Reform and Revolution in Central Asia

The October Revolution ushered in an intense period of debate regarding autonomy in Turkestan complicated by Soviet claims of support from people who were disillusioned with the feudal system of the Tsars and the tyranny of the local Emirs and the contradictory evidence of numerous short-lived alliances that appeared during this time. National-territorial dreams in the years following the October Revolution meant that occasionally a Bashkiria, led by Zeki Velidi Togan, would threaten the neat divisions. At other moments reorganization provoked upheavals like the Bashmachi revolt (arising out of the debris of the defunct experiment of the Kokand government) which threatened to throw the then existing precarious government into disarray.

In attempting to identify the locus of the process that undermined the old system in the region, it would be a mistake to point only to the lure of a new ideology and a new system. It is equally important to look into the process of transformation to “modernity” that had already begun in the region by the turn of the century and was known as the new way or Usul-i-Jadid. While sharing with the Bolsheviks a commitment to radical change the Jadid emphasis was on sustaining national demands, obliterating the recent past and reviving lost glory. The political situation in Turkestan on the eve of the Revolution, therefore, remains incomplete without an examination of the first signs of modernization that appeared with the Jadids and their vision of statehood– which emerged out of their visions of a reformed social order—and presented the first alternatives to the existing state structures.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Bukhara exemplified a segmentary state where authority was weakest at the margins of the state and strongest at the center. The state system experienced alternately a tendency towards centralization and strengthening of state power and the separatist tendencies of feudalism. It also manifested another vital characteristic of such state systems–the existence of subgroups, whose self-definition was genealogical and whose group membership was a function of descent. On this state of affairs the establishing Tsarist government imposed its own system of administration. However, the Tsarist administration did little to reduce the prestige of the Emir and the bureaucratic structures of Bukhara were largely preserved intact. This policy of non-intervention, however, did not last long. Russian studies of Bukhara were critical of the Emir’s rule and by 1910, the annexation of Bukhara had become a distinct possibility as non-intervention failed to secure stability.

This was also a period of economic transformation of the region in which Bukhara became a reluctant part. Important among these was the slow growth of the capital market and an attempt to incorporate the Bukharan economy within the economy of the entire region. This was helped by the building of the Central Asian railway and the establishment of the telegraph line, which broke the traditional isolation of Bukhara. Along with this was the development of the Russian settlement of Noviye Bukhara (New Bukhara), which grew up around the railway station south of the old capital. The development of a Russian settlement created its own administrative and judicial problems, and at the same time increased demands for curtailment of the authority of the Emir. Relationship between the two Bukharas had increased by the 1890’s not only due to the development of roads, railroads and the telegraph, but also due to the influx of Russians and other Europeans who now arrived in the city. This had its impact on the old city of Bukhara and in 1833, when Alexander Burnes arrived in Buklhara, he found the Bukharan’s preparing their tea in Russian samovars.

There was substantial difference between the two enclaves of Bukhara and the intermediaries between the two were those who were later instrumental in the development of the Jadid movement. While to begin with the Jadid movement had been confined to religious and cultural affairs, as Pan-Turkic ideas gained strength, there was increasing demand for a political party to express these views. It was at the third Muslim Congress that these demands gained strength and Turkestan was proclaimed a Turkic Autonomous Republic and the name of the Turkestan Organization of RKP was changed to Turkic Communist Party. However, not all the Turkish peoples sought unification under the pan Turkic banner. Kazakh intellectuals at the turn of the century were desirous of becoming “neither Russian nor Tatar nor Turkish” and remained defenders of the Kazakh independent path.

In their struggle against the obscurantist elements of the time the Jadids collaborated with various forces and were themselves constituted of at least four groups— the counter revolutionaries, militant Pan Turkists, fellow travelers and radical left Jadids. While most members of the latter group shared with the Bolsheviks a commitment to radical change they were not true Marxists, but radical nationalists and culled from Leninism those tenets, which could sustain their national demands. The radicals, led by Faizullah Khojaev, did not support the government which led to the flight of the majority of the Jadids to Noviye Bukhara. Influenced by the ideas of the times, a left wing Jadidism arose which opposed the feudal and clerical system, advocated modern science and culture and defended the interests of the masses. The establishment of the new regime in Petrograd influenced the Jadids to seek help for their reforms and it was from this left Jadidism that the Young Bukharans were recruited.

The Young Bukharans, seeking an ally in their struggle against the Emir collaborated first with the Bolsheviks and joined the Tashkent Soviet of Peoples Commissars and formed the major section of the Turkestan Central Executive Committee. However, with power in their hands they soon revealed their nationalistic stances and this found practical expression in their educational policies. In the new schools, which were opened, by the Jadid Communist administrators, national concerns were paramount and students were indoctrinated not in Marxist theories but in the spirit of Turkic nationalism. Similarly, even after the proclamation of the People’s Republic of Bukhara, their program had a Pan Turkic bias. Though initially willing to join the Bolsheviks they soon became uneasy with the outrages committed by the Red troops, and in the summer of 1921 sent a representative to negotiate with the Basmachis. Enver Pasha’s arrival in Bukhara created a split in the Young Bukharans and a group of Bukharan “moderate radical reformists” joined Enver and his associates in order to attain their nationalist aspirations through direct confrontation with the regime that was establishing itself.

The Jadid movement contained within itself various possibilities, which found expression in the period of turmoil intervening between the fall of the Imperial regime and the establishment of Soviet power in the region. And the way in which each, in its own way, influenced the political development of the later period and refashioned the Revolution of 1917, remains significant.

Anita
10 November 2017