Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - Sojojin Rasha sun fara mamaye yankin Turkmen a ƙarshen karni na 19. Daga sansanin da suke da shi a Krasnovodsk (yanzu Turkmenbashy) a Tekun Caspian, sai Rasha ta ci Uzbekistan da yaƙi. A cikin 1879, sojojin Rasha sun ci nasara a hannun Teke Turkmen a lokacin yunƙurin farko na mamaye yankin Ahal na Turkmenistan. Koyaya, a cikin 1881, an murkushe juriya ta ƙarshe mai mahimmanci a yankin Turkmen a Yaƙin Geok Tepe, kuma jim kaɗan bayan haka an haɗa Turkmenistan, tare da yankin Uzbek da ke makwabtaka da ita, zuwa Daular Rasha. A shekara ta 1916, halartar Daular Rasha a Yaƙin Duniya na I ya yi tasiri a Turkmenistan, yayin da tawaye na adawa da aikin soja ya mamaye yawancin Asiya ta Tsakiya. Kodayake Juyin Juya Halin Rasha na 1917 ba shi da tasiri kai tsaye, a cikin 1920s sojojin Turkmen sun haɗu da Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, da Uzbeks a cikin abin da ake kira Basmachi Rebellion a kan mulkin sabuwar Soviet Union. A cikin 1921 an sake sunan lardin tsarist na Transcaspia () zuwa Turkmen oblast (), kuma a cikin 1924, an kafa Jamhuriyar Socialist Soviet ta Turkmen daga gare ta. A ƙarshen 1930s, sake fasalin Soviet na aikin gona ya lalata abin da ya rage na rayuwar nomadic a Turkmenistan, kuma Moscow ta mallaki rayuwar siyasa. Girgizar kasa ta Ashgabat
1948 ya kashe sama da mutane 110,000, wanda ya kai kashi biyu bisa uku na yawan jama'ar birnin.