The 1898 Andijan Uprising and “ Muslim Question ”

A. Erkinov’s publication presented here includes a number of original sources, namely, works of eminent poets of Central Asia from the late 19 to the early 20 century. Such works are very rarely studied as original historical sources. However, local poetry, as a genre, provided the most complete reflection of the religious-ethical standards of the era, particularly with regard to the most significant events of the time, such as the Andijan uprising, which occurred during a rather peaceful period. The author begins his article with a brief analysis of a change in views toward the Andijan uprising and other similar uprisings that took place in Central Asia. Erkinov shows how the evaluation of these events changed in Soviet historiography, depending on the ideological clichés of a given period, and the level of “ideological attentiveness” (marginality) of a particular researcher. The survey of opinions from the period of independence regarding the same uprising and attempts to present the uprising’s leader as one of the fighters “in the long-lasting struggle for independence,” is quite interesting. Not without irony, Erkinov notices that now a reassessment of the same events is sometimes performed by literary critics, who in old times amicably supported another ideology and its “scientific” approaches. To the observations of the author I would add the following. It seems that the historical evaluation of the advance of the Russian empire in Central Asia (which proceeded partly as annexation and partly as conquest with subsequent