Revolt of 1916 in Kazakhstan PREPARED BY SPECIAL

Revolt of 1916 in Kazakhstan PREPARED BY SPECIAL GROUP OF MECHANICS

Revolt of 1916 in Kazakhstan

• Revolt of 1916 in Kazakhstan, being a complicated phenomenon and to a certain extent contradictory, is one of the brightest pages in the chronicles of the liberation movement of the Kazakh people. It took place at the height of the imperialist world war, in terms of a powerful upsurge of the working and peasant movement in Russia. • The First World War, in which Kazakhstan has been involved as a colony of Russia, intensified all the contradictions that have accumulated in the economic and political life of the region. The continuation of migration policy, confiscation of livestock, property of Kazakhs for military needs caused the powerful revolt in the summer of 1916, which was merged with the February Revolution in Russia. The appearance of the Kazakh political party "Alash" raised the national liberation movement to a new level, and raised questions about the territorial autonomy for the Kazakhs.

• The First World War, which began in the summer of 1914, immediately showed the backwardness of tsarist Russia in economic and technical terms. Separate victory of the Russian army could not correct the overall situation on the front, and Russia during 1915 1916 lost much of its western lands. The failures on the fronts required new resources, human and material. The labor shortage has created a crisis in many sectors of the economy. • The economy of Kazakhstan suffered heavily during the war. Taxes increased by 3 4 times, in some cases, by 15 times. A special military tax was entered. The abuse in all links of colonial administration was continued. In addition to direct and indirect taxes the various "donations" were collected, in which cattle and yurts were collected from Kazakhs. During the three years of war, only from Turkestan Region 70 thousand horses, 12. 7 thousand camels, more than 13 thousand yurts were taken.

• The call of Kazakhs to the rear works caused rise to the top of a powerful revolt Kazakhs and other Central Asian peoples against Russian colonialism. Movement developed elemental and at different times in different areas. By the end of July beginning of August 1916 riots ensued grow into the revolt, gradually engulfed almost all of Kazakhstan. The tsarist government frightened by the scale of revolt on July 20 announced the postponement of the call until the harvest, and on 30 July to postpone until 15 September 1916. However, to extinguish the flame of anti colonial revolt of Kazakhs was failed.

Reason, cause, and purpose of revolt. • The main reasons for the uprising were the factors of socio economic and political challenges: strengthening of colonial oppression, confiscation of land, the increase of taxes and levies, the exploitation of workers, the Russification policy pursued by the tsarist government in respect of the Kazakh and other indigenous peoples of the region, the sharp deterioration of the general public in connection with the war. • The immediate cause of the revolt was the royal decree of 25 June 1916 on the mobilization of the army to the rear of the non Russian male population in Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Siberia, and partly in age from 19 to 43 years, requisitioned to be used to work on the device defenses and military communications paths in the army. From Kazakhstan and Central Asia should be requisitioned 400 thousand people, including those from the Kazakh steppe regions more than 100 thousand, Semirech'e 87 thousand.

• The purpose of the uprising in 1916 was a national political liberation, which sums up all the previous struggle of Kazakh people for freedom and independence. • In late June 1916 the Russian government made a new and disruptive demand. The tsar called for conscription into labor brigades of the indigenous population, aged 18 through 43, from the Caucasian oblasts and Turkestan and steppe regions; this was at a time when the Russian army was seriously understaffed and the front was collapsing. The manifesto was a response to mounting military pressures, without regard to complaints from Central Asia that violence against Russians was increasing. Compliance was not difficult to obtain in the Caucasus, but in Central Asia opposition was immediate and violent. An uprising rapidly spread throughout the affected regions, worsening the economic situation and further alienating the already hostile subject populations.

• The ukase called for the conscription of 390, 000 men from the Turkestan and steppe regions. In the Kazakh regions 87, 000 men were to be drafted from Semirech'e, 60, 000 from Syr Darya, 50, 000 from Uralsk, 40, 000 from Ak molinsk, 60, 000 from Turgai, and 8, 500 from the Semipalatinsk oblast; the first wave of conscription was to concentrate on 18 to 31 year olds. Mobiliza tion began with the dissemination of the ukase, and so too did violent re sistance. It took some time for word of the conscription order to spread throughout the Steppe. Word of the order reached Semipalatinsk on June 28, 1916. and Akmolinsk on June 29, accompanied by a statement from the governor general of the steppe that conscription was to begin on June 30.

