Mass Popular Movements in the Kokand Khanate
Particularly significant events took place in Osh in the first half of the 1870s. They are associated with the largest popular movement — the Kokand Uprising and the liquidation of the khanate itself. In a brief official note titled "Regarding the Disturbances in the Kokand Khanate," the Orientalist N. F. Petrovsky noted that the cause of the uprising boiled down to "the cruel, extremely despotic rule of the khanate by its former ruler Khudoyar Khan."
The severe khan-feudal oppression, the ever-increasing taxes and levies imposed by Khudoyar Khan and his officials made the situation of the working people — townsfolk, settled landowners, nomadic herders, and semi-nomads — unbearable everywhere, provoking active resistance from them.
The sympathy of the majority of Osh's residents and other cities for the rebels against the khan's despotism, the Kyrgyz and Kipchaks, predetermined that Osh, like other cities and villages in Eastern Fergana, was taken by the rebels in 1873 and 1875 without a fight, with many townspeople joining the ranks of the insurgents.
The leaders of the Kyrgyz in the popular movement against the khan's oppression in the 1870s were mainly from the common people. However, sources, especially narrative ones, typically wrote about the leaders of the uprising — the feudal lords. It should be noted that representatives of the Kyrgyz feudal nobility who participated in the uprising often betrayed the rebels at critical moments and, when captured by the khan's troops, frequently escaped punishment and were even rewarded with gifts: by courting the feudal nobility, the Kokand khans tried to win over the Kyrgyz tribal leaders or, at least, neutralize the force behind them.
One of the centers of continuous uprisings against the khan's oppression was Eastern Fergana, populated by Kyrgyz, including the cities of Osh, Uzgen, and the villages of Kara-Su, Jalal-Abad, Khan-Abad, and others. In the early 1870s, a major uprising broke out in the vicinity of the shrine of Hazret Ayub, led by a certain Mamyr Mergenov from the Kyrgyz Munduz tribe. The rebel Kyrgyz, who were nomadic east of Osh, dealt with the khan's tax collectors, seized the taxes collected from the population, and attacked Jalal-Abad and Khan-Abad. Concerned about the scale of the uprising, Khudoyar Khan himself set out to suppress it (according to other sources, Khudoyar Khan's brother, the Margilan bek Sultan Murad, was sent against the rebels).
In June 1873, the rebels occupied Uzgen without resistance, where they seized the khan's treasury. They won a battle against the Kokand troops, led by Sultan Murad, after which they occupied Osh, Suzak, Bulak-Bashi, Uch-Kurgan, and other cities and villages without a fight. The working masses switched to the side of the rebels, while the beks and elders fled for the protection of the khan's troops.
The mass nature of the popular movement is evidenced by letters from the rebels themselves to the Khodjent authorities, in which they explained the reasons for the uprising and requested assistance from Russia for the rebel movement. Here is a fragment of one of the letters written in the autumn of 1873: "We, unable to bear the injustice, robbed the zakatchi. Khudoyar Khan sent his troops against us, from whom we fled into the mountains, leaving our pastures. But the khan's commander managed to capture 240 of us. He brought these people to the city of Assake and, by the khan's order, commanded that they all be impaled. Then we all gathered and declared ourselves enemies of the khan. You sent a man to us, and we were all very glad about this and became your tamyrs.
Now we turn to You as to a tamyr. You are a great chief and can advise and command, and everything that You say, we will fulfill. If you order us to fight — we will fight, for we have lost all patience from all kinds of oppression and insults."
In April 1874, about 2,000 rebels, who had survived the winter in the Kara-Kulja Gorge, descended into the valley and, having occupied the city of Uzgen, began to threaten Osh.
Requests of the Rebels for Acceptance into the Subjects of Tsarist Russia
Let us present another excerpt from a letter of the rebel Kyrgyz to Dzhurabek, who had friendly relations with Governor-General Kaufman (April 1874): "As you know, all the Kara-Kyrgyz, subordinate to Kokand, are considered subjects of Khudoyar Khan. The oppression, persecution, and terrible executions, such as impalement, to which we are subjected by the khan, and the punishment with sticks have forced us to break away from the khan and take a hostile position towards him.
The tribes of the aforementioned Kara-Kyrgyz: Munduz, Kutch, Utyz-Ogly, Tuyalas, Nayman, Kyzyl-Ayak, Nuygut, Kyrgyz-Kipchaks, Adygene, Akhtachi, Buri, and Barchi, excluding Aftobachi; the number of Kyrgyz and Kipchaks reaches 200,000 yurts. Not wanting to trouble you out of decency, we have up to now written and sent our people to Abdulkayum Sarker (in Khodjent). By chance, we met one of your people, Abdulkayum Karaulegi, who conveyed your gracious words to us and pleased us.
Taking this opportunity, we inform you that the situation of the Kara-Kyrgyz is well known to you. If it is possible and does not trouble you, please report all of the above to the Governor-General. With his Excellency's consent, we, the unfortunate subjects of Kokand, could free ourselves from the tyranny of Khudoyar Khan and find peace."
