The years 1917–1924 were a sharp turning point in the history of Uzbekistan. After the revolutions in Russia the peoples of Turkestan tried to determine their own fate: the Turkestan Autonomy was proclaimed in Kokand but drowned in blood by the Bolsheviks; in response an armed independence (Istiqlol) movement began; people’s republics were set up in Bukhara and Khiva; and finally national-territorial delimitation created the Uzbek SSR. The period shows the first 20th-century attempts to restore national statehood and what became of them. Exams ask about dates and leaders, causes and consequences, and source analysis.
§1. February–October 1917: revolutions and Turkestan
The February Revolution of 1917 overthrew the tsar. In Turkestan a Turkestan Committee of the Provisional Government was set up, but the interests of the local population — especially land and self-government — were ignored.
Political activity surged. National organisations appeared: Shuro-i Islomiya (mainly Jadids, March 1917, Tashkent) and Shuro-i Ulamo (the clergy, moderate-conservative).
Local intellectuals demanded autonomy for Turkestan — broad self-government within Russia.
In October–November 1917 the Bolsheviks and Left SRs seized power in Tashkent. Not a single local Muslim was included in the Turkestan Council of People’s Commissars set up by the regional Congress of Soviets — excluding from power the native peoples who made up over 90 per cent of the population.
Cause and effect: the new authorities also shut out the local peoples → national forces set about creating their own state body.
§2. The Turkestan Autonomy
26–29 November 1917 — the Fourth Extraordinary Regional Congress of Muslims in Kokand; on 27 November the Turkestan Autonomy was proclaimed
Leaders: Muhammadjon Tinishbayev (head of government and interior minister), then Mustafa Chokay; the government included Ubaydulla Khojaev, Islam Shagiakhmedov and others.
The autonomy envisaged self-government for the peoples of Turkestan within a Russian federation; a Constituent Assembly representing all groups in the region was to be convened.
The autonomous government tried to form its own army and finances, but the balance of forces was against it.
Soviet power refused to recognise the autonomy and branded it “counter-revolutionary”.
February 1918 — Bolshevik troops drowned Kokand in blood and the autonomy was destroyed
The city of Kokand was devastated and thousands of civilians were killed.
30 April 1918 — the Turkestan ASSR was created within the RSFSR
Significance: the Turkestan Autonomy was the first 20th-century attempt to restore national statehood by democratic means; though it lasted only 72 days, it became a symbol of the idea of national independence.
§3. The independence movement
After the autonomy was crushed, armed struggle against Soviet power began. Soviet historiography called it “Basmachism” and portrayed it as banditry; since independence it has been assessed as a national liberation (Istiqlol) movement.
Causes: loss of national independence, the Kokand tragedy, grain requisitioning, famine, anti-religious policy and violence by Red Army soldiers.
In the Fergana Valley: Ergash, Madaminbek, Shermuhammadbek (Kurshermat) and others; in eastern Bukhara — Ibrahimbek; in Khwarezm — Junaid Khan.
Its strengths were popular support and knowledge of the terrain; its weaknesses were fragmentation, the lack of a single leadership and programme, and shortage of weapons.
Soviet power weakened the movement with large military forces combined with concessions (the New Economic Policy, partial return of waqf land). It continued mainly until the late 1920s and early 1930s.
§4. The Khorezm and Bukharan people’s republics
Khiva: in early 1920, with the help of the Red Army and the Young Khivans, the khan was overthrown and Junaid Khan’s forces defeated.
April 1920 — the Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic (KhPSR) was proclaimed
Bukhara: in early September 1920 the Red Army (commanded by M. V. Frunze) took Bukhara, causing great damage to the city and the Ark; Emir Alim Khan fled first to eastern Bukhara and then to Afghanistan.
October 1920 — the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic (BPSR); head of government (the Council of People’s Nazirs) — Fayzulla Khojaev
The republics carried out land, school and judicial reforms, opened new schools and sent young people abroad (to Germany) to study.
But although formally independent, they grew ever more dependent on Moscow: Red Army units were stationed on their territory and key decisions were agreed with the centre.
In 1923–1924 they were converted into socialist republics.
§5. National-territorial delimitation
27 October 1924 — the Uzbek SSR was created; capital Samarkand, from 1930 Tashkent
The territories of the Turkestan ASSR, BPSR and KhPSR were divided on national lines into new republics and regions: the Uzbek SSR and Turkmen SSR; the Tajik ASSR within the Uzbek SSR (a separate union republic from 1929); Kazakh and Kyrgyz areas were also separated.
Reasons (as the Soviet leadership put it): “to give nations their own statehood” and to simplify administration; historians add another aim — to kill the idea of a united Turkestan and make the region easier to control.
Consequences: historic cultural regions (such as the Fergana Valley) were divided and borders did not fully match ethnic settlement — later a source of problems. At the same time Uzbekistan gained its modern territorial form.
§6. Assessing the period
In 1917–1924 three paths were tried for the peoples of Turkestan: democratic autonomy (Kokand), armed struggle (the Istiqlol fighters) and cooperation with Soviet power (the leaders of the BPSR and KhPSR).
The first two were crushed by force; the third led to limited autonomy as a union republic, and many of its leaders (Fayzulla Khojaev) were later repressed.
This experience became a historical lesson when independence was proclaimed in 1991.
Source analysis: “The Congress declares Turkestan territorially autonomous within the Russian Federative Democratic Republic, leaving the form of autonomy to be set by the Constituent Assembly of Turkestan; the rights of the national minorities living in the region are fully guaranteed” (paraphrasing the congress resolution). Which document is this, and what is distinctive about it?
“Autonomy”, “Constituent Assembly”, “within Russia” — the resolution of the Kokand congress of November 1917.
It envisaged not full secession but self-government within a federation.
Guaranteeing minority rights is a democratic principle.
Answer: the proclamation of the Turkestan Autonomy (27 November 1917); a democratic, federal document.
Worked example
Cause and effect: “Why did the independence movement spread widely after 1918?”
The autonomy was drowned in blood, closing the peaceful road to self-government.
Grain requisitioning, famine and anti-religious policy deepened discontent.
Violence by Red Army soldiers drove many people into armed bands.
Answer: closing the peaceful path and the violence of Soviet policy produced armed resistance.
Check yourself
In which city was the Turkestan Autonomy proclaimed?
Who was the first head of the autonomous government?
When was the autonomy destroyed?
When was the Turkestan ASSR created?
Who headed the government of the BPSR?
Which city was the first capital of the Uzbek SSR?
Who led the independence fighters in Khwarezm?
Which Red Army commander took Bukhara in 1920?
Common mistakes
Saying the autonomy was proclaimed in Tashkent (it was proclaimed in Kokand).
Assuming Tashkent was the Uzbek SSR’s capital from the start (Samarkand until 1930).
Swapping the months when the BPSR and KhPSR were formed (KhPSR — April, BPSR — October).
Judging the independence movement only by the Soviet label of “banditry”.
Taking the autonomy to mean full secession from Russia (it meant self-government within a federation).