Central Asian revolt of 1916

The Central Asian revolt of 1916, also known as the Semirechye Revolt and as Urkun (Kyrgyz: Үркүн, romanized: Ürkün, lit. 'Exodus', , IPA: [yrˈkyn]) in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, was an anti-Russian uprising by the indigenous inhabitants of Russian Turkestan sparked by the conscription of Muslims into the Russian military for service on the Eastern Front during World War I. The rampant corruption of the Russian colonial regime and Tsarist colonialism in all its economic, political, religious, and national dimensions are all seen as the contributing causes.

Central Asian revolt of 1916
Part of the Asian and Pacific theater of World War I
Date3 July 1916 (16 July 1916, N.S.Tooltip New Style) – February 1917
Location
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia
Result Revolt suppressed
Belligerents

Russian Turkestan

Turkic tribal confederations

Commanders and leaders
Aleksey Kuropatkin
Nikolai Sukhomlinov
Mikhail Folbaum
Muhammad Alim Khan
Strength
30,000 100,000
Small number of escaped POW volunteers
Casualties and losses
2,325 killed
1,384 missing
Total: 7,562 dead		 ~100,000–270,000 Central Asians (Turks, Tajiks) died from violence, famine and disease
  1. According to Abdulla Gyun Dogdu, Sami Bek was a Rebel leader of Turkish origin.
Part of a series on the
History of Kyrgyzstan

The revolt led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz and Kazakhs into China, while the suppression of the revolt by the Imperial Russian Army led to around 100,000 to 270,000 deaths (mostly Kyrgyz and Kazakhs, but also Tajiks, Turkmen, and Uzbeks) both directly and indirectly. Deaths of Central Asians are either the result of diseases, violence or famine. The Russian state was not able to restore order to parts of the Empire until after the outbreak of the October Revolution and the subsequent Basmachi revolt (1916–1923) further destabilized the Central Asia region.

The USSR regime's censorship of the history surrounding the Central Asian revolt of 1916 and the Basmachi revolt has led both Central Asian and international researchers to revisit the topic in the 2010s. The revolt is considered a seminal event in the modern histories of several Central Asian peoples. Special importance is given to the event in Kyrgyz historiography due to the fact that perhaps has many as 40% of the ethnic Kyrgyz population died during or in the aftermath of the revolt.

Alexander Kerensky and some Russian historians were the first to bring international attention to these events.

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