Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 26 – Abdulla Rasulov,
a professor at Namangan State University who received his academic training as
a specialist on the 1920s and specifically the role of Tatars in Central Asia,
says that Uzbeks no longer call those who resisted Soviet power “basmachis,” a
derogatory term Moscow insisted on but rather “fighters for national
liberation.”
In an extensive interview with Kazan’s
Business-Gazeta, the Uzbek historian describes the remarkably open intellectual
life he experienced in Tatarstan in the 1980s and something of his research
into the role Tatars from the Middle Volga played in the extension of Soviet
power to Central Asia (business-gazeta.ru/article/455061).
Some Uzbeks still believe that the Tatars
were used by Moscow not to provide assistance to the peoples of Turkestan but
rather as part of “the colonial policy of the Bolsheviks,” Rasulov says. But
one must keep in mind that the Tatars who did come to Central Asia at that time
“really believed in the ideals of communism” and thought they were helping the
Turkestanis.
At the same time, the Namagan historian
points out, “there were cases when the Tatars took part” in helping the peoples
of Turkestan to resist Moscow. They too were fired by high ideals, at least in
most cases. But the actions of all involved must be put in the context of the times,
Rasulov continues.
Perhaps his most intriguing comments
concern Soviet military commander Mikhail Frunze and Tatar national communist Mirsaid
Sultan-Galiyev and the preference many Central Asian leaders showed for taking
Tatar women as their wives.
Frunze, Rasuloov says, “knew well
the customs, language and psychology of the Muslim population because he was a
native of these places.” And there is a report that on at least one occasion,
he delivered a speech to the Tatar brigade in Tatar, an action that pleased and
inspired its members.
There is also a remarkable story
about the Soviet conquest of Bukhara.
Frunze’s forces were having no luck penetrating the city’s walls. He
then suggested that the soldiers begin to chant “there is no God but Allah and
Muhammed is His prophet.” Once that happened, the Bukharans opened the gates to
them. That is how Soviet power came to the emirate!
The Bolsheviks also employed other
methods many of which were less clever and morally defensible. They made
promises of safety to their opponents and then killed them a few days after
they surrendered. That too is part of the history of the fight in Central Asia
in which the Tatars were involved.
Sultan-Galiyev “did a lot,” Rasulov
says. “But he was the victim of Stalin’s repressive machine. Sultan-Galiyev
wanted that the Turkic republics receive full status, integrate among
themselves, and develop. He called for the equality of all peoples so that
there wouldn’t be any national republics of second or third class. But this
didn’t happen.”
And Tatars were active players on
the cultural front, not only in editing early Central Asian newspapers and
journals but also as wives of party leaders.
Senior officials in Turkestan “preferred
to marry Tatar women.” Their attractions included that they “were more independent,
had their own opinioin and could speak with men as equals but never go beyond the
limits.” Among the most famous of these was the mother of Chingiz Aitmatov, Nagim
Abdulvaliyeva.
Rasulov says that he is developing the
field of Tatar studies in Uzbekistan. It now includes two of his students and
his daughter as well as three or four other scholars. He himself is planning to prepare a major
monograph summarizing this work under the title The Tatars in Central Asia.
Asked about his impressions of changes
in Kazan since the 1980s, the Uzbek historian says that it has become “a
contemporary, almost European city but that relations among people have become
other than they were, market-oriented. There is not the sincerity and
simplicity there was earlier.”
Moreover, he continues, the theater
is now in Russian rather than Tatar and while there are more books in Tatar
available, it is far from clear whether they are being read. But “perhaps,” he concedes, these reactions are
only subjective. “I don’t know, Rasulov concludes.
