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Soviet Empire:
The Turks of Central Asia and Stalinism,
(New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1967), 119.
241
Ibid,118.
242
Caroe, Olaf,
Soviet Empire:
The Turks of Central Asia and Stalinism,
(New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1967), 118.
243
Carrere D’Encausse, Hèlene, trans.,
Islam and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in
Central Asia
, (London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 177-178.
93
care to clarify their attitude towards the national government of Bukhara: ‘We are
struggling against the Russians and not against the national government. If the
Russians leave, we are ready to rally to the national government.”
244
The Basmachi
movement began spreading fast throughout Turkestan after Bukhara and Khiva’s
regimes had been replaced. For example, Junaid Khan, started a struggle against the
Bolshevik forces in Transcaspia by directing his troops in the Karakum Desert,
collaborated and supported the Basmachi movement thus the uprisings reached from
Fergana to Transcaspia.
245
Junaid Khan was important for the spread of the revolt to
southwest parts of Turkistan. He gave a long struggle to the Soviets after his
withdrawal to the desert of Karakum. The Basmachi revolt was an increasing
problem for the Soviets in different parts of Central Asia. The density of the revolt
drew a line from Fergana to eastern Bukhara and from eastern Bukhara to the deserts
of Transcaspia. The mountainous and desert places were more convenient for
conducting the resistance for the rebels. The Red army units had difficulty
suppressing these local rebels in these areas. Shir Muhammad Beg was operating in
Fergana, Devletmen Beg was in Baljuvan, Ishan Sultan was in Darvaz, Junaid Khan
was in Khiva and Ibrahim Beg Lakai was in eastern Bukhara.
246
The economic and social reasons in terms of birth of Basmachis were also
quite important. Although the collapse of Kokand government by the Red Army’s
intervention seemed the common reason for the outbreak of the revolt, the
fundamental reasons, preparing the infrastructure of the uprisings, were the
developments inside the period of civil war and revolutionary era. Cotton production
244
Ibid, 178.
245
Allworth, Edward et al.,
Central Asia: A Century of Russian Rule
, ed. Edward Allworth,(New
York: Columbia University Press, 1967), 250.
246
Hayit, Baymirza,
Basmacilar: Turkistan Milli Mucadele Tarihi (1917-1934),
(Turkiye Diyanet
Vakfi Yayinlari,1997), 201.
94
increased in southern Central Asia alongside the river bands and the region’s
agriculture specialized in cotton production while importing grain from the north.
This caused starvation during the civil war years when the railway transportation was
cut under the conditions of war due to increase of grain prices and decrease of local
production. That situation caused the emergence of rebels in the region. In Soviet
terminology, these rebels were called as Basmachis meaning “
bandits
”.
247
“They
were the sharp edge of a rural revolt against the cities although they increasingly
took on an anti-Soviet political and religious overlay and later, during the unveiling
campaign, served to enforce adherence to non-Soviet ideals.”
248
These armed
people, reacting to famine and bad economic conditions in the region at first,
attached to anti-Soviet character in the following years. While Soviet called them
Basmachis, they named themselves “
qorbashi
”, meaning police force in Bukharan
Emirate and Turkistan.
249
The Basmachi movement gained a multi-dimensional character by consisting
of the liberal elites of Kokand, the socialist leaders of Bashkiria, the tribal chieftains
of Khivan Turcomans, the monarch of Bukhara, the peasants and the Central Asian
middle class.
The attendance of feudal aristocrats like Junaid Khan of Khivan
Turcoman tribes and Alim Khan to the Basmachis with their full support
strengthened the movement and enabled to spread in Turkistan-wide. However, the
attendance of every anti-Bolshevik operating element to Basmachis prevented the
movement from gaining an ideological character, rather than, it developed as a multi-
dimensional anti-Bolshevik resistance. The general feature of the resistance was
being consisted of separate groups without a unity. Even, there was rivalry among
247
Northrop, Douglas Taylor,
Veiled empire: gender and power in Stalinist Central Asia
, (New York:
Cornel University Press, 2004), 15.
248
Ibid, 15.
249
Ibid, 15.
95
these separate groups. This was causing problems and preventing the movement
from gaining a success.
The formation of Basmachi forces by a variety of groups was the most
important reason for its weakness in its struggle, because lack of a single command
and authority over different, independent and idle groups caused the revolt to fail
against the Red Army units. In addition, the lack of outside support and aid for the
revolt prevented its success. The reason why a common front could not be formed in
the Basmachi movement could be analyzed as the non-existence of a political and
social unity in Central Asia for centuries even before not only Soviet expansion, but
also Tsarist expansion. The multi-tribal and multi-ethnic characteristics of Central
Asian Muslims were the biggest banner for a creation of a common front. In
addition, there was a deficiency of strong ideological unity and it could be seen that
different groups and fractions, which had been against each other before, got
involved in the same revolt after 1920. To give an instance, the Basmachi groups
consisting of old commanders of the emir could be classified as monarchists, the
units of Junaid Khan the Turcoman were Turcoman ethnic-tribal rebels without
having any ideological theory. On the other side, Jadids, having joined the
Basmachis, had an ideology in one sense and strongly refused the emir’s authority.
Also, the birth of each Basmachi group had different reasons. To give an example,
the early emerging groups in Ferghana was a reaction to the collapse of Kokand
Government, in some parts of Central Asia the reason was the famine due to the
cease of grain imports from Russia under civil war circumstances (this was the
failure of cotton monoculture policy), in eastern Bukhara the reason was
monarchists’ reaction to the new regime in Bukhara etc. In short, the non-existence
96
of a single reason behind the movement was the biggest source of weakness and
failure.
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