File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎383v] (414/1080)

6
i
the Khanate was rich, it had its own industries, and it afforded opportu
nities to its citizens for profiting by those industries. All that has been
swept away by Moscow’s system of State spoliation and the levelling ordi
nances of Socio-Communism. No wonder that the Sarts wish for a return
of their Amir, and with him, of industrial and economic freedom.
Kumours of rebel activity near Yakka Bagh are current:
Ferghana. —The arrival of winter must affect conditions in Terghana
is so far as the desultory operations there against the rebels are concerned,.
For the Bolshevik forces being so ill found are hardly able to campaign in
almost Arctic conditions while the rebels are in very little better condition
—except that they enjoy the sympathy of the population.
At present Bolshevik dominion in Ferghana is very fragile except
on the railway and in the garrisoned towns such as Kokand, Margilan,
Andijan, Skobelev, Gorchakov, etc. About the end of October the rebels
attacked Jalalabad and fighting lasted three days. The Bolsheviks were
forced to retire but the rebels, after tearing up 10 versts of the railway west
of Andijan, retired to the hills—probably on hearing of the approach of
reinforcements.
In the Andijan area Mohkam Haji and Dash Pulad are the principal
rebel leaders,
The latest reports from Ferghana show a preponderance of Russian
over Muslim troops in the garrisons owing to the wholesale desertions to
the rebels of the latter.
Policy. —The following note on the Eastern Policy of the Bolsheviks
has been afforded by one who up to the time of flight from Russia was the
chief of a branch of the Special Department. The name of the Indian poll
tical leader he cannot, or will not, give.
In the eyes of the Soviet Government England is the strongest and most
dangerous obstacle to the spread of universal Bolshevism. Consequently,
the primary aim and object of the Soviet Government are to concern
trate all their means and forces on reducing this obstacle, that is, on dis
locating and weakening the power of England. They will strive to deal
England a blow in her most vulnerable place and to detach from her richest
dependency—India—which they consider to be the most susceptible to pro
paganda of all the British possessions. With this end in view the
Bolsheviks have worked out their scheme of Eastern politics.
That scheme was launched first of all in Turkestan and the primary
move was to inaugurate a whole series of propaganda schools where parti
cular attention in the framing of the courses was paid to the political train
ing of Mussalman pupils in the role of agitators among the Muslim popula
tions of Turkestan. This was to be followed by a further preparation for
similar duties abroad. Young men from the Red Army and teachers from
among Turkmen adls and settlements were also enrolled as pupils.
When the two to three month s’courses were finished the graduates were
sent with the status of agitators to villages and settlements for the expan
sion of propaganda and the dissemination of Bolshevik literature, a large
quantity of which was supplied them.
Bolshevik policy as propagated in Turkestan was three-fold. Firstly,
Bolshevik ideas were spread among the most indigent of the native popula
tion who are antagonistic to the Begs and Mullas. Secondly, village
committees of paupers \yere brought into being with the object of gaining
their adherence by promises of the gift of land, of movable and immovable
property, and of live and dead stock. Thirdly, the agitator tried energeti
cally to introduce propaganda among Muslim women with the object of
attracting their sympathies and of influencing them to bring up their
children in the spirit of Bolshevism.
The first result of these activities was a realization by the Bolsheviks
that they were unable to induce sympathy towards themselves among the
poorer native population which is accustomed to be under the dominance
of the Begs and Mullas. Consequently, the Bolshevik authorities turned