Emerging in the first half of the 20th century as a military, political
and religious movement to fight against Soviet rule established by the Bolsheviks,
the revolt was accompanied by armed mutinies, terrorist acts, hostage taking,
sabotage, subversive actions, blackmails, advocating of ultra-radical ideas
and other weapons from the extremist arsenal.
The Basmachi Revolt lasted for over 16 years - in Kyrgyzstan, the last
seats of the Basmachi were destroyed in 1934.
Origins
The revolution of 1917 was quickly followed by a decree from Lenin stating
that «full freedom to exercise religious ceremonies and the inviolability
of mosques is guaranteed to the Tatars of the Volga region and the Crimea,
to the Turks of the Transcaucasia, to the Kyrgyz and Sarts of Siberia and
Turkistan and to the Chechens and highlanders of the Caucasus.»
In December, the Bolsheviks convened the All-Russia Muslim Conference where
they assured the clergy of their good intentions. They even handed over
an ancient relic - Osman’s Koran. This simple policy of the Soviet commissars’,
flirting with the faithful, succeeded in achieving the desired outcome:
the mullahs began a propaganda campaign among parishioners to support the
new «revolutionary order». Later the clergy were to regret this.
Emissaries were sent to Kokand to demand that the Emir submit to Bolshevik
rule. His response was to kill the emissaries and declare a holy war. An
uneasy truce followed while both sides sought to strengthen their positions.
The Emir conspired with White, anti-Bolshevik Russians and British political
agents. The end came swiftly after the arrival of the Bishkek born Mikhail
Frunze as commander of the Red Army in Turkistan. First Khiva fell, then
Bukhara. The emir fled to Afghanistan - abandoning his harem but taking with
him his troop of dancing boys.
The nationalization of land which had begun in 1918 was also an important
factor in the origins of the uprising. The policies of expropriating land
plots and of irrigation and drainage networks from large owners and the
mass slaughter of livestock, forced collectivization, abolition of private
trade, brutalities in requisitioning farm products and many other things
devastated the region of Turkistan, and embittered the population of Semirechye
(Seven Rivers area), the Kara-Kum, the Moyunkum Steppe, the Ferghana Valley,
Tien Shan, Pamir-Alay and other areas. By the spring of 1919, 1,200,000
people in the area were starving.
The former police chief in Kokand, Irgash, was the first to hoist a flag
against the Soviets. Driven by the events in his home-town of Kokand he
assumed the role of commander-in-chief of the so-called Army of Islam. He
was blessed by the aksakals (the elders) for a holy war and raised on a
white felt carpet as an official leader. This marked the beginning of the
war of unprecedented in cruelty that for more than 15 years exhausted both
sides. Hotbeds of the insurrection movement began to appear here and there,
merging into a jointly irreconcilable front enveloping the whole region
with the flames of war.
Who were the basmachi?
«Basmachi» is a Uzbek word which translates as «bandits». The first report
of the Basmachi - as impoverished nomad-robbers - dates back to 1912-15.
The Kyrgyz usually called them [karakchy] or [tonoochu] meaning brigands.
Several years later these gangs turned into a strong mass movement.
The generally accepted view of the Basmachi as Islamic fanatics is only
partly correct. Their ranks included prisoners of war: Czechs, Hungarians,
Pole, Catholics and Protestants. There were clerics, former Marxists, anarchists,
monarchists, Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, cadets, [kazi] and [bai-manaps],
adventurers, professional mercenaries, criminals and many others among the
Basmachi. The British provided specialists trainers and instructors and
were the principal arms suppliers. Some troops were commanded by Russian
(Orthodox Christian) officers and Cossack squadrons were involved in shock
and penal troops. The Basmachi were also aided by volunteers from China,
Persia, Turkey and Afghanistan. The Basmachi movement was «multi-layer,
multi-sided, multi-language, multi-ethnic and multi-religious». The strongest
group included mainly the rural and urban poor, peasants, craftsmen, farm-laborers,
animal breeders and rural migrants. This was an «all-people» resistance
movement to fight against Soviet rule rather than a collection of «counter-revolutionary,
Pan-Islamic and Pan-Turkic and feudal types» as it was treated in the Soviet
propaganda.
Mikhail Frunze, the Soviet commander of the Turkistan front, even wrote:
«the Basmachi main forces included hundreds and thousands of those in this
way or another offended by the power. Seeing no protection anywhere, they
have entered the Basmachi movement and thus imparted it an unprecedented
strength.»
The basmachi in Kyrgyzstan
In Kyrgyzstan, the most significant events took place in the South, the
seat of Basmachi movement, (The Kyrgyz in the North have always been more
Russified and it may be that the 1916 uprising had eliminated much of the
fighting spirit from amongst the Northern tribes). The Army of Islam together
with General Monstrov’s Peasant Army captured Osh and Jalal-Abad in 1919 -
going on to seize Andijan and Ferghana. From here, Basmachi troops went to
help Djunaid-Khan who was waging war in the Khiva sands.
There is a story of the one-eyed Kurshermat, (a well-known Basmachi leader),
escaping from prison by «pulling down the wall and killing his escort».
In 1919 there were about 40-50 gangs (each comprising 100-200 sabres -
a total of between 4000 and 10,000 rebels) in the Ferghana valley. The next
summer about 30,000 Basmachi were concentrated there. The troops and police
had scarcely reported the gangs liquidation in 1921 when more than 200 Basmachi
gangs revived. Nevertheless, by the autumn of 1923, when the voluntary militia
(which numbered almost 20,000) seized 99 Basmachi chiefs and over 3,000
ordinary Basmachi soldiers along with 931 rifles, 13 machine-guns, 34,710
cartridges and other weapons - the Basmachi movement was destroyed as a
political and military force - what remained was «purely criminal» elements.