Газета "Долой басмачество"

Translation

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Down with the basmach movement

One-day newspaper of the Political Department of the Fergana Oblast troops.

No. 1, 21 March 1922.

Official communiqué on negotiations with Kurbashi [field commander] Islamkul.

On 9 March of this year Said Ali Karvan, a citizen of the village of Yakatut, appeared at the Fergana Oblast Revolutionary Committee and reported that Kurbashi Islamkul, who was operating in Kokand Uezd, had instructed him to officially inquire of the Oblast Revolutionary Committee whether the Soviet government of Fergana would agree to enter into peace negotiations with Islamkul. The citizen was told that the Soviet Government in general always strives for peace and that the Oblast Revolutionary Committee and the Oblast Troop Command agreed to enter into negotiations with Islamkul.

On 11 March Kurbashi Islamkul sent the Oblast Revolutionary Committee a letter in which he stated that citizens Tiuria, Kusymbai,

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Khakim-Dzhan Maksum and Said Ali Karvan were authorized by him to negotiate a cessation by Islamkul of the struggle with the Soviet Government and his defection to the latter’s side. The aforementioned citizens, with Islamkul’s authorization, declared the following: Islamkul, Karabai, Yulchi, Mirza Umar and other kurbashi subordinate to Islamkul wish to cease the struggle against the Soviet Government. They recognize the Soviet Government, pledge to carry out all of its orders and to fight all of its enemies, but on one condition—only within the boundaries of Fergana Oblast. Islamkul agrees to disperse a portion of his dzhigits [skilled horsemen] to their homes, to turn over up to 300 dzhigits to the city to serve the Soviet Government in the ranks of the militia and to retain 60 for himself to maintain order and tranquility within Kokand Uezd. Furthermore, Islamkul guarantees that his order on defection to the Soviet Government will be followed by all basmach detachments in the area from the station of

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Vannovskaia to Khodzhent. In response to Kurbashi Islamkul’s proposal, the latter was sent a written notice in which the Oblast Revolutionary Committee and the Oblast Troop Commander declared that they welcomed Islamkul’s decision to cease the armed struggle against the Soviet Government, that the Soviet Government always sought a cessation of any internecine warfare, so as to afford dehkans the opportunity for peaceful labor, and therefore they accepted Islamkul’s proposal for a peace agreement to be concluded. The notice went on to state that, in the view of the Oblast Revolutionary Committee and the Oblast Troop Commander, Islamkul’s wish could be realized on the condition that Islamkul: 1) renounced the armed struggle against the Soviet Government; 2) recognized the Soviet Government as the legitimate government of the working people; 3) dispersed a portion of his dzhigits

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to their homes; 4) retained for himself 60 armed dzhigits, with whom he would place himself at the full disposal of the Soviet Government; 5) placed all remaining kurbashi and dzhigits at the disposal of the Soviet Government, and the latter, based on existing statutes, would return a portion of them to peaceful labor, together with their horses, and hire a portion of them to serve in the militia.

In order to work out the terms of surrender concretely, Islamkul was invited to come to the city of Kokand within three days or to specify a site where his representatives could come to; guarantees were given in this regard for the personal inviolability both of Islamkul himself and of all the individuals accompanying him.

On 13 March the Fergana Oblast Troop Staff received a letter from Islamkul with

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a request to send our representatives by the morning of 14 March to the village of Yakatut, which is 10 versts south of Kokand, to which assent was given.

On 14 March a meeting took place in the village of Yakatut between plenipotentiaries of the Oblast Revolutionary Committee and Command and the kurbashi Islamkul, Karabai and Yulchi. The latter declared that they accepted the conditions we laid out and that they would come to Kokand to sign the peace agreement. Islamkul went on to invite representatives of the civilian and military authorities and the city’s population to his compound for a ceremonial feast in honor of the agreement.

On 16 March a new meeting was held in the same village between Soviet Government plenipotentiaries and Kurbashi Islamkul. This time Islamkul proposed new conditions to our representatives with political motives predominant (property rights, free trade, etc.).

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After our representatives clarified to Islamkul that the demands he had laid out did not contradict the principles of Soviet rule, which was vividly confirmed in the latest legislation of the Turkestan Republic, Islamkul expressed his satisfaction with the clarification and proceeded to the question of dzhigits and weapons. In regard to this basic question Islamkul sharply changed his previous position and, by contrast with his previous promise, laid out new conditions that boiled down to the retention of all of his dzhigits, with the only difference from their current status being that he (Islamkul) would supposedly follow the Soviet Government’s orders.

