Soviet Central Asia in the context of "Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic"

In the 16th century, the Tsardom of Russia embarked on a campaign to expand the Russian frontier to the east. This effort continued until the 19th century under the Russian Empire, when the Imperial Russian Army succeeded in conquering all of Central Asia. The majority of this land became known as Russian Turkestan—the name "Turkestan" was used to refer to the area due to the fact that it was and is inhabited by Turkic peoples, excluding the Tajiks, who are an Iranian ethnicity. Upon witnessing Russia's absorption of the various Central Asian realms, the British Empire sought to reinforce India, triggering the Great Game, which ended when both sides eventually designated Afghanistan as a neutral buffer zone.

Although the Russian Empire collapsed during World War I, the Russian sphere of influence remained in what was Soviet Central Asia until 1991. This region now comprises Kazakhstan in the north, Uzbekistan in the centre, Kyrgyzstan in the east, Tajikistan in the southeast, and Turkmenistan in the southwest; the Russian language is still recognized in some capacity in many of these countries.

Islam in Central Asia has existed since the beginning of Islamic history. Non-denominational and Sunni branch of Islam is the most widely practiced religion in Central Asia. Shiism of Imami and Ismaili denominations predominating in the Pamir plateau and the western Tian Shan mountains (almost exclusively Ismailis), while boasting to a large minority population in the Zarafshan river valley, from Samarkand to Bukhara (almost exclusively Imamis). Islam came to Central Asia in the early part of the 8th century as part of the Muslim conquest of the region. Many well-known Islamic scientists and philosophers came from Central Asia, and several major Muslim empires, including the Timurid Empire and the Mughal Empire, originated in Central Asia. In the 20th century, severe restrictions on religious practice were enacted by the Soviet Union in Soviet Central Asia and the People's Republic of China in Xinjiang.

The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (TASSR; Russian: Туркестанская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика, romanized: Turkestanskaya Avtonomnaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika; Uzbek: Turkiston Avtonom Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi), originally called the Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic, was an autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic located in Soviet Central Asia which existed between 1918 and 1924. Uzbeks were the preeminent nation of the Turkestan ASSR. Tashkent was the capital and largest city in the region.

The Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast, abbreviated as Kara-Kirghiz AO or KAO in the former region of Soviet Central Asia, was created on 14 October 1924 within the Russian SFSR from the predominantly Kyrgyz part of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. On 15 May 1925 it was renamed the Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast. On 1 February 1926 it was reorganized into the Kirghiz ASSR (not to be confused with the other Kirghiz ASSR, the original name of the Kazakh ASSR). On 5 December 1936 it became the Kirghiz SSR, one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union.

Dunsterforce was an Allied military force, established in December 1917 and named after its commander, Major-General Lionel Dunsterville. The force comprised fewer than 350 Australian, New Zealand, British and Canadian officers and NCOs, who were drawn from the Western and Mesopotamian fronts. The force was intended to organise local units in northern Iran (Persia) and South Caucasus, to replace the Tsarist army that had fought the Ottoman armies in Armenia. The Russians had also occupied northern Iran in co-operation with the British occupation of southern Iran, to create a cordon to prevent German and Ottoman agents from reaching Central Asia, Afghanistan and India.

In July 1918, Captain Stanley Savige, five officers and fifteen NCOs of Dunsterforce, set out towards Urmia and were caught up in an exodus of Armenians and Assyrians, after the town had been captured by the Ottoman Army. About 80,000 people had fled and the Dunsterforce party helped hold off the Ottoman pursuit and attempts by local Kurds to get revenge on the Assyrians for their earlier plundering. By the time the rearguard reached Bijar on 17 August, the Dunsterforce party was so worn out that only four men recovered before the war ended. A combined infantry and cavalry brigade was raised from the Assyrian survivors to re-capture Urmia and the rest of the civilians were sent to refugee camps at Baqubah near Baghdad.

Pursuant to the Geneva Accords of 14 April 1988, the Soviet Union conducted a total military withdrawal from Afghanistan between 15 May 1988 and 15 February 1989. Headed by the Soviet military officer Boris Gromov, the retreat of the 40th Army into the Union Republics of Central Asia formally brought the Soviet–Afghan War to a close after nearly a decade of fighting. It marked a significant development in the Afghan conflict, having served as the precursor event to the First Afghan Civil War.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985, began planning for a military disengagement from Afghanistan soon after he was elected by the Politburo. Under his leadership, the Soviet Union attempted to aid the consolidation of power by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA); the Afghan president Mohammad Najibullah was directed by the Soviets towards a policy of "National Reconciliation" through diplomacy between his PDPA government and the rebelling Islamists of the Afghan mujahideen.