The Central Asian Revolt of 1916: Vol A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolution

The 1916 Revolt was a key event in the history of Central Asia, and of the Russian Empire in the First World War. This volume is the first comprehensive re-assessment of its causes, course and consequences in English for over sixty years. It draws together a new generation of leading historians from North America, Japan, Europe, Russia and Central Asia, working with Russian archival sources, oral narratives, poetry and song in Kazakh and Kyrgyz. These illuminate in unprecedented detail the origins and causes of the revolt, and the immense human suffering which it entailed. They also situate the revolt in a global perspective as part of a chain of rebellions and disturbances that shook the world's empires, as they crumbled under the pressures of total war. Contents Maps and tables Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Note on translation, transliteration and dates Glossary and abbreviations Editors’ introduction 1 Why in Central Asia, why in 1916? The revolt as an interface of the Russian colonial crisis and the World War 2 The exemption of peoples of Turkestan from universal military service as an antecedent to the 1916 revolt 3 The 1916 uprisings in Jizzakh: economic background and political rationales 4 The “virtual reality” of colonial Turkestan: how Russian officials viewed and represented the participation of the local population in the 1916 revolt 5 Fears, rumours, violence: the tsarist regime and the revolt of the nomads in Central Asia, 1916 6 When the nomads went to war: the uprising of 1916 in Semirech’e 7 Scales of violence: the 1916 Central Asian uprising in the context of wars and revolutions (1914– 1923) 8 Violent acculturation: Alexei Kuropatkin, the Central Asian Revolt, and the long shadow of conquest 9 Refugees, resettlement and revolutionary violence in Semirech’e after the 1916 revolt 10 Links across time: Taranchis during the uprising of 1916 in Semirech’e and the “Atu” massacre of 1918 11 Making political rebellion “primitive”: the 1916 rebellion in the Kazakh steppein long-term perspective (c. 1840– 1930) 12 From rebels to refugees: memorialising the revolt of 1916 in oral poetry 13 A Qırghız verse narrative of rebellion and exile by Musa Chaghatay uulu 14 Domesticating 1916: the evolution of Amangeldi Imanov and the creation of a foundation myth for the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (1916– 1939) Select bibliography Index This volume provides a comprehensive reinterpretation of the 1916 Central Asian Revolt - a key event in the history of Central Asia, the Russian Empire and the First World War. -- .