File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎392r] (431/1080)

JDarragaz .—November 1st.
The Kurd chief, Taj Muhammad Khan, who left Quchan with 150 of his
own sowars to assume the Governorship of Darragaz, met with so much local
opposition that he has left the sub-province and returned to Quchan. Accord
ing to one account Mirza Mahmud Khan, the man who disarmed Muhammad
Taqi Khan’s detachment in Darragaz, concentrated his own following to
oppose the arrival of the Kurd chief, a movement which provoked a visit from
the chief of the Special Department at Artik who gave as an excuse for his
presence a wish to investigate the circumstances in whiqh the Customs sowar In the East India Company army and later Indian Army, an ordinary native cavalryman or mounted cavalryman. ,
Khudaverdi, met his death at the hands of a Kussian frontier guard. (See
last week’s Summary.)
The Persian Prime Minister has conferred the title of Saramul Mamalik
upon the above Mirza Mahmud Khan for his services to the State and has
authorized him to maintain a force of 150 men from out of the revenue of
Darragaz for service on the frontier.
Only troop details are reported to have passed Artik within the week
under report. On the 29th October six launches from the Amu Darya, two
truck loads of stores, two guns, some naval ratings, and 60 to 70 troops were
railed to Krasnovodsk.
Khakislar to No news of importance.
251. TRANS-PKONTIEK.
Military. —Some account of events was given by an arrival in Bujnurd
who had been in Transcaspia and Turkestan. He stated that the Bolsheviks
have two divisions operating in Ferghana against the Basmachi. these were
under the command of one, Zakharev, but a bad defeat in the beginning of
October in which the Bolsheviks lost 1,000 men in one engagement, also at
the same time some 400 deserters to the enemy, occasioned his supersession by
Petrov who had been second in command of the Turkfront. Ihis latter left
Tashkent in the first third of October with reinforcements for the Ferghana
front.
Forty versts east of Tashkent the Bolsheviks have developed another front
in Qirqizl country, and, according to the narrator, they have already had to
evacuate 390 to 400 invalided officers therefrom to Samara.
The Commander of the Turkfront is Dobrov, newly arrived from Petro-
grad. His assistant is Baranov, plenipotentiary of the Revolutionary Soviet.
Zinoviev, formerlv commanding this formation (Turkfront), has been sum
moned to the Capital.
The narrator says that the Turkfront consists of five armies but probably
means divisions, which, estimating at 4,000 to 5,000 men per division, would
give about 25,000 as the combatant strength of the Turkfront. It is hardly
likely that the Bolsheviks would maintain more effectives than this for two
reasons, one, of course, being the dire famine conditions prevailing and the
other the cowed condition of their subject races.
The narrator states there is constant partizan warfare in progress between
Tashkent and Khiva which the Bolsheviks characterise as operations between
their punitive columns and robbers or bandits.
It is expected the authorities will transfer the 11th Army from Baku to
Askhabad though recent events in Azerbaijan may influence this project.
There is also discussion there of re-transferring the headquarters of the 1st
Army from Tashkent to Askhabad.
The economic situation, that is, the proximity of Askhabad to Persian
granaries may be influencing these schemes for which reason the narrator’s
statement in this respect deserves attention. According to him, 600 rooms
have been requisitioned in Askhabad for servants of the staff of the first Army.
The officials of the Special Department are to be replaced by “ frontiers
men” but the object and utility of this innovation are not apparent.