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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Tajikistan
Index
The indigenous inhabitants of the former Guberniya of Turkestan played
no role in the overthrow of the Russian monarchy in March 1917 or in the
seizure of power by the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) in November of
that year. But the impact of those upheavals soon was felt in all parts of
Central Asia. After the fall of the monarchy, Russia's Provisional
Government abolished the office of governor-general of Turkestan and
established in its place a nine-member Turkestan Committee, in which
Russians had the majority and provided the leadership. The Provisional
Government, which ruled Russia between March and November 1917, was
unwilling to address the specific concerns of Central Asian reformers,
including regional autonomy. Central Asians received no seats in Russia's
short-lived Constituent Assembly. The events of 1917 finally alienated
both conservatives and radicals from the revolution.
In 1917 the soviets (local revolutionary assemblies including soldiers
and workers) that sprang up in Russian areas of Turkestan and Bukhoro were
composed overwhelmingly of Russians. In November 1917, a regional congress
of soviets in Tashkent declared a revolutionary regime and voted by a wide
margin to continue the policies of the Provisional Government. Thus,
Central Asians again were denied political representation. Eventually,
local communists established a figurehead soviet for Central Asians.
Having been denied access to the revolutionary organs of power, Central
Asian reformers and conservatives formed their own organizations, as well
as an umbrella group, the National Center. Although the groups cooperated
on some issues of common interest, considerable animosity and occasional
violence marked their relations. One group of Central Asian Muslims
declared an autonomous state in southern Central Asia centered in the city
of Quqon. At the beginning of 1919, the Tashkent Soviet declared the Quqon
group counterrevolutionary and seized the city, killing at least 5,000
civilians.
Meanwhile, in 1918 the Tashkent Soviet had been defeated soundly in its
effort to overthrow the amir of Bukhoro, who was seen by the communists
and the Central Asian reformers alike as an obstacle to their respective
programs. The attempted coup provoked a campaign of repression by the
amir, and the defeat forced the Russian authorities in Tashkent to
recognize a sovereign Bukhoran state in place of a Russian protectorate.
Data as of March 1996
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