Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In May–July 1919, forces of the Turkestan Front engaged with the Armed Forces of South Russia’s Turkestan Army in Transcaspia, as well as with the Southern Army of Admiral A. V. Kolchak. On 13 September 1919, Red forces broke through the White lines to unite with the forces of the Turkestan republic, and in October 1919, they overcame the forces of the Urals Cossack Host (commanded by General V. S. Tolstov). The following year, forces of the Turkestan Front closed on Khiva and Bukhara, forcing the respective emirs, Said Abdullah and Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, to flee, and thereby laying the ground for the establishment of the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic. For the next five years, forces of the Turkestan Front were engaged in campaigns against the Basmachi, along the Ferghana valley, until, in June 1926, they were reorganized as the Central Asian Military District. This marked the closure of the last active Red Army front of the civil-war period.

Commanders of the Turkestan Front were M. V. Frunze (15 August 1919–10 September 1920), G. Ia. Sokol′nikov (10 September 1920–8 March 1921), V. S. Lazarevich (8 March 1921–11 February 1922), V. I. Shorin (11 February–18 October 1922), A. I. Kork (18 October 1922–12 August 1923), S. A. Pugachev (12 August 1923–30 April 1924), M. K. Levandovskii (30 April 1924–2 December 1925), and K. A. Avksent′evskii (2 December 1925–4 June 1926). Its chiefs of staff were A. A. Baltiiskii (15–23 August 1919 and 2 October 1919–18 March 1920), F. F. Novitskii (acting, 23 August–2 October 1919), A. K. Anders (18 March–29 April 1920), P. B. Blagoveshchenskii (acting, 29 April–24 September 1920), F. P. Shafalovich (24 September 1920–16 December 1922), Gerardi (acting, 16 December 1922–17 February 1923), A. V. Kirpichnikov (17 February–15 October 1923), A. D. Shuvaev (15 October 1923–25 April 1924), N. I. Kamkov (25 April–28 June 1924), and B. N. Kondrat′ev (28 June 1924–4 June 1926).

TURKESTAN MILITARY ORGANIZATION. This was the name adopted by an underground organization of tsarist officers and other (chiefly Russian) anti-Bolsheviks at Tashkent that had the aim of overthrowing Soviet power in Turkestan. It began life in August 1918, as the Turkestan Union for the Struggle with Bolshevism, and was headed by Colonels P. G. Kornilov (brother of General L. G. Kornilov), Colonel I. M. Zaitsev, Lieutenant General L. L. Kondratovich, and the former tsarist assistant governor-general of Turkestan, E. Dzhunkovskii. It was subsequently joined by the Commissar for Military Affairs of the Turkestan ASSR, K. P. Osipov.

According to Soviet sources, the organization established contact with the British military mission of General Wilfred Malleson, who supplied it with funds and arms. A wave of arrests conducted by the Cheka in October 1918 damaged the Turkestan Military Organization, but did not destroy it, and Osipov was able to stage a serious but unsuccessful uprising against the Soviet authorities at Tashkent in January 1919 (the Osipov Rebellion), during which the Fourteen Turkestan Commissars were executed. When that uprising was crushed, the remnants of the organization fled the city.

TURKESTAN RED ARMY. This Red force was created by a directive of the commander of forces of the Red Army’s Eastern Front, S. S. Kamenev, on 5 March 1919. Its complement included the Orenburg (later 31st) Rifle Division (March–June 1919), the 3rd Turkestan Cavalry Division (March–June 1919), the 2nd Rifle Division (May–June 1919), the 24th Rifle Division (May–June 1919), and the 25th Rifle Division (May June 1919). The Turkestan Red Army was engaged in battles with forces of the Orenburg Cossack Host and other White formations around Orenburg during March and April 1919, and in May–June 1919 participated in the successful Red counteroffensive against the forces of Admiral A. V. Kolchak’s Russian Army. The army was disbanded on 15 June 1919.

Commanders of the Turkestan Red Army were G. V. Zinov′ev (11 March–22 May 1919), V. S. Raspopov (22–24 May 1919), and M. V. Frunze (24 May–15 June 1919). Its chiefs of staff were A. I. Mitin (acting, 23 March–11 April 1919), V. P. Raspopov (11 April–22 May 1919), and V. S. Lazarevich (24 May–15 June 1919).