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Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Transcaspian Provisional Government Records #11061, Rare Book Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Serge Plantureux (antiquarian book vendor representing unknown seller) in 2004. The records are part of the André Savine Collection on Russian émigrés.

Custodial History

According to the seller description, the materials in the collection were gathered by E.P. Dzhunkovskii and entrusted to General Diterikhs. The documents surfaced in the Russian émigré community in the south of France.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Mary Mellon, July 2014

Encoded by: Amanda Loeb, August 2014

Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Asia, Central--Foreign relations--Great Britain--Sources.
• Asia, Central--Foreign relations--Russia (Territory under White armies, 1918-1920).
• Asia, Central--Foreign relations--Soviet Union--Sources.
• Dzhunkovskii, E P (Evgenii Petrovich), 1867-1953.
• Great Britain--Foreign relations--Asia, Central--Sources.
• Great Britain--Foreign relations--Turkmenistan--Sources.
• Malleson, Wilfred, 1866-1946.
• Naumenko, Viacheslav Grigor'evich, 1883-
• Russia (Territory under White armies, 1918-1920)--Foreign relations--Asia, Central--Sources.
• Russia (Territory under White armies, 1918-1920)--Foreign relations--Turkmenistan--Sources.
• Russia (Territory under White armies, 1918-1920)--Sources.
• Savitskii, Ippolit V.
• Soviet Union--Foreign relations--Asia, Central--Sources.
• Soviet Union--Foreign relations--Turkmenistan--Sources.
• Soviet Union--History--Allied intervention, 1918-1920-–Sources.
• Turkmenistan--Foreign relations--Great Britain--Sources.
• Turkmenistan--Foreign relations--Russia (Territory under White armies, 1918-1920)--Sources.
• Turkmenistan--Foreign relations--Soviet Union--Sources.
• Turkmenistan--History--Autonomy and independence movements--Sources.
• Turkmenistan--History--Revolution, 1917-1921--Sources.
• Zakaspiiskoe vremennoe pravitel'stvo--Sources.

The Transcaspian Provisional Government (Zakaspiiskoe vremennoe pravitel’stvo) was one of the forces contending for power in Turkmenistan between 1918 and 1919.

The government, composed primarily of Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, was formed July 11-12, 1918, in the wake of an uprising against Bolshevik authorities in Ashgabat (Ashkhabad). The government received financial assistance, supplies, and military support from the British Military Mission under General Wilfrid Malleson, and also coordinated with White Army forces under General A.I. Denikin.

The government underwent several reorganizations as military and domestic challenges mounted. Its Executive Committee (Ispolnitel’nyi komitet), headed by F.A. Funtikov and composed of, among others, Lieutenant General I.V. Savitskii, L.A. Zimin, V. Dokhov, Iu. Makarov, and N.N. Diterikhs, was disbanded in January 1919. It was replaced by the Committee for Public Safety (Komitet obshchestvennogo spaseniia), a "directorate" (direktoriia) of two Turkmen and three Russian representatives, including L.A. Zimin and Major General A.E. Kruten’. Lieutenant General Savitskii was appointed commander of the Transcaspian forces in March 1919, as General Malleson began to pull troops out of the region and General Denikin assumed military jurisdiction.

Following the withdrawal of the British Military Mission in April 1919 and several military defeats, including the capture of Ashgabat by the Red Army, the Transcaspian Provisional Government dissolved in August 1919. The Red Army established control of the region by February 1920.

Evgenii Petrovich Dzhunkovskii (1867-1953) was a veterinarian and civil servant in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del) before the revolutions of 1917. In early 1918, he became a founding member of the Turkestan Union in the Fight against Bolshevism (Turkestanskii soiuz bor'by s bol'shevizmom). In the Transcaspian Provisional Government, Dzhunkovskii served as aide to the Chairman of the Executive Committee until its dissolution. In March 1919 he became the aide for civilian affairs to General Savitskii. After the loss of the region to the Red Army, Dzhunkosvkii emigrated. He died in France and is buried at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery outside of Paris.

The collection contains documents of the Transcaspian Provisional Government, including economic, military, and diplomatic reports, official correspondence, directives, identification documents, and other materials. Many of these documents are authorized copies produced between 1918 and 1920. The collection also contains a few items of personal correspondence, mainly concerning E.P. Dzhunkovskii and I.V. Savitskii.

Major topics include: Political attitudes across the Transcaspian region, Georgia, and Persia (Iran); financial situation and requests for economic aid; local military recruitment and training; military operations; foreign relations, mainly with the British Military Mission under General Wilfrid Malleson; manufacturing, agricultural production, and trade; and communication with other anti-Bolshevik organizations, including White Army forces under Admiral A.V. Kolchak and Orenburg Cossacks under A.I. Dutov.

Correspondents include: E.P. Dzhunkovskii and other officials within the Transcaspian government and armed forces (Lieutenant General I.V. Savitskii, N.N. Diterikhs, Iu. Makarov, L.A. Zimin, Major General A.E. Kruten’, Colonel B.N. Litvinov), General Wilfrid Malleson, General I.G. Erdeli, and Major General V.G. Naumenko.

Materials are predominantly in Russian; documents in English and French are noted at the folder level.