Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (initially, the Turkestan Socialist Federative Republic; 30 April 1918 – 27 October 1924) was an autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic located in Soviet Central Asia.

Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Туркестанская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика
Autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR
1918–1924
Flag Emblem
Map of Soviet Central Asia in 1922, indicating the location and extent of the Turkestan ASSR (brown).
Capital	Tashkent
Historical era	Interwar era
• Established	30 April 1918
• Disestablished	27 October 1924
Preceded by Succeeded by Russian Turkestan Uzbek SSR Turkmen SSR Tajik ASSR Kara-Kirghiz AO Karakalpak AO South Russia
Today part of	Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan

During the Russian Empire, the Turkestan ASSR's territory was governed as Turkestan Krai, the Emirate of Bukhara, and the Khanate of Khiva. From 1905, Pan-Turkist ideologues like Ismail Gasprinski aimed to suppress differences among the peoples who spoke Turkic languages, uniting them into one government.[1]

This idea was supported by Vladimir Lenin, and after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks in Tashkent created the Turkestan ASSR. But in February 1918, the Islamic Council (Uzbek: Shuroi Islamia) and the Council of Intelligentsia (Uzb. Shuroi Ulammo) met in Kokand city and declared a rival Turkestan Autonomous Republic, battling Bolshevik forces until the 1920s as part of the conservative Basmachi rebellion.[1]

The Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic was officially proclaimed on April 30, 1918.[2][3]

In the late 1917, the TSFR was cut off from the RSFSR by the revolt of the Orenburg Cossacks, but held out, despite being surrounded by hostile states, until the arrival of the Red Army in September 1919 after the Counteroffensive of Eastern Front.[4]

Meanwhile, a power struggle among the Communists ensued between those favoring a Pan-Turkist government like Turar Ryskulov and Tursun Khojaev, and those in favor of dividing Soviet Turkestan into smaller ethnic or regional units, such as Fayzulla Khodzhayev and Akmal Ikramov. The latter group won, as national delimitation in Central Asia began in 1924.[1] Upon dissolution, the Turkestan ASSR was split into Turkmen SSR (now Turkmenistan), Uzbek SSR (now Uzbekistan) with the Tajik ASSR (now Tajikistan), Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast (now Kyrgyzstan), and Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast (now Karakalpakstan).[1]