The Khorezm People's Soviet Republic [a] was the state created as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva in February 1920, when the Khan abdicated in response to pressure.

[1] On 27 October 1924 the Khorezm SSR was divided between the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs and the Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast as part of the delimitation of Central Asia according to nationalities.

[2] The history of this short-lived republic remains murky and the way its government functioned is not largely clear.

The government officials fervently opposed the delimitation plans of the Khorezmian Republic (which had to be carried out under Stalin’s orders) but in the end they were forced to concede.

It had an area of 62,200 km2 (24,000 sq mi) and a population of more than 600,000 people, mainly Uzbeks (62.5%), Turkmens (28.6%), Kazakhs (3.5%), and Karakalpaks (3.0%).