Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic

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Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
Түркменистан Совет Социалистик
Республикасы (Turkmen)
Туркменская Советская Социалистическая Республика (Russian)
1925–1991
Motto: Әхли юртларың пролетарлары, бирлешиң! (Turkmen)
Ähli ýurtlaryň proletarlary, birleşiň! (transliteration)
"Proletarians of all nations, unite!"
Anthem: Түркменистан Совет Социалистик Республикасы Дөвлет Гимни
Türkmenistan Sowet Sosialistik Respublikasy Döwlet Gimni
"State Anthem of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic"

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Location of Turkmenia (red) within the Soviet Union
Location of Turkmenia (red) within the Soviet Union
StatusSoviet Socialist Republic
CapitalAshkhabad
Common languagesTurkmen · Russian
Religion
State atheism
GovernmentUnitary Marxist-Leninist single-party Soviet socialist republic (1925–1990)
Unitary presidential republic (1990–1991)
Leader 
• 1924–1926 (first)
Ivan Mezhlauk
• 1985–1991 (last)
Saparmurat Niyazov
Premier 
• 1925–1937 (first)
Kaikhaziz Atabayev
• 1989–1991 (last)
Khan Akhmedov
LegislatureSupreme Soviet
History 
• Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR
7 August 1921
• Republic proclaimed
13 May 1925
• Sovereignty declared
22 August 1990
• Independence declared
27 October 1991
• Independence recognized
26 December 1991
Area
1989488,100 km2 (188,500 sq mi)
Population
• 1989
3,522,700
GDP (PPP)1990 estimate
• Total
$ 26.554 billion[1]
CurrencySoviet ruble (руб) (SUR)
Calling code7 360/363/370/378/432
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Turkestan ASSR
Khorezm SSR
Bukharan SSR
Turkmenistan
Today part ofTurkmenistan
Part of a series on the
History of Turkmenistan
"Turkmens at the gates of the ancient city of Merv, 1914"
Periods
Antiquity
Middle Ages
Early modern history
Modern history
Related historical names of the region
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The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen: Түркменистан Совет Социалистик Республикасы, Türkmenistan Sowet Sotsialistik Respublikasy; Russian: Туркменская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Turkmenskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), also commonly known as Turkmenistan or Turkmenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union located in Central Asia existed as a republic from 1925 to 1991. Initially, on 7 August 1921, it was established as the Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR before being made, on 13 May 1925, a separate republic of the USSR as the Turkmen SSR.

Since then the borders of the Turkmenia were unchanged. On 22 August 1990, Turkmenia declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws. On 27 October 1991, it became independent as Turkmenistan.

Geographically, Turkmenia was bordered between Iran, Afghanistan to the south, Caspian Sea to the west, Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the east.

History[]

See also: History of Turkmenistan

Annexation to Russia[]

Russian attempts to encroach upon Turkmen territory began in earnest in the latter part of the nineteenth century.[2] In 1869 the Russian Empire established a foothold in present-day Turkmenistan with the foundation of the Caspian Sea port of Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy).[2] From there and other points, they marched on and subdued the Khiva Khanate in 1873.[2] Because Turkmen tribes, most notably the Yomud, were in the military service of the Khivan khan, Russian forces undertook punitive raids against Khorazm, in the process slaughtering hundreds of Turkmen and destroying their settlements.[2] In 1881 the Russians under General Mikhail Skobelev besieged and captured Geok Tepe, one of the last Turkmen strongholds, northwest of Ashgabat.[2] With the Turkmen defeat (which is now marked by the Turkmen as a national day of mourning and a symbol of national pride), the annexation of what is present-day Turkmenistan met with only weak resistance.[2] Later the same year, the Russians signed the Treaty of Akhal with Qajar Iran and established what essentially remains the current border between Turkmenistan and Iran.[2] In 1897 a similar agreement was signed between the Russians and Afghans.[2]

Following annexation to Russia, the area was administered as the Transcaspian Region by corrupt and malfeasant military officers and officials appointed by the Turkestan Governor-Generalship in Tashkent.[2] In the 1880s, a railroad was built from Krasnovodsk to Ashgabat and later extended to Tashkent.[2] Urban areas began to develop along the railway.[2] Although the Transcaspian Region essentially was a colony of Russia, it remained a backwater, except for Russian concerns with British colonialist intentions in the region and with possible uprisings by the Turkmen.[2]

Creation of an SSR[]

Because the Turkmen generally were indifferent to the advent of Soviet rule in 1917, little revolutionary activity occurred in the region in the years that followed.[3] However, the years immediately preceding the revolution had been marked by sporadic Turkmen uprisings against Russian rule, most prominently the anti-tsarist revolt of 1916 that swept through the whole of Turkestan.[3] Their armed resistance to Soviet rule was part of the larger Basmachi Revolt throughout Central Asia from the 1920s into the early 1930s,[3] which included most of the future USSR dependencies.[citation needed] Opposition was fierce and resulted in the death of large numbers of Turkmen.[3] Soviet sources describe this struggle as a minor chapter in the republic's history.[3]

