THE COUP IN PISHPEK
The political coup that began in Pishpek was accompanied by a change of power, ownership of the means of production, a restructuring of state administration, and the establishment of a socialist system of economic and cultural life.
On March 3, 1917, a telegram from Petrograd conveyed to Pishpek the official announcement of the overthrow of the autocratic power and the arrest of tsarist ministers, as well as the formation of a provisional government in Russia. The democratization of public and political life in Pishpek began. On March 7, 1917, a union (soviet) of soldiers' and officers' deputies was formed in the city. In response, the local bourgeoisie created a Provisional Executive Committee. On March 9, all police officers of Pishpek submitted their resignations to the district chief.
The Executive Committee reorganized the police into a militia. On March 10, a city-wide rally was held with the participation of 4,000 people. An executive committee of the Provisional Government was elected by open voting.
On March 11, the gathered people of the city freed 130 political prisoners from the Pishpek prison, most of whom were participants in the Kyrgyz uprising of 1916. A friendship rally took place at the prison gates, turning into a brotherhood between Kyrgyz and Russians. Following this, 3,000 rear workers, forcibly mobilized for the construction of the Chui irrigation system and the Semirechye railway, left their work voluntarily. At the same time, tsarist officials were removed from power. The police were replaced by the militia, and gendarmerie Colonel Kosorotov and district chief Colonel Rymshovich were imprisoned. A Bolshevik, A. S. Sidorov, was elected as the district commissioner.
On March 17, a council of deputies of workers and artisans was formed, which later became, on March 24, the council of soldiers' and workers' deputies. Trade unions and public organizations began to emerge, and a union of Kyrgyz poor called "Bukara" was organized, led by Kazan University students, Kozhomurat Sarkulakov. "Bukara" was a large organization uniting more than 7,000 members in many volosts of the Chui Valley.
In April 1917, dual power was established in Pishpek, as in many regions, represented by the Executive Committee of the Provisional Bourgeois Government and the "Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies." For 11 months—from March 1917 to February 1918—Bishkek and its district experienced a period of struggle by workers and peasants against the local organ of the Provisional Government, for the transformation of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist one, that is, for the elimination of local bourgeois power and the establishment of Soviet power.
During this period, the socialist revolution on October 25, 1917, triumphed in Petrozavodsk. As a result of the armed uprising, the Provisional Government was overthrown. However, the organs of the Provisional Government at the local level did not want to voluntarily relinquish power. A stubborn struggle for the change of power in Pishpek and the district was ahead.
The Uprising of 1916 in the Pishpek District