At this point the negotiations at the second meeting were concluded.

On 17 March the Oblast Command and Revolutionary Committee sent a letter

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to kurbashi Islamkul, Karabai and Yulchi pointing out that the negotiations were being dragged out and Islamkul was deviating from terms that had already been accepted. The letter proposed  1) that a responsible delegation be sent to the city of Kokand within 24 hours and 2) and that within the same time frame the delegation have its final conditions sent with it, and warned that if a response was not received “we consider ourselves exempt from further negotiations and the obligations of peace proposals and grant ourselves full freedom of action.”

In response to the above letter Islamkul sent a notice that stated: “It would be good if you accepted our terms that we presented to your delegates. If you do not accept the terms, then suit yourself, as you like.”

At this point the negotiations broke off. Their further continuation was clearly already useless and pointless. The Soviet Government is peaceable and merciful and sincerely seeks to avoid excessive bloodshed, but it cannot allow the existence of basmach detachments that would rob and rape the population under the Soviet flag.

The publication of this communiqué will enable every worker and Red Army soldier, dehkan [peasant] and every honest citizen to understand that the Soviet Government in its negotiations with Islamkul did everything possible to provide the population of Kokand Uezd a peaceful and tranquil existence and that the grave consequences of the breakdown of the talks fall entirely on the heads of the criminals who, to please the overthrown bourgeois rulers and colonizers and to benefit their own personal, selfish interests, are dooming the working population to new hardships and privations, to the new spilling of fraternal blood.

Fergana Oblast Troop Commander I. Vrachev.

Chairman of the Oblast Revolutionary Committee Dadabaev.

…

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To all kurbashi and basmachi.

For four years already a struggle has dragged on between basmachi and the Soviet Government, for four years the population of Fergana has suffered from the military operations of the basmachi and the Red Army, for four years Fergana has lacked the tranquility necessary for a proper economic life, for the recovery of the wrecked economy, for the repair of the irrigation canals, for cotton and grain crops.

It is time to put an end to this unendurable condition.

Pleas are being coming in from the populace in every corner of Fergana for peace to be concluded as soon as possible. The vast majority of the population is now against the basmachi, who are preventing tranquility from being restored. Some basmachi and kurbashi are beginning to understand that they are incapable of further struggle, are sending the loss of their influence among the populace and are offering peace proposals to the Soviet Government.

A few days ago the kurbashi Muetdin and Islamkul presented such proposals. They propose disarming and dispersing to their homes a large portion of their dzhigits while retaining only small detachments, which will be considered to be in Soviet service and will wage a struggle against other basmach bands.

The Commission of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of Soviets on Turkestan Affairs and the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of the Turkestan Republic, meeting the pleas from Fergana’s population halfway, have decided to take every measure to eliminate the basmach movement and secure restoration of peace and tranquility.

To these ends, the Commission of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of Soviets [on Turkestan Affairs and the Central Executive Committee of Soviets] of the Turkestan Republic have resolved to guarantee full personal and property inviolability to all kurbashi and basmachi who voluntarily surrender their arms to the Red Army and disperse to their homes for peaceful and beneficial labor.

No Soviet kurbashi or Soviet basmach

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detachments!

Such detachments, as experience has shown, under the Soviet flag are continuing their previous destructive work and constitute a heavy burden on the peaceful working population. The Red Army and the indigenous militia will easily dispose of the small basmach detachments that will remain after the large ones surrender their arms and disperse to their homes. If Muetdin and Islamkul with their dzhigits fail to now accept the benevolent terms that the Soviet Government is offering them, the blame for the continuation of hostilities will fall entirely on them. And Muetdin and Islamkul should remember that the majority of their dzhigits crave peace so much that they will abandon them, surrender their arms and disperse to their homes, and they will be left only with Russian White soldiers and indigenous counterrevolutionaries and together with them, through the joint efforts of the working population of Fergana and the Soviet Government, will be ruthlessly annihilated to the last man.

The Commission of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of Soviets on Turkestan Affairs and the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of the Turkestan Republic invite all kurbashi and basmachi to immediately respond to their appeal, so that by the start of the spring sowing period peace is restored and full tranquility is provided for toiling dehkans. There must be no more foot-dragging.

