valuable historical materials on the activities of the Aral and Amu Darya flotillas were introduced into scientific circulation [1]. At the first conference on the study of the productive forces of the Karakalpak ASSR (1933) A.M. Komkov analyzed cartographic sources on the history of the Aral Sea and the Amu Darya, starting with route surveys by I. Muravin (20th century) and A.I.Butakov (1849) to 30 -x years of the twentieth century [2, p. 230-246]. B.V.Andrianov notes that the tsarist government believed that the effect of fish farming and sea transport is much less than the effect of economic development and especially irrigated agriculture [3]. M.Y. Yuldashev devoted one article to the history of the Aral flotilla [4, pp. 30- 39]. The Aral flotilla, the problems of fishing was also the object of research by A.S. Sadykov [5, pp. 62-67]. In the works of K. Sarybaev, great attention is paid to the Amu Darya River and canals [6]. “The Amu Darya state shipping company, J.Ubbiniyazov notes, together with the Central Asian and Tashkent-Orenburg railways, contributed to the strengthening of trade and economic relations between the coastal cultural zone of the Bukhara, Khiva khanates and the Amudarya department with Russia” [7, pp. 62- 64]. M.S. Seytimbetov in the context of studying the modes of transport of Karakalpakstan also paid great attention to the activities of the flotillas [8]. THE MAIN FINDINGS AND RESULTS In the works of S.S.Saimanov and S.A. Sulaimanov, the problem we are studying has also been illuminated [9, pp. 64-65]. Admiral A.I.Butakov has priority in founding a shipping company on the Aral Sea. In his reports addressed to General Obruchev, he repeatedly emphasized that the navigation in the Aral Sea from north to south is “it is always easy and can be accomplished quickly on sailing ships, but on ABSTRACT The article discusses the development of water transport in Karakalpakstan, which is important in the development of economic relations of the region with neighboring regions. The pioneers in the development of this industry in the Aral Sea region are the Aral and Amu Darya flotillas. At the same time, the article provides statistical data on cargo turnover at the beginning of the twentieth century. KEYWORDS: - Water transport, Karakalpakstan, Aral flotilla, Amu Darya, steamer, Petro-Aleksandrovsk, Chardjui. CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 47-53, May 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-13 ISSN 2767-472X ©2021 Master Journals Accepted 25th May, 2021 & Published 31th May, 2021 CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY ISSN – 2767-472X 48 https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH the other hand, the path from south to north with the prevailing northerly winds is very difficult, and especially on flat-bottomed ships ... Steamships are needed to successfully navigate the Aral Sea” [10]. Butakov proposed to build two 40-horsepower iron steamers for the Aral Sea at the Ural factories. Such ships were ordered by a Swedish company. In 1852, Butakov delivered the disassembled steamer Perovskiy (displacement 140 tons) and the iron steam longboat Obruchev (16 tons) to Raim. In the spring of the next year, “Perovsky” and “Obruchev”, which initiated the creation of the Aral flotilla, were launched. In February 1873, Russian troops, consisting of four detachments (Krasnovodsk, Mangyshlak, Orenburg and Turkestan - more than 12,000 people in total) and the Aral flotilla under the leadership of A.P. Sitnikov launched an offensive against Khiva. In 1862-1872 years, the Aral flotilla was replenished with 4 foreign steamers, a floating dock and 9 barges with a total carrying capacity of 55,800 poods. The ships were armed with 22 guns. On June 18, 1866, the flotilla's staff was first approved - 13 officers and officials, 344 lower ranks (since January 1880 - 24 officers and officials, 548 lower ranks). In the period 1865– 1879 years, the flotilla transported 29146 passengers and 1,724,414 pounds of cargo across the Aral Sea and the Syr Darya. The Aral flotilla, which took part on April 27 in the Khiva campaign in 1873, included two steamships: “Samarkand” and “Perovsky” with three barges. The crew consisted of 8 officers, 1 doctor, 259 lower ranks, including two topographers [11]. During navigation in 1864, the Aral flotilla transported more