The Red Sticks were
paramilitary organisation in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former ...
, formed by the Soviets to combat the ''
basmachi'' rebels.
The historian Joshua Kunitz quotes a contemporary account: "There are, we are told, sixty thousand Red Sticks in
Tadjikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
. Most of them have no firearms, but they carry heavy cudgels, knives, and other weapons when they go out into the hills in search of the
Basmachi."
[Joshua Kunitz]
''Dawn Over Samarkand: The Rebirth of Central Asia''
READ BOOKS, 2008. , 9781408658161. Pg 253
References
20th century in Tajikistan
Paramilitary organizations based in the Soviet Union
Soviet Central Asia
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