# Turkestan Front

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{{Short description|Red Army front during the Russian Civil War}}
The '''Turkestan Front''' ({{Langx|ru|Туркестанский фронт}}) was a [front](/source/Front_(military_formation)) of the [Red Army](/source/Red_Army) during the [Russian Civil War](/source/Russian_Civil_War), which was formed on the territory of [Turkestan Military District](/source/Turkestan_Military_District) by Order of the Republic of Turkestan on 23 February 1919. It was formed a second time by the directive of the Commander-in-Chief on 11 August 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](/source/Eastern_Front_of_the_RSFSR). Its headquarters were in [Samara](/source/Samara) and by 1920 the Turkestan Front counted some 114,000 soldiers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Civil war and military intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia. Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1983.|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref>
 
== Operations ==

In May–July 1919 troops of the Turkestan Front defeated the [Turkestan Army](/source/Turkestan_Army_(Armed_Forces_of_South_Russia)), an armed Formation of the [AFSR](/source/Armed_Forces_of_South_Russia) in the Caspian region.<br> In 1919, the troops of the Turkestan Front defeated the Southern Army of [Admiral Kolchak](/source/Admiral_Kolchak), broke through the blockade of Turkestan (13 September 1919) and joined with the troops of the [Turkestan Soviet Republic](/source/Turkestan_Soviet_Republic).

Until mid-October 1919, the Turkestan Front fought against the [Ural Cossack Army](/source/Ural_Army) of General Vladimir Tolstov and the Army of [Anton Denikin](/source/Anton_Denikin) 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](/source/Ural_Army) and the [Kazakh horde](/source/Alash_Orda), and soon liquidated the White troops in [Semirechye](/source/Jetisu). As a result of the [Bukhara operation (1920)](/source/Bukhara_operation_(1920)), the [Emirate of Bukhara](/source/Emirate_of_Bukhara) was overthrown.

In 1921–1926, the troops of the Turkestan Front fought against the [Basmachi movement](/source/Basmachi_movement) in the Fergana Valley, Eastern Bukhara and Khiva. 
On 12 October 1922, the commander of the Turkestan Front ordered the formation of the [13th Rifle Corps](/source/13th_Rifle_Corps) from troops located on the territory of the [Bukharan People's Soviet Republic](/source/Bukharan_People's_Soviet_Republic) and Samarkand region. 
 
After the suppression of the [Basmachi Movement](/source/Basmachi_Movement) in June 1926, the Turkestan Front was transformed into the [Central Asian Military District](/source/Central_Asian_Military_District).

== Composition ==

* [1st Army](/source/1st_Army_(RSFSR))
* [4th Army](/source/4th_Army_(RSFSR))
* [Turkestan Army](/source/Turkestan_Army_(RSFSR))
* Astrakhan Group of troops (until 14 October 1919, when it became part of the [11th Army](/source/11th_Army_(RSFSR)))

== Commanders ==

Commanders were: 
* [Ivan Belov](/source/Ivan_Belov_(commander)) (April 1919 – August 1919),
* [Mikhail Frunze](/source/Mikhail_Frunze) (15 August 1919 – 10 September 1920),
* [Grigori Sokolnikov](/source/Grigori_Sokolnikov) (10 September 1920 – 8 March 1921),
* [Vladimir Lazarevich](/source/Vladimir_Lazarevich) (8 March 1921 – 11 February 1922),
* [Vasily Shorin](/source/Vasily_Shorin) (11 February – 18 October 1922),
* [August Kork](/source/August_Kork) (18 October 1922 – 12 August 1923),
* [Semyon Pugachov](/source/Semyon_Pugachov) (12 August 1923 – 30 April 1924),
* [Mikhail Levandovsky](/source/Mikhail_Levandovsky) (30 April 1924 – 2 December 1925),
* [Konstantin Avksentevsky](/source/Konstantin_Avksentevsky) (2 December 1925 – 4 June 1926).

Members of the Revolutionary Military Council included:
* [Shalva Eliava](/source/Shalva_Eliava)
* [Valerian Kuybyshev](/source/Valerian_Kuybyshev)
* [Yan Rudzutak](/source/Yan_Rudzutak)
* [Reingold Berzin](/source/Reingold_Berzin)
* [Alexander Todorsky](/source/Alexander_Todorsky)
* [Nikolai Kuzmin](/source/Nikolai_Kuzmin)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Soviet fronts of the Russian Civil War}}

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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Turkestan Front](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkestan_Front) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkestan_Front?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.