Bosmachi Stories

This chapter outlines the struggle between Central Asian rebels, the so-called Bosmachi, and the Red Army. In remembering episodes of banditry and skirmishes that affected their families and communities, respondents recalled the past in starkly opposed terms, even defining the rebels differently. Most told of terrifying raids by Bosmachis, or bandits, who stole and murdered, and different narrators recalled such attacks taking place from 1920 through the mid-1930s. Some, however, identified with the rebels, referring to them as Qo'rboshi (commanders) rather than bandits. After many decades when state-controlled media depicted Bosmachis as vicious enemies, independent Uzbekistan's state-supported revision of this violent history regards Qo'rboshis as fighters for national liberation, giving the sons of rebels room to tell those stories with pride. Gender shaped these accounts: those women who told Bosmachi stories used emotional language, focusing on the threat of kidnap and rape. Not every respondent had a Bosmachi story based on personal or family experience, but for those who did, the terms with which they remembered Bosmachis corresponded more broadly to their supportive or oppositional attitudes on collectivization.