The Soviet Government has taken decisive measures to restore the freedom of religious faiths and customs of Fergana’s population, and it is confident that every citizen of Fergana Oblast will render full assistance to its representatives and the Red Army in liquidating the basmach movement as soon as possible.

Let this appeal by the Commission of the All-Russia Central

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… Executive Committee of Soviets [on Turkestan Affairs] and the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of the Turkestan Republic be the last appeal to the basmachi and to the population of Fergana. Let this appeal serve as the beginning of the peaceful labor and flourishing of Fergana Oblast.

Long live peaceful labor!

Long live the working people of Fergana.

Long live the Soviet Government!

Chairman of the Commission of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee on Turkestan Affairs S. Gusev.

For the chairman of Central Executive Committee of the Turkestan Republic Tiuriakulov.

Order to the troops of Fergana Oblast,

19 March 1922. City of Kokand

No. 138.

On 9 March the Oblast Command received a proposal from Kurbashi Islamkul to begin peace negotiations with him. Islamkul is one of

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the most hardened basmachi, who carry out downright pillaging in the areas they dominate. However, unaware that Islamkul was forced to make his proposal to us under pressure from the local populace, which has borne on its back all the hardships of his bandit gangs and sincerely desires peace, the Oblast Command, wanting to give the populace an opportunity to get down to peaceful labor, entered into negotiations with Islamkul. In the terms we set forth we not only guaranteed the personal safety of Islamkul and his dzhigits, but even permitted him to retain 60 dzhigits for himself. With these major concessions the Command wanted to prove once again its sincere intentions to avoid excessive bloodshed. In entering into negotiations with Islamkul, the Soviet Government representatives did everything in their power to achieve a favorable outcome to the negotiations.

After first declaring to our representatives his assent to the terms we set forth, Islamkul the very next day, yielding to the influence of clearly reactionary groups and hard-core counterrevolutionaries, put forth a set of political demands to which the Soviet Government could not agree.

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These new demands represented on his part a desire to derail the negotiations that had been started with us. At the same time the command received information regarding insidious schemes and suspicious preparations by the adversary.

This latter fact forced us to pose a question to Islamkul in a specific and categorical manner: does he really want peace, and what are his concrete terms. Islamkul sent an obviously evasive reply, after which further negotiations were broken off.

Islamkul, having degenerated into obviously plundering gangs, having lost all support among the local populace and incited by obviously counterrevolutionary elements, is attempting once again to start fighting us.

We must put a decisive end to these attempts. Islamkul derailed the negotiations, and he will be waging an armed struggle against Workers’ and Peasants’ Rule.

Every Red Army soldier should know that the Soviet Government has always striven to end the struggle by peaceful means, it entered into negotiations with kurbashi Islamkul, and it was seeking an agreement with him on terms beneficial to him. But kurbashi Islamkul went too far. He thought that the Soviet Government would allow him to rob and rape the populace with impunity.

The criminal enemy of the working people is mistaken! The Red troops entrusted to me have enough resources to destroy the bandit. There will be a ruthless struggle against the brazen bandit who rejected the mercifully extended hand of reconciliation!

Death to the insidious and impudent bandit who broke his own word!

We will crush the treacherous and villainous snake, kurbashi Islamkul!

Ordered to be read in all companies, squadrons, batteries and crews.

Oblast Troop Commander Vrachev.

Staff Commander A. Ivanov.

Down with the bandit counterrevolution.

Honesty, openness, a continual striving for peace and forgiveness for any “lost sheep”—these are the main factors in the history of the struggle of the workers’ and peasants’ government against its numerous enemies, who include the basmach bands operating in Fergana Oblast.

Moreover, in regard to the last surrogate of the bandit counterrevolution the Soviet Government is especially benevolent. And this is no accident. This is dictated by a whole host of deeply vital reasons.

One of the main reasons is that the Soviet Government is waging a forced struggle against all its enemies, i.e. a struggle that our enemies start and that the Soviet Government wages

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insofar as it is required by the interests of Russia’s working class and peasantry. In addition, the Soviet Government even in these forced wars tries to avoid excessive casualties to the proletariat and makes all kinds of concessions just to stop the pointless slaughter.

The history of our struggle is studded with a whole host of facts that vividly underscore these points. The latest facts include the arrival in Russia of one of the lions of the counterrevolution—General Slashchev, who was forgiven by the government of the proletariat for all sins.

