Full
name
The Basmachi Movement
Short
name
The Basmachi
Years
of activity
1910s – 1930s
Leaders
Irgash
Madaminbek (Muhammad Amin Ahmadbek)
Enver Pasha
Kurshirmat (Shir Muhammad-beк Gazi)
Junaid Khan
Ibrohimbek
Basmachism (Turk.: “başmak” – to attack) was a military-political and religious movement in Central Asia that fought against the Soviet government. It arose due to the growth of the national consciousness of the peoples of Central Asia, the spread of ideas of pan-Islamism and pan-Turkism in the region. The Basmachi movement was strongly influenced by the rise of the Muslims of Central Asia against the Russian settlers and the central government in connection with the decree of Nicholas II of June 25, 1916, “On the involvement of the Empire’s male foreign population to construct defensive structures and military communications in the area of the active army, as well as for any other work necessary for state defense”.
After the February Revolution, Basmachism was led by the parties “Milli-Ittihat” (“National Association”), “Shura-i-Islamia” (“Council of Islam”), “Shura-i-Ulemia” (“Council of the Clergy”) and sought to create the Turkestan (Kokand) autonomy. After the proclamation of Soviet power in Turkestan (the territory of the Turkestan Governorate General in the Russian Empire) in November–December 1917, the movement became anti-Soviet. The Ferghana Valley, Northern Tajikistan, Eastern Bukhara were the main Basmachi areas.
Kurshirmat (Shir Muhammadbek). 1920s.
Shir Muhammadbek Gazi (1890–1917),
field commander (kurbashi) of the Basmachi who operated in the east of the Ferghana Valley in 1921. During World War II, he worked for Turkish, German, and Japanese intelligence services, and collaborated with Nazi Germany.
Enver Pasha. 1911.
Enver Ismail (1881–1922),
a Turkish military and political figure, one of the Basmachi leaders.
A group of Basmachi captured by a detachment of the Red Army. The Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic. 1922.
SMPHR. F. III-28770
The trial of the Fuzail Maksum group’s Basmachi. Turkestan ASSR, Andijan.
August 1923.
Fuzail Maksum, field commander (kurbashi) of the Basmachi. He fought with the Red Army in Dushanbe and Hisor. Collaborated with Ibrohimbek, Kurshirmat, Enver Pasha. In 1923, Maksum’s group was surrounded by the Red Army, and he fled to Afghanistan. He repeatedly invaded the Soviet territory. Fuzail Maksum was killed in the 1930s.
Arrested Ibrohimbek (on the right) in a car before being sent to Tashkent for trial.
Stalinabad. Summer of 1931.
Ibrohimbek (Chakabay, Chakabayev) (1889–1931), field commander (kurbashi) of the Basmachi, one of the leaders of the Basmachi movement in Eastern Bukhara.
