23.06.2013 Views

A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

214 A history of Inner Asia<br />

and military reach of revolutionary Tashkent.This congress was<br />

marked not only by an alliance of the conservative Ulema Jemiyeti with<br />

the progressive Shura-yi Islam, but also by the participation of non-<br />

Muslims brought there by their anti-Bolshevik sentiments.<br />

The congress elected a parliament, Khalq Shurasi (People’s Council;<br />

the word shura is a translation of the Russian sovet, “advice, council,”<br />

usually spelled in English as soviet), which consisted of fifty-four<br />

members: thirty-six of these were Muslims, while eighteen were<br />

Russians or other non-Muslims.Shir Ali Lapin became president of this<br />

parliament, which on 11 December 1917 nominated a committee of ten<br />

members that was meant to function as a provisional government.This<br />

parliament and government claimed to represent a territory and population<br />

identical with those claimed by the Soviet power in Tashkent:<br />

1,524,000 square kilometers and 5,363,000 inhabitants.The following<br />

resolution was adopted by the congress:<br />

The Fourth Extraordinary Congress, expressing the will of the peoples of<br />

Turkestan to self-determination in accordance with the principles proclaimed<br />

by the Great Russian Revolution, declares Turkestan territory autonomous in<br />

union with the Federal Democratic Republic of Russia.The elaboration of the<br />

form of autonomy of Turkestan is entrusted to the Constituent Assembly of<br />

Turkestan, which must be convened as soon as possible.The Congress solemnly<br />

pledges herewith that the rights of national minorities will be fully safeguarded.<br />

There thus developed in Turkestan a historic confrontation, from<br />

December 1917 to February 1918, between the predominantly Muslim<br />

regional government in Khoqand and the predominantly Russian one<br />

in Tashkent.In terms of national self-determination, the former could<br />

claim to be the more legitimate body; in the eyes of the Bolsheviks,<br />

however, it was a bourgeois government that had to be eliminated: for<br />

them, there was no compromise between the two, but the Muslims of<br />

Khoqand had not yet fully grasped to which side of the contradiction<br />

the central authorities in Moscow were leaning when in January 1918<br />

the Khalq Shurasi made an indirect appeal to the Bolshevik government<br />

that it honor its professed commitment to national self-determination.<br />

As People’s Commissar for Nationality Affairs, Stalin sent a sarcastic<br />

reply to the appeal from Khoqand that the Tashkent Soviet be dissolved:<br />

The [Tashkent] Soviets are autonomous in their internal affairs and they discharge<br />

their duties by depending upon their actual resources.The native proletariat<br />

of Turkestan, therefore, should not appeal to the Central Soviet Power<br />

with the request to dissolve the Turkestan Sovnarkom, which in their opinion is<br />

depending upon the non-Muslim army elements, but should themselves dissolve<br />

it by force, if such force is available to the native proletariat and peasants.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!