Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

The Transbaikal Host came out against Soviet rule in late 1917, under the influence of G. M. Semenov, and in the course of the civil wars raised 14 mounted regiments and 4 batteries for service in the armies of Admiral A. V. Kolchak. With the collapse of the Whites in Siberia and the establishment on their territory of the pro-Soviet Far Eastern Republic, many Transbaikal Cossacks chose to continue the struggle against Bolshevism in the Maritime Province, in the ranks of the Far Eastern (White) Army and other such White formations, before emigrating to China, Australia, and elsewhere.

Atamans of the Transbaikal Cossack Host of the civil-war period were Colonel E. G. Sychev (August 1918; acting January–August 1918) and G. M. Semenov (from 13 June 1919).

TRANSCASPIAN FRONT. This Red front was created on 24 July 1918, by the government of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, to combat the forces of the Transcaspian Provisional Government at Ashkhabad (Aşgabat). It was initially controlled by joint military-political and military-operational staffs, but from 17 April 1919 was governed by a single revvoensovet. Its complement included a variety of Red Guards and other formations and a number of internationalist detachments formed from the many former prisoners of war that had been held in Central Asia, together totaling around 4,500 men. The front operated on the territory of the Transcaspian oblast′ and the Khanate of Khiva, and along the lower reaches of the Amu Daria River.

In August 1918, the forces of the Transcaspian Front managed to break through enemy lines and captured Bairam-Ali and Merv, but were soon forced to withdraw to Ravnina station, 100 miles southwest of Chardzhuia. New offensives against the Whites in the following year were more effective, capturing Kaakha on 3 July and Ashkhabad on 9 July 1919, although the Red forces were then faced with the threat of attacks from the Basmachi force of Junaïd-khan. On 22 November 1919, all forces of the Transcaspian Front were united into a Transcaspian Army Group, with the exception of those operating around Krasnovodsk, who became the 1st Turkestan Rifle Division.

Commanders of the Transcaspian Front were B. N. Ivanov (24 July 1918–9 May 1919), A. P. Sokolov (17 May–6 August 1919), and S. P. Timoshkov (8 August–22 November 1919).

TRANSCASPIAN PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. This anti-Bolshevik government was formed at Ashkhabad (Aşgabat), as a consequence of the anti-Soviet rising there (the Ashkhabad Uprising) on 11–12 July 1918, which had been (partially) organized by the Provisional Executive Committee of the Transcaspian (Ashkhabad) oblast′. The government included representatives of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries (PSR), the Mensheviks, and Turkmen nationalist organizations and was chaired by F. A. Funtikov of the PSR. By late July 1918, it had established its authority over most of the Transcaspian oblast′, partly as a result of the support offered to it by the British military mission at Meshed, in Northern Persia (Norperforce), which sent a detachment of sepoys to Ashkhabad to guard the new government. On 19 August 1918, the regime signed an agreement with the head of that mission, General W. Malleson, that placed the conduct of its military affairs in the region in the latter’s hands. (This is one reason that Soviet historians always blamed the British military for the execution of the Twenty-six Commissars in Transcaspia on 20 September 1918.) In January 1919, the government collapsed and power passed to a more conservative Committee of Social Salvation. This too collapsed when British forces began to leave Transcaspia (April–July 1919); subsequently, control of anti-Bolshevik forces east of the Caspian Sea passed to the Whites, in the shape of representatives of General A. I. Denikin’s Armed Forces of South Russia. Forces of the Red Army’s Transcaspian Front entered Ashkhabad on 9 July 1919, and by February 1920, having seen off the last resistance at Krasnovodsk, had control of the entire oblast′.