The local residents joined the rebels. They attacked Aravan and besieged the citadel of Osh. The khan's governor from Osh fled for help. Soon, khan's troops under the command of the son of the executed Khudoyar, Muslimkul Abdulkhan, arrived, and the uprising was suppressed. The rebels fled to the mountains but did not cease resistance. The most fierce battles took place where the uprising was led by popular leaders. One of them was the recognized leader of the rebels, Mamyr Mergenov. The biased Kokand chronicles noted that he was from the Kyrgyz Munduz tribe, which roamed around Osh — in Uch-Kurgan and Izbaskent. In an attempt to discredit the leader of the rebels, the khan's authors wrote that he gathered around him "a few thieves" who "captured the zakat collectors, beat them, and confiscated the money." All this indicates the social orientation of the uprising, a genuine organized movement led by a representative of the working class.
Not yet having sufficient strength to defeat Khudoyar Khan and not receiving support from the Turkestan authorities, the rebel Kyrgyz wrote letters requesting permission to relocate to the borders of Russia, to Ketmen-Tyube and Central Tian Shan, populated by their "relatives," who were already subjects of Russia. In this, the rebels saw the only way to free themselves from the hated khan's yoke.
Let us present a letter from the rebels of the Munduz tribe to the acting Governor-General of the Turkestan region G. A. Kolpakovsky, sent in May 1874.
"As we and our trusted ones migrated last year from the Kokand Khanate to the Tokmak military district to escape the persecutions of the Kokand yoke, which (the khan — ed.) mercilessly executed our Kyrgyz and plundered our property. We settled not far from the city of Tokmak in a place called Ketmen-Tyube, Toguz-Toro, but here we began to be oppressed and driven away by the Kyrgyz living there of the Kerimbek and Chura Butai tribes. We, not wishing to return to the Kokand Khanate, where death awaits us, ask... for acceptance of us and our trusted ones under your high subjectship, and for the allocation of a place for us and our trusted ones for pasturing.
In our tribe of Munduz, there are two thousand yurts, which all accept the subjectship of Russia. We would have come to your high excellency long ago, but we were watched and not allowed into Tashkent, so we can only now secretly come here and personally ask... your high excellency for all of the above."
Not waiting for an official response, the rebel detachment led by their leader Momun migrated with their entire tribe into the borders of the Russian Empire. However, the tsarist authorities looked unfavorably upon such "arbitrary" settlements of the rebel Kyrgyz. The leader of the rebels, Momun, was interned by the tsarist authorities and exiled. The request was denied, and the rebels returned to the khanate, settling in their former pastures — in the vicinity of Osh, Kara-Su, and Uch-Kurgan.
A similar request was directly addressed to the Russian authorities by Mamyr Mergenov. But all requests were then rejected. The tsarist authorities still hoped to save the khan's regime and were slow to respond to the rebels' requests for acceptance into their subjects.
Forced to return to their former places, the rebels became victims of brutal reprisals from the khan's appointees. Captured rebels, five to seven at a time, were sent to villages, where they were impaled to intimidate others.
Women and children captured in the fields were brutally tortured and then killed.
The Hated Khan's Power is Overthrown
The unbearable tax burden, forced labor, and the brutal reprisals of the khan and his commanders not only against the temporarily defeated rebels captured in battle but also against the residents of peaceful Kyrgyz ails prompted the Kyrgyz, who roamed around Osh and other cities and villages in Eastern Fergana, to repeatedly send delegations to the Russian authorities requesting protection and acceptance into Russian subjects. Thus, after the capture of Uch-Kurgan by the tsarist troops, all the notable people of Margilan gathered at the Russian command, and its bek led representatives of the urban population and delegations from Osh, Uzgen, and Kokand. They unanimously "declared the arrest of their beks, who were unwilling to submit to Russian authority and the expulsion of the khan's troops from the cities."
With renewed vigor, the uprising flared up in several Kyrgyz and Uzbek regions in the autumn of 1875. After Khudoyar Khan fled to Khodjent, his son Nasreddin Khan ascended the throne, immediately recognizing himself as a vassal of the Turkestan Governor-General. However, some detachments led by reactionary feudal lords and clergy refused to submit to Russia. Then the tsarist authorities finally sent their troops into the khanate. After defeating these detachments near Makhram, the troops occupied the capital of the khanate — Kokand — without a fight. Fearing popular wrath, Nasreddin Khan also fled to Khodjent. Soon, tsarist troops occupied the city of Margilan. From there, a flying column formed by Colonel Skobolev moved towards Osh and entered it on September 10, 1875.