Here in Fergana, considering the socioeconomic and cultural conditions, the Soviet Government is making much bigger concessions in its struggle against the basmach movement.

It is clear from the above-mentioned negotiations between the local government and kurbashi Islamkul what big concessions the Soviet Government was making. It demanded the disarmament only of a portion of dzhigits, in fact based on an initial request from Islamkul assent was given for him to keep 50-60 men at his disposal, with the important task of fighting the remnants of basmachi under the same banner with Red troops.

But no! What had been requested seemed too little to the dishonest and hypocritical bandit. He looks at things this way—if they give then take more, he is like the capricious grandmother from the fairytale “About the Fisherman and the Fish,” he did not want to be a “nobleman of ancient standing” but decided to jump to “tsar.”

“Leave me all the armed dzhigits,” he says, “subordinate us to the Soviet Government but give us broader authority, I will serve you.”

As experience has shown, this “service” is no different from the “service” that the basmachi

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have been pulling for four years already. The people of Fergana will see nothing but bad things from this kind of service.

And with what is left of his mind, since he sees in advance that he will end up with nothing based on demands clearly unacceptable to the Soviet Government, he hypocritically writes “It would be good if you accepted our terms” and so forth in order to mislead at least for a short time the dzhigits disillusioned and tired from the struggle and part of the populace.

There can be various terms, but why go overboard. As the saying goes, “Strike once, strike twice, but why beat it unconscious.”

It is clear from all of the foregoing that Islamkul, after starting negotiations with the Soviet Government under pressure from the dzhigits and the populace, tried himself to derail them; that Islamkul is a very

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long way from the interests of the working people, he does not value them and wants to continue the slaughter to the detriment of the toiling masses.

The Soviet Government, meanwhile, continues to firmly hold to its positions of protecting the interests of the proletarian state.

In the appeal by the Turkestan Commission and the Turkestan CEC, it declares, as in the past, that it is striving with all its energy to establish peace in Fergana, that it forgives the errors by all the kurbashi and dzhigits who want to honestly work after laying down the perfidious weapons of struggle, but it declares that there must be no Soviet basmach detachments because a basmach movement under the Soviet flag would be a dual evil.

The entire population should remember this.

The Soviet Government is submitting all the documents for a public court of the working people—let it render a verdict.

And we well know that the verdict will be pervaded by the same spirit as the order printed in this newspaper for the troops of Fergana Oblast.

Let him comfort himself with various illusions, the populace has turned away from him, the dzhigits are abandoning him. All he has left are reckless cutthroats and vermin, who must be destroyed.

And the Red Army will do this.

The Red Army has wiped more formidable forces than these off the face of the earth, will it take much for it to sweep away this pathetic bunch of bandits.

The adversary was trying to buy time, this time must be made up.

The enemy has become totally brazen—he must be annihilated.

Forward, Red fighters!

Down with the bandit counterrevolution!

Ancharsky.

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Our love of peace and the hypocrisy

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of the basmachi.

The basmachi in Fergana as a mass movement with deep roots in the population, thanks to the significant concessions made by the Soviet Government to the local population on the one hand and to the robbing of the population by basmach gangs on the other, are finally on their last legs. The ideas of the Soviet Government are beginning to penetrate more and more into the broad masses of Fergana’s population, which is beginning to come out against the basmach gangs with growing intensity. The Fergana basmach movement is already nearly nonexistent as an “economic category,” and it is degenerating into outright gangs of bandits that engage in robbing the population. Islamkul, with whom we were conducting peace talks a few days ago, is a typical ringleader of a bandit gang. Having received Islamkul’s proposal to begin peace talks with him, we were perfectly well aware that we were dealing with a half-idiot, a bandit,

 

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that his proposal was dictated by the very difficult situation that his bandit gangs had found themselves in, hunted and pursued by the local populace, but since disarming and subordinating Islamkul and his gangs to the Soviet Government would enable the local populace to quietly engage in peaceful labor, since with a favorable outcome to these negotiations we could have avoided unnecessary casualties in Fergana, we decided to accept Islamkul’s proposal and start negotiations with him. From the first moment of the start of the negotiations we tried to prove our sincere desire to make peace.

