What was the Turkic Committee in a political sense – the last chord of old Russia or the first chord of a new one? The answer to this question was given by Ph.D. Tatyana Kotyukova from the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, whose article was published in the journal Social and Humanitarian Sciences.
RIA Novosti
The bulk of the indigenous population was not involved in the ongoing political events and did not understand their meaning.
As the author writes, the short era of the existence of the Turkestan Committee of the Provisional Government (Turk Committee) came at a time saturated with larger events that pushed the history of the first democratic government of Turkestan into the background.
“There are two diametrically opposed assessments of the degree of involvement of Turkestan Muslims in the political processes of 1917,” reports Tatyana Kotyukova. “Some authors believe that the bulk of the indigenous population was not involved in the ongoing political events and did not understand their meaning.
Others believed that the political activity of representatives of the indigenous peoples of Turkestan, mainly its middle and lower strata, increased significantly at this time.”
They learned about the fall of autocracy in Russia and the transfer of power into the hands of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma in Tashkent on February 28, 1917. The last governor-general of the Turkestan region, Kuropatkin, recognized the new government, and the Provisional Government recognized him as its commissar in Turkestan.
The birth of the Turkic Committee occurred on April 7, 1917, when, instead of the old administration, the Turkestan Committee of the Provisional Government was formed by a special decision. Former member of the State Duma, cadet Shchepkin, was appointed chairman.
The Turkestan Committee was supposed to become a kind of ministry cooperating with the local population. Local representatives of the committee were simultaneously given the rights and responsibilities of chairmen of zemstvo councils and governors. The Turkic Committee also had the task of organizing and holding elections to the Constituent Assembly.
However, disagreements began with the Tashkent Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, which was formed a little earlier than the Turkic Committee. On May 9, 1917, a message from the Turkic Committee appeared in the local press about the cessation of its activities due to the reorganization of the Provisional Government and disagreements with the Tashkent Council, but three days later the new composition of the Provisional Government confirmed the powers of the Turkic Committee.
“The Bolsheviks for Turkestan were a relatively young political force. Basically, these were people who came to the region in the wake of the February events. They were poorly versed in the local specifics, but at the same time they were extremely passionate and clearly formulated their goals and objectives,” the researcher notes.
On September 11, a meeting of regional democratic organizations was created in Tashkent, and the Bolsheviks proposed to declare it a Revolutionary Committee and transfer full power to it. Their proposal was rejected, and already on September 12, the Bolsheviks organized a rally of six thousand workers and soldiers of Tashkent. Three resolutions were put to the vote. The meeting rejected the Socialist Revolutionary and Menshevik options and adopted the Bolshevik resolution.
“Having removed representatives of the authorities appointed by the Provisional Government in the city and arrested members of the regional Council of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, the Tashkent Soviet tried to seize power throughout Turkestan,” writes Kotyukova. “A Provisional Revolutionary Committee was elected, consisting of 14 people: five Bolsheviks, two Mensheviks , five Socialist Revolutionaries and two anarchists. Under his leadership, a coup attempt was made.”
The Chairman of the Turkic Committee Nalivkin sent a telegram to Petrograd asking for armed assistance to be sent to Tashkent. In his response telegram, Kerensky wrote that the actions of the Tashkent Soviet were clearly counter-revolutionary and would be recognized as a rebellion with all the ensuing consequences.
At the end of October, armed clashes began in Tashkent. By the evening of October 31, the entire city was occupied by revolutionary soldiers and workers. And on the morning of November 1, revolutionary detachments broke into the Tashkent fortress, where supporters of the Provisional Government were located. At the same time, mass arrests were made. This is how Soviet power was established in Tashkent.
Source: rodina-history.ru
