The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online IX

The International Newsletter of Communist Studies Online 16/2003 44
Turkestan, in March 1919 he heads the Mussulman Bureau of the Territory Party Committee and in January
1920 he was elected chairman of the CEC of Turkestan.
At the 3rd territory conference of the Mussulman organizations held under the leadership of Ryskulov and at
the 5th territory conference of the Communist Party of Turkestan he offered to call the Soviet Socialist Republic
of Turkestan in future the »Turkic« Soviet Republic and the Communist Party of Turkestan - the »Communist
Party of Turkic peoples«. But his proposals were rejected by the Turkoman Commission (Turkcommission) and
the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Persisting in his position, on May 17, 1920, Ryskulov, as head of the delegation, left for Moscow submitting at
first his memorandum and then the report with his proposals to the CC of the RCP (B). On May 23, 1920,
Ryskulov with N. Khodzhaev and G. Bekh-Ivanov as members of the delegation, submits »the Draft Statute of
the Autonomous Soviet Republic of Turkestan of the Russian Socialist Federation« to the CC of the RCP (B). On
May 24, 1920, Lenin met Ryskulov and Khodzhaev. On May 25, 1920, a session of the Political Bureau of the CC
of the RCP (B) on the Turkoman question was held. Sh. Z. Eliava and Ia. E. Rudzutak, chiefs of the
»Turkcommission«, T. R. Ryskulov, chairman of the CEC of Turkestan, were invited to the session and took part
in its work. But almost another month of work of the special commission including G. V. Chicherin, N. N.
Krestinsky and Sh. Z. Eliava as outstanding figures of the party, was necessary in order to prepare a decision of
the party’s CC on the Turkoman question. 18 On June 13 and 22, 1920, the Politburo of the CC of the RCP (B)
considered once again the draft decisions on the Turkestan questions again. Having studied all the documents
closely, Lenin made some essential amendments. »It is necessary, on my sight«, - he writes on June 13, 1920, -
»to reject the draft of Comrade Ryskulov, to accept the draft of a commission...« 19 The recommendations and
the advice of Lenin underlay the decision of the Central Committee of the party dated June 29, 1920 entitled
»About the basic tasks of the RCP (B) in Turkestan«. During his stay in Moscow, Ryskulov had an opportunity to
read the »Initial sketch of the theses on national and colonial questions« prepared by Lenin for the 2nd
congress of the Comintern (Communist International). On June 16, 1920, T. Ryskulov with N. Khodzhaev from
Turkestan, A. Validov and Kh. Yumagulov from Bashkiria, and A. Baitursunov and A. Yermekov from Kirghizia
(Kazakhstan) redacted the »Additions of the representatives of the Communists of Bashkiria, Turkestan and
Kirghizia to the theses of Comrade Lenin on colonial and national questions«. 20
High ranking Soviet official
After he returned from Moscow on July 18, 1920, at the session of the Territorial Committee of the Communist
Party of Turkestan he resigned his duty as member of the Territorial Committee and chairman of the Turkoman
18 Ibid, sh. 26a-back-28, 29-49, 57-109; fond 17, inv. 84, file 88, sh. 1-6; file 89, sh. 1-10; file 90, sh. 1-102;
fond 589, inv. 3, file 15599, vol. 4, sh. 131; T. R. Ryskulov: [Collected Works in Three Volumes], Almaty,
1997-1998, p. 182-187, 411-412; Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: [Biographical Chronic. 1870-1924], Vol. 8, 1977, p.
575, 589.
19 V. I. Lenin: [Complete Works], vol. 41, p. 435.
20 RGASPI, fond 5, inv. 3, file 3, sh. 14-15, 21-26; fond 489, inv.1, file 14, sh. 89-100.