With several references to “Canteen Frunze” by Asel (RUS) and Josh over at Registan, some of you might be wondering: “Who on earth is this ‘Frunze’ character.” Then again, you very well might not care. In any case, here is a brief description of the famous Bolshevik.

Born in Pishpek (now Bishkek), Mihkail Vasilevich Frunze was no stranger to Central Asia. Growing up, his favorite general was Tamerlane. He was active in Moscow during the October Revolution and served in multiple fronts during the Civil War. In 1920 Frunze was even sent to Turkey to assist Mustafa Kemal (later Attaturk) against the Greek invasion and occupation. He later went on to take over the position of War Commissar from Trotsky.

Only his death in 1925 from a botched (?) surgery allowed him to keep his good name posthumously. Had he lived, he would have likely been liquidated along with the rest of the “Old Bolsheviks” (Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, etc.), Bishkek might have become “Molotov” instead of “Frunze,” and there would be no nostalgically named cafes in Bishkek for us to blog about. (The Soviets renamed all sorts of cities; while Trotsky was popular, modern-day Gatchina was “Trotsk”; Dushanbe was “Stalinabad” from 1929-1961. Bishkek got off easy.)

Frunze’s most lasting impact on Central Asian history, however, was his re-conquest of Central Asia. Following the October Revolution in 1918, Turkestan went Soviet, but much of the rest of Central Asia was out of Moscow’s control. The Bolsheviks attempted to conquer Bukhara in 1918 (an operation that failed quite miserably), but it was not until 1920 that the Red Army was able to reassert control under the leadership of one M. V. Frunze.

Frunze’s victory allowed the Bolsheviks to change the political composition of Central Asia forever. Bukhara, a (somewhat) independent and continuous political unit since the sixteenth century, was set up as a Soviet satellite state. Despite resistance from some in the Turkestan government, Frunze and the “Turkestan Commission” insisted that Bukhara’s alliance with Britain and Afghanistan posed an existential threat to the fledging and embattled Bolshevik regime, and that coexistence was not an option. While resistance survived long after in the form of the Basmachi Rebellion, Bukhara itself quickly fell to the veteran Red Army, as did all other organized resistance in Central Asia.

It seems fair to conclude that, had it not been for Frunze, Central Asia would be a very different place today. It seems even safer to conclude that, had Frunze never been born, “Canteen Frunze” would make not be the popular, reputable establishment that it is today.