Mustafa Shokai’s Days in Georgia

It is known that a segment of the difficult and complex life of Mustafa Shokai (1890-1941), one of the esteemed Alash figures who dedicated his determined character, courage, high aspirations, and destiny to the freedom and equality of his people, was spent in Georgia. It was not accidental that Mustafa Shokai chose the Caucasus to continue his struggle for the independence of Turkestan.

The result of the February Revolution in 1917 kindled hope among the peoples under the yoke of Tsarist Russia, and national intellectuals inspired by social democratic ideas strove to achieve freedom. However, it is evident that Alashtorda, the Turkestan Autonomy (Mukh­tariyat), and the first democratic republics in the Caucasus countries and Ukraine were unable to sustain the banner of independence for long.

The political struggle of M. Shokai, who made the idea of an independent Turkestan his life’s mission, was devoted to ensuring the local population’s right to participate in solving issues concerning their own fate, in elections to governing bodies, and preventing their social and economic exploitation. He was a member of the Alashtorda government, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and later Head of the Turkestan Autonomy government.

After the government of the Turkestan Autonomy, established in Kokand, was forcibly crushed three months later, Mustafa Shokai went into hiding in Tashkent. He later travelled through the Kazakh steppe to Baku in the spring of 1919 and from there arrived in Tbilisi. Here, in unity with the democratic forces of the Georgian, Ukrainian, and North Caucasian peoples, M. Shokai continued the fight for the freedom of Turkestan. After Soviet troops invaded Tbilisi on February 26, 1921, he and his wife, Maria Gorina, left for Turkey via Batumi. Later, this Maria Gorina was instrumental in delivering the letters and manuscripts of the Alash figure to the country, greatly helping to clear Mustafa Shokai’s name.

I was greatly pleased when, within the framework of my diplomatic work in Georgia, I was granted permission to search the country’s National Archive for data related to Mustafa Shokai’s period of residence in Tbilisi between 1919 and 1921. While Mustafa Shokai came to Georgian soil a century ago to continue his struggle for the equality of his oppressed people, I was particularly moved to be representing independent Kazakhstan. In the National Archive in Tbilisi, M. Shokai’s articles published in the periodical press during 1919-1921 were discovered.

It was no coincidence that Mustafa Shokai chose the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as the frontline for the liberation of Turkestan. Between 1917 and 1921, the peoples of North and South Caucasus also continued their national liberation struggle and achieved great results. In March 1917, the Ukrainian People’s Republic was established, followed by the Transcaucasian Federative Republic on April 22, the Provisional Government of North Caucasus on November 20, the “Idel-Ural” Muslim Autonomy in Ufa on November 23, and the Crimean-Turk Republic on December 26.

A year later, the Transcaucasian Federative Republic collapsed, and the First Democratic Republic of Georgia, established on May 26, 1918, was recognized by Germany, Great Britain, Italy, France, Belgium, Turkey, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Argentina, Japan, Belgium, and even Russia. Tiflis (Tbilisi) and its press at the time were a mirror of a boiling political life: the pages of the yellow press were full of information about the geopolitical situation, the foreign policy of large and small European states, and their stances regarding the new republics.

During this complex period in the waves of history, Mustafa Shokai strengthened his ties with the democratic forces in Tiflis and engaged in fervent journalistic work alongside his political activism. He arrived on Georgian soil in 1919 as the Chairman of the Committee for Convening the Constituent Assembly of Turkestan. Here, M. Shokai found many like-minded people on the freedom-loving, democratically aspiring land of the Caucasus. He established close contacts with the leaders of the First Georgian Democratic Republic and North Caucasian organizations located in Tbilisi in those years, notably politicians such as Noi Zhordania and Noi Ramishvili, Evgeni Gegechkori, Ilya Zurabishvili, and Akhmed Tsalikov. The Georgian people, nourished by both Western and Eastern cultures, and the land of Georgia, where the national spirit has always been high, gave new impetus to Mustafa Shokai’s struggle for the freedom of the peoples of Turkestan.

In 1919-1920, Mustafa Shokai undertook the publication of the journal “Na rubezhe” (“On the Boundary”) from the “Erikti Odaq” publishing house in Tbilisi. Six issues of the journal were published, but only the 6th issue is preserved in the national archive. In addition, M. Shokai regularly published articles about the difficult situation and injustice in the Kazakh steppe based on data received from Turkestan under the pseudonym “Muzaffar Zhanaev, Baku correspondent” in the newspapers “Volny Gorets” (“Free Highlander”) and “Borba” (“Struggle”), which were organs of the revolutionary democracy of the North Caucasian peoples fighting for the freedom of the mountain peoples (Dagestan).

