The Russian Empire and Soviet colonial rule

In the 19th century the Russian Empire set about taking Central Asia. The khanates (Kokand, Bukhara, Khiva) were weak, had no modern army and were in conflict with each other. The campaign began in 1864. In 1865 General Chernyaev seized Tashkent; the city was defended by Mulla Alimqul, the Kokand commander, who died in the fighting. In 1867 the Turkestan Governor-Generalship was set up. In 1868 the Emirate of Bukhara and in 1873 the Khanate of Khiva became dependent on Russia. In 1876 the Khanate of Kokand was abolished and the Fergana region was formed. Under the colonial order heavy taxes were imposed, riches were taken out, and land was given to settlers brought in. In 1898 Dukchi Eshon (Muhammadali Eshon) raised an uprising in Andijan, which was put down. In 1917 tsarist power in Russia was overthrown and then the communists (Bolsheviks) took power. Turkistan did not gain independence: the Turkistan Autonomy formed in Kokand at the end of 1917 was destroyed in February 1918. In the following years there was armed resistance in Turkistan; Soviet authorities called its participants “basmachis”, while historians in Uzbekistan today regard them as fighters for freedom. In the 1930s many intellectuals and leaders, among them Fitrat, Cholpon, Abdulla Qodiriy, Fayzulla Khojaev and Akmal Ikramov, were repressed. The dependence lasted, counting from 1865 to 1991, about 126 years. In the years of independence the “Shahidlar xotirasi” (Memory of the Martyrs) complex (2000) and the “Museum of the Victims of Repression” (2002) were built in Tashkent.