The Russian state was not able to restore order to parts of the Empire until after the outbreak of the October Revolution, and the subsequent Basmachi revolt (1916–1923) further destabilized the Central Asian region.

Central Asia's inhabitants were taxed by Tsarist authorities and made up around 10% of the Russian Empire's population but none served in the 435-seat State Duma.

By 1916, Turkestan and the Governor-Generalship of the Steppes had accumulated many social, land and inter-ethnic contradictions caused by the resettlement of Russian and Ukrainian settlers, which began in the second half of the 19th century, after the Emancipation reform of 1861 which abolished serfdom.

Emperor Nicholas II adopted the "requisition of foreigners" at the age of 19 to 43 years inclusive, for rear work in the front-line areas of the First World War.

The discontent of people fueled the unfair distribution of land, as well as the calls of Muslim leaders for a holy war against the 'infidel' Russian rule.

[1] On 25 June 1916 (8 July 1916, N.S.Tooltip New Style),[citation needed] shortly before the start of the rebellion, Nicholas II adopted a draft of conscripting Central Asian men from the age of 19 to 43 into labor battalions for service in support of the ongoing Brusilov Offensive.

[24] The rebels had several demands, including transparency in how the lists of citizens due for conscription were compiled, to delay the draft until the end of the harvest, and for one man of each family to stay at home.

[citation needed] On 31 July (13 August, N.S.Tooltip New Style), Aleksey Kuropatkin, The Governor-General of Russian Turkestan, conducted a purge of the local hierarchy and convinced Nicholas II of Russia to postpone the conscription until mid-September.

It was only defended by a local garrison of Russian Soldiers who were on leave from the front, who swiftly constructed two wooden cannons to try to beat back the attack.

[citation needed] At one point in the rebellion, Ibrahim had discovered that several munition carts would soon pass through the mountain road that followed the Chu River.

He proclaimed Zaaminsky Bek and organized the murder of a local police officer named Sobolev, after which he then appointed his own ministers and announced a military campaign to capture the railway stations of Obruchevo and Ursatievskaya.

Even the requests by Alikhan Bukeikhanov and Akhmet Baitursynov who were the leaders of a Kazakh independence movement which later became known as the Alash Party did not calm the population in an attempt to prevent brutal repressions towards unarmed civilians.

The leaders repeatedly tried to convince the administration not to hurry with mobilization, conduct preparatory measures, and they also as well demanded freedom of conscience, improving the environment of academic work, organizing the training of Kyrgyz and Kazakh children in their native language by establishing boarding schools for them and allowing local press.

As a response, around 30,000 soldiers, including Cossacks, armed with machine guns and artillery were diverted from the Eastern Front of World War I and sent in to crush the rebels, and arrived two weeks later via trains.

[citation needed] In September and early October, the revolt was suppressed in Semirechye and the last remnants of resistance were crushed in late January 1917 in the Transcaspian region.

Aleksey Kuropatkin issued an order, explaining who was exempt from the draft, what kind of service the Kyrgyz would serve, and that conscripts would receive one ruble per day and free food and lodging.

He was quoted as saying "How can we possibly blame a backward, uneducated and suppressed aboriginal people so dissimilar to us, for having lost patience and committing acts of revolt for which they immediately felt remorse and regret?

"[citation needed] By order of the Turkestan governor-general, military courts were established in district cities and imposed death sentences towards all the rebels who took part in the uprising.

Only in the water meadows and low-lying ground near the stream is any cultivation possible.The Kyrgyz historian Shayyrkul Batyrbaeva puts the death toll at 40,000, based on population tallies[30] but other contemporary estimates are significantly higher.

In addition to those killed outright, tens of thousands of men, women, and children died while trying to escape over treacherous mountain passes into China.

[20] Other much high figures have also been cited: Arnold J. Toynbee alleges 500,000 Central Asian Turks perished under the Russian Empire, though he admits this is speculative.