From May 31 to June 1, 2019, the international symposium “The 1916 Uprising in Central Asia: academic integration, new approaches and knowledge”  took place in Karakol.

 

Panel 4: Leadership and organization of the uprising.

 

Ryskul Zholdoshov. Urkun and its leaders.

Abstract: The tragedy of 1916 is preserved in the memory of the Kyrgyz. To this day, many testimonies exist about Urkun in the form of memories of participants and materials from the administration of the Russian Empire, which suppressed the uprisings by force. In Soviet times, a number of works devoted to the study of the uprising were published.

Memories were collected in publications but these works were not widely distributed among the population, because Soviet policy promoted only positive images of Russian leadership. The study of the Kyrgyz movement against the Russian Empire was not supported. Nonetheless, the movement was presented as opposing imperial rule, and called a national liberation movement.

It was assumed that the people were the initiators of the uprising, but nothing was said about the leaders, or they were condemned as henchmen of the bai-manaps. Not studying the leaders of the uprising and treating them as enemies was a consequence of the policy being pursued. For this reason, in the Soviet scientific literature, the view of the uprising as a folk movement without leaders became strong.

After the acquisition of independence by Kyrgyzstan, the need arose for comprehensive study of the great national tragedy of Urkun. To understand the essence of independence, it is necessary to study deeply the lessons of the past uprising, when oppressed people fought against the invaders. Only then can the Kyrgyz people appreciate how expensive freedom is. Colonial oppression and poor people who resisted, punitive detachments that destroyed everything and everyone without mercy, all this will be a lesson in order to value a freedom.

During the uprising, the Kyrgyz people lived in difficult conditions. Strong people took the role of leaders. If there were no such people, the losses would have been much greater. The participants in the uprising remember these people. The Turgai administration had a list of such people who were executed after the uprising. It is necessary to move away from the old Soviet stereotypes and study the role of the leaders of Urkun.

 

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