The Central Asian Revolt of 1916: A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolution

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The 1916 Revolt was a key event in the history of Central Asia, and of the Russian Empire in the First World War. This volume is the first comprehensive re-assessment of its causes, course and consequences in English for over sixty years. It draws together a new generation of leading historians from North America, Japan, Europe, Russia and Central Asia, working with Russian archival sources, oral narratives, poetry and song in Kazakh and Kyrgyz. These illuminate in unprecedented detail the origins and causes of the revolt, and the immense human suffering which it entailed. They also situate the revolt in a global perspective as part of a chain of rebellions and disturbances that shook the world's empires, as they crumbled under the pressures of total war. -- .

Reviews

'The 1916 rebellion in Central Asia is tremendously important for historians of both the Great War and the Russian Revolution. This collection of uncommonly rich and deep essays takes the analysis of 1916 to a much higher level by showing the dynamics of power and violence at the microlevel as well as at the level of the empire as a whole. The authors use a wide variety of sources sensitively and effectively. This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the period.'
Joshua Sanborn, David M. 70 and Linda Roth Professor of History, Lafayette College

'Finally a book that examines in depth the revolts that, in 1916, upset the fragile Imperial order in Russian Central Asia and triggered the bloody reaction of the army and the Russian settlers against the local populations. By reconstructing the micro-dynamics of the uprising, its relationship with the ongoing Great War and the role of the various actors involved in the events this wonderfully researched volume represents an indispensable tool to understand the nature of the long Russian domination over the region.'
Marco Buttino, Emeritus Professor, University of Turin

This impressive volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of the events of 1916 in Central Asia. The treatment here is both deep and multifaceted, combining broad analytic horizons with thorough and careful treatment of individual events. Bringing together scholars from North America, Europe, and Central Asia, and based on research in a wide range of languages and multiple archives and sources, it presents both indigenous voices as well as those of Russian settlers, soldiers and officials. The chapters in this volume will allow the 1916 Central Asian Revolt to take its rightful place in the historiography of the First World War, the Russian Empire, and of anti-colonial rebellions. As one author notes, this event sees the catalytic intersection of the world war with Russias colonial crisis. This excellent volume should be of great interest to historians of the Russian empire and Soviet Union, but equally to scholars interested in colonialism and anti-colonial resistance and the First World War.
Peter Holquist, Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Making War, Forging Revolution. Russias Continuum of Crisis 1914 1921

'[...] It brings together cutting-edge research by scholars from Central Asia, Europe, Japan, and North America to present a detailed and analytically sophisticated view of the uprising. [...] This volume is the definitive account of the 1916 revolt in any language.'
The Russian Review

Author Bio

Aminat Chokobaeva is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Nazarbayev University

Clo Drieu is a Research Fellow at CNRS in the Centre dtudes turques, ottomanes, balkaniques et centrasiatiques (CETOBaC)

Alexander Morrison is a Fellow and Tutor in History at New College, Oxford