than 170 tons of poods of various weights to different places on the Syrdarya line. The newspaper “Golos” in 1874 published a message from its correspondent from Chimbay, who wrote: “On July 25 at 4 pm the steamer” Perovsky “arrived in Nukus, appearing unexpectedly in front of the amazed inhabitants of the city” [12]. As the French geographer Elise Reklu emphasizes, “Since that time, navigation along the Lower Amu has never been interrupted, despite the obstacles encountered at the entrance to the river and the fast current, which the steamers hardly overcome” [13]. Steamships successfully made long-distance voyages, towing two small barges with a carrying capacity of 2 to 7 thousand poods, for example, in 1877 the steamer “Perovsky” with a tug of barge No. 8, 7,000 poods. I departed from Kazalinsk on April 1 to Kos-Aral and from there to the island “Nikolay”, taking a week for this voyage and stopping in the southern bay of the island. The steamer “Tashkent” could pass with barge No. 7 with a load of 7000 poods, from Perovsk to Chinar in 3 weeks, and back with the same barge in 2 weeks. The rest of the ships of the Aral flotilla in 1877 began a campaign near Kazalinsk. At the end of March, the “Syrdarya” steamer could tow two barges No. 1 and 2 at once, lifting 6,000 poods together, making a voyage from Kazalinsk to Perovsk in 15 days, and back - in 11- 12 days. Barges No. 3 and No. 4 raised up to 4000 poods. And they were towed by the “Syrdarya” steamer. Barge No. 6 lifted up to 2000 poods of cargo. In 1877, a test flight was made from Petro- Aleksandrovsk to Chardzhou. The newspaper “Turkestanskie vedomosti” wrote: “On March 22, 1877 the steamer “Samarkand” set sail from Petro-Aleksandrovsk. I walked well up to Uchkuduk. On March 30 he approached the Kabakly fortress; on April 3 he continued his voyage, loading the firewood that had arrived on skiffs. On April 7, I approached Chardzhou. He made the return voyage faster, arriving in Petro- Aleksandrovsk on April 18” [14]. Ships of deeper navigation could navigate along the Syrdarya than along the Amu Darya, and barges along the Syrdarya were easier to tow than along the Amu Darya. Steamers sailed along CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 47-53, May 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-13 ISSN 2767-472X ©2021 Master Journals Accepted 25th May, 2021 & Published 31th May, 2021 CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY ISSN – 2767-472X 49 https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH the Syrвarya with a tugboat and downstream, and barges also sailed by influx. On October 26, 1882, Adjutant General Chernyaev established a commission to abolish the Aral Flotilla. The Aral Flotilla, abolished by General Chernyaev, in 1884. Adjutant General Rosenbach had to restore again, since the ships for the Amu Darya flotilla had not yet been ordered. In the fall of 1884, the steam launch “Obruchev” was launched, which sailed between Kazalinsk and Perovsk. But the Syrdarya became shallower, as the mass of water broke through to Yanydarya, and therefore in 1884 Obruchev made only one flight to Perovsk and back. In the following years, the steamships of the Aral flotilla sailed annually until 1888, until a new Amu Darya flotilla appeared. When it was decided to build the Trans-Caspian military railway from Ashgabat to the Amu Darya and further, in view of the difficulty of constructing a permanent bridge, it was planned to establish the Amu Darya flotilla, for which at first it was considered sufficient to build two steamships with two barges. At that time, the Aral flotilla consisted of: the steam launch “Obruchev”, the steamer “Tashkent”, “Perovsky”, “Syrdarya”, and “Aral”. The stability of these ships was due to the difficulty of transporting them disassembled from St. Petersburg across all of Russia, and most importantly through the quicksand of Kara-Kum. The steamer “Tashkent” was the most suitable of the available ships. It was decided to leave it at the Amu Darya flotilla [15]. This was the end of the history of the Aral flotilla. In the summer of 1891, a steamer of the Amu Darya flotilla delivered to Chardzhuy from Kazalinsk the remains of a four-powered steam engine with wires from the workshops of the former Aral flotilla; two boring machines, one planer, two lathes, and one screw cutter; three hydraulic