The Transcaspian Government (1918 - July 1919) was a "

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...

- Socialist Revolutionary" coalition set up by the

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

workers of the

Trans-Caspian Railway The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway, russian: Среднеазиатская железная дорога) is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by ...

in 1918. It was based at

Ashgabat Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشق‌آباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies ...

, Transcaspian Oblast.

Origin

Autonomous sentiments were developing amongst the local Turkmen population, with the formation of the Turkmen National Army (TNA) in February 1918. Concerned about this, the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

Ashgabat Soviet appealed to , leader of the Tashkent Soviet for military support, and declared it would carry out a census of all arms-bearing men in the Russian majority town on 17 June 1918. However, this sparked off two days of rioting. The Tashkent Soviet dispatched some

Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard le ...

led by V. Frolov and a Cheka contingent who arrived on 24 June and disarmed the Turkmen Cavalry Squadron, which was the core of the TNA. Frolov declared

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

and personally shot the five members of a delegation of railwaymen that had tried to present a petition to him. He proceeded to Kizyl-Arvat to continue restoring Bolshevik control but local railway workers had heard of the events and armed themselves. Frolov and a number of his bodyguards were shot and the remainder disarmed.

Ashkhabad Committee

On 14 July 1918 The Ashkhabad Executive Committee was founded by

s and Social Revolutionaries following their successful revolt against the

s of

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

. This committee took the name of the Trans Caspian Provisional Government in November 1918, but is generally referred to as the Transcaspian Government.''The British Intervention in Transcaspia, 1918-1919'' by C. H. Ellis, University of California Press, 1963 p27 The initial leadership consisted of: * Fyodor Funtikov, Socialist Revolutionary worker, President *

Vladimir Dhokov Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

, railway worker *

D. Kurilov D. or d. may refer to, usually as an abbreviation: * Don (honorific), a form of address in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and their former overseas empires, usually given to nobles or other individuals of high social rank. * Date of death, as an abbreviat ...

, railway worker *

L. A. Zimen Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, school teacher and orientalist, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Military action

The Committee had around 1000 armed men, which consisted of Armenian and Russian troops. British opinion of these forces was less than complimentary. General Wilfrid Malleson had been dispatched by the British Government to resist the Bolshevik forces and assisted the Transcaspian forces by sending them a machine gun team across the border from India. This team stopped the Transcaspian forces being completely overrun by the Bolsheviks, early in the conflict. Malleson then sent an Anglo Indian unit to assist in what became referred to as the Malleson mission. The combined Anglo-Indian and Transcaspian force then went on to successfully engage the Bolsheviks, pushing them out of some of the major cities. The Government was largely in a weak position. It had no economy and was existing on the money it had gained from the Soviets when it took over. The main economy was based on cotton, however, it had no means to export this. It largely sought funds from the British, which it did not get, even for food the British military had used and promised to pay for.

The execution of the Baku Commissars

The Execution of the Twenty Six Baku Commissars

On the night of 20 September 1918, under the leadership of Fyodor Funtikov, they executed the 26 Baku Commissars, which had fled Baku by ship to Krasnovodsk in Turkmenistan.

The crisis of December 1918

In December 1918 there was a crisis in the Transcaspian Government. The Government felt it could not control the capital, and asked help from the British who helped by sending troops there. However the Government was fragile, Malleson's opinion being that they had at best a tenuous grip on their forces and people. In addition, Malleson had promised funds and not delivered them. The people started protesting and the Committee resigned. It was replaced by another committee, which was appointed by Teague-Jones. The New committee gradually eventually came under the influence of Denikin's Southern White Russian army, and his men came to bolster the force, creating the White Turkestan Army in January 1919. However, when the British withdrew in 1919, the Bolsheviks went on the offensive and defeated the Transcaspian forces. By 1920 the Tashkent Soviet had regained control of the area and the Transcaspian Government was no longer.

References