We presented Islamkul with terms that were extremely beneficial to him. He and his dzhigits were not only guaranteed personal inviolability, we not only magnanimously forgave Islam and his bandits their grave crimes against the local populace, but we offered to allow Islamkul to retain for himself 60 armed dzhigits. We believed that these big concessions on our part would speed up our agreement with Islamkul. Did we have to make these concessions to Islamkul because he was a serious adversary for us? Of course not. As a real force, Islamkul and his gangs are not of serious significance to us. We offered very beneficial terms to Islamkul only because we wanted to rid the local populace as soon as possible of the robberies by his gangs and prove to them our sincere desire to make peace.

At first, intimidated by the demands for peace from the local populace, Islamkul seemed to agree to our terms. When our representatives met with Islamkul, he stated that the next day he would come to Kokand with his kurbashi to sign the peace terms. He sent out to Kokand his detachment of 30 dzhigits, who were received cordially by us, like brothers, as we wanted to prove here again our sincere intentions. But the next day Islamkul, yielding to the influence of a clearly counterrevolutionary group,

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changed his position and presented us with a set of terms to which the Soviet Government, for all its love of peace, simply cannot agree. The bandit Islamkul wanted to continue robbing and plundering the population of Kokand Uezd, but already under the Soviet flag, and we could not agree to this.

Islamkul, as it later turned out, used the time of his negotiations with us to prepare an offensive against us. We already noticed during the negotiations suspicious reorganizations among Islamkul’s gangs. He was preparing an attack against us. And when we

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specifically posed our question to Islamkul as to whether he wanted to make peace with the Soviet Government, his hypocrisy came out—he presented us with new terms and the negotiations were broken off.

This idiot, this bandit, robber, this half-rotted syphilitic has thrown away the mercifully extended hand of reconciliation. This snake has put up his bandit’s hypocrisy against our sincere intentions. This half-living corpse has put up his objectives as a bandit, robber and plunderer against the glowing objectives of the working people.

May every Red Army soldier on this front see for himself our love of peace and the plundering objectives of Islamkul’s basmach gangs. May every Red Army soldier see for himself from the course of the negotiations with Islamkul that this disgusting snake must be stamped out and destroyed as soon as possible. May Islamkul, who stinks like a corpse, no longer poison the air of Fergana.

Woe unto you bandit and robber!

You have responded to the magnanimous terms of the Soviet Government, which forgave you all your numerous crimes against it, with a rejection, so just know that we will not put up with you for long.

The Soviet Government is patient, but there is a limit to this patience toward you, snake, this limit has already been reached.

The Soviet Government knows how to be magnanimous toward its enemies who wish to live with it in peace, but the Soviet Government also knows how to ruthlessly destroy those of them who want to continue fighting against it.

Our glorious Red Army knows how to keep rifles at hand [?] when it conducts negotiations, but it knows even better, with the aid of its rifles, machineguns and cannons, how to root out treacherous enemies of the working people and the Soviet Government.

May the lesson of our negotiations with Islamkul make the local population come to us faster. May every dehkan see for himself that the Soviet Government is a government of the working people, their government, standing guard over their interests. May the local population

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openly look at the faces we have laid bare of the basmach gangs of Islamkul and the bandits like him.

May the kurbashi and the dzhigits of Fergana remember that the Soviet Government’s patience has run out, if they sincerely wish to make peace with us may they do so as quickly as possible, otherwise they will be shown no mercy, either. The Soviet Government is magnanimous to repentant enemies, and ruthlessly harsh toward malicious hypocrites.

V. Levin.

To arms!

To save Fergana from calamities

To ignite a holiday of a new life in it

We peaceful folk direct our calls to them

We wanted to stop the war.

But the one who departed the frontiers of peace

Was he who hurled the first stone,

Who in the frenzy of prolonged plunders

Squeezed the people with bloody hands

May… He criminally assumed guilt

To arms! To arms! Comrade Red soldier

The vicious enemy is worthy of death,

To save Fergana from calamities.

Maksim Presny.

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Against the basmachi.

Short story.

“Forty, Kotukhov,” Red Army soldier Artemkin shouted to his comrade, asking him for the cigarette that he had just started smoking.

Kotukhov nodded affirmatively and beckoned with his finger to Artemkin, who was standing by the doors of another barracks.

“What’s the matter,” said Artemkin, who had run over.

Kotukhov, glancing around him so no one could hear, asked him in a whisper:

“Your squadron went to the negotiations, I heard this morning, is that true.”

