Abstract:
In the midst of 1905 political changes in Russian Empire, proponents of a small Turkestani reformist movement Jadidism, called Jadids, seized the moment to launch independent newspapers. It was the inception of the modern Uzbek press. Jadids used newspapers as venues to discuss and propel their vision of modernizing Muslim society. Through newspapers reformists claimed leadership in society with the goal of leading Turkestanis toward modernity. Most historians of Jadidism and Central Asia, who have previously recorded the development of Jadid press, marked the date of its eclipse as 1918, at the time of the collapse of Kokand Autonomy. This thesis, however, extends the timeline of Jadid press to 1928 by showing how Jadids were involved in constructing the early Soviet press. Moreover, this work describes the functions Jadids ascribed to newspapers and its editors, and studies the use of Jadid hyperbolic rhetoric in the press.