A number of Mustafa Shokai’s articles, specifically the series titled “Eastern Problems (Soviet Power and the Kirghiz)” published in several issues of the “Volny Gorets” newspaper, were written under the pseudonym “Kypchak-ogly.” If we rely on the information that Mustafa Shokai descends from the Zhanay branch of the Boshay division of the Qypchak tribe, it is unquestionable that the articles yearning for the dawn of freedom for the Kazakh people, under the pseudonyms Muzaffar Zhanaev and Kypchak-uly, were penned by Mustafa Shokai.

Furthermore, on January 26, 1921, the governments of the Entente states officially recognized Georgia’s independence de jure at a meeting of their heads of government. Although the Georgian parliament adopted the country’s first constitution, based on democratic principles, on February 21, 1921, only four days later, on February 25, 1921, Soviet troops invaded Tbilisi. Likewise, upon gaining independence in 1991, the Georgian parliament declared its first act adopted on May 26 as the Resolution on the Restoration of Independence. Thus, it was a special honour to participate as a diplomatic representative of independent Kazakhstan in the 100th anniversary celebration of Georgia’s independence on May 26, 2018, and to witness the widespread joy of those historical days.

The unique fighter and prominent scholar Mustafa Shokai stood against colonialism and the domination of one nation over another. The idea of strengthening the cooperation of all Turkic-speaking peoples, conceived by the humanist who understood the unity of the Turkic peoples as the prerequisite for their free development, is being successfully implemented today within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States.

Mustafa Shokai, who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Alash figures for the independence of the Kazakh people and never recognized the Soviet government until his last breath, later continued his fight against the Soviet oppressive policy alongside Georgian emigrants in Paris. Mustafa Shokai’s thoughts on national independence and national spirit are relevant even today. He once said, “Can there be national independence without a national spirit? History has neither seen nor known such a thing. National freedom is the result of the national spirit.”

In his article “Independence is More Precious Than Anything,” the President of our country, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, emphasized, “We take lessons from the Alash figures who once set the best example of serving the country. The acquisition of the noble legacy of the Alash figures must continue.” In this article, the Head of State writes about the necessity for present and future generations to be prepared for new challenges in order to survive as a nation and a country.

Mustafa Shokai’s articles focused mainly on the protection of the conscience and rights of Turkestan Muslims. His article “Communism in a Turban” (“Kommunizm v chalme”) was published in the 6th issue of the journal “Na rubezhe” on January 15, 1920. The main objective of this article was to expose the rightless and exploited situation of the Turkestanis and to protect the rights of the local population. The author’s opening statement, “However tolerant or passive the local people in Turkestan may be, they could not long endure their rightless situation,” demonstrates his skillful writing.

He points out Russia’s interest in actively using the Turkestan region to advance its geopolitical interests. It is stated that Turkestan was of crucial importance for the Soviet government, which had turned its face towards the Muslim East. The region, which is the “key that opens the way” to the East and the “cradle of the Turkic peoples,” is located on the road leading to India, the land of the Great Mughals, which is a weak point for British imperialism. The author criticizes the fact that “Russian communists planned to ignite the fire of the East Liberation Revolution” in this region.

However, in the said article, the fighter for the freedom of Turkestan, M. Shokai, emphasizes that the democratic groups of Turkestani Muslims understand the path to national liberation not as inciting religious hostility against someone, but as the strive to establish equal and fraternal coexistence of the peoples of Turkestan within the framework of the achievements brought by the revolution, and a free union with a democratic Russia and the newly established neighbouring states.

Furthermore, the author’s perspective on class politics in Turkestan is clearly visible in this article. The astute politician writes that the Bolsheviks understood that Turkestan Muslims needed national liberation. He points out, “For the inhabitants of Turkestan, as well as the entire Muslim East, due to their social, economic, and cultural situation, the path of class struggle, the struggle for class liberation, is currently unsuitable, because it is the general population, not a specific class, that is being exploited here. Understanding this, the Turkestani Bolsheviks, true to their dangerous characteristics, fall into another extreme: they adorn the idea of national liberation with the red turban of religious fanaticism and talk about irrational things.”

In issues No. 1-2 of the “Na rubezhe” publication, M. Shokai’s article “Turkestan and the Revolution” was published, and in issue No. 5, “When Will the Real Day Come?” Unfortunately, these issues of the newspaper have not been preserved.

The article “The Policy of the Communists on the Periphery,” published in issue No. 30 of the “Volny Gorets” newspaper on February 16, 1920, also criticizes the fact that general suffrage is still not granted to Turkestan Muslims. It mentions the lack of equal representation between the local population and immigrants in the Soviet Congresses, meaning that the indigenous population, which constitutes 95 percent of the Turkestan population, held only 20-25 delegate mandates in all congresses. In this regard, the author mocks the fact that propagandists frequently arrived from Moscow to Tashkent on trains adorned with red flags and drawings of green crescent moons, shouting Pan-Islamic slogans and solemnly celebrating Muslim “bayrams” (holidays), yet the moment the issue of Muslim participation in governing their own country arose, the Turkestani Bolsheviks would immediately become the “defenders of the purity” of the revolution’s banner.

