Basmachi movement

Basmachi movement
	Part of World War I and the Russian Civil War
	; Bukhara under siege by Red Army troops and burning during the Bukhara operation, 1 September 1920
Date	1916–1934
Location	Russian Turkestan
Result	Soviet–Afghan victory
Belligerents
Russian Empire; (1916–17) Russian Republic; (1917) Russian SFSR; • Turkestan ASSR; • Kirghiz ASSR; Khorezm PSR; Bukharan PSR Soviet Union; (from December 30, 1922) Supported by:; Armenian nationalists; In cooperation with:; Amanullah loyalists; (1929); Afghanistan; (1930)	Basmachi movement; Khanate of Khiva (1918–20); White Army; Alash Autonomy (1919–20); Emirate of Bukhara (1920); Supported by:; Afghanistan; (until mid-1922) Saqqawists (1929) Emirate of Afghanistan (1929);
Commanders and leaders
Mikhail Frunze; Grigory Sokolnikov; Pyotr Kobozev; Vitaly Primakov; Vasily Shorin; August Kork; Semyon Pugachov; Mikhail Levandovsky; Konstantin Avksentevsky; Vladimir Lazarevich; Magaza Masanchi; Fayzulla Xoʻjayev; Mohammad Nadir Shah; Sardar Shah Wali Khan; Ghulam Nabi Khan	Enver Pasha †; Ibrahim Bek †; Irgash Bey †; Madamin Bey †; Junaid Khan; Muhammad Alim Khan; Konstantin Monstrov † Habibullāh Kalakāni
Strength
Turkestan Front:; 120,000–160,000	Perhaps 30,000 at its height, over 20,000 (late 1919)
Casualties and losses
9,338 killed or died of disease; 29,617 wounded or sick (Jan. 1921 – July 1922); 516 killed; 867 wounded or sick (Oct. 1922 – June 1931); Total: 40,000+; 9,854+ dead; 30,484+ wounded or sick	Unknown
	Tens of thousands of civilians killed. Several hundred thousand Kazakh and Kyrgyz people killed or evicted with an unknown amount dying to famine according to Sokol. Alternative estimate: 150,000 dead in 1916.

The Basmachi movement (Russian: Басмачество, Basmachestvo, derived from Uzbek: "Basmachi" meaning "bandits")^[12] was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs.

The movement's roots lay in the anti-conscription violence of 1916 which erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service in World War I.^[13] In the months following the October 1917 Revolution, the Bolsheviks seized power in many parts of the Russian Empire and the Russian Civil War began. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form an autonomous government in the city of Kokand, in the Fergana Valley. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a general massacre of up to 25,000 people.^[8]^[9] The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi who waged a guerrilla and conventional war that seized control of large parts of the Fergana Valley and much of Turkestan. The group's notable leaders were Enver Pasha and, later, Ibrahim Bek.

The fortunes of the movement fluctuated throughout the early 1920s, but by 1923 the Red Army's extensive campaigns had dealt the Basmachis many defeats. After major Red Army campaigns and concessions regarding economic and Islamic practices in the mid-1920s, the military fortunes and popular support of the Basmachi declined.^[14] Resistance to Soviet leadership did flare up again, to a lesser extent, in response to collectivization campaigns in the pre-WWII era.^[15]

