Leader of the Bashkir national movement who proclaimed Bashkir autonomy, commanded the Bashkir Army and took it over to the Soviet side
Born in 1890 in Kuzyanovo, Ufa province, he taught Turkic history at the Qasimiya madrasa in Kazan. In 1917 he joined the Socialist Revolutionaries and was elected to the Constituent Assembly; with Sharif Manatov he organised the Bashkir Central Shuro, proclaimed Bashkir autonomy and became commander of the Bashkir Army. Arrested by the Bolsheviks in February 1918 and freed in April, he fought alongside Dutov and Kolchak, but in February 1919 took his troops over to the Soviet side. He became chairman of the Bashrevkom in 1920, resigned in June in protest at the curtailing of autonomy and led the Basmachi movement in Turkestan. He emigrated in 1923, became a Turkish citizen in 1925, a professor at Istanbul University and a doctor of the University of Vienna, and died in Istanbul in 1970.
Also known as: Ahmet Zeki Velidi Togan · Akhmet-Zaki Validov
Activities and affiliations
- 1917–1919 Military command
- 1917–1919 Political and party leadership
- 1919–1920 Government and administration · Soviet Union
- 1917–1918 Social movements and organizing · Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR/SR)
- 1920 Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
- 1927–1970 Scholarship and theory · Turkey state institutions
Career Timeline
- 1909–1915Teacher at the Qasimiya madrasa in Kazan
- 1915–1917Bureau supporting the Muslim deputies of the State Duma
- 1917–1919Deputy chairman of the Bashkir Central Shuro; commander of the Bashkir Army
- 1919–1920Military commissar and deputy chairman of the Bashrevkom; chairman in 1920
- 1920–1923Leader of the Basmachi movement in Turkestan
- 1927Chair of Turkish History, Istanbul University
- 1935Doctor of philosophy, University of Vienna