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Central Asian revolt of 1916 | |||||||
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Part of the Asian and Pacific theater of World War I[3][4] | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
2,325 killed[13] 1,384 missing[13] Total: 7,562 dead | unknown | ||||||
~100,000–270,000[14][15] or 500,000[16] Central Asian civilians (Turks, Tajiks) dead | |||||||
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History of Kyrgyzstan |
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The Central Asian revolt of 1916, also known as the Semirechye Revolt[17] and as Urkun[18] (Kyrgyz: Үркүн, romanized: Ürkün, lit. 'Exodus', , IPA: [yrˈkyn]) in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, was an anti-Russian uprising by the indigenous inhabitants of Russian Turkestan sparked by the conscription of Muslims into the Russian military for service on the Eastern Front during World War I. The rampant corruption of the Russian colonial regime and Tsarist colonialism with regards to its economic, political, religious, and national dimensions are all seen as contributing causes.
The revolt led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz and Kazakhs into China, while the suppression of the revolt by the Imperial Russian Army led to around 100,000 to 270,000 deaths (mostly Kyrgyz and Kazakhs, but also Tajiks, Turkmen, and Uzbeks) both directly and indirectly.[14] Deaths of Central Asians were either the result of violence by the Russian army, disease, or famine. The Russian state was not able to restore order to parts of the Empire until after the outbreak of the October Revolution, and the subsequent Basmachi revolt (1916–1923) further destabilized the Central Asian region.
The USSR regime's censorship of the history surrounding the Central Asian revolt of 1916 and the Basmachi revolt has led both Central Asian and international researchers to revisit the topic in the 2010s. The revolt is considered a seminal event in the modern histories of several Central Asian peoples. Special importance is given to the event in Kyrgyz historiography due to the fact that perhaps has many as 40% of the ethnic Kyrgyz population died during or in the aftermath of the revolt.
Alexander Kerensky and some Russian historians were the first to bring international attention to these events.[19]
The Revolt of 1916 in Russian Central Asia is an aspect of the history of the First World War and the history of Russia which has, unfortunately, been sorely neglected in the English literature on the period.
The perceptions of the war in Semirech'e suggest that we ought to view the rebellion as an integral part of World War I. The war in Semirech'e was a war on the domestic front brought about by the war fought on the foreign front.
The events are known in Kyrgyzstan as "Urkun" ("exodus").