Basmachi Movement

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Basmachi movement or Basmachi Revolt was a Muslim and largely Turkic uprising against Russian Empire and Soviet Russia rule in Central Asia. The movement started in 1916 during World War I as an anti-tsarist and anti-Russian revolt and it developed into a long-time civil war against the Soviets. Soviet sources portrayed it as a movement of the Islamic...
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Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Basmachi movement or Basmachi Revolt was a Muslim and largely Turkic uprising against Russian Empire and Soviet Russia rule in Central Asia. The movement started in 1916 during World War I as an anti-tsarist and anti-Russian revolt and it developed into a long-time civil war against the Soviets. Soviet sources portrayed it as a movement of the Islamic fundamentalism, together with common thugs and rabble-rousers as well as Islamic radicals. The rebels who started the revolt were called Basmachi, or 'Bandits', a deliberately pejorative term. The term was applied by the Soviets to their Muslim opponents active in Central Asia between the Russian revolution and the 1930s. Other historians would argue that many ordinary peasants and nomads who opposed the cultural imperialism of Russia, and, perhaps more important, objected to Soviet harsh policies and requisitioning of food and livestock, were an important component of the rebel base, also taking into account that Soviet authorities continued the colonization politics of the tsarist regime. However, Muslim traditionalism and Pan-Turanism were two important components of the movement and common bandits were also present.