Lt. Col. F.M. Bailey reports from the field

Central Asian states have been busy re-creating their historical imagery. The trend is to look much further back in history than the past ‘glory’ of the Soviet period. But – how the Soviets actually managed to establish themselves in Central Asia and how welcome were these developments? On the origins of the Basmachi movement : Lt. Col. F.M. Bailey reports from the field. The First World War in Central Asia.

Chapter IV Conditions in Tashkent: ‘South-east of here was a peasant rising in Semirechia, where the Government had about one thousand men engaged. South of this there was a serious Mohammedan rising in Ferghana, under a man named Irgash. They had been strongly reinforced when the Bolshevik Government has supressed the autonomous government at Kokhand in 1918. The directions of this movement had at times considerable success and large areas in Ferghana were under their control. But like many similar movements there was rivalry among the leaders who, one after another, fell. Irgash, the leader at the time I was in Turkestan, was killed in 1920. He was succeeded by Madamin Beg, who was treacherously murdered, when a guest at a meal, by his host.

At the time of our arrival Irgash was in command of about sixteen thousand men, among whom were White Russians and, it was rumoured, some Turkish officers. This movement was later taken on by various men in succession and developed into the Basmachi movement which survived up to present war in a latent form.’ Mission to Tashkent by F.M. Bailey, 1946, London