ORDER OF BATTLE // September 2, 1920
Bukhara operation
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 14,725–15,725 estimated
Russian SFSR
6,000–7,000
Medium-confidence figure
Emirate of Bukhara
8,725
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Bukhara operation, fought between 28 August and 2 September 1920, ended with the defeat of the Emirate of Bukhara and its replacement by the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic, a state under RSFSR control. Conducted by forces under Mikhail Frunze in conjunction with the Young Bukharans against Emir Muhammad Alim Khan's forces, the operation extended Soviet power into Central Asia during the wider Russian Civil War. The Emirate's military, despite numerically exceeding the attacking force, suffered casualties estimated between 3,000 and 5,000. The elimination of the Emirate removed one of the remaining pre-revolutionary political structures in the region and established a Soviet-aligned republic in its place, consolidating Bolshevik influence in a strategically significant part of the former Russian imperial periphery.
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