presses for cutting metal punching holes. Other property of the Aral flotilla was sold for a pittance. So, for example: a water desalination tank was sold to the Kazaly local team for 10 rubles, an anchor of 15 poods, 10 soot, chains and 200 soot. Kanata - sold to the lessee of the ferry for 427 rubles, etc. 21,000 rubles were allocated for the delivery by dry route of the property left from the Aral flotilla to the Amu Darya, and the steamer Tsaritsa left this cargo in Chardzhui in 1891, having spent 7,000 rubles of oil. The Amu Darya military flotilla was founded on November 13, 1887. At the same time, in 1887, the British firm “Butz and Pompey” in St. Petersburg ordered 2 steamships and 2 barges. They were taken to Chardzhou disassembled and assembled in 1888 in railway workshops. The steamers were given the names "Tsar" and “Tsaritsa”, and the barges – “Petersburg” and “Moscow”. In 1888, tug-passenger steamships “Tsar”, “Tsaritsa”, barges Moskva and Petersburg (with a carrying capacity of 10 thousand poods) began sailing in the section from Petro-Aleksandrovsk to Kerki. The Amu Darya flotilla began transportation of goods and passengers in 1890. CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 47-53, May 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-13 ISSN 2767-472X ©2021 Master Journals Accepted 25th May, 2021 & Published 31th May, 2021 CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY ISSN – 2767-472X 50 https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH Transportation of goods and passengers of the Amu Darya flotilla in 1890-1914 [16] Years Cargo (poods) Passengers (people) 1890-1894 97 746 1 687 1895-1899 179 886 5 163 1900-1904 411 832 12 704 1905-1909 533 339 16 734 1910-1914 726 600 No information 1915-1917 1 290 000 14 451 The entire freight turnover of the Amu Darya in 1907 amounted to 3300 thousand poods, their distribution was as follows: • on the upper section of the route from Faizabad-Kala to Patta-Gissar, the turnover of goods was up to 100 thousand poods; • on average - from Patta-Gissar to Chardjuy - 120 thousand poods; • in the lower section - from Chardzhui to the Amu Darya department and the Khiva Khanate - up to 2 million poods [17]. During the navigation period of 1907, ships of the Amu Darya flotilla transported 850 thousand poods, including 250 thousand poods of fuel oil, 138 thousand poods of state and 462 thousand poods of private commercial cargo. About 2.5 million poods of cargo were transported on local skiff-barges and camels. Consequently, private commercial cargo transported by the ships of the Amu Darya flotilla accounted for 15% of the total Amu Darya cargo turnover. From the coastal areas, the ships of the Amu Darya flotilla transported agricultural products to Russia, and back from Russia - industrial goods. During the navigation period of 1914, the ships of the Amu Darya flotilla transported 457,620 poods of cargo to European Russia, including raw cotton - 21,937, leather - 1,627, astrakhan - 250, sheepskin - 1,679, linseeds - 5,213, wool - 3 391, silk cocoons - 408 pounds. From Russia to Bukhara, Khiva and the Amu Darya department in the same period, the Amu Darya flotilla delivered the following cargoes (in poods): agricultural implements - 252, kerosene - 16 538, timber materials - 27 363, various manufactures - 2292, sugar - 15 387 and etc. In 1913, the Amu Darya military flotilla had 6 steamers and 13 metal barges with a carrying capacity of up to 10 thousand poods. The owners of the ships on the Amu Darya were private individuals and the Khiva joint-stock company. The revival of trade and the penetration of Russian capital deep into Central Asia caused an increase in the volume of river traffic. On the Amu Darya, there was navigation on skiffs - large undecked boats with a carrying capacity of 5-50 tons. CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 47-53, May 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-13 ISSN 2767-472X ©2021 Master Journals Accepted 25th May, 2021 & Published 31th May, 2021 CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY ISSN – 2767-472X 51 https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH In 1913, there were about 1.5 thousand of them. Against the current of the river, skiffs swam with the help of a rope, which was pulled from the bank. This type of transport, despite its