20.11. Adeeb Khalid (The Russian Revolution as an Anticolonial Moment? he Muslims of Central Asia and Beyond)

Global History Colloquium, 20 November 2023, 18h15-19h45 (in person)

FU Berlin, FMI, Room A336, Koserstr. 20, 14195 Berlin

Abstract:

Many Central Asian Muslims saw the Russian revolution an anticolonial moment. After the Bolsheviks took power in October, they made anticolonialism a key part of their rhetoric. They spoke of liberating oppressed peoples both in Russia and beyond, thus uniting Russia’s national question and the global colonial question. Both the enthusiasm sparked by the fall of the Autocracy and the proclamations of the Bolsheviks drew many Muslim activists in Central Asia to the new political order. Muslims beyond the former Russian empire (in India, Iran, and the Ottoman Empire) also saw in the revolution an opportunity for anticolonial action. However, these actors often had their own understanding of what the new order should be about that did not fully match the views of the Bolsheviks. The years after 1917 saw sustained contestation over the meaning of the revolution and the place of Central Asians in the new order. This talk will explore this contestation and assess the degree to which Russian revolution was indeed as anticolonial moment.