Bashkirs are one of the ancient peoples of Eurasia, formed as a separate ethnos of the Southern Urals in the first millennium AD.
At the same time, Russian entrepreneurs sought to obtain land holdings in the Urals to extract furs and exploit other resources of the region.
With the arrival of the Russian state, mass construction of towns and fortresses, strongholds of colonization, began in Baskhir lands, where servicemen and officials lived.
The protest was led by large landowners, some of whom renounced their allegiance to Russian and wished to recreate an independent Siberian khanate.
Russia struggled to militarily defeat the rebellion, and so conceded some Bashkir demands on land and taxation.
[5] The uprising of 1735-1740 was a response to the organization by the Russian authorities of the Orenburg military-political expedition, which aimed to establish colonial orders in Bashkortostan.
The punitive expedition of Russian General Rumyantsev during the suppression of the uprising killed, executed or exiled to penal servitude 40,000-60,000 Bashkirs.
Emelyan Pugachev, who declared himself Emperor Peter III, promised independence to the Bashkirs, so two thirds of the clans came to his side.
Donnelly concludes that Russia systematically pursued an imperialist policy with consistent infringement of Bashkir interests.
The result of the conquest of Bashkortostan was a significant expansion of the territory and increase in the population of the Russian Empire at the expense of the Bashkirs losing the opportunity to create their own separate nation-state.
In July–August 1917, the I and II All-Bashkir Congresses (kurultais) were held in Orenburg, where it was decided to establish a "democratic republic on national-territorial principles" within federative Russia.
In the conditions of the Kolchakovs' retreat to Siberia, they found themselves without support in the face of the advancing forces of the Red Army.
In 2005, thousands of people gathered in the center of Ufa, the capital of Bashkiria, demanding the restoration of social benefits abolished by the new monetization law.
[15] In response to the curtailment of constitutional rights and ongoing Russification, Bashkirs formed the nationwide organizations Kuk Bure and Bashkort (2014).
These organizations raised the issues of protecting the rights and interests of the Bashkir people, the return of the republic's sovereignty and the 1993 Constitution of Bashkortostan.
[16] Criminal cases were brought against activists, in particular against the leaders of Kuk Bure and Bashkort, and some participants received prison sentences.
One of the founders of the organization, Ruslan Gabbasov, was forced to flee Russia and found political asylum in Lithuania.
[18][19][20] As of October 19, 2022, there were 2,700 people in the ranks of Bashkirs who had announced plans to engage in armed resistance to the Russian Federation.
[25] Moscow has pursued a policy of dismantling or reducing the size of several ethnic groups either by supporting linguistic schisms and cultural diversity within specific communities or by trying to create a super-ethnos to dilute national identities.
The primary objective is to divide the two nations, reduce the number of self-identifying Bashkirs,and curtail demands for sovereignty and potential statehood by Bashkortostan.
[27] In 2017, a well-known Bashkir public figure, civil activist and journalist Anver Yumagulov was beaten unconscious.
[28] In 2018, the Kushtau mountain (140 km from Ufa) was transferred to Bashkir Soda Company for mining lime, after which the local population protested - in particular, after mass logging began.
Local residents consider Kushtau to be part of a single mountain massif with the Toratau and Yuraktau shikhans, which have the status of natural monuments.
[29] In August 2020, thousands of protesters organized marches and blocked roads to protect the Kushtau conservation areas.
The protesters, among other things, called for free elections to the regional government, which would have to support the people's demands rather than fulfill the will of the Kremlin.
[35] The Russian authorities are responding with bans: for example, the Administration of the Tanalyk Village Council of the Khaibullinsky District of Bashkortostan refused to approve a citizens' meeting on the issue of resettlement of local residents in connection with subsoil development.
[36] On January 15, 2024, hundreds of people came to the Baimak court in Bashkortostan to support eco-activist Fail Alsynov, who was charged with incitement to hatred because of his speech at a rally against gold mining.
After learning that the activist was sentenced to four years, the protesters blocked the road, preventing the truck from leaving the courthouse.