The residents of Osh, led by the city aksakals, not only did not resist the Russian troops (despite the presence of cannons and armed khan's soldiers in the city) but also greeted the infidels "with dostarkhan" — the traditional Eastern bread and salt. Upon receiving all the available weapons in the city and 114 fresh horses for replacing the exhausted ones, as well as meat and flatbreads for the soldiers, and fodder for the horses, the detachment set out back to Margilan the very next day. The residents of the villages along the way greeted the Russians warmly.
The hated khan's power was overthrown. The khans fled — now it was necessary to decide the future of the region. In December 1875, the Turkestan Governor-General K. P. Kaufman submitted a proposal to the government for the annexation of the territory of the former khanate to Russia. The Minister of War D. A. Milyutin imposed a resolution on January 15, 1876: "Secretly. His Imperial Majesty, in view of the necessity explained by General-Adjutant von Kaufman for decisive measures to ensure order and tranquility in the border part of the Syr-Darya region, has graciously permitted the occupation of the remaining part of the Kokand Khanate when General-Adjutant von Kaufman deems it necessary."
The actions of the Turkestan Governor-General did not take long to manifest. Troops under the command of M. D. Skobolev were already in Fergana. The rebels, having expelled the khans, returned to peaceful life. The khanate ceased to exist under the pressure of the nationwide uprising.
On February 18, 1876, in all populated areas of the former Kokand Khanate, representatives of the Russian authorities announced the liquidation of the khanate, the territory of which, including the southern Kyrgyz regions, was incorporated into the Turkestan region.
The Entry of Osh into a New Stage of Its Historical Development
The last monarchical strongholds of the feudal lords, who sought to preserve the khan's power in Kokand and declared a "jihad" — a war against the infidels (the Russians) under the influence of fanatic mullahs, were suppressed by armed detachments of the tsarist army. The peaceful population withdrew from the struggle, calling on the rebels to cease resistance. On February 24, General G. A. Kolpakovsky reported in a telegram: "30 horsemen with the residents of Margilan, Osh, and Kara-Kyrgyz, dispatched by order of General Skobolev to capture Pulat Khan, captured him after a skirmish on the night of February 18-19 in the Alai Mountains." Soon, on March 1, he was publicly executed as a "usurper."
In the spring and summer of 1876, tsarist troops, including those stationed in Osh, still had to suppress the last strongholds of resistance from the pro-khan feudal-clerical elite in Alai. The senior son of Kurbandzhan-datka, Abdullabek, was still unwilling to submit with his detachment. On March 16, 1876, General Kolpakovsky telegraphed from Khodjent to the Turkestan Governor-General Kaufman: "The Kara-Kyrgyz tribes under the leadership of Abdullabek, now concentrated in Gulcha, do not yet show submission. It should be expected that after their migration to Alai, which they are undertaking in two weeks, it will be difficult to bring the Kara-Kyrgyz under our authority. I am sending General Skobolev to Osh..."
The Gulcha area, according to reports from M. D. Skobolev, represented the main wintering place for the Kyrgyz of the Barga tribe, who would go further up the Gülcha River to Chon-Alai in the summer. Gulcha was like a crossroads of all the roads in the mountainous part of Osh County.
From here, roads led one to Osh, another to Uzgen, and a third to Sufi-Kurgan, branching off in two directions — to Terek-Davan and Chon-Alai. "Thus," wrote Turkestan Governor-General Kaufman based on M. D. Skobolev's report to the Minister of War, "besides its important economic significance, Gulcha is a point, the actual possession of which, blocking the exits from the mountains, places the nomadic Kara-Kyrgyz in direct dependence on us."
Representatives of the Kyrgyz tribes began to come to M. D. Skobolev "with aman" — proposals for peace. He welcomed them warmly, received Kurbandzhan-datka well, and envoys with letters were sent to the Kyrgyz detachments in the mountains, including a letter from Kurbandzhan to Abdullabek. In the further advance through Alai, as M. D. Skobolev wrote, "the residents of the surrounding ails met our troops everywhere with rare cordiality."
Individual feudal lords, including Abdullabek, who refused to submit to the Russian authorities, first fled to Pamir, where some remained in the possessions of the Karategin Shah, while others went to Afghanistan, including Abdullabek.
It should be noted that Skobolev's expedition to Alai, besides military tasks, also fulfilled a number of political and scientific ones. Here is how M. D. Skobolev summarized the results of the month-long campaign in 1876: the Alai Kyrgyz, who previously "recognized no one's authority," became Russian subjects; the Russian-Kashgar border was defined (by the way, along the line of the current Soviet-Chinese border); "completely unknown to Europeans lands were opened," about 25,000 square versts were mapped, and 11 astronomical points were defined; barometric leveling of individual areas was conducted, and magnetic declination was determined at five points; "natural-historical studies were conducted, and collections from the animal and plant kingdoms were gathered."
Simultaneously with the resolution of political tasks and scientific research, economic tasks were being addressed — the alleviation of the tax burden, the expansion of trade, and the construction of a wheeled road from Osh to Gulcha.
The city of Osh, which became the district center of the Fergana region, entered a new stage of its historical development.