The Turkmen Horse was a cavalry force forming part of the Imperial Russian Army prior to the Revolution of 1917.

Numbering two squadrons in peacetime, it was recruited from the Moslem Tekin tribesmen of the Turkestan Military District.

Recruitment was on a voluntary basis with the men providing their own horses and equipment, and the Czarist government paying an allowance and issuing weapons.

Its uniform was modeled on tribal dress and included a distinctive striped kaftan and shaggy fleeced hats.

[1] With the outbreak of World War I the native Turcoman cavalry recruited from Moslem volunteers was increased to a full division in strength.

Following the overthrow of the Czarist regime the Turkmen Horse formed the bodyguard of General Lavr Kornilov.

304 of June 4, 1926, the Turkestan Front was renamed as the Central Asian Military District (САВО), which included the territories of the Turkmen and Uzbek SSRs and the Kirghiz and Tajik ASSRs.

Shortly afterwards in April 1970, the 1st Army Corps headquarters was relocated from Ashkabad to Semipalatinsk, where it became part of the Central Asian Military District.

The District was finally dissolved on June 30, 1992 with the demise of the Soviet Union, when its forces were distributed between five newly independent Central Asian countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The most powerful grouping went to become the core of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan which acquired all the units of the 40th (the former 32nd) Army and part of the 17th Army Corps, including six land force divisions, storage bases, the 14th and 35th Guards Air Assault Brigades, two rocket brigades, 2 artillery regiments and a large amount of equipment which had been withdrawn from over the Urals after the signing of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.