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

 
223
 
The October Revolution was supported by peoples in Muslim land because of 
Lenin’s promises regarding equality and self-determination before 1917. However, 
the expectancies concluded with disappointment. The reason of disappointment in 
transformation from Tsarist rule to the Soviets was firstly inheritance of the huge 
empire taken by the Communists, and that inheritance contained and secured its vital 
and ongoing strategic priorities. Firstly, the natural sources of Turkestan and Steppe 
were vital for Russian economy. Secondly, both Central Asia and Transcaucasia was 
open to British attacks under the conditions of the Great War and Russia’s weakness 
depending on bad effects of war and civil war inside the country. Thirdly, Central 
Asia housed two million Russians as settlers. Therefore, it was so difficult for the 
Bolsheviks to let Muslim lands use their self-determination rights.
224
If the self-
determination was permitted for Muslim Central Asian elements to secede, the winds 
of nationalization would strengthen and load the independence of Muslim regions of 
Central Asia and Russia.
225
One of the main factors that got Lenin to give up 
cooperating with Muslims was also increasing armed opposition of Basmachis. 
221
Carrere D’Encausse, Hèlene, trans.,
Islam and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in 
Central Asia
, (London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 150. 
222
Caroe, Olaf, 
Soviet Empire:
The Turks of Central Asia and Stalinism,
(New York: St. Martin’s 
Press, 1967), 105. 
223
Ibid,105. 
224
Wheeler, Geoffrey, 
The Peoples of Soviet Central Asia,
( London: the Bodley Head Ltd, 1966),99. 
225
Ibid, 115. 

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85 
Frunze also warned Moscow that concession given to Muslims encouraged Basmachi 
revolt in Turkestan. Frunze repeated his warnings many times to Lenin: “The 
Muslims are on achieving full power …Their wish is to obtain the most total 
independence possible.”
226
The oppressed native people, at that time, expected the 
October Revolution and Bolsheviks to keep their promises. 
227
However, the newly 
establishing order of the Soviets in the region had to pursue realpolitik to consolidate 
his power. The British threat was targeting the chaotic regions of Turkistan. 
Afghanistan as the neighboring state to Bukhara was also posing a threat for Soviet 
Russia. Therefore the implementation of ideological discourse into the realpolitik 
was not compulsory for the Soviet ruling elite. “The goal of a socialist society would 
be furthered by the closest international unity of the working class, not by its division 
into artificial national units. In fact, as Lenin himself admitted, what he advocated 
was merely the recognition of the right of self-determination, not the exercise of that 
right”.
228