Rural dynamics and peasant resistance in Southern Kyrgyzstan, 1929-1930

Abstract

This article examines the economic and social dynamics that underlay the anti-Soviet partisan (basmachi) warfare and violent anti-collectivization protests in late 1929 and early 1930. Based primarily on archival materials in Moscow, Bishkek, and Osh (Kyrgyzstan), the work first looks at Soviet policies in Central Asia in the five years before Stalin’s Great Turnž ; these policies served as precipitants to the crises of 1929-1930 in southern Kyrgyzstan. Next, the article describes the geographic, social, and economic variety of southern Kyrgyzstan in the late 1920sž ; these factors shaped the nature, intensity, and goals of rural resistance. Finally, the article examines several cases of peasant protest in detail, demonstrating their causes, dynamics, and effects. The article finds that collectivization triggered the outbreaks of violence, but long-simmering tensions over Soviet policies on land reform, “cottonization,â€? trade, social engineering, and religion served as preconditions to the resistance. Furthermore, the outbreaks were largely uncoordinated and occurred in response to the actions of specific officials. The basmachi, loosely affiliated partisans with no stake in a future Soviet order, occasionally used peasant unrest to their advantage, but they neither inspired it nor directed it. Ultimately, the state regained control by putting down mass resistance by force, isolating the basmachi, and offering incentives to sooth a restful rural population.