The former governor of Turkestan Aleksei Kuropatkin (1848-1925) underlined that, in fact, the native administration regulated the main areas of the region almost independently, while the Russian administration was considered incompetent and undersized. In the sedentary areas, the colonial native administration, which had significant power, was a target of violence. The 1916 Uprisings in the Sedentary Area (July-August) ↑
Moreover, since there were no birth certificates, determining age was often difficult, and led to the practice of corruption, bribes and exemptions. Rumours were also circulating, as some feared being Christianised in the ranks of the army. The decree was announced, without preparation, during the high season of agricultural work and during the period of Ramadan, which raised discontent and concern. Then, the imperial administration in Turkestan had to decide precisely how many men they could provide eventually, the native administration had to choose, namely, which men would go. The imperial decree of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia (1868-1918) was issued on 7 July 1916 and was aimed at drafting 250,000 men aged between nineteen and forty-three years of age. The issue of drafting the Central Asian population was raised, but only for labour battalions. The Russian minister of war stated that his army needed up to 500,000 men monthly. In the summer of 1915, the Russian army faced great difficulties and the drafting of the Central Asian Muslim population by imperial decree was later decided in order to fulfil the military needs. On the other hand, flows of refugees from the Central European parts of the Russian Empire arrived in Turkestan, along with prisoners of war, mainly of German and Austrian origin (about 200,000). From a demographic viewpoint, their rapid withdrawal destabilised the population distribution (in the Semirechie region, the most fertile lands of the southern Central Asian region, up to 50 percent of the settlers left). On the one hand, males from the Russian settler population and the Cossacks were conscripted and had to leave the region for the front in large numbers.
Second, the situation had, since the early days of the war, given birth to massive migrations that affected the province. First, even though the native population in Turkestan did not serve in the ranks of the army, they had to provide the Russian state with cotton, raw materials, horses, camels, and cattle, and indeed had to performed war duty. After the general mobilisation of the Russian Empire in July-August 1914, conscripting 15 million men, Turkestan went through important demographic and economic changes that had consequences for everyday life and for the way the uprisings began and developed.
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