“That’s right,” Artemkin replied happily, nudging his rakish fur hat to the back of his head.

“Which kurbashi decided to make peace.”

“Islamkul.”

“Bu..u..t that is great,” Kotukhov said, drawing out his reply in surprise.

Two other Red Army soldiers who had been walking with mess kits to the kitchen for lunch came over to the companions. Hearing about peace with the basmachi, they waded into the conversation.

“I don’t trust this peace,” said one of the newcomers, “they make peace every year, and barely anything real comes of it. They’re nothing but scoundrels.”

“Well, that’s putting it too strong, not all the basmachi are fighting us, a lot of them are crossing over to our side,” objected Kotukhov.

“That’s right,” Artemkin chimed in, “I’ve been fighting them for a year, and I’ve seen about three hundred defect, of course they weren’t manaps [members of the elite], but our brother dehkans.”

“We already knew this without you,” the Red Army soldier who had joined them piped up again, “the sad thing is that the poor people all over the world have been ours for a long time, but the people with the fat bellies and the purse bloated with money, they’re no brothers, they give each of us devilish looks and are ready any minute to incite a pack of hungry, ignorant people against the fighters of the working people.”

The soldier on duty in the kitchen stuck his nose out and shouted at the top of his lungs:

“Come on over, brothers, it’s ready.”

The Red Army soldiers, yelling “Let’s have it!” came flying out of the barracks, forming a line to the kitchen.

The soldiers who were talking about the basmachi also rushed over to get as close as they could.

Kotukhov, coming over to the pot, said to the cook:

“Now, Red, give us more to eat, we’re going to be plowing soon, the basmachi have asked for peace.”

“So you’re finished fighting,” cried

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the cook, who was sweating by the pot, as he pulled the dregs out of it—here you go for that news,” he said to Kotukhov, pouring thick cabbage soup into his mess kit.

For three days the soldiers of squadron No. __ talked about peace with Islamkul.

The political instructors happily watched the future fulfillment of the plan for political work that

had been taught by the Political Department.

The squadron’s economic managers considered setting up their own vegetable garden and consulted the land-management authorities about allocating a piece of land to them.

The commanders, in turn, now planned to “tutor” young soldiers with drill instruction.

But the squadron’s dreams were not forgotten, as early in the morning of the fourth day an order arrived about a statement that was against Islamkul again.

The treacherous basmach, he reneged on his previous intentions to lay down his weapons and engage in peaceful labor for the benefit of the working people’s masses and he again began rattling his weapons despite the protests of the poorest folks—the dehkans.

The commander of squadron No. __ organized his own brave hundred as he prepared to execute the combat order as quickly as possible.

The soldiers angrily lined up in formation, pulling the reins of their horses.

“Check rifles,” shouted the commander.

Everybody in unison clicked the bolts, and the air smelled of new battles, new, unnecessary blood from the working people, to be shed due to the folly of Soviet Russia’s enemies.

“Right shoulders forward, forward ma-a-arch,” drawled the commander to the squadron, “Gallop” came another order, which hid the brave hundred in clouds of dust.

After passing through two villages without firing a shot, the squadron encountered large forces of basmachi, which staged an ambush, raining lead on the Red Army soldiers from all sides.

Their large detachments advanced on the squadron, squeezing it into a tight ring. Our men defended themselves with two

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machineguns, cutting down ranks of basmachi that had dug in on a hill.

Despite our machinegun fire, the cavalry of basmachi continued to advance.

The squadron commander, seeing that it was hopeless for the detachment to fight the foe with its larger numbers, gave the order to retreat.

Artemkin, who was in the squadron, pulled out his saber and shouted to his retreating comrades:

“Let’s get the basmachi,” and, turning his horse toward the enemy, rushed at a bunch of advancing basmachi.

Artemkin’s harsh voice ran like an electric current through the whole squadron, and the sabers of the Red Army soldiers rushing to the attack flashed like lightning in the enemy’s eyes.

The pile of bodies of basmachi hacked to death on the battlefield told all of the Soviet Government’s enemies how the Red Army deals with enemies of the working people.

Pavel Liamka.

Editor: P. Aldoshkin.

Publisher: Political Department of Fergana Oblast Troops (R.V.Ts. [?] No. 14).

Military Printing Plant of the Political Department of Fergana Oblast Troops. City of Kokand.