Soviet Turkestan War

Years 1921 1923 Battle deaths 3,500 The Basmachi movement (Russian ???????????, Basmachestvo) or Basmachi Revolt was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim, largely Turkic peoples of Central Asia. The movements roots lay in the 1916 violence that erupted over conscription of Muslims by the Russian Empire for service in World War I. In the months following the October 1917 Revolution, renewed violence developed into a major uprising centered in the Ferghana Valley, soon spreading across all of Soviet Turkestan. Guerrilla and conventional warfare lasted for years in various regions, and the violence was both anti Soviet and anti Russian.After major Red Army campaigns and concessions regarding economic and Islamic practices in the mid 1920s, the military fortunes and popular support of the Basmachi declined. Although resistance flared up again in response to collectivization, the Sovietization of Central Asia proceeded apace and the struggle ended.