Turkestan Military District

The Turkestan Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, with its headquarters at Tashkent. The District was first created during the 1874 Russian military reform when by order of Minister D.A. Milyutinym the territory of Russia was divided into 14 military districts. Its first commander was Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman, who was also Governor-General of Russian Turkestan at the time.

From 1918 to 1926 the District was referred to as the Turkestani 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, 4th, 1926 the Turkestani front was renamed as the Central Asian Military District (САВО), included territories Turkmen and Uzbek SSRs, Kirghiz and Tadjik 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, Tadjik, Turkmen, and Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republics. On 22 June 1941 the Central Asian Military District included the 4th Cavalry Corps, the 27th Mechanised Corps, the 58th Rifle Corps, and the independent 238th Polish Rifle Division, as well as air forces and district troops. [Orbat.com, [http://niehorster.orbat.com/012_ussr/41_oob/interior/_central-asia.html Order of Battle, CAMD, 22 June 1941] ]

1945 Onwards

The District 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 District were formed from the headquarters of the 1st and 4th Shock Armies respectively. In January 1958 from the abolished South Ural Military District the Turkestan District gained the territories of Aktyubinsk, Guryev and the West-Kazakhstan areas of the Kazakh SSR.

Initially it covered most of Soviet Central Asia, but on June 24, 1969 the Central Asian Military District was reformed following difficulties between the USSR and the People's Republic of China, covering the Tajik SSR, the Kyrgyz SSR, and the Kazakh SSR with headquarters at Alma-Ata. (The Central Asian Military District had also been active before the Second World War, being first formed in 1926.) 32nd Army's Second Formation was established at Semipalatinsk in 1969 on the basis of the 1st Army Corps(?) almost simultaneously with the creation of the Central Asian Military District as a result of the tensions with China. The 32nd Army initially combined the former Ukraine-based 167th MRD, the Тurkmenistan-based 155th MRD (was the 16th Mech Div, then 15th Tank Division) and 78th Тank Division (was 78th Rifle Division, then 19th Мech Div. and 15th Тank Div), being in east Kazakhstan 203rd MRD (was 203rd and 30th Rifle Division, then 102nd MRD).

Thus the Turkestan Military District covered only the Uzbek SSR and the Turkmen SSR. 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, totalling one VDV airlanding (the 105th Guards Airborne Division at Fergana) and 8 motor rifle divisions. Aviation support of district was provided by the 49th Air Army, and air defence by the 12th Army of the Voyska PVO. However from June, 1st, 1989 the Central Asian Military District was disbanded 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. [Odom, 1998, p.182, citing Izvestia, 3 June 1989] The District was finally dissolved on June, 30th, 1992 with the demise of the Soviet Union, when its forces were distributed between 5 new Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The most powerful grouping went to become the core of the Military of Kazakhstan which acquired all the units of the 40th (the former 32nd) Army and part of the 17th Army Corps, including 6 land force divisions, storage bases, the 14th and 35th air-landing brigades, 2 rocket brigades, 2 artillery regiments and a large amount of equipment which had been withdrawn from over the Urals after the signing of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

The Museum of history of The Turkestan Military District is on Gorki Avenue in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. [Tel: 624-646, http://www.tashkent.org/uzland/museum.html, Aug 2007]

ources and References

*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
*V.I. Feskov, K.A. Kalashnikov, V.I. Golikov, The Soviet Army in the Years of the Cold War 1945-91, Tomsk University Publishing House, Tomsk, 1994

*Ru-wiki TMD article