The said article can be assessed as a unique historical relic and an informed account that studied the politics and situation of Muslims at that time. We see from the article that Muslims, while joining the ranks of the Red Army in large numbers, demanded appropriate representation in the governing bodies. The lines stating that “Moscow and Turkestan communists know that Muslims are not counter-revolutionaries, however, according to Tashkent communists, they are ‘not yet ready to conduct state affairs’ and therefore must ‘learn from the Riazan and Nizhny Novgorod peasants’ who are currently engaged in ‘state affairs’ in Turkestan. Although the more sound communists in the center understand this is nonsense and demanded they vacate their positions, they refuse to relinquish power, saying, ‘What did we shed blood for?'” reveal much about the situation at the time.

In those years, Mustafa Shokai’s heart bled for the tragedy of the steppe, and he published several articles in local publications. The yellowed newspaper pages in the Tbilisi archive preserve the tragedy of the Kazakh steppe. Issue No. 33 of the “Volny Gorets” newspaper on March 8, 1920, contains the article “Gore stiepi” (“The Tragedy of the Steppe” – a letter from a Kirghiz). A note explains that “our correspondent Zhanaev received a letter in the native language from an educated representative of the Kazakh steppe, which describes the mood of the peoples located on the periphery of Russia under Soviet rule, after which the letter was published in full.”

Mustafa Shokai, whose heart wept over the plight of his people, whose situation worsened year by year due to the “achievements” of the revolution, whose interests were suppressed, and whose struggle for livelihood became extremely difficult, sought ways out of this situation. The fact that he was constantly informed about the situation in the country through letters proves that he served here as the representative of Turkestan. Based on these reports, he wrote articles for publications in Tbilisi, trying to draw the attention of democratic forces.

The letter writer narrates that “our free steppe no longer greets the traveller with hospitable warmth; the former generosity is gone. Everywhere lie traces of ruin and death.” The bitter truth is preserved in the words, “In the end, the entire meaning of the revolution came down to one thing – the struggle to survive, to preserve the people.” It is said that not only were hundreds of thousands of Kazakh livestock killed in the name of the revolution, but the vast steppe was “desolate.” The taxes for the “socialist revolution” in Turkestan were not paid only with livestock: the steppe was “left empty…” The author laments that human casualties in the Kazakh steppe exceeded half a million even by 1920.

The author is deeply distressed that the cause of this grief that has engulfed the people is not the civil war, but the struggle for power. The worst part, he cries out, is that people are not dying on the civil war fronts for ideas they understand, but as a result of the malevolence of a meaningless, inhuman policy of revolutionizing through hunger. The article mentions that those who could afford it were moving to Zhideli-Baisyn, which became a “Kirghiz Palestine,” and the resettlement of Russian Kazakhs (Syr Darya region) within the borders of the Bukhara Khanate reminded the author of the “great exodus” of Semirechye Kazakhs from Tsarist Russia to China in 1916. It is also mentioned that some Kazakhs were enrolling in the Red Army to learn how to use weapons.

Mustafa Shokai’s views on Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism are also quite interesting for researchers. His conceptual article “Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism in Central Asia,” published in issue No. 32 of the “Volny Gorets” newspaper on March 1, 1920, draws attention. The article states, “The author of these lines, while being deeply involved in the national self-determination of his people and country, sincerely sympathizes with national liberation, and according to the crucible of destiny, does not count himself among either the Pan-Islamists or the Pan-Turkists, alongside all Muslim peoples who have fallen into the powerful grasp of imperialist patrons. However, this situation in no way prevents him from mentioning the universally known and unchanging fact – the inner spiritual connection with the Muslim peoples. Recognizing this connection clearly, the Bolsheviks, when they seized power, promised ‘peace and bread’ to Russian workers and peasants, while assuring Muslims, ‘We will leave Constantinople in the hands of the Turks,’” he writes. M. Shokai assures that “Turkish agents” among the Sarts and Kazakhs only existed in the imaginations of cunning administrative officials.

Thus, the words of Mustafa Shokai, the astute and courageously tempered eagle of political struggle who grew up wise from a young age and mastered sharp and profound rhetoric, “Only the peoples who have been able to strengthen their unity can achieve and defend their independence,” sound like a testament to all of us. This is the main lesson of independence.

Gulmira SULTANALI, Diplomat, Journalist