The bukharan emirate and turkestan under russian rule in the revolutionary era: 1917-1924

3.2.4. The Khivan Khanate 
The situation in the khanates was so different from the Steppe and Turkistan. 
There were not enough Russian settlers to bring Revolution to the region. There were 
only a few railway workers and that was all. On the other hand, these khanates were 
struggling with different troubles and turmoil rather than civil war and revolutions. 
For example, in Khiva, there was an uprising of nomadic Turcoman armed tribes 
against Uzbek sedentary ruling elite, The Qungrat dynasty of Khiva. Turcoman 
raiders led by Junaid Khan captured Khiva and installed his own authority over 
sedentary Uzbek population. There were also Khivan Jadids and their party, Young 
Khivans. Their role was almost same with Bukharan Jadids and Young Bukharans. 
Young Khivans, as the most moderate, modern and intellectual class of Khiva, called 
the Red army for aid against the terrorizing authority of Turcoman leader Junaid 
Khan. The Red Army, in January 1920, captured Khiva and forced Junaid Khan to 
withdraw to the Karakum Desert. Immediately after deposal of the last Khan Said 
Abdullah Khan, Khwarazm Soviet People’s Republic was declared thus Young 
Khivans Party came to power with the aid of the Red Army. 
179
Young Khivans had 
to struggle much more against Junaid Khan, the leader of uprising Turcoman tribes 
rather than Khan of Khiva. Muhammad Qurban Junaid Khan operated in the khanate 
178
Caroe, Olaf, 
Soviet Empire
: 
The Turks of Central Asia and Stalinism,
(New York: St. Martin’s 
Press, 1967), 107. 
179
Wheeler, Geoffrey, 
The Peoples of Soviet Central Asia,
(London: the Bodley Head Ltd, 1966), 
111. 

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against Uzbek aristocracy and he was also against the Jadids (Young Khivans) 
because he was a feudal tribal chieftain. Junaid Khan also saw the Soviets in the 
region as an infidel enemy and operated against them too. In Khiva, the conditions 
were so much similar to Bukhara. There was no capitalist bourgeoisie inside the 
country, instead feudal aristocracy and uprising ethnic- tribal elements as main 
operating classes. The Young Khivans as the representatives of bourgeoisie 
nationalists were struggling against these counter revolutionary elements. There was 
also Khwarazm Communist Party (KCP) looking like Bukharan Communist Party in 
Khiva presided by Juma Niyaz Sultan Murad. Both Young Khivans and 
Khwarazmian Communists were fractions of early Khivan Jadids. As it occurred in 
Bukhara, the Bolsheviks chose to cooperate with Young Khivans since they saw 
them more convenient transistors in the feudal society for the transition period.