Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Туркестанская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика

1918–1924

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Map of Soviet Central Asia in 1922, indicating the location and extent of the Turkestan ASSR (brown).

Capital

Tashkent

Historical era

Interwar period

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Established

30 April 1918

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Disestablished

27 October 1924

Today part of

Kazakhstan

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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. 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.