Power and resistance in Khiva and Bukhara

On 5 April 1917 Khan Asfandiyorxon of Khiva (1910–1918) signed the manifesto of the Young Khivans party (founded in 1914) and agreed to reforms: opening new-method schools, building railways, post and telegraph, paying officials a salary and putting the treasury under oversight. A 30-member Idorai Mashruta to supervise the reforms, and a Majlis and Council of Nazirs beside the khan, were formed, but in June the khan dissolved the Majlis, in November ended it altogether, and some Young Khivans were imprisoned and executed. In 1918 the Turkmen leader Junaidxon (real name Qurbon Mamed Sardor) was appointed commander of the khanate’s forces; on 30 October 1918 Asfandiyorxon was killed in a palace plot and Said Abdullaxon took the throne, while real power was concentrated in Junaidxon’s hands. On 9 April 1919 the Takhta treaty was signed, in which Soviet power recognised Khiva’s independence, but a few months later the Young Khivans, some Turkmen tribes and Soviet forces in Turtkul moved against the khan with Red Army help; Khiva was taken on 1 February 1920 and the khan abdicated. On 26–30 April 1920 the First All-Khorezm Kurultai of People’s Representatives proclaimed the KhPSR, and Polvonniyoz Yusupov headed the government; but on 6 March 1921 a coup with Red Army help changed the government, the Fourth Kurultai of October 1923 turned the republic into the Khorezm SSR, and it was abolished at the end of 1924.