Basmachi Rebellion 1916-1931
In 1916, when the Russian government ended its exemption of Muslims from
military service, much of Russian Central Asia rose in a general revolt against
Russian rule. After arising in the Fergana Valley, the movement became a
rallying ground for opponents of Russian or Bolshevik rule from all parts of
the region. The Russians applied a derogatory term, Basmachi* (which originally
meant brigand), to the groups. Although the resistance did not apply that term
to itself, it nonetheless entered common usage.
The great mass of the Muslim population of Russian Central Asia took no part
in the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. Only after the Bolsheviks attacked the
Muslim religion, intervened directly in native society and culture, and engaged
in armed seizure of food did the indigenous population offer fierce resistance
in a national and holy war against the Soviet regime, known as the Basmachi
Rebellion.
The indigenous resistance movement proved the last barrier to assimilation
of Central Asia into the Soviet Union. In the 1920s, more than 20,000 people
fought Soviet rule in Central Asia. The several Basmachi groups had conflicting
agendas and seldom coordinated their actions. Peasant unrest already existed in
the area because of wartime hardships and the demands of the amir and the
soviets. The Red Army's harsh treatment of local inhabitants in 1921 drove more
people into the resistance camp. However, the Basmachi movement became more
divided and more conservative as it gained numerically. It achieved some unity
under the leadership of Enver Pasha, a Turkish adventurer with ambitions to
lead the new secular government of Turkey, but Enver was killed in battle in
early 1922. Except for remote pockets of resistance, armed opposition to Soviet
rule in Central Asia ended by 1926. Sporadic fighting continued until 1931. The
defeat of the Basmachis caused as many as 200,000 people, including
noncombatants, to flee eastern Bukhoro in the first half of the 1920s. A few
thousand subsequently returned over the next several years.
The communists used a combination of military force and conciliation to
defeat the Basmachis. The military approach ultimately favored the communist
side, which was much better armed. The Red Army forces included Tatars and
Central Asians, who enabled the invading force to appear at least partly
indigenous. Conciliatory measures (grants of food, tax relief, the promise of
land reform, the reversal of anti-Islamic policies launched during the Civil
War, and the promise of an end to agricultural controls) prompted some
Basmachis to reconcile themselves to the new order.
*Transliterated from Russian as BASMACHESTVO.
References
Turkmenistan - A Country Study; Soviet Union - A Country Study; Tajikistan -
A Country Study; Basmachi Revolt.