An operational strategic formation of the troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army during the Civil War, and in the course of the struggle against the Basmachi movement (Basmachism). It was formed by the directive of Sergey Kamenev, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of August 11, 1919, in Samara, Astrakhan, Orenburg governorates, and the Ural Region by renaming the Southern Army Group of the Red Army’s Eastern Front on August 14, 1919. The front headquarters was originally based in Samara, since January 25, 1920 – in Tashkent. From August 15, 1919, to September 10, 1920The front Commander was Mikhail Frunze.

In May – December 1919, the Turkestan Front troops defeated the Turkestan Army of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (AFSR) operating in the Transcaspian region. In August – September 1919, the 1st Army of the front carried out the Aktyubinsk operation, during which on September 2 Aktyubinsk was taken, and Lieutenant General Vladimir Tolstov’s Ural Cossack army, as well as the forces of the Western branch of the Alash autonomy, were cut off from Aleksander Kolchak’s troops. September 13, 1919, saw the siege of Soviet Turkestan lifted. During the Ural-Guryev operation (November 2, 1919 – January 10, 1920), the Turkestan front troops defeated the Ural Cossack army and the troops of the Alash autonomy. The Reds occupied the Ural region, the Embensky oil-bearing region.

In the Trans-Caspian region, the troops of the front took Krasnovodsk in February 1920, and also helped the Young Khivans in the struggle against Dzhunaid Khan and took part in the revolution in Khiva on February 2, 1920. In March – April 1920, they defeated the Semirechensk army of Ataman Boris Annenkov, liberating the entire Semirechye.

Turkestan Front troops fought against the Basmachi movement in various regions of Turkestan, especially in the Fergana Valley, where in March 1920, the combined forces of Madaminbek and the People’s Peasant Army of Konstantin Monstrov were defeated. With the support of the Young Bukharans, they successfully carried out the Bukhara operation on August 27 – September 2, 1920. Subsequently, hostilities were conducted to eliminate the Basmachi movement.

In 1926, the Turkestan Front was transformed into the Central Asian Military District.