Already in 1918 in Tashkent, Cheka officers [1] suppressed the attempts of the British agent F.-M. Bailey [2] with his activities in Central Asia to activate the Basmach movement. [3]
Many former Turkish officers served in the army and militia of Bukhara. This was used by the ex-Turkish minister Enver Pasha [4], who arrived as a representative of the Soviet government in 1921 to Bukhara from Moscow, where he posed as a champion of the idea of uniting the revolution and Islam. A few months later, he went over to the side of the Basmachi. Bukhara Emir Alim Khan [5] appointed him commander-in-chief of his troops. In 1922, the bands of Enver Pasha, with the support of the Afghans, captured Dushanbe and laid siege to Bukhara.
Enver Pasha
Sayyid Amir Alim Khan
The Soviet authorities had to take urgent measures. May 12, 1922 from Tashkent G. K. Ordzhonikidze and Sh. Z. Eliava [6], sent to Central Asia with a special assignment, told Stalin in a cipher-telegram: “The situation in Bukhara can be characterized by an almost general uprising in Eastern Bukhara; For salvation, the immediate elimination of Enver is necessary, which is being prepared”[7]. A special group of troops was formed, which, in cooperation with the staff of the OGPU, launched a decisive offensive in the summer of 1922 and defeated the invading gangs.
G. K. Ordzhonikidze
Sh. Z. Eliava
We can say that the Soviet government, headed by Lenin, caught himself when it realized that it was losing control of the situation. In Clause 10 of the Protocol of the Politburo No. 7 of May 18, 1922, the measures necessary to get out of this situation were listed: the bureau [of the Central Committee of the RCP (b)] … to organize, together with the Soviet authorities, a broad political campaign (rallies, non-party conferences) against Enver, for Soviet power, for which:
a) declare Enver an agent of England and an enemy of the peoples of the East;
b) cleanse Turkestan, Bukhara, and Khiva from anti-Soviet Turkish-Afghan elements;
c) to grant amnesty to all who wish to return to the peaceful labor of the Basmachs;
d) return the vakuf [8] lands to their former owners;
e) legalize the local national court”[9].
Enver Pasha was destroyed in battle as a result of an operation developed by the OGPU. [10] After his liquidation, a certain Ibrahim-bek became the main leader of the Basmachi. It turned out that he comes from the family of an officer of the Bukhara army, which contributed to his appointment as the Bukhara emir, hiding in Afghanistan, as his representative in Central Asia. [11] The struggle against Basmachism became protracted. [12]
One of the reasons why the Soviets were unable to turn the tide at the very beginning was the support of the Basmachi from abroad. The headquarters of the Turkmen-Uzbek émigré organization "Committee of Happiness of Bukhara and Turkestan" was located in Peshawar (at that time - on the territory of British India) and, of course, was controlled by the British. The intelligence of the United Kingdom maintained close ties with the leaders of the Basmachi, and, above all, with Ibrahim Bek, who was distinguished by cruelty and intransigence. It is noteworthy that even after fleeing with the remnants of his gang to Afghanistan, Ibrahim-bek took part in battles with Soviet units near Mazar-i-Sharif, who invaded Afghanistan in April 1929 to support the ousted Amanullah Khan.[13] This was one of the reasons for another invasion of the Soviet units into the territory of Afghanistan, in June 1930, to undermine the economic base of the Basmachi. [fourteen]
Conventionally, Ibrahim-bek's “activity” can be divided into two stages. The first stage of Basmachism under his leadership lasted from 1922 to 1926, when in June his gang was defeated, and Kurbashi himself [15] disappeared into Afghanistan. The second stage - from 1929 to 1931 - ended with the surrender of Ibrahim-bek and his associates to the OGPU troops, also in June. [16] As a result of the operation developed and carried out by the Mazar-i-Sharif residency, a gang of Basmachs led by Ibrahim-bek was defeated, and the leader himself was shot in August 1931. [17]
The leader of the Basmachi Ibrahim-bek (second from left) and members of the special group for his detention: Valishev (first from left), Yenishevsky (first from right), Kufeld (second from right)
One of the most active Chekists of Turkestan of that time A. N. Valishev, in his memoirs, also spoke about the organization of intelligence to combat the Basmachis: “The task of the Chekists was, together with the territorial bodies of the [O] GPU, to carry out intelligence activities. Particular attention was paid to identifying the accomplices of the Basmachi, as well as the sources of supplying the gangs with weapons and ammunition. The instruction to unite the efforts of all its participants - army units, special departments, local authorities and [O] GPUs, volunteer detachments and individual activists of the Soviet power - was of great importance for increasing the effectiveness of the struggle against the Basmachis”[18].
According to the head of the intelligence department of the Central Asian Military District [19] K. A. Batmanov [20] and his assistant G. I. Pochter [21], "the intelligence work to clarify the counterrevolutionary elements and accomplices, as well as the work of decomposing the gangs, the [O] GPU workers succeeded immeasurably better and their merits in this work are extremely great …" [22].
In the book by G. S. Agabekov [23] there is an episode characterizing the intensity of the struggle in Central Asia: “One of the leaders [O] of the GPU for the fight against the Basmachi, Skizhali-Weiss [24] … told me how he dealt with the Basmachi. He sent people to the rebels, instructing them to poison the food of the Basmachi with cyanide potassium, which killed hundreds of people, the people of Skizhali-Weiss supplied the Basmachi with self-exploding grenades, drove poisoned nails into the saddles of the leaders, etc. Thus, most of the leaders of the Basmach movement were destroyed”[25].
After Nadir Shah came to power in October 1929 [26], a kind of military-political cooperation developed between the USSR and Afghanistan. "The defeat of the Basmachi detachments in the northern provinces contributed to the strengthening of the power of Nadir Shah, which had support only in the Pashtun tribes that controlled the provinces south and southeast of the Hindu Kush" [27].
The most intense episode in the fight against Basmachism is the Karakum operation, carried out in 1931, as a result of which the armed part of the most implacable opponents of the Soviet regime was defeated and eliminated … [28].
In 1933, the struggle against the internal Basmachism was over: on August 29, the Soviet volunteer detachments of Saryev and Kaneev, in the battle at the Choshur well, completely eliminated a group of Basmachi, [29] after which attacks by relatively small bandit formations were carried out mainly from the territory of Afghanistan, China or Persia [thirty].
* * *
With the help of agents, operational officers, OGPU and SAVO troops, detachments of Ablaev, Abfa-khan, Alayar-bek, Anna-kuli, Atan-Klych-Mamed, Akhmet-bek, Balat-bek, Bekniyazov, Berganov, Berdy-dotkho were defeated, Gafur-bek, Dermentaev, Dzhumabaev, Domullo-donakhan, Durdy-bai, Ibrahim-kuli, Ishan-Palvana, Ishan-Khalifa, Karabay, Karim-khan, Kassab, Kuli, Kurshirmat, Madumara, Mamysheva, Murtadin, Muruka, Muet Bek, Nurdzhan, Oraz-Geldy, Oraz-Kokshala, Rahman-dotkho, Said-Murgata, Salim-Pasha, Tagadjiberdiyev, Tagiberdiyev, Turdy-bai, Utan-bek, Fuzaili Maksuma, Khan-Murad, Hamrakula, Yazan-baya -Ukuza, etc.
The odious Dzhunaid Khan, who was amnestied after surrender in 1925 and again took up arms in 1927 after receiving help from the British, acted the longest of all other kurbashi.[31] His gangs suffered heavy losses, but their incursions into the territory of the USSR continued until the death of their "leader" in 1938. [32]
