The first clash of the Basmachi with the Red Guards took place in the Kokand region, where at the end of November 1917, the Turkestan (Kokand) Autonomy was proclaimed. In November 1917 – February 1918, the armed forces of the Autonomy were based on a military detachment headed by kurbashi (field commander) Irgash. The Red Guards defeated the detachment in February 1918, and Irgash fled to China. He came back to the Ferghana territory in the spring of 1918 with a detachment reaching 4 thousand people but was again defeated in clashes with the Reds.

 

Since that time, Basmachism in the territory of Ferghana became a guerrilla war. In the summer of 1918, the former police chief of Old Margelan, Madaminbek (Muhammad Amin Ahmadbek), proclaimed himself the commander of a Basmachi detachment called the “Muslim White Guard”. In November 1918, it raided the Russian settlements of the Ferghana Valley, which resulted in a clash with the Peoples’ Peasant Army led by Konstantin Monstrov (it was formed at the end of 1918 by Russian immigrants to protect their lands). In the summer of 1919, Madaminbek and Monstrov concluded an agreement on a joint struggle against the Bolsheviks. The movement got based in the city of Jalal-Abad, where Madaminbek and Monstrov allied with the people of Aleksander Kolchak and the leaders of local rebel groups. After that, Madaminbek and Monstrov occupied Uzgen. In September 1919, they besieged Andijan, from where they retreated to the mountainous regions of Ferghana under the onslaught of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. In October 1919, in the border fortification of Irkeshtam, the congress of Basmachi leaders elected the Provisional Ferghana Government headed by Madaminbek with Konstantin Monstrov becoming his deputy.

 

To fight the Basmachi in August 1919, the Turkestan Front was formed under the command of Mikhail Frunze. After communication with the Russian SFSR was restored (September 1919), the Red Army troops switched from the defense on the territory of the Ferghana Valley to operations to destroy Basmachi detachments in their places of deployment. Under these conditions, Monstrov and then Madaminbek defected to the side of the Soviet government. Later, Madaminbek was killed for this by another Basmachi leader, Kurshirmat (Shir Muhammadbek).

 

The number of Kurshirmat detachments (which were called the “Army of Islam”) reached 6.5 thousand people. They operated in the eastern part of Ferghana in the spring and summer of 1920. This section became the most dangerous in Central Asia where the main forces of the Turkestan Front were sent to. By April 1921, Kurshirmat’s detachments were defeated and he fled to Afghanistan. The Ferghana Valley was finally cleared of the Basmachi by 1924.

 

In the area of Khiva and the Karakum desert, the Basmachi were led by the former ruler of Khiva, Junaid Khan. In January 1918, with a detachment of 1,600 people, he broke into Khiva and de facto seized power. In alliance with the Transcaspian Provisional Government, he launched a struggle against the Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic. After the Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic was proclaimed, Junaid Khan fled to Karakum, then to Persia. Until 1931, he had repeatedly made armed attacks on the territory of the USSR.

 

In Eastern Bukhara, the Basmachi were active since the spring of 1919. The Emir of Bukhara Alim Khan tried to stay on the throne with their help and launch a struggle against the Turkestan SFR (since September 1920 – Turkestan ASSR). The main Basmachi detachments were led by Ibrohimbek. At the end of 1921, the Basmachi of Eastern Bukhara got a new leader, the Turkish military and political figure, Enver Pasha. He established ties with Kurshirmat and Junaid Khan, captured Dushanbe in early February 1922, and launched an offensive against Bukhara. To fight Enver Pasha, on April 1, 1922, the Basmachi Front (Basmfront, since April 15, the Bukhara Group of Troops) was formed as part of the Turkestan Front. Soon the main forces of Enver Pasha were defeated. He was killed on August 4, 1922.

 

In 1923, the combined groups of Basmachi were led by the Turkish officer Selim Pasha (Khoja Selim-bey), who together with Ibrohimbek tried to capture Bukhara in March 1923, but failed. Further active operations against the Soviet authorities on the territory of Eastern Bukhara were primarily associated with the name of Ibrohimbek who applied for financial support to the former Emir of Bukhara, Alim Khan. During two operations in 1925 and 1926, the Red Army forces, under General Semyon Budyonny, defeated the main Basmachi detachments, and Ibrohimbek fled to Afghanistan. From there, with a detachment of 2–3 thousand people, he repeatedly made armed attacks on the territory of the USSR. In 1931, during another invasion, he was arrested by a special detachment of the Unified States Political Directorate (OGPU), convicted, and shot.

 

Further on, the Basmachi movement no longer reached its former scope and organization. The last groups of the Basmachi were liquidated by the end of the 1930s.