Konstantin Osipov Minister of War of the Turkestan Republic, who led the anti-Soviet rebellion in Tashkent in January 1919. Country: Turkmenistan

Biography of Konstantin Osipov

Konstantin Pavlovich Osipov was born in 1896 in Krasnoyarsk. He studied at the Krasnoyarsk Land Surveying School before being called into the army. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) in 1913. During the First World War, Osipov served in a reserve regiment for two years and was later assigned to the 4th Moscow Officer Training School, where he excelled and became a teacher. In late 1916, he was appointed to Turkestan. In early 1917, he served as an adjutant to General Polonsky in Skobelev (Fergana). He enthusiastically embraced the February Revolution and in October 1917, became a member of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies.

During the summer of 1918, Osipov played a significant role in the defeat of the Kokand Autonomy and Colonel Zaitsev's Cossacks near Samarkand. As a result, at the age of 22, he became the military commissar of the Turkestan Republic. In January 1919, Osipov led an anti-Soviet uprising in Tashkent, aiming to overthrow the Soviet government in the region.

During the uprising, Osipov acted harshly and without compromise, personally ordering the execution of prominent Soviet and party workers captured by the rebels at the beginning of their armed uprising. Street battles erupted in the city, initially favoring the rebels. However, they failed to capture key targets such as the Tashkent railway workshops and the fortress, ultimately leading to the failure of the uprising. The actions taken by the remaining Soviet leaders, including the management of the Tashkent railway workshops and the commander of the Tashkent fortress, Ivan Belov, a left Socialist Revolutionary, who began shelling the conspirators' headquarters and barracks of the 2nd Rifle Regiment, thwarted the plans of the uprising leaders. After the failed uprising, Konstantin Osipov and his associates left the city of Tashkent towards Chimkent, and then, maneuvering, headed towards Chimgan, taking all the cash from the city bank in both paper currency and gold. The victorious Soviets pursued the fleeing rebels and conducted mass "cleansings," interrogations, and executions in the city.

The final battle between the rebels and their pursuers took place in the snow-capped mountains, in the foothills of the Pskem Ridge near the village of Karabulak. In the village itself, after a search, a portion of the funds taken by the rebels from the bank in paper currency was found. However, the gold, as well as the leader of the uprising, Konstantin Osipov, could not be captured. Initially, the Soviet investigative bodies believed Osipov had perished in the mountains due to an avalanche, but later, he reappeared in the Fergana Valley with armed groups fighting against the Soviet government in the region. After a series of unsuccessful battles against the government forces, Konstantin Osipov moved to Bukhara and began cooperating with the emir. Since formally (and at that time, practically) the Bukharan Emirate was an independent state, the Turkestan Republic's Soviet government in Tashkent persistently demanded the extradition of Konstantin Osipov and his associates through diplomatic channels. Under pressure from the authorities in Tashkent, some of Osipov's comrades were handed over to the Soviet government, but not Osipov himself.

Several episodes from that time, related to Konstantin Osipov's fate, were later used as the basis for the films "The Collapse of the Emirate" and "Fiery Years," which depicted the struggle for the establishment of Soviet power in the Turkestan region. After the overthrow of the emirate's government by parts of the Red Army in 1920, the ruler of Bukhara fled to Afghanistan, where some reports claim Konstantin Osipov was also seen in Kabul. His further fate remains unknown.