primitiveness, played an important role in the transportation of goods along the Amu Darya, transporting up to 40-50 thousand tons of cargo. The departure of goods along the river in 1913 was 129 thousand tons and the arrival - 74 thousand tons [18]. Along with the military flotilla, private shipowners were also involved in the transportation of goods in the Aral Sea and the Amu Darya. The largest was the Khiva society, owned by the Volga merchants Sirotkiny and Lapshin. Society “Khiva” had 5 self-propelled ships, 5 sailing ships and 4 wooden barges on the Aral Sea. On the Amu Darya, his fleet consisted of 3 steamers, 1 self-propelled and 4 non-self- propelled barge. The Amu Darya military flotilla was formed again in February 1920 under the command of G.G. Pinsky, commissar S.Kramm (February - April 1920) with subordination to the Turkestan front. The main base was in the city of Chardzhou. The names of I. I. Amelin, A. A. Abramova, P. N. Advolotkina, N. Ya. Arzamastseva, I. A. Baramykina, F. S. Bedinova, B. Betutova, M. F. Borodina, N. V. V. Bushueva, D. D. Golovyashkina, M. M. Goltsera, N. V. Glukhova, S. E. Grebneva, D. D. Efremova, D. N. Ivanova, V. A. Kovash, M. G. Krasnikhina, E.K. Krumina, F.V. Kuroshina, A.G. Levina, N.V. Leitgold, M.G. Morozova, M.G. Mikhailyukova, S.E. Mangusheva, I.N. Mitrofanova, E. E. Poluzina, S. Ya. Rosalova, M. A. Pyankova, I. V. Popova, V. A. Pershina, A. L. Timoshenko, F. P. Tishkova, N. Tikhonova, N. I. Tolstykh, N. S. Frolova, F. F. Khroni, N. A. Shaidakova, N.M. Yurochkin and others are inscribed in golden letters in the chronicle of the Amu Darya military flotilla. CONCLUSION 70 years after the disbanding of the Aral flotilla, on the basis of the Uzbek subdivision of the Central Asian Shipping Company, production associations were created: “Termez River Port”, “Khorezm River Fleet”, “Karakalpak River Fleet” under the “Uzautotrans” corporation. The water transport of Uzbekistan now numbers about 150 motor ships, barges, dredgers, floating excavators, port cranes and other technical equipment. The total length of Uzbekistan's waterways is about 1000 km. Economic goods are mainly transported through Termez- Hairaton, Sharlavuk-Turtkul, Khojeyli-Turtkul, Khojeyli-Beruniy, Karatau-Takhiatash. As you can see, there are important ports on the territory of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. In 1998, the river fleet of Uzbekistan transported over 1 million tons of cargo. Uzbekistan envisages, together with the countries of Central Asia, the creation of transit transport corridors, which will provide them with access to seaports and will contribute to the revival of the ancient highway of the Great Silk Road. The water transport of Uzbekistan now numbers about 150 motor ships, barges, dredgers, floating excavators, port cranes and other technical equipment. The total length of Uzbekistan's waterways is about 1000 km. REFERENCES 1. Review of Russian travels and expeditions to Central Asia. – Tashkent: Central Asian State University Publishing House, 1955-1962. Part 1-4; B.V. Lunin History of Uzbekistan in sources. Uzbekistan in the messages of travelers and scientists (20-80s of the 19th century). – Tashkent: FAN, 1990, etc. (Обзор русских путешествий и экспедиций в Среднюю Азию. - Ташкент: Изд-во САГУ, 1955-1962. Ч.1-4; Лунин Б.В. CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 47-53, May 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-13 ISSN 2767-472X ©2021 Master Journals Accepted 25th May, 2021 & Published 31th May, 2021 CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY ISSN – 2767-472X 52 https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH История Узбекистана в источниках. Узбекистан в сообщениях путешественников и ученых (20-80-е годы Х1Х в.).- Ташкент: ФАН, 1990 и др.) 2. Komkov A.M. (1934) Cartographic study of the Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. – Karakalpakstan: Proceedings of the first conference on the study of the productive forces of the Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Vol 2. Leningrad: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. (Комков А.М. Картографическая изученность ККАССР // Каракалпакия. Труды первой конференции по изучению производительных сил Каракалпакской АССР. Т.2. Ленинград: Изд-во АН СССР, 1934.) 3. Andrianov B.V. 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