In the late modern period, both nations shared a similar fate, with parts of Poland annexed by Russia following the Partitions of Poland, and Turkmen lands falling to the Russian Empire.

According to the 1897 census, there were 3,774 Poles, mostly conscripted into the Russian Army, in the four southern uezds of the Transcaspian Oblast, roughly corresponding to present-day Turkmenistan, with the largest communities of 1,605 and 894 in Ashgabat and Mary, respectively,[1] whereas there were very few Turkmens in the Russian Partition of Poland, with the largest population of 16 in the city of Wilno.

[2] Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in 1939, the Soviets carried out deportations of Poles from occupied eastern Poland to the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.

[3] In 1942, the Polish Anders' Army along with civilians was evacuated from the USSR via Turkmenistan to Iran, either by sea from the port of Krasnovodsk or by land from Ashgabat to Mashhad.

[6] Poland recognized Turkmenistan shortly after the Turkmen declaration of independence, and bilateral relations were established in 1992.