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Bukharan People's Soviet Republic (1920–1924) بخارا خلق شورالر جمهوریتی بۇخارا خەلق شورالەر جۇمھۇرییەتى Buxoro Xalq Shoʻro Jumhuriyati (Uzbek) Бухарская Народная Советская Республика (Russian) جمهوری خلقی شوروی بخارا Ҷумҳурии Халқии Шӯравии Бухоро (Tajik) Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic (1924) بۇخارا ئیجتیماعیی شورالەر جۇمھۇرییەتى Buxoro Sotsialistik Shoʻro Jumhuriyati (Uzbek) Бухарская Социалистическая Советская Республика (Russian) جمهوری اجتماعی شوروی بخارا Ҷумҳурии Сотсиалистии Шӯравии Бухоро (Tajik) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920–1924 | |||||||||||||
 Flag  State Emblem | |||||||||||||
| Motto: Butun dunyo proletarlari, birlashingiz! "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" | |||||||||||||
.svg) The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic in 1922 | |||||||||||||
| Capital | Bukhara | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Uzbek · Tajik · Russian | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam Sufism (Naqshbandi) Judaism | ||||||||||||
| Demonym | Bukharan | ||||||||||||
| Government | Soviet republic | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar period | ||||||||||||
| 2 September 1920 | |||||||||||||
• Established | 8 October 1920 | ||||||||||||
• Part ofUSSR | 27 October 1924 | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• Total | 182,193 km2 (70,345 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• Estimate | 2,200,000 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Uzbekistan Tajikistan Turkmenistan | ||||||||||||
TheBukharan People's Soviet Republic[a] was aSoviet state that governed the formerEmirate of Bukhara during the years immediately following theRussian Revolution. In 1924, its name was changed to theBukharan Socialist Soviet Republic (Bukharan SSR)[b]. After theredrawing of regional borders, its territory was assigned mostly to theUzbek SSR and some to theTurkmen SSR.
In 1868, theRussian Empire forced theEmirate of Bukhara to acceptprotectorate status. Over the next 40 years, the Russians slowly eroded Bukhara's territory, although they never actually annexed the city ofBukhara itself. However, theemir could not shut out all outside influences, and gradually some of the disaffected youth of Bukhara gravitated toPan-Turkism, inspired by theYoung Turks in theOttoman Empire,[citation needed] ideas taken from theIslamic Jadid reform movement, and the newBolshevik-inspired communism. These various ideologies coalesced in theYoung Bukharans (Russian:младобухарцы,mladobukhartsy), led byFayzulla Xoʻjayev.
The Young Bukharans faced extreme obstacles as the emirate was dominated by conservativeSunni Islamic clergy. The ensuing conflict pitted the secular Young Bukharans and their Bolshevik supporters against the conservative pro-emir rebels, theBasmachi, in a conflict that lasted more than a decade.
