White Movement British Empire The Central Asian Theatre was the front of the Russian Civil War taking place in the old imperial provinces of Turkestan, Khiva, Bukhara, and Transcaspia.

In Turkestan, Bolshevik promises of land redistribution gained traction among peasants, while Kazakh intellectuals in the Alash Orda sought greater autonomy for their people.

However, these movements faced significant challenges, including ethnic divisions, resistance from local elites, and external pressures from the Russian Civil War and the advancing Red Army.

Led by Major General Wilfrid Malleson,[12] the mission began in 1918 with the deployment of British Indian Army troops to the city of Meshed in Persia (modern-day Iran).

The primary objective was to support the anti-Bolshevik forces in the region, particularly in Transcaspia (now Turkmenistan), and to secure the northern frontiers of British India from potential Bolshevik influence.

By 1919, with the conclusion of World War I and growing public and political pressure in Britain to reduce overseas military commitments, the British government decided to withdraw its support from the region.

The use of brutal tactics, including scorched-earth policies and mass reprisals against villages suspected of harboring rebels, helped to consolidate Soviet power in the region but also caused many deaths from the famines that followed.

The successful conquest and incorporation of Central Asia marked a significant achievement for the Soviet regime, securing its old imperial lands borders and extending its influence across its vast southern frontier.