The Turkestan Front () was a front of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, which was formed on the territory of Turkestan Military District by Order of the Republic of Turkestan on February 23, 1919. It was formed a second time by the directive of the Commander-in-Chief on August 11, 1919 on the territory of Samara, Astrakhan, Orenburg Province and Ural region by renaming the Southern group of armies from the Eastern Front of the RSFSR. Its headquarters were in

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

and by 1920 the Turkestan Front counted some 114,000 soldiers.

Operations

In May–July 1919 troops of the Turkestan Front defeated the Turkestan Army, an armed Formation of the AFSR in the Caspian region.
In 1919, the troops of the Turkestan Front defeated the Southern Army of Admiral Kolchak, broke through the blockade of Turkestan (September 13, 1919) and joined with the troops of the Turkestan Soviet Republic. Until mid-October 1919, the Turkestan Front fought against the Ural Cossack Army of General Vladimir Tolstov and the Army of

Anton Denikin Anton Ivanovich Denikin (, ; – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military leader who served as the Supreme Ruler of Russia, acting supreme ruler of the Russian State and the commander-in-chief of the White movement–aligned armed forces of Sout ...

in the lower Volga and the Ural River. In the Ural-Guryev operation of 1919–1920, the troops of the Turkestan Front defeated the Ural Army and the Kazakh horde, and soon liquidated the White troops in Semirechye. As a result of the Bukhara operation (1920), the

Emirate of Bukhara The Emirate of Bukhara (, ) was a Muslims, Muslim-Uzbeks, Uzbek polity in Central Asia that existed from 1785 to 1920 in what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. It occupied the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rive ...

was overthrown. In 1921–1926, the troops of the Turkestan Front fought against the

Basmachi movement The Basmachi movement (, derived from ) was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs. It has been called "probably the most important movement of opposition to Soviet rul ...

in the Fergana Valley, Eastern Bukhara and Khiva. On October 12, 1922, the commander of the Turkestan Front ordered the formation of the 13th Rifle Corps from troops located on the territory of the

Bukharan People's Soviet Republic The Bukharan People's Soviet Republic was a Soviet state that governed the former Emirate of Bukhara during the years immediately following the Russian Revolution. In 1924, its name was changed to the Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic (Bukhara ...

and Samarkand region. After the suppression of the

Basmachi Movement The Basmachi movement (, derived from ) was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs. It has been called "probably the most important movement of opposition to Soviet rul ...

in June 1926, the Turkestan Front was transformed into the Central Asian Military District.

Composition

* 1st Army * 4th Army * Turkestan Army * Astrakhan Group of troops (until October 14, 1919, when it became part of the 11th Army)

Commanders

Commanders were: * Ivan Belov (April 1919 – August 1919), *

Mikhail Frunze Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze (; ; 2 February 1885 – 31 October 1925) was a Soviet revolutionary, politician, army officer and military theory, military theorist. Born to a Bessarabian father and a Russian mother in Russian Turkestan, Frunze at ...

(August 15, 1919 – September 10, 1920), *

Grigori Sokolnikov Grigori Yakovlevich Sokolnikov (born Hirsch Yankelevich Brilliant; 15 August 1888 – 21 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, economist, and Soviet politician. Born to a Jewish family in Romny (now in Ukraine), Sokolnikov joined the Russian S ...

(September 10, 1920 – March 8, 1921), * Vladimir Lazarevich (March 8, 1921 – February 11, 1922), * Vasily Shorin (February 11 – October 18, 1922), *

August Kork August Ivanovich Kork (, also Аугуст Яанович Корк; 12 June 1937) was an Estonian Red Army commander ( Komandarm 2nd rank) who was tried and executed during the Great Purge in 1937. Kork became an officer of the Imperial Rus ...

(October 18, 1922 – August 12, 1923), * Semyon Pugachov (August 12, 1923 – April 30, 1924), * Mikhail Levandovsky (April 30, 1924 – December 2, 1925), *

Konstantin Avksentevsky Konstantin Alekseyevich Avksentevsky (; October 12, 1890 – November 2, 1941) was a Soviet Union, Soviet army commander. He fought in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and for the Bolsheviks in the subsequent civil war. He was a recip ...

(December 2, 1925 – June 4, 1926). Members of the Revolutionary Military Council included: * Shalva Eliava * Valerian Kuybyshev *

Yan Rudzutak Yan may refer to: States * Yan (state) (11th century BC–222 BC), a major state in northern China during the Zhou dynasty * Yan Kingdom (Han dynasty), first appearing in 206 BC ** Prince of Yan title held in various dynasties of China * Yan ( ...

* Reingold Berzin * Alexander Todorsky * Nikolai Kuzmin

References

{{Soviet fronts of the Russian Civil War Soviet units and formations of the Russian Civil War Military units and formations established in 1919 Military units and formations disestablished in 1926 Soviet fronts