
On October 27, 1924, the Turkestan ASSR was dissolved, and Turkmenistan was restructured as the Turkmen SSR, a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. This reorganization marked the formation of Turkmenistan's modern borders. The new government briefly renamed the capital, Ashgabat, to Poltoratsk in honor of a local revolutionary, though the original name was reinstated in 1927. In February 1925, the Communist Party of Turkmenistan held its first congress in the city, symbolizing the integration of Turkmenistan into the Soviet political framework.
Under Soviet rule, Ashgabat experienced significant industrialization and urban growth. However, this progress was severely interrupted by the devastating earthquake of October 1948. Measuring a surface wave magnitude of 7.3, the quake caused catastrophic damage, with estimates of casualties ranging from 10,000 to 110,000, and some local reports suggesting that two-thirds of the city’s population of 176,000 perished.
The 1950s brought major infrastructure developments, most notably the construction of the 1,375-kilometer-long Qaraqum Canal. Drawing water from the Amu Darya River, the canal transformed large swaths of arid land into fields suitable for cotton cultivation, solidifying Turkmenistan’s role in Soviet agricultural production. However, the project came at a steep ecological cost, significantly reducing the flow of water to the Aral Sea and contributing to one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century.
Despite its abundant oil and gas reserves, including the discovery of the massive Dawletabad gas field in the 1960s, Turkmenistan remained one of the less economically developed Soviet republics. Its economy was primarily agrarian, dominated by cotton production and the export of raw materials. This reliance on a narrow economic base left the region underdeveloped in comparison to other parts of the Soviet Union, even as its natural resource wealth underscored its strategic importance.