In October 1924, when Central Asia was divided into distinct political entities, the Transcaspian Region and of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkestan ASSR) became the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (Turkmen SSR), a full-fledged constituent republic of the Soviet Union.[3] During the forced collectivization and other extreme socioeconomic changes of the first decades of Soviet rule, pastoral nomadism ceased to be an economic alternative in Turkmenistan, and by the late 1930s, the majority of Turkmen had become sedentary.[3] Efforts by the Soviet state to undermine the traditional Turkmen way of life resulted in significant changes in familial and political relationships, religious and cultural observances, and intellectual developments.[3] Significant numbers of Russians and other Slavs, as well as groups from various nationalities mainly from the Caucasus, migrated to urban areas.[3] Modest industrial capabilities were developed, and limited exploitation of Turkmenistan's natural resources was initiated.[3]

Under Soviet rule, all religious beliefs were attacked by the communist authorities as superstition and "vestiges of the past".[4] Most religious schooling and religious observance were banned, and the vast majority of mosques were closed.[4] An official Muslim Board of Central Asia with a headquarters in Tashkent was established during World War II to supervise the Islamic faith in Central Asia.[4] For the most part, the Muslim Board functioned as an instrument of propaganda whose activities did little to enhance the Muslim cause.[4] Atheist indoctrination stifled religious development and contributed to the isolation of the Turkmen from the international Muslim community.[4] Some religious customs, such as Muslim burial and male circumcision, continued to be practiced throughout the Soviet period, but most religious belief, knowledge, and customs were preserved only in rural areas in "folk form" as a kind of unofficial Islam not sanctioned by the state-run Spiritual Directorate.[4]

Pre-independence[]

Soviet soldiers returning from Afghanistan. 20 October 1986, Kushka, Turkmen SSR.

Beginning in the 1930s, Moscow kept the republic under firm control.[5] The nationalities policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) fostered the development of a Turkmen political elite and promoted Russification.[5] Slavs, both in Moscow and Turkmenia, closely supervised the national cadre of government officials and bureaucrats; generally, the Turkmen leadership staunchly supported Soviet policies.[5] Moscow initiated nearly all political activity in the republic, and, except for a corruption scandal in the mid-1980s that ousted longtime First Secretary Muhammetnazar Gapurow, Turkmenistan remained a quiet Soviet republic.[5] Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika did not have a significant impact on Turkmenistan, as many people there were self-dependent, and settlers of the territory and the Soviet Union's ministers rarely intertwined.[5] The republic found itself rather unprepared for the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence that followed in 1991.[5]

When other constituent republics of the Soviet Union advanced claims to sovereignty in 1988 and 1989, Turkmenia's leadership also began to criticize Moscow's economic and political policies as exploitative and detrimental to the well-being and pride of the Turkmen.[5] By a unanimous vote of its Supreme Soviet, Turkmenistan declared its sovereignty in August 1990.[5] After the August 1991 coup in Moscow, Turkmenia's communist leader Saparmurat Niyazov called for a popular referendum on independence.[5] The official result of the referendum was 94 percent in favor of independence.[5] The republic's Supreme Soviet then declared Turkmenistan's independence from the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Republic of Turkmenistan on October 27, 1991.[5] Turkmenistan gained independence from the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991.[citation needed]

Politics[]

Main article: Politics of the Soviet Union
See also: Politics of Turkmenistan

As with the other Soviet republics, Turkmenistan had followed the Marxist–Leninist ideology governed by the republic's sole party, Communist Party of Turkmenistan, a republican branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The politics of Turkmenistan took place in the framework of a one-party socialist republic. The Supreme Soviet was a unicameral legislature of the republic headed by a Chairman, with its superiority to both the executive and judicial branches and its members meet in Ashkhabad.

Political leadership[]

First Secretaries of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan[]

Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars[]

Chairmen of the Council of Ministers[]

  • Sukhan Babayev (15 March 1946 – 14 July 1951)
  • Balysh Ovezov (14 July 1951 �� 14 January 1958) (1st time)
  • Dzhuma Durdy Karayev (14 January 1958 – 20 January 1959)
  • Balysh Ovezov (20 January 1959 – 13 June 1960) (2nd time)
  • (13 June 1960 – 26 March 1963)
  • Muhammetnazar Gapurow (26 March 1963 – 25 December 1969)
  • (25 December 1969 – 17 December 1975)
  • (17 December 1975 – 15 December 1978)
  • (15 December 1978 – 26 March 1985)
  • Saparmurat Niyazov (26 March 1985 – 4 January 1986)
  • (4 January 1986 – 17 November 1989)
  • Han Ahmedow (5 December 1989 – 27 October 1991)

Notes[]

  1. ^ "GDP (PPP) index (World Bank estimate) – Turkmenistan". World Bank. Retrieved c. 2017. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan: Incorporation into Russia". In Curtis 1997, p. 305.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan: Soviet Turkmenistan". In Curtis 1997, p. 305-306.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan: History and Structure". In Curtis 1997, p. 320.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan: Sovereignty and Independence". In Curtis 1997, p. 306-307.

References[]

Coordinates: 37°58′N 58°20′E / 37.967°N 58.333°E / 37.967; 58.333

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