Great Rebellion of 1916 in Kyrgyz: Urkün

The revolution in 1916 was one of the biggest tragedies in the kyrgyz history. The events are known in Kyrgyzstan as Urkun. The politics of the Russian Empire was to have Kyrgyzstan as its colony. For instance, the best places were given to russians, local people were forced to move to rural area. The main reason was a call for men into Russia’s Central Asian colonies to serve in the Tsarist army fighting in World war I. The first uprising was in Khojent on july 4 th 1916 and the movement spread to other parts of Turkestan. Kyrgyz Turks were killed by the Russian forces and settlers. Kyrgyz population from the North of the country were killed. And another 120.000 fled across the border to China.

Keywords

Key Words: Kyrgyz, 1916 Rebellion, Urkun, Politics of Colony, Russia, World War I.