The beginning of the 1916 uprising

(All dates in this topic are Old Style, the Julian calendar then used in Russia; add 13 days for today’s calendar.) According to the textbook, to collect the set number in Fergana Province, one person was to be taken from every five households. People were dissatisfied that men leaving their families, especially in villages, would bring hunger and economic crisis. In drawing up the lists, local officials are said to have acted unfairly: wealthy households paid bribes to be left off, while men were taken even from poor families with only one. Fergana Governor A. Gippius reported that discontent might grow, but the centre regarded this as failure to carry out the decree and dismissed him. On 4 July many people gathered in Khujand and refused labour service; on 5 July actions took place at Urgut near Samarkand, then at Siyob, Mahalla, Khoja Ahror and Angor, and on 7 July at Dahbed; demonstrators tore up the lists. On 11 July a crowd gathered in Tashkent before the Beshyogoch police station; according to the textbook shooting left 11 dead and 15 wounded, and Rizvonbibi Ahmadjonova was gravely wounded. Then the movement spread to the Fergana Valley: on 9 July in Andijan 3 people were killed and 12 wounded; on 10 July in Old Margilan some 25 thousand people gathered and entered offices, and 63 were killed; in Shahrikhan 16; on 11 July in Namangan more than 1500 people were dispersed. The participants were peasants, craftsmen, small traders and workers. Exact casualty figures may differ between sources.