POLITICAL BASMACHISM AND ITS CURRENT SITUATION

The wounds left by the 1916 uprising had not yet healed, the brutal atrocities committed by the Russians in suppressing that massive revolt had not been forgotten, and the national lessons drawn from the uprising had not faded from memory when the October Revolution took place. Turkestan, which had long been engaged in relentless struggles for freedom against Tsarist Russia, took advantage of Russia’s internal weakness and openly raised the issue of its national independence and national statehood.