Communist Party of Turkestan

The Communist Part of Turkestan was the Turkestani branch of the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks). It was formed in June 1918. At the time of its formation, the party was joined by a large section of Jadids.^[1]

In the spring of 1919 the RCP(b) leadership stressed "particular care and attention" toward "the remnants of national feelings of the toiling masses of the oppressed or dependent nations." Thus the Muslim Bureau (Musbiuro) of the Territorial Committee of the Communist Party of Turkestan was formed. Turar Rïsqulov, a Kazakh from Awliya Ata, was elected as the Chairman of Musbiuro.^[2][3]

In 1920 the 5th Territorial Congress of the Communist Party of Turkestan was held. The congress suggested that a unified Turkic Soviet Republic be formed, a demand that was later ignored by the RCP(b).^[4]

In line with the line of attracting the Muslim masses to the party, the party employed different criteria on religious activities of Muslim and Orthodox members. In 1922, 1500 Russian Orthodox were purged from the Communist Party of Turkestan on the grounds of 'religious prejudice', but not a single Muslim.^[1]

In 1924 the Communist Party of Turkestan was dissolved, as the boundaries of Soviet Central Asia were re-drawn.

Ethnic composition

As of 1922, the party membership was composed of:

	Number	%
Russians	9424	49.7
Kazakh/Kyrgyz	4409	23.3
Uzbek	2021	10.7
Turkmen	867	4.6
Tajik	421	2.2
Others (Tatar, Karakalpak, etc.)	1803	9.5
Total	18945

References

1. Dave Crouch: The Bolsheviks and Islam (2006)
2. The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform
3. To the Communists of Turkestan
4. The International Dimensions of Nationalism in Central Asia: Can the Relationship Between International Security, State Sovereignty and Emerging Ethnonationalism be Reconciled in Post-Soviet Central Asia? by Connor Dilleen; 2005