In March 1918, the Young Bukharan activists informed the Bolsheviks that the Bukharan people were ready for the revolution and awaiting liberation from the emir. The Red Army marched to the gates of Bukhara and demanded that the emir surrender the city to the Young Bukharans. A Russian source reports that the emir responded by killing the Bolshevik delegation and incited the population to ajihad against the Bolshevik "infidels".[1][unreliable source?] Thousands of Russians were killed in these religious riots in Bukhara and the surrounding areas; many Young Bukharans were arrested and executed; the main railway and communication links from Bukhara toChardjui andSamarkand were destroyed.[citation needed]
However, the emir had won only a temporary respite. By August 1920 theTurkestan Bolsheviks advocated the liquidation of the Bukhara Emirate as a centre for counter-revolutionary forces. On 3 August 1920 the Bolsheviks and the Young Bukharans agreed to act together on the understanding that the Young Bukharans would join the Communist Party. On 16 August 1920 the 4th Congress of Bukharan Communist Party held in Bolshevik-controlled Chardjui decided to overthrow the emir. On 25 August 1920 thePolitburo of theRussian Communist Party of Bolsheviks confirmed orders for the Revolutionary Military Council of Turkestan concerning the "Bukhara question".[1]
On 28 August 1920, an army of well-disciplined and well equippedRed Army troops under the command of Bolshevik generalMikhail Frunze attacked the city of Bukhara. On 31 August 1920, the EmirAlim Khan fled toDushanbe in Eastern Bukhara (later he escaped from Dushanbe toKabul inAfghanistan). On 2 September 1920, after four days of fighting, the emir's citadel (theArk) was destroyed, the red flag was raised from the top ofKalyan Minaret. On 14 September 1920, the All-Bukharan Revolutionary Committee was set up, headed by A. Mukhitdinov. The government – the Council of People's Nazirs (seenāẓir) – was presided over byFaizullah Khojaev.[1][2]
The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was proclaimed on 8 October 1920 underFayzulla Xoʻjayev. In Soviet terminology, the republic was a "revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of theproletariat and thepeasantry", a transition stage to a Soviet Socialist Republic. A new constitution was adopted in September 1921, which, contrary to theRussian Constitution of 1918, allowed private ownership of land and productive assets and granted voting rights to non-proletarians (although relatives of the deposed emir, former emirate officials, and large landowners could not vote).[3]
Although the constitution adopted on September 25, 1921, based the sovereignty of the republic on soviets, it achieved a significant compromise with traditionalIslamic principles. According to Article 26 of the constitution, no law of the republic could contradict the fundamental principles of Islam. Moreover, unlike theSoviet model, the constitution guaranteed the right to private property and the authority of citizens to dispose of their movable and immovable possessions. In local administration, the long-establishedaksakal system, in which villagers elected their own representatives, was preserved.[4]
The overthrow of the emir was the impetus for theBasmachi Revolt, a conservative anti-communist rebellion. In 1922, most of the territory of the republic (East Bukhara, roughly from Hisor to West Pamir) was controlled by Basmachi,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] and it took theRed Army until 1934 to fully suppress the revolt. At the end of 1921,Enver Pasha assumed the leadership of the movement and unified the struggle against the Soviets with the aim of establishing a “Muslim state” acrossTurkestan. However, he was killed in Baljuan in 1922.[17]
During the first few years of the Russian Revolution,Lenin relied on a policy of encouraging local revolutions under the aegis of the localbourgeoisie, and in the early years of Bolshevik rule the Communists sought the assistance of the Jadid reformists in pushing through radical social and educational reforms. Just two weeks after the proclamation of the People's Republic,Communist Party membership in Bukhara soared to 14,000 as many local inhabitants were eager to prove their loyalty to the new regime. As theSoviet Union stabilized, it could afford to purge itself of so-called opportunists and potentialnationalists. A series of expulsions[18][19][20][21] stripped membership down to 1000 by 1922.[citation needed]
Immediately after the revolution, the Revolutionary Committee (Revkom) promised the nationalization of land, water, and the means of production, as well as their redistribution to landless peasants. However, most of these promises could not be fully implemented due to internal resistance and a lack of resources.[22]
The most radical change in the cultural sphere was the recognition ofUzbek as the state language. This policy aimed to shift the state fromPersian, the language of the elites, to the language of the broader population. In the field of education, Minister of EducationAbdurrauf Fitrat sought to modernize the system by sending many students to European universities, particularly inGermany, and by introducing secular sciences into the curricula of madrasas.[23]
The above was reflected in the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic's flag, as designed upon its foundation, combining the CommunistHammer and Sickle with the traditionalCrescent, which had appeared in the flag of theEmirate of Bukhara as well as in those of theOttoman Empire and various other Islamic states. Conversely, the flags of the Soviet Republics among which the Bukharan territory was divided in 1924 featured the Hammer and Sickle alone, omitting the Crescent.
