Once colonial rule was established, Turkestan saw a series of national liberation movements: the “cholera riot” in Tashkent (1892), the Andijan uprising (1898) and the revolt of 1916 that engulfed the whole region. Each was a response to colonial policy — land and water policy, heavy taxes, and national and religious discrimination. Although they were crushed, these movements awakened national consciousness and prepared the ground for what came next — Jadidism, the Turkestan Autonomy and the independence movement. Exams ask about the dates, places, leaders, causes and consequences of the revolts, and about analysing source extracts.
§1. Causes of the national liberation movements
Land and water policy: fertile land given to Russian settlers and land declared state property; nomadic herders’ pastures in particular shrank.
Rising taxes, collected in money, and corrupt local officials.
The cotton monopoly: grain shortages, peasant debt to cotton firms and moneylenders, and landlessness.
National and religious discrimination: exclusion of locals from government, disrespect for traditions and customs, and control over religious institutions.
Political powerlessness: local people had no say in their own fate.
These causes were linked and combined differently in each revolt: religious and cultural grievances dominated in 1892, economic and political ones in 1916.
Causes: economic (land, taxes, cotton) + social (debt) + national-religious (discrimination) + political (powerlessness)
§2. The “cholera riot” (1892)
1892 — the “cholera riot” in Tashkent
Cause: during a cholera epidemic the administration imposed harsh quarantine measures that offended local custom — restricting funerals, closing cemeteries and forcibly inspecting homes.
Events: an angry crowd marched on the office of the head of the old city; the authorities called in troops, who fired on the crowd, killing many.
Consequence: participants were tried and harshly sentenced; the administration’s distrust of the local population deepened.
Significance: although sparked by an epidemic, the riot was rooted in the colonial administration’s disregard for local faith and customs.
§3. The Andijan uprising (1898)
May 1898 — the Andijan uprising, led by Muhammadali Khalfa (Dukchi Ishan)
Leader: a Sufi ishan from the village of Mingtepa with great popular authority; he was called “Dukchi Ishan” because he made and gave away spindles (“duk”).
Causes: colonial oppression, land and tax grievances and religious discrimination; the revolt was fought under religious slogans.
Events: the rebels attacked the Russian barracks in Andijan at night, killing several soldiers; the rising was quickly crushed.
Consequences: Dukchi Ishan and other leaders were executed and many participants exiled; Mingtepa village was razed and Russian settlers were placed on its site.
Colonial control was tightened and surveillance of Muslim institutions and clergy increased.
The administration blamed the revolt mainly on “religious fanaticism” — a convenient way to hide its social and economic causes and to justify a harsh policy towards the local population.
§4. The revolt of 1916
25 June 1916 — Nicholas II’s decree mobilising the male population of Turkestan and the Steppe for labour behind the front (mardikor service)
Causes: during the First World War the population was stripped of food, livestock and money and prices soared; mobilising the men was the last straw. Drawing up the lists was marred by bribery and injustice.
Outbreak: unrest began in Khujand in early July 1916, then spread to the Tashkent, Samarkand and Fergana regions and the steppe (Kazakh and Kyrgyz lands).
The Jizzakh uprising (July 1916) was the largest centre: its leaders included Nazirkhoja Ishan and Abdurahmon Jevachi; rebels attacked local officials and the Russian administration; it was brutally suppressed by punitive troops and many villages were destroyed.
The new governor-general, A. N. Kuropatkin, directed the suppression.
Consequences: thousands were killed, executed or exiled; some nomads fled to China. But the revolt exposed the weakness of the colonial system and strengthened national consciousness.
1892 (Tashkent) → 1898 (Andijan) → 1916 (Jizzakh and the whole region)
§5. Bukhara and Khiva in the early 20th century
The emir and the khan kept their thrones but depended on Russia; taxes were heavy, there were no reforms and officials acted arbitrarily.
The Young Bukharans (Abdurauf Fitrat, Fayzulla Khojaev, Usmon Khoja and others) demanded reform, education and constitutional government; in April 1917 the emir issued a manifesto promising reforms but did not carry it out.
The Young Khivans (Palvanniyaz Haji Yusupov and others) fought for reform in Khiva.
In the Khanate of Khiva, Turkmen tribes and Karakalpaks also rose against heavy taxes and oppression.
In 1920 the emirate and khanate were overthrown and people’s republics created.
§6. The nature and significance of the movements
Features: they began spontaneously, were local, lacked a single leadership and programme and were poorly armed; religious slogans often served to unite people.
Reasons for defeat: fragmentation, an unequal balance of forces (an unarmed population against a regular army) and the administration’s swift, brutal response.
Significance: they exposed the injustice of colonial rule, awakened national identity and prepared the ground for early 20th-century Jadidism and the attempts at national statehood in 1917–1918.
In historiography: Soviet historians mostly called the revolts “class” or “reactionary-religious” movements; since independence they have been assessed as national liberation movements.
Worked example
Cause and effect: “What were the consequences of the decree of 25 June 1916?”
The decree called up men for labour behind the front — mardikor service.
Combined with wartime hardship, it sparked revolt across Turkestan; the largest centre was Jizzakh.
The revolt was brutally crushed and thousands died.
Answer: decree → region-wide revolt (largest in Jizzakh) → suppression, but a stronger idea of national liberation.
Worked example
Chronology: “Order: the Jizzakh uprising; the cholera riot; the Andijan uprising; the mardikor decree; the Bukharan emir’s reform manifesto.”
Cholera riot — 1892.
Andijan uprising — 1898.
Mardikor decree — 25 June 1916.
Jizzakh uprising — July 1916.
Emir’s manifesto — April 1917.
Answer: 1892 → 1898 → June 1916 → July 1916 → 1917.
Worked example
Source analysis: “The rebels attacked the barracks at night... The leader was seized and hanged by sentence of a military court; his village was razed and a Russian settlement founded in its place” (paraphrasing a Russian administrative report). Which event is this, and how should the source be approached?
A night attack on barracks, the leader’s execution and the village razed — the Andijan uprising of 1898 (Mingtepa village).
The leader was Dukchi Ishan.
The source is a colonial report: valuable for facts (date, place) but likely to present the causes one-sidedly (as mere “fanaticism”).
Answer: the Andijan uprising (1898); the administration’s report should be compared with local sources.
Check yourself
In what year was the cholera riot?
Who led the Andijan uprising?
In what year was the Andijan uprising?
On what date was the decree on labour mobilisation issued?
Where was the largest centre of the 1916 revolt?
In which city did the 1916 revolt begin?
Which village was razed after the Andijan uprising?
Name one leader of the Young Bukharans.
Common mistakes
Dating the Andijan uprising to 1916 (it was in 1898).
Placing the cholera riot in Andijan (it was in Tashkent).
Confusing the Jizzakh and Andijan uprisings.
Limiting the 1916 revolt to Uzbekistan (it also engulfed Kazakh and Kyrgyz lands).
Treating colonial administrative reports as objective sources.