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The Turkmen Horse was a cavalry force forming part of the Imperial Russian Army prior to the Revolution of 1917. Numbering two squadrons in peacetime, it was recruited from the Moslem Tekin tribesmen of the Turkestan Military District. Recruitment was on a voluntary basis with the men providing their own horses and equipment, and the Czarist government paying an allowance and issuing weapons. The Half-Regiment was derived from various Turkmen mounted militias first raised in the 1880s. Its uniform was modeled on tribal dress and included a distinctive striped kaftan and shaggy fleeced hats.[1]
With the outbreak of World War I the native Turcoman cavalry recruited from Moslem volunteers was increased to a full division in strength. Following the overthrow of the Czarist regime the Turkmen Horse formed the bodyguard of General Lavr Kornilov.
Central Asian Military District
From 1918 to 1926 the District was referred to as the Turkestan Front as its forces were conducting active operations against the Basmachi Revolt throughout practically all the District's territory.
By USSR Order No. 304 of June 4, 1926, the Turkestan Front was renamed as the Central Asian Military District (САВО), which included the territories of the Turkmen and Uzbek SSRs and the Kirghiz and Tajik ASSRs. In connection with changes of administrative-territorial division of republics and areas of Central Asia, as of August 1940 the district included the Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republics and their respective autonomous areas.
Turkestan Military District
This designation was re-created on 9 July 1945, after the division of the Central Asian Military District into the Turkestan and Steppe Military Districts. The new Turkestan and Steppe districts were formed from the headquarters of the 1st and 4th Shock Armies respectively. In September–October 1945 it included the 1st Rifle Corps (Ashkabad), with the 306th, 344th, and 357th Rifle Divisions, and the 119th Rifle Corps (Stalinabad ((Dushanbe)) with the 201st (Dushanbe), 360th (Termez), and 374th Rifle Divisions (Chardzhou).[3] On 30 October 1945 the 374th Rifle Division left 119th Rifle Corps and was replaced by 306th Rifle Division.[4] However in May 1946 306th Rifle Division was disbanded. In July 1946 the Steppe Military District was dissolved and its responsibilities transferred back to the Turkestan Military District.
After a number of changes to 119th Rifle Corps, including 201st RD being reduced in status to a brigade for eight months, in 1950 it comprised the 201st Mountain Rifle Division at Dushanbe and the 376th Mountain Rifle Division at Osh.[4] In June 1955 the corps was renumbered the 33rd Rifle Corps and the divisions renumbered the 27th and 71st Mountain Rifle Divisions. The 71st Motor Rifle Division was then reduced into the 427th Motor Rifle Regiment in 1958.
In 1960, with the entry into service of the BTR-50, the 427th MRR was reorganized into the 71st Motorized Rifle Division (cadre). In 1962, the 71st Motor Rifle Division was reorganized into the 34th Separate Reinforced Motorized Rifle Battalion (34th Motorized Rifle Battalion), which began to cover the state border with the PRC.
The district initially covered most of Soviet Central Asia, but due to tensions between the Soviet Union and China the Tajik SSR, Kyrgyz SSR, and Kazakh SSR, the majority of the district area of responsibility, was split off to recreate the Central Asian Military District (SAVO), headquartered at Alma-Ata, on 24 June 1969. The Turkestan Military District was left with the Uzbek SSR and the Turkmen SSR. The 73rd Air Army was transferred to provide air support for the Central Asian Military District, while the Air Force of the Turkestan Military District was reestablished to provide control of air units stationed in the reduced territory of the district. Shortly afterwards in April 1970, the 1st Army Corps headquarters was relocated from Ashkabad to Semipalatinsk, where it became part of the Central Asian Military District.[5] The Turkestan Military District was left with the 5th Guards Motor Rifle Division at Kushka and the 58th Motor Rifle Division at Kyzyl-Arvat in the Turkmen SSR, and the 108th Motor Rifle Division at Termez in the Uzbek SSR for ground combat units. It also included the 61st Training Motor Rifle Division at Ashkabad.[6]
To replace the 1st Army Corps which had been moved northeast to Semipalatinsk, the 36th Army Corps was created in Ashkabad. The corps was created in 1982. It comprised two divisions - the 88th (created after the transfer of the 5th Guards MRD to the 40th Army) and the 58th Motor Rifle Division.
In the 1980s the District became part of the Southern Strategic Direction alongside the North Caucasus and Transcaucasus Military Districts. General Igor Rodionov commanded the District in 1985-6. Within the District's territory and under its command was the 40th Army, in Afghanistan, the 36th Army Corps, and other forces, totaling one Soviet Airborne Troops airlanding (the 105th Guards Airborne Division at Fergana) and 8 motor rifle divisions. Aviation support for the district was provided by the 49th Air Army, and air defence by the 12th Independent Air Defence Army of the Air Defence Forces. The VVS Turkestan Military District, created in 1969, was redesignated the 49th Air Army in 1988, with in 1980 a strength of three fighter and fighter-bomber regiments, a reconnaissance aviation regiment, a mixed aviation squadron, and a communications and automated control regiment.[7]
From June 1, 1989, the Central Asian Military District was dissolved and its territory again incorporated into the Turkestan Military District, as part of the unilateral reductions which Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had announced at the United Nations on 7 December 1988.[8]
After the withdrawal from Afghanistan the 40th Army was disbanded. But in June 1991 it was reformed at Semipalatinsk from 32nd Army. Immediately prior to its dissolution, the 32nd Army consisted of the 78th Tank Division (Ayaguz); the 5202nd Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment (VKhVT) Semipalatinsk, (prior to 1989 - the 71st Motor Rifle Division); the 5203rd VKhVT Ust-Kamenogorsk (prior to 1989, the 155th Motor Rifle Division); and the 5204th Base for Storage of Weapons and Equipment at Karaganda (prior to 1989 - the 203rd Zaporozhye Khingan Motor Rifle Division).
365th and 367th Guards Motor Rifle Regiments; 1213th Motor Rifle Regiment; 304th Guards Tank Regiment; 837th Artillery Regiment; 1168th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Regiment, smaller units
David Glantz, Companion to Colossus Reborn, University Press of Kansas, 2005
William E Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, Yale, 1998
A.G. Lenskiy & M.M. Tsybin, The Soviet Ground Forces in the last years of the USSR, St Petersburg, B&K, 2001
Feskov, V.I.; Golikov, V.I.; Kalashnikov, K.A.; Slugin, S.A. (2013). Вооруженные силы СССР после Второй Мировой войны: от Красной Армии к Советской [The Armed Forces of the USSR after World War II: From the Red Army to the Soviet: Part 1 Land Forces] (in Russian). Tomsk: Scientific and Technical Literature Publishing. ISBN9785895035306.
Further reading
Коллектив авторов (Collective Authors). Краснознамённый Туркестанский / Под общ. ред. генерала армии Н. И. Попова. — 2-е изд., испр. и доп. — М.: Воениздат, 1988. — 414 с. — 35 тыс, экз. — ISBN5-203-00036-0
