On February 1917 the Bashkir national liberation movement was headed by popular representatives of Bashkir intellectuals, public-political activists Achmet-Zaki Validi, Sagit Mirasov, Sharif Manatov, Ilyas Alkin and others.

The first Bashkir congresses, where it was decided to struggle for Bashkir autonomy and for handing Bashkir lands over to Bashkir nation, have taken place in summer 1917 in Ufa and Orenburg. But the Provisional Government delayed the solution of the national problem and Bashkir leaders have expressed the vote of no confidence to the Provisional Government.

On November 1917 Soviet power was established in Bashkiria within the borders of Ufa province. That time the leaders of Bashkir national movement have declared formation of the Bashkir autonomous Republic on November 15, 1917.

The all-Bashkir constituent Kurultay (Orenburg, December 8-20) has confirmed Bashkir autonomy and formed Bashkir Government, which staff included the majority of Bashkir Council’s(SHURO) members. Public safety, tax collection and expenses, court, armed forces, national education, management of local capitals, lands, entrails, forests and rivers of the Republic etc were taken under Bashkortostan’s jurisdiction. This autonomy wasn’t a soviet-oriented one because all leaders of Bashkir movement, including Achmet-Zaki Validi himself, were rather skeptical concerning the future plans of Bolsheviks and stood only for self-determination. After The Soviet power had been declared in Orenburg (January 1918), on February 18 members of Bashkir government were arrested and taken to prison. This step was an evident mistake since the majority of Bashkir population supported Bashkir Government and Bashkir autonomy as well. On April 1918 members of Bashkir Government escaped from the prison. To the beginning of June they arrived in Chelyabinsk, where anti-soviet uprisings of „white“ Czechs started. It was the beginning of the Civil War. Achmet-Zaki Validi and his brothers-in-arms supported the Czechs. They’ve staffed the Bashkir „white“ corps, which struggled for Kolchak and Dutov. But Kolchak, white admiral, who had announced himself the Supreme Leader of Russia, didn’t want to declare Bashkir autonomy. At the end of 1918 the clashes and debates between Bashkirs and the „white“ generals began because of that.

On February 1919 Bashkir Government and Bashkir „white“ corps have left „white“ generals for the Red Army and the Soviet Power in the village TEMYASOVO. Same time they’ve sent three representatives to Moscow for negotiations concerning formation of Bashkir autonomous republic.

On March 20,1919, the agreement between Central Soviet Power and the Bashkir Government concerning Soviet Autonomous Bashkiria was signed. The Bashkir Soviet Republic was established within the limits of so-called „minor“ Bashkiria and represented a federative part of Russian Federation.

The Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Republic was the first autonomous republic in a staff of Russian Federation. On June 14,1922, the all-Russian Central Executive Committee, meeting numerous requests of Bashkir nation, has passed the decree on widening the frontiers of Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Republic. According to this decree Ufa province was cancelled and its territory was handed over to the Bashkir Republic. The capital of the Republic was shifted from Sterlitamac to Ufa