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

3.5. The Right of Self Determination and Struggle of Classes in Turkistan
3.5.1. The Right of Self Determination 
Self-determination right was the most discussed matter for the Central Asian 
Muslims after the October Revolution in Russia. Lenin had demonstrated his support 
to national self-determination before April 1917. For example, in the resolution of 
the 7
th
All Russia Conference of the Bolsheviks Party, it was emphasized that “the 
right of all the nations forming part of Russia freely to secede and form independent 
states must be recognized. To deny them this right, or to fail to take measures 
guaranteeing its practical realization, is equivalent to supporting a policy of seizure 
or annexation. Only the recognition by the proletariat of the right of nations to secede 
can ensure complete solidarity among the workers of the various nations and help to 
220
Carrere D’Encausse, Hèlene, trans.,
Islam and the Russian Empire Reform and Revolution in 
Central Asia
, (London: I.B.Tauris-Co Ltd, 1966), 165. 

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bring the nations closer together on truly democratic lines”.
221
 
In addition, equality 
and sovereignty of the nations of Russia and the right of the nations of Russia to free 
self-determination were basic principles, released in the declaration of the Council of 
Peoples Commissars.
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The declaration was also released in Pravda with address of 
“All toiling Muhammadans in Russia and in the East”. It wrote that
Muhammadans of Russia, Tatars of Volga and the Crimea, Kirghiz and Sarts of Turkistan, Turks and Tatars of 
Transcaucasia, all those whose mosques and prayer houses were destroyed and whose religion and customs were trampled upon 
by the Russian Tsars and tyrants! Henceforth your faith and customs, your national and cultural institutions, are proclaimed free 
and inviolable. Build up your national life freely and unhindered. That is your right.