The motive and the beginning of the 1916 uprising in Semirechye

Abstract

The article analyzes the events that gave an immediate boost to the beginning of the popular uprising in 1916 which swept through the territory of Turkestan. The immediate cause of the beginning of the unrest in the Semirechye was the highest command of attracting the male indigenous population of the Empire for rear guard work from 25 June 1916. The author concludes that the ill-conceived decree on the requisition of the native population to work in the rear, passed in the midst of the harvest, and the subsequent imposition of martial law in Turkestan, as well as illegal and unjust actions of the Russian and native administration provoked mass popular demonstrations. The actions of representatives of the Imperial administration and local Semirechye judicial authorities from Russia were manifestly unfair in respect to Kyrgyz and Kazakhs. Moreover, we consider the question of the provocative role the authorities played in the organization of the “Kyrgyz revolt”, and, in spite of the discontent, all the parish lists of workers were already drawn up. Refs 24.