Revisiting the ‘Transcaspian Episode’: British Intervention and Turkmen Statehood, 1918-1919

At a particular strategic moment (1918-1919) during the First World War, British agents became involved in the politics of Transcaspia, a region then governed by an uneasy coalition of Russian railway workers and Turkmen tribes. This article argues that this ‘Transcaspian Episode’ is a manifestation of a global process of imperial disintegration and the nationalisation of colonial territory with ambivalent external sponsorship. It reveals the role of the British in influencing the fate of Turkmen autonomy and provides an opportunity to contrast the British and Bolshevik treatments of colonised peoples during and after World War One.