12 From rebels to refugees
-
Jipar Duishembieva
Abstract
This chapter uses Russian archival sources and songs and poetry in Kyrgyz to examine the fate of the tens of thousands of Kyrgyz who fled to China to escape the repression of the 1916 revolt. An estimated 150,000 died of exposure and starvation, and their suffering and trauma was memorialised in poems by the survivors, which describe the difficulties and humiliations they experienced crossing the mountains and in Xinjiang. It argues that the common experience of the Ürkun (exodus) helped to consolidate a sense of Kyrgyz national identity in the twentieth century.
Abstract
This chapter uses Russian archival sources and songs and poetry in Kyrgyz to examine the fate of the tens of thousands of Kyrgyz who fled to China to escape the repression of the 1916 revolt. An estimated 150,000 died of exposure and starvation, and their suffering and trauma was memorialised in poems by the survivors, which describe the difficulties and humiliations they experienced crossing the mountains and in Xinjiang. It argues that the common experience of the Ürkun (exodus) helped to consolidate a sense of Kyrgyz national identity in the twentieth century.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of maps and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Note on translation, transliteration and dates xiv
- Glossary and abbreviations xv
- Map ix
- Editors’ introduction 1
- 1 Why in Central Asia, why in 1916? 27
- 2 The exemption of peoples of Turkestan from universal military service as an antecedent to the 1916 revolt 45
- 3 The 1916 uprisings in Jizzakh 71
- 4 The “virtual reality” of colonial Turkestan 95
- 5 Fears, rumours, violence 126
- 6 When the nomads went to war 145
- 7 Scales of violence 169
- 8 Violent acculturation 191
- 9 Refugees, resettlement and revolutionary violence in Semirech’e after the 1916 revolt 209
- 10 Links across time 227
- 11 Making political rebellion “primitive” 256
- 12 From rebels to refugees 289
- 13 A Qırghız verse narrative of rebellion and exile by Musa Chaghatay uulu 308
- 14 Domesticating 1916 327
- Select bibliography 347
- Index 356
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of maps and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Note on translation, transliteration and dates xiv
- Glossary and abbreviations xv
- Map ix
- Editors’ introduction 1
- 1 Why in Central Asia, why in 1916? 27
- 2 The exemption of peoples of Turkestan from universal military service as an antecedent to the 1916 revolt 45
- 3 The 1916 uprisings in Jizzakh 71
- 4 The “virtual reality” of colonial Turkestan 95
- 5 Fears, rumours, violence 126
- 6 When the nomads went to war 145
- 7 Scales of violence 169
- 8 Violent acculturation 191
- 9 Refugees, resettlement and revolutionary violence in Semirech’e after the 1916 revolt 209
- 10 Links across time 227
- 11 Making political rebellion “primitive” 256
- 12 From rebels to refugees 289
- 13 A Qırghız verse narrative of rebellion and exile by Musa Chaghatay uulu 308
- 14 Domesticating 1916 327
- Select bibliography 347
- Index 356
