Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Туркестанская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика
Autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR
← 1918–1924 →   →   →   →   →
Flag
Map of Soviet Central Asia in 1922, indicating the location and extent of the Turkestan ASSR (brown).
Capital		Tashkent
Historical era		Interwar period
•	Established	30 April 1918
•	Disestablished	27 October 1924
Today part of		Kazakhstan  Uzbekistan  Turkmenistan  Kyrgyzstan  Tajikistan

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.

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.^[1]

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]

Date	Name
30 April 1918	Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic (constitution adopted 15 October 1918)
24 September 1920	Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
30 December 1922	Turkestan A.S.S.R. part of Soviet Union (within Russian S.F.S.R.)
27 October 1924	Dissolved

Turksovnarkom

Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars ("Turksovnarkom")

Initial Date	Final Date	Name
15 November 1917	30 April 1918	Fyodor Ivanovich Kolesov
30 April 1918	June 1918	Pyotr Alekseyevich Kobozev
June 1918	5 October 1918	Fyodor Ivanovich Kolesov
23 October 1918	19 January 1919	Vladislav Damyanovich Figelskiy
30 March 1918	March 1920	Karp Yeliseyevich Sorokin
19 September 1920	1922	Kaikhaziz Sardarovich Atabayev
1922	12 January 1924	Turor Risqulovich Risqulov
12 January 1924	27 October 1924	Shah Ahmad Islamov

References

• Uzbekistan at worldstatesmen.org, accessed 23 July 2009.

1. Yalcin, Resul (2002). The Rebirth of Uzbekistan: Politics, Economy, and Society in the Post-Soviet Era. Garnet & Ithaca Press. pp. 36–38, 163–164.