Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

TURCHANINOV, PAVEL DMITRIEVICH.See CHERNYI, LEV (TURCHANINOV, PAVEL DMITRIEVICH).

TURKBIURO. The Turkestan Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was established in June 1920, as the chief plenipotentiary of the party in Central Asia, as the Turkestan Front of the Red Army broke through White lines around Aktiubinsk and moved to establish direct communications with the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic at Tashkent. The Turkbiuro, working to guide VTsIK’s Turkestan Commission, strove initially to temper the anti-Muslim sentiments of local (Russian) Bolsheviks in Turkestan, but by 1921–1922 found it necessary to counter the perceived pan-Turkic policies of local Muslims drawn into the governments of the Turkestan ASSR, the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic, and the Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic. It was also engaged in mobilizing the population for the struggle against the Basmachi. The Turkbiuro was disestablished in May 1922 and merged with the Central Asian Bureau of the RKP(b).

Original (as of 29 July 1920) members of the Turkbiuro were G. Ia. Sokol′nikov (chairman), L. M. Kaganovich, Jēkabs Peterss, G. I. Safarov, and Ia. E. Surits. The chairman of the Turkbiuro from March 1921 was Ia. E. Rudzutak, who was by A. A. Ioffe in October 1921 and S. I. Gusev in December 1921.

TURKESTAN ARMY. This White force was created on 22 January 1919, on the orders of General A. I. Denikin, as part of the Armed Forces of South Russia. Formed on the basis of the long-standing Turkomen Regiment, and utilizing finances and supplies from the British Military Mission of General Wilfred Malleson, it was intended to operate in coordination with the anti-Bolshevik government at Ashkhabad (the Transcaspian Provisional Government). As of 1 May 1919, it consisted of the Transcaspian Composite Infantry Division, the Turkestan Rifle Division, and the Cavalry Division and numbered 9,000 men in total (although it was also sometimes assisted by the 12,000-strong Basmachi forces of Junaïd-khan).

The Turkestan Army’s initial objective was to secure the region Krasnovodsk–Tashkent–Vernyi, but a Red Army offensive on the Transcaspian Front in May 1919 drove it back to the shores of the Caspian. Following a further heavy defeat to Red forces at Aidyn station on 19 October 1919, the Turkestan Army collapsed in early December of that year. Most of the remains of the force were evacuated on White vessels from Krasnovodsk to Daghestan on 6 February 1920, while some other units were shipped to Persia by the British.

The Turkestan Army was commanded during its key engagements by Lieutenant General I. V. Savitskii (10 April–22 July 1919), then by Lieutenant General A. A. Borovskii (22 July–8 October 1919) and Lieutenant General B. I. Kazanovich (October 1919–February 1920).

TURKESTAN AUTONOMOUS SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC. This nominally autonomous polity within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was proclaimed on 30 April 1918 (with the original title Turkestan Socialist Federative Republic). It was based, territorially, on the former Turkestan krai of tsarist Russia; had its capital at Tashkent; and had a population of approximately 5,230,000, most of whom were Muslims. It was initially supported by both Russians (including many members of the Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries) and progressive Muslims, including the Young Bukhanan Party and other proponents of jadidism.

The Turkestan Republic was intended to be a Soviet alternative to the Muslim-led Kokand Autonomy (led by Mustafa Chokaev), whose members had been driven out of Tashkent by the Russian-dominated Tashkent Soviet and then dispersed by force by Red Guards sent from Tashkent on 19 February 1918. Almost immediately, however, Tashkent’s links with Soviet Russia were cut by the revolt (the Dutov Uprising) of the Orenburg Cossack Host around the southern Urals. Thereafter, for much of the civil wars, Soviet Tashkent remained isolated and under threat from the various surrounding nationalist, Muslim, and White forces and had to defend itself with its own Turkestan Red Army. Internal dissent had also to be dealt with, notably the Osipov Rebellion of January 1919, organized by the Turkestan ASSR’s own, treacherous war commissar, A. P. Osipov.