The "national question" and the establishment of Soviet power in Turkestan (1917-1921)

When the Bolsheviks seized power, they faced the growth of national consciousness in all the national regions of Russia and the desire of local political elites to raise the political status of their regions. Turkestan is an illustrative example for analyzing the formation of Soviet power in the Asian region of Russia directly associated with the solution of the national question. The article describes the national policy development of the RCP(b) in Turkestan on the example of the implementation by Bolsheviks of the main indigenous national elite demand - national autonomy, but in the form of the Soviet Republic. A crucial event in the solution of the national question in the region was the Turkestan Commission arrival in the early 1920s, which indicated the establishment of Moscow's control over the actions of local authorities. Until that time, the nature of the Soviet regime in Turkestan was the actual continuation of the Imperial colonial rule. In conclusion, one can see that the Bolsheviks national policy was subordinated to the task of preserving and strengthening Soviet power. Its success was largely due to the fact that the political flexibility of Lenin, the party was being held hostage to their theoretical schemes by the national question and started to correct the increasing importance of national factors in relation to the class one. At the same time, the Central leadership of the RCP(b) had to overcome the strong inertia of colonial attitudes and approach to governance by local Russian leaders and the republican and party officials who did not join the course on attracting the indigenous population to governance. In the end, Moscow, with the help of the Turkestan Commission, managed to establish acceptable Soviet state interests at that time, the model of national Turkestan autonomy, and begin the formation of indigenous national elites loyal to the new government. Although the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Republic as a self-determination form of the population of the region was given a class and unitary character, its proclamation in conjunction with other steps of the RCP(b) on the solution of the national question became a factor in the maintainance of the Soviet government. The significant role of the Turkestan Commission in implementing the national policy was the fact that it was able to seize the initiative and to formulate a response to a challenge from the native communist elite headed by Turar Ryskulov, which suggested that the Turkic identity as a national criterion for the transformation of the Republic and of the party from Turkestan to Turkic, and called for greater rights of autonomy. It was preferable for Soviet Russia to guide national consolidation in the direction of ethno-cultural self-determination of the population of the region rather than in the way of the political formation of a Turkic nation, encouraging sentiments of pan-Turkism widespread among the Muslim Communists.

Keywords

Authors

References