From 1923 onward,Moscow increased its pressure on local governance, and figures such asStalin and Pozdnyshev accused the Bukharan government of “bourgeois nationalism” and of neglecting class interests. As a result of these pressures, extensive purges were carried out within both the government and theCommunist Party. At theFifth Congress, convened on September 19, 1924, the state changed its name to the “Socialist Republic.” Shortly thereafter, within the framework of the National Delimitation ofCentral Asia, a decision was made to dissolve the republic and to divide its territory between the newly establishedUzbek SSR andTajik ASSR. With this decision, the centuries-old Bukharan state disappeared from the political map.[24]
From 19 September 1924 to 27 October 1924, the Republic was known as the Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic (Bukharan SSR). Whennew national boundaries were drawn up in 1924, the Bukharan SSR voted itself out of existence and became part of the new Uzbek SSR. Today the territory of the defunct Bukhara SSR lies mostly inUzbekistan with parts inTajikistan andTurkmenistan.
Khojaev, despite his Jadid background, became the first President of the Uzbek SSR. He was laterpurged and executed in the 1930s together with much of theintelligentsia ofCentral Asia.
| Name | Took office | Left office | Party | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chairmen of the Central Revolutionary Committee | |||||
| Mirzo Abduqodir Mansurovich Mukhitdinov | 2 September 1920 | 22 September 1921 | Communist Party of Bukhara | StyledChairman of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee from 2 September to 6 October 1920 | |
| Polat Usmon Khodzhayev | 25 September 1921 | 8 December 1921 | Communist Party of Bukhara | ||
| Chairmen of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee | |||||
| Polat Usmon Khodzhayev | 23 September 1921 | 12 April 1922 | Communist Party of Bukhara | ||
| Muin Jon Aminov | 12 April 1922 | 18 August 1922 | Communist Party of Bukhara | ||
| Porsa Khodzhayev | 18 August 1922 | 27 October 1924 | Communist Party of Bukhara | ||
| Chairmen of the Council of People's Nazirs (Ministers) | |||||
| Fayzulla Xoʻjayev | 8 October 1920 | 19 April 1923 | Communist Party of Bukhara | ||
| Mirzo Abduqodir Mansurovich Mukhitdinov | 15 June 1923 | 27 October 1924 | Communist Party of Bukhara | ||
The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic (Bukharan PSR) had an area of 182,193 km2 (70,345 sq mi) and a population of more than 2.2 million people, mainlyUzbeks,Tajiks, andTurkmens.[3] During its entire existence from 1920 to 1924, the Bukharan PSR was a large enclave within theTurkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkestan ASSR) created in April 1918 on the territory ofRussian Turkestan. Bukharan PSR, together with theKhorezm PSR, stretched from north-west to south-east in a belt that cut Turkestan ASSR into two separate parts: the small part in the south-west, corresponding to today'sTurkmenistan (except a narrow strip along the southern bank of Amudarya, which was included in the Bukharan PSR), and the much larger part in the north-east, corresponding to sections of today'sUzbekistan,Tajikistan,Kyrgyzstan, andKazakhstan. The southern border of the Bukharan PSR stretched from north-west to south-east along the southern bank ofAmudarya toTermez and then along thePanj intoWest Pamir, reachingLangar at its south-eastern extreme point. It bordered Samarkand Oblast to the north-east and the southern part of Fergana Oblast to the east in West Pamir. The northern border of the People's Republic reached close toKhiva in the west and touched on what is todayKarakalpakstan andNavoiy Region in Uzbekistan.
The People's Republic, like the Emirate of Bukhara that it succeeded, was divided into West Bukhara, including the cities of Bukhara andKarshi, and East Bukhara, roughly fromHisor toWest Pamir. In the process of national delimitation of Central Asia in 1924, West Bukhara was included in the newly created Uzbek SSR (except for the south bank of Amudarya with the city ofChardjui, which went to Turkmen SSR), whereas East Bukhara, from Hisor to West Pamir, was ceded toTajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik ASSR) and thus formed part of theTajik SSR that was created later in 1929.
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