A son of the Gökdepe massacre and a hero of the First World War, the Turkmen Oraz Serdar became the military leader of Transcaspia and led both Turkmen and Russian troops against the Bolsheviks. His experience in the battlefield and ability to straddle the Russian and Turkmen worlds made him the best candidate for the role, an ability that is on the decline in today’s Turkmenistan as the country continues to look inward and isolate itself from the world.
The early 20th century was a turbulent time in what today is Turkmenistan. As part of the Tsarist Empire, the region then known as Transcaspia was impacted by the First World War and by the 1917 revolutions. Transcaspia itself became independent for a short while, fighting off the Bolsheviks with the help of the British as part of the Russian Civil War. The Turkmen Oraz Serdar was involved throughout, leading soldiers from the German and Austrian fronts in the First World War to the sands of the Karakum in Transcaspia against the Bolsheviks. This is his story.
Oraz Dykma-Serdar was born around 1871 in the village of Börme, in today’s Bäherden district (Ahal province). His father, Ovezmurat Dykma-Serdar, was an important figure among the Tekke Turkmen and had famously fought against the Russians in the battle of Gökdepe in 1881. After the defeat, the Tsarist authorities invited a delegation of Turkmen to Saint Petersburg, and Ovezmurat decided to take his son with him. Following the visit, Oraz was enrolled in the Tsarskoye Selo Page Corps.
After graduating from the Page Corps he returned to his homeland and in 1911 he took part in the creation of the Turkmen Cavalry Division (Туркменского конного дивизиона). Whatever plans Oraz might have had were altered by the outbreak of the First World War. The cavalry was renamed to the Teke Cavalry Regiment (Текинский конный полк) and, with volunteers, was sent to war.
Oraz participated in the German and Austrian fronts, distinguishing himself as commander of one of the Teke cavalry squadrons. Due to his actions, he was awarded two Orders of St. George and in 1917 he was promoted to the rank of colonel and was appointed deputy commander of the Teke Cavalry Regiments. During 1917 and 1918, he remained close to the Russian general Kornilov and took part in his mutiny and the ‘Ice March,’ fighting against the Bolsheviks. Afterwards, Oraz and the remaining Turkmen went back home, where things were also heating up.
A Turkmen military leader for Transcaspia
The Bolsheviks had been defeated in Transcaspia by a coalition of Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries which formed in Ashgabat what became the Transcaspian Government. But they needed the support of the Turkmen, who accounted for the majority of the population, and an army. Oraz Serdar was the official chosen for such a task and he became the commander of the Transcaspian troops. Before that happened, Oraz Serdar had been named the head of the newly established Central Turkmen Committee.
It was not an easy task for the colonel. He had to wage war with mostly untrained and demoralised Russian volunteers, while the Turkmen cavalry troops did not prove to be reliable. At the same time, there was continuous distrust between the Russian and Turkmen leaders. Also, within the Turkmen there was disunity, but Oraz Serdar was generally well-respected by his countrymen and mostly stayed above the struggles between different Turkmen leaders. It was at this point that the British entered the scene.
The British had been keeping an eye on events in Transcaspia as they feared that the Ottomans and Germans could at some point attack India from that route. Afterwards, it was the Bolsheviks who they worried about. In this context, they sent what became known as the “Malleson mission.” It is thanks to the British that we have reliable descriptions of Oraz Serdar.
Capitan Reginal Teague-Jones, the British political representative in Ashgabat, described him as “fine looking old Turkmen” who “enjoyed considerable prestige among then Turkmen”. However, he also said of him of being “of weak character” due to his inclinations in support of the Turks. According to Teague-Jones, Oraz Serdar thought that the times of the Russians in Transcaspia was a thing of the past, and that the fall of the Bolsheviks would result in the establishment of independent khanates. Another British officer, Colonel Ellis, said of Oraz Serdar that he was a “a short thick-set man of about sixty, with a pleasant bearded face, keen eyes and the bowed legs of a horseman”.
Oraz Serdar worked well with the British, relying on their advice and allowing them to take the initiative when necessary. However, he was acutely aware of the limitations of his forces and tried, unsuccessfully, for the British to support him to take Çärjew (Türkmenabat) from the Bolsheviks. In the meantime, he kept in touch with the emirs of Bukhara and Afghanistan with the aim of forging an alliance that never materialised. By that point he had been promoted to the rank of general by Denikin the leader of the Whites in Southern Russia. He and his staff also received high decoration from the British government, with Oraz Serdar probably being awarded as Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG).
In early 1919, the British started to withdraw. Oraz Serdar’s fate was then sealed. A general sent by Denikin took over from him and he went to Krasnovodsk (Türkmenbaşy), where he boarded a ship to Cheleken island before arriving in Persia. His final destination would be Belgrade. Nothing is known of his time in the Serbian capital, where he is believed to have died in 1929.
The importance of Oraz Serdar today
Despite Oraz Serdar’s role in the early 20th century, taking part in key major national and regional historical events, his life remains unknown for most Turkmen.
Oraz Serdar was a product of two worlds. On the one hand, he was a creation of the Russian Empire, growing up in Saint Petersburg and later serving loyally the Tsarist cause in the First World War and fighting for the Whites against the Bolsheviks. But on the other hand, one can see in him an emerging Turkmen nationalist. He witnessed the Gökdepe massacre as a child and later he envisaged the Turkmen throwing away their colonial yoke in the turbulent years of the Transcaspian Government.
The task he was given was doomed from the beginning. Therefore, it is not fair to judge him only on the results of his role as Commander-in-Chief of Transcaspia. The Transcaspians did not have the resources, financially, militarily and in manpower, to confront the Bolsheviks. The troops he commanded were of poor quality: the Russians were demoralised and the Turkmen were unruly. In addition, both in Ashgabat and the battlefield the Russians and Turkmens distrusted each other. It is hard to imagine that any other commander would have succeeded under those circumstances.
Oraz Serdar’s ultimate failure, as that of the Transcaspian Government, should not detract to his importance in Turkmen history. He managed to unite to a great extent the Turkmen troops fighting the Bolsheviks, and was a figure respected by many of his countrymen. His evolution, from serving the Tsarist Empire to avowing for independent Turkmen states, is a lesson that remains valid in the independent Turkmenistan of the 21st century.
Sources:
«Белый» генерал Ораз-сердар в истории и литературе
The spy who disappeared: diary of a secret mission to Russian Central Asia in 1918 – Reginal Teague Jones (1991)
The British “intervention” in Transcaspia 1918-1919 – C.H. Ellis (1963)
Tagan Mojekov
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