COVERAGE OF NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY IN SOURCES

Abstract

This article examines the historiographical and source-based foundations of the 1916 Turkestan uprising within the context of the colonial policies of the Russian Empire in Central Asia. The study analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations that emerged in Turkestan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a result of imperial conquest and colonial administration. Particular attention is devoted to the mobilization decree of June 25, 1916, its implementation, and the large-scale resistance movement that followed throughout the region. The research is based on a comparative and critical analysis of various historical sources, including official imperial documents, military reports, archival materials, witness testimonies, memoirs, periodical publications, and foreign historiographical works. Special emphasis is placed on the accounts of Aleksey Kuropatkin, Aleksandr Kerensky, G. I. Broydo, N. E. Kolesnikov, S. O. Kochin, and Mustafa Choqay, whose observations reveal different dimensions of the uprising and the colonial system. The article also evaluates the reliability, subjectivity, and ideological orientation of these sources from a source-critical perspective. The research further argues that Soviet class-based interpretations fail to fully explain the essence of the events. Instead, the available body of historical sources supports the interpretation of the 1916 uprising as a broad national liberation struggle directed against Russian colonial domination. The article contributes to modern historiography by providing a critical reassessment of the uprising through an interdisciplinary and source-oriented approach.