Basmachi Movement
The Basmachi was a Central Asian social and military movement organized in early 1918 to oppose units of the Red Army that, in February 1918, overthrew the Quqon (Kokand) Autonomy—a government established 26 November 1917 in today's eastern Uzbekistan by the fourth Extraordinary Regional Muslim Congress to address the interests of the non-Russian peoples of Central Asia. Those who escaped from the Communist takeover of the Quqon Autonomy, including intellectuals such as Zeki Validov Togan (1890–1969), formed the core of the Basmachi leadership. These intellectuals, some of whom espoused pan-Turkic ideals (holding that the various Turkic peoples of the world should somehow forge closer ties to each other), formed a loose coalition with other local figures, such as religious leaders who sought an Islamic state, nationalists, and the traditional elite from the Bukhara emirate and the Khiva khanate (ancient kingdoms also in today's Uzbekistan), after those entities fell to the Soviet advances and were established as "People's Republics" in 1920.
Though never unified, Basmachi forces were active in the Fergana Valley, parts of which are today in southern Uzbekistan and southeastern Tajikistan, as well as the region around the Aral Sea, from 1918 to 1922. Numbering several thousand (with some estimates as high as 20,000), Basmachi units continually threatened the new Soviet governments in the ancient city of Tashkent (in eastern Uzbekistan) and elsewhere, as well as the Bolshevik-backed regime in Bukhara.
In November 1921, Enver Pasa (1881–1922)—a Turk who was the hero of the Young Turk movement (Ottoman officers who sought to reform what they saw was a corrupt political system in Turkey) and an erstwhile supporter of the Bolshevik regime—defected to the Basmachi side and consolidated many of the forces in eastern Bukhara. However, before he could establish his legitimacy with the other local leaders, Enver Pasa was killed in a battle at Bal'juan (also spelled Balzhuan or Baljuwan; today in western Tajikistan) in August 1922. This effectively ended any effort by Basmachi leaders to present a common front against the ever-growing forces of Mikhail Frunze (1885–1925), the Russian Soviet Army commander.
Small units of the Basmachi fought on during the late 1920s and early 1930s against the collectivization campaign that the Soviets were attempting to institute in Central Asia, which placed both agricultural holdings and pastoral grounds under state ownership. Ibrahim Bek (d. 1932), an ethnic Uzbek, tried to revive the Basmachi movement at the time of the early collectivization campaign. His last attacks, into today's Tajikistan, took place in 1931. His capture that year was the last significant Basmachi event.
During the Soviet period, the term "Basmachi," which can be loosely translated as "bandit" or "brigand," carried a negative connotation. Soviet historiographers stressed the "illegal and backward nature" of the movement and contrasted it with the "positive" character of the Bolsheviks who "liberated" Central Asia. Since 1991, there has been a reevaluation of the Basmachi movement and a resultant positive portrayal of the leaders. Particularly in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, the heroic efforts of the fighters are highlighted, although the Islamic nature of some of the movement's factions is minimally addressed, given current concerns over Islamic extremism in the region.
Further Reading
Chokaev, Mustafa. (1928) "The Basmaji Movement in Turkestan." Asiatic Review 24, 78 (April): 273–288.
Fraser, Glenda. (1987) "Basmachi: I and II." Central Asia Survey 6, 1: 1–73; 6, 2: 7–42.
Paksoy, H. B. (1995) "Basmachi Movement from Within: Account of Zeki Validi Togan." Nationalities Papers 23, 2 (June): 373–399.
Ritter, William, S. (1985) "The Final Phase in the Liquidation of Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924–1931." Soviet Studies 37 (October): 484–493.
Yimaz, Suhnaz. (1999) "An Ottoman Warrior Abroad: Enver Pasa as an Expatriate." Middle Eastern Studies 35, 4 (October): 40–69.
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