For a decade the Basmachi frustrated the Soviets, popping up where they were least expected, and preventing them from establishing total control in the region. However, by 1926, the Basmachi were on their last leg. Hiding in northern Afghanistan, they faced a choice of one final assault or fading away into obscurity.
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References for Episode
Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR by Adeeb Khalid
Despite Cultures: Early Soviet Rule in Tajikistan by Botakoz Kassymbekova
“Frunze and the development of Soviet counter-insurgency in Central Asia” by Alexander Marshall in Central Asia: Aspects of Transition by Tom Everett-Heath
“The Final Phase of Liquidation of the Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924-1931” by William S. Ritter
“The Basmachi or Freeman’s Revolt in Turkestan 1918-1924” by Martha B. Olcott
Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan by Robert F. Baumann
Art of Asymmetrical Warfare 