This thesis concerns the Jadidist movement--a reform movement in Russian Central Asia centered around an attempt to westernize the school system in that area. The leader of that movement was Ismail Bey Gasprinskii, a well traveled Tatar educator and journalist. Out of Gasprinskii's attempts at educational reforms grew other movements such as language reform and a small nationalist movement. Gasprinskii and his followers came into conflict with the Russian government. While the Tatars were engaged in an attempt to modernize their society, the Russian government set out on a course of russification. At the beginning of the twentieth century these two forces vied for dominance. The First World War and later Russia's Civil War cut the contest short. This thesis examines these movements, their causes and their affects on Tatar society. By using archival material, some only recently discovered, this paper is a study of a movement not allowed to live and its life. / M. A.