Popular Uprisings Involving Kyrgyz People
CLUSTERS OF WRATH
For a researcher, it is not easy to classify the protests against the authorities that occurred at that time even in chronological order, as the Kokand period entered the history of Kyrgyzstan as a series of unending uprisings. However, they usually ended in defeats, followed by bloody reprisals against the vanquished, which sparked new outbreaks of popular anger and... new failures. Thus, the end of one rebellion prepared the ground for the beginning of another. This process, which took on a permanent character, led to significant human losses, economic destruction, robberies, violence, and personal tragedies.
It is worth mentioning the following. The obviously flawed theory of antagonism between two peoples depending on their ethnic composition, economy, and way of life has long drawn justifiable criticism from forward-thinking progressive individuals. Conversely, some imperial officials held entirely different views on the relationships among the peoples of the Kokand Khanate. In particular, Collegiate Councillor A.A. Weinberg had a different opinion about the relationships among the peoples of the Kokand Khanate.
Historical documents confirm and provide many examples of joint actions by Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Uzbek workers against common exploiters - the Kokand khans and local feudal lords.
The Kyrgyz protests against the khans occurred not only as a result of increasing levies or as a protest against excessive taxes but also sometimes under the influence of agitation by opponents of the ruling khan aimed at his overthrow. The call for the overthrow of the ruling khan always found fertile ground, "as almost everyone, without exception, is burdened by his power," noted A.A. Weinberg, who found himself in Kokand during a major uprising. The khan's entourage invariably sought to exploit the discontent and anger of the working masses, using the uprisings of the Kyrgyz for their own interests, and generally with some success. The fruits and results of the uprisings and palace coups went either to the opposition to the khan, the leaders and tribal rulers of the Kyrgyz and Kipchaks, or to the feudal aristocracy of Kokand.
It should also be noted that the eastern despotism of the Kokand khans burdened not only the nomads but also the settled inhabitants. And while the deep enmity between the nomadic Kyrgyz-Kipchak feudal lords and the settled agricultural Uzbek-Tajik nobility was fundamentally a struggle for power, the ordinary workers had nothing to divide. "The settled population, like the nomads, is burdened by the current state of affairs in the khanate," reported A.A. Weinberg, "and if until now there has been no solidarity between these two elements, it is not because they regarded each other with hostility; such relations exist between the main representatives of these nationalities, while the common peasant or worker fully sympathizes with the nomad living with his herds."
Nomads could take refuge in inaccessible mountains in case of acute necessity, and starting from the 1850s, they could migrate into the territories of Russia, while settled farmers, tied to their fields, had to endure and tolerate everything. More independent in their remote pastures and more mobile compared to the farmers tied to arable land, the nomads naturally had greater opportunities to express their discontent with the khans. Therefore, it was the nomadic Kyrgyz and Kipchaks who more frequently rose against the Kokand khans, so often that the Turkestan Governor-General P. Kaufman reported to the military minister Milyutin in December 1875, not without reason: "The history of the Kokand Khanate represents a whole series of incessant uprisings of the Kipchaks and Kyrgyz and the struggle of the state authority of the Kokand Khanate against this restless element of its population."
The most destructive popular uprisings involving Kyrgyz for the khanate were as follows:
- 1845 - Osh uprising;
- 1847-1848 - anti-Kokand uprising of the Namangan Kyrgyz;
- 1861 - attempt by Alimbek Datka to create a Kyrgyz khanate. In 1842, a conspiracy by Alimbek against Mallya Khan aimed at placing Sha-Murad on the throne occurred;
- 1862 - uprising of Baitik-Baatyr against the Kokandis;
- 1867 - uprising of the Alai Kyrgyz and capture of the Kokand fortification Kyzyl-Kurgan;
- 1871 - uprising of the Sukh Kyrgyz against the oppression of the Kokand khans;
- 1873 - beginning of the nationwide uprising in the Kokand Khanate. The impostor Iskhak Hasan uulu accepts the proposal of several Kyrgyz dignitaries to become the false Pulat-khan and leads the uprising of the Chatkal Kyrgyz;
- 1876 - defeat of the last stronghold of the uprising in Alai by the troops of General M.D. Skobeleva.
This is a brief outline of the main timeline of those rebellious events. Historical facts testify that the Kokand rulers never managed to completely subjugate the proud, freedom-loving people or break their spirit of resistance. Russian envoys at the Kokand court noted that the uprisings of the Kyrgyz were the result of "harsh and bad governance," which at times spread over vast territories.
Notably, the Kyrgyz never felt like true subjects of the Kokand khans. They viewed their subjugation primarily through the lens of dependence on Kokand markets and the location of many winter pastures in the Fergana Valley, which were within the military presence of Kokand, considering their dependence temporary. In particular, during the palace turmoil in Kokand in 1842, the Kyrgyz tribal leaders of Talas hid the pretender to the throne Sheraly and later proclaimed him khan. At the same time, the Kyrgyz began to expel Kokand garrisons from fortresses on their territory and refused to pay taxes. In the same year of 1842, the Kyrgyz of Pre-Issyk-Kul, as reported by a source, rose against the Kokand khan, "shook off his yoke and, having destroyed the fortifications established on the borders of the Kokandis with the nomadic Kyrgyz, began to act independently from that time on."
Let us now look at the chronicle of those restless times through the lens of the biography of the Alai Queen. Due to her position in society, Kurmandzhan Datka inadvertently found herself at the epicenter of these formidable events. Let us begin in order...
The significance of the Kyrgyz in Kokand