• In the uezds of Semireche and Syr Darya mobilization began on July 2, when men in the immediate vicinity of uezd centers who seemed to be the appropriate age were rounded up to demonstrate the seriousness of the con scription order. In Tashkent 13. 182 men «ere drafted in Chimkent 9. 682. in Aulie Ata 13, 104. in Perovsk 6, 670, and in Kazalinsk 9, 744. Plans for the systematic extension of conscription throughout the countryside were depen dent on the support of the indigenous leadership. Russian officials expected to disseminate the proclamation by having the mullahs read to the congregants in their mosques; these mullahs and elders were also expected to generate lists of draft eligible youth from their communities. Some officials did cooperate but used their authority for personal gains by, for example, forgetting to include the names of their relatives and those of their allies while having no lapse of memory with those of their rivals. However, strong popular sentiment quickly dissuaded those Central Asian officials who tried to cooperate; they became the first victims of the violence caused by the draft decree. Accounts of Kazakh attacks on ciders employed by the Russians (primarily aul administrators and scribes) appear on police blotters in the Birmola volost (Akmolinsk) on July 11, Karam volost (fernyi) and Bistiubinsk volost (Kustanai) on July 12, and Akkargin volost (Vernyi) on August 22. Nevertheless, the most fierce Kazakh resistance was saved for the Russian officials.

The revolt in Kazakhstan. • Organized open resistance began first among the Turkestani population. On July 4 Russian officials in Samarkand reported pockets of fighting through out the city, while the local garrison was encountering heavy and organized resistance in the old city. The uprising quickly spread, first engulfing the Samarkand uezd and then the oblast. Organized resistance began in the old city of Tashkent on July 11 and spread to Fergana and throughout the Fergana oblast. The Tashkent uprising was an important spark for both Kazakh and Kirgiz resistance. Kazakhs living in or traveling through Tashkent from Syr Darya hurried home to help organize resistance to this latest Russian outrage; among them was Turar Ryskulov, who later rose to fame and then fell to ignominy as a Bolshevik leader in Kazakhstan.

• The Russian authorities tried to intimidate the Central Asian insurgents into submission by announcing stiff penalties on July 19. Any attack on Russian property or on a Russian official in the course of duty (which included all those making lists of potential conscriptees) became a punishable offense. This strategy seems only to have strengthened the popular will to resist. By early August the uprising had spread throughout the Syr Darya oblast, and detach ments of between 5, 000 and occasionally even 8, 000 armed natives-Kazakhs, Uzbeks-attacked Russian troops along the Tashkent-Orenburg railroad. " Russian troops battled the insurgents throughout September; by mid-October the uprising in Syr Darya had been reduced to sporadic attacks Groups of Kazakh fighters fled to the Irgiz and Turgai uezds, where organized resistance to the Russians continued.

Conclusion • Revolt of 1916 has a special place in the history of centuries of the national liberation movement of the Kazakh people. Under imperialism and World War A. Imanov and other leaders of the uprising raised the people to fight for independence, which Syrym Datov, Isatay Taimanov, M. Utemisov. Kenesary and Nauryzbai Kasymov started at their time. The first time after the national liberation movement under the leadership of Kenesary Kasymov revolt of 1916 had a nationwide Kazakh character, covering all regions of the vast region. The revolt had anti political and anti imperialist directionality, class time (the struggle against the feudal lords of the aul) was secondary in comparison with the main task of the national uprising and political emancipation of the people.

• Revolt spread the whole of Kazakhstan and has grown into a national liberation movement against the military colonialist and widespread Russification policy of tsarism, against feudal Bai top villages. The purpose of revolt in 1916 was a national political liberation, which sums up all the previous struggle of Kazakh people for freedom and independence. In general, the liberation movement of 1916 in Kazakhstan, was mono national, except of its southern regions (Semirech’e and Syr Darya), where Uighurs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Dungan and others participated along with the Kazakhs. In Kazakh society related to the decree of the King and revolt was ambiguous, certain part of the feudal elite Bai, officials of the indigenous administration unconditionally supported the king's decree. Radical representatives of the Kazakh intellectuals (Bokin, Niyazbekov, Zhunusov) opposed and called people to armed resistance, the leaders of the liberal democratic intellectuals, united around the newspaper "Kazakh" (Baitursynov, Bukeikhanov, Dulatov) held indecisive attitude. They repeatedly tried to convince the royal administration not to rush to mobilize, to make the arrangements at the same time called for not to resist to implementation of the decree, believing that unarmed people will become a victim of brutal repression of tsarism.

• Thus, tsarism has failed to quell the revolt of the Kazakhs, but socioeconomic position of the Kazakh Aul during the revolt has deteriorated. Many farms were looted by punitive, part of the rebels had been under the necessity to migrate to China and Mongolia. In general, over these years the number of Kazakhs in the Russian Empire fell by more than 600, 000 people.

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