^ In Union with him and Bey Madamin counter-revolutionary robber bands with July 10, 1919, to January 1920.
^ Muḥammad, Fayz̤; Hazārah, Fayz̤ Muḥammad Kātib (1999). Kabul Under Siege: Fayz Muhammad's Account of the 1929 Uprising. Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 9781558761551.
^ Saqqawists had fought only in northern Afghanistan.
^ Moscow's Muslim Challenge: Soviet Central Asia, Michael Rywkin, page 35
^ Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR, By Bohdan Nahaylo,Victor Swoboda, p. 40, 1990.
^ Krivosheev, Grigori (Ed.), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century '12,827 killed or dead', p. 43, London: Greenhill Books, 1997.
^ General-Lieutenant G.F.KRIVOSHEYEV (1993). "SOVIET ARMED FORCES LOSSES IN WARS,COMBAT OPERATIONS MILITARY CONFLICTS" (PDF). MOSCOW MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE. p. 56. Retrieved 2015-06-21.
^ ^a ^b Uzbekistan, By Thomas R McCray, Charles F Gritzner, pg. 30, 2004, ISBN 1438105517.
^ ^a ^b Martha B. Olcott, The Basmachi or Freemen's Revolt in Turkestan, 1918-24, 355.
^ Baberowski & Doering-Manteuffel 2009, p. 202.
^ Morrison, Alexander (2017). "The Revolt of 1916 in Russian Central Asia. By Edward Dennis Sokol . Foreword by S. Frederick Starr . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016 (original edition 1954). x, 187 pp. Bibliography. Index. Figures". Slavic Review. 76 (3): 772–778. doi:10.1017/slr.2017.185. ISSN 0037-6779. S2CID 166171560.
^ Parenti, Christian (28 June 2011). Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-56858-662-5. These traditionalist, protomujahideen—called Basmachi, meaning "bandits", by the Soviets— described themselves as standing for Islam, Turkic nationalism, and anticommunism. One of these bands of Muslim rebels was led by Enver Pasha, ...
^ Victor Spolnikov, "Impact of Afghanistan's War on the Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia", in Hafeez Malik, ed, Central Asia: Its Strategic Importance and Future Prospects (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 101.
^ Michael Rywkin, Moscow's Muslim Challenge: Soviet Central Asia (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1990), 41.
^ Martha B. Olcott, "The Basmachi or Freemen's Revolt in Turkestan, 1918-24," Soviet Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Jul., 1981), 361.

[1] In Union with him and Bey Madamin counter-revolutionary robber bands with July 10, 1919, to January 1920.

[2] Muḥammad, Fayz̤; Hazārah, Fayz̤ Muḥammad Kātib (1999). Kabul Under Siege: Fayz Muhammad's Account of the 1929 Uprising. Markus Wiener Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 9781558761551.

[3] Saqqawists had fought only in northern Afghanistan.

[Moscow_page_35-4] Moscow's Muslim Challenge: Soviet Central Asia, Michael Rywkin, page 35

[5] Soviet Disunion: A History of the Nationalities Problem in the USSR, By Bohdan Nahaylo,Victor Swoboda, p. 40, 1990.

[6] Krivosheev, Grigori (Ed.), Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century '12,827 killed or dead', p. 43, London: Greenhill Books, 1997.

[7] General-Lieutenant G.F.KRIVOSHEYEV (1993). "SOVIET ARMED FORCES LOSSES IN WARS,COMBAT OPERATIONS MILITARY CONFLICTS" (PDF). MOSCOW MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE. p. 56. Retrieved 2015-06-21.

[Uzbekistan_pg._30-8] Uzbekistan, By Thomas R McCray, Charles F Gritzner, pg. 30, 2004, ISBN 1438105517.

[ReferenceB-9] Martha B. Olcott, The Basmachi or Freemen's Revolt in Turkestan, 1918-24, 355.

[FOOTNOTEBaberowskiDoering-Manteuffel2009202-10] Baberowski & Doering-Manteuffel 2009, p. 202.

[11] Morrison, Alexander (2017). "The Revolt of 1916 in Russian Central Asia. By Edward Dennis Sokol . Foreword by S. Frederick Starr . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016 (original edition 1954). x, 187 pp. Bibliography. Index. Figures". Slavic Review. 76 (3): 772–778. doi:10.1017/slr.2017.185. ISSN 0037-6779. S2CID 166171560.

[12] Parenti, Christian (28 June 2011). Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-56858-662-5. These traditionalist, protomujahideen—called Basmachi, meaning "bandits", by the Soviets— described themselves as standing for Islam, Turkic nationalism, and anticommunism. One of these bands of Muslim rebels was led by Enver Pasha, ...

[13] Victor Spolnikov, "Impact of Afghanistan's War on the Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia", in Hafeez Malik, ed, Central Asia: Its Strategic Importance and Future Prospects (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 101.

[14] Michael Rywkin, Moscow's Muslim Challenge: Soviet Central Asia (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1990), 41.

[15] Martha B. Olcott, "The Basmachi or Freemen's Revolt in Turkestan, 1918-24," Soviet Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Jul., 1981), 361.

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