Turkmenbashy lies on the northern shore of a gulf, presenting an open harbor that first attracted the interest of tsarist Russia about 300 years ago. Prince Alexander Bekovich, from an elite family of the Caucasus, arrived here in the early 18th century, to pursue the interests of Peter the Great in the trade routes of Central Asia and rumors of gold riches along the banks of the Oxus (Amu Daria). 

The first settlement here, Krasnovodsk (means red water in Russian, was named due to the reflection of the cliffs in the sea) was established when a unit of Russian troops under Prince Alexander Bekovich set ashore in 1717 to march to Khiva. They chose this spot because it was close to the place where the Oxus River (Amu-Darya) had once drained into the Caspian Sea, and the dry riverbed provided the best road across the desert. However Bekovich’s efforts in 1717 to persuade the Khan of Khiva to accept Russian protection resulted in his murder, and the massacre of most of his troops. 

Russians didn’t come back for more than 150 years. Although in 1819 a young captain named Nikolai Muraviev arrived at this natural harbor, as part of another Russian expedition. Traveling eastwards across the desert to Khiva, Muraviev was able to deliver to the khan the message that the tsar was interested to develop his trading links, by way of a new port at Krasnovodsk. Muraviev was lucky and survived, unlike Bekovich. He had also been tasked with covertly estimating the state of Khiva’s defenses, with a view to the possible Russian conquest, including to free the many Russian slaves held by the khan. 

But Russia was not yet ready to launch an attempt to bring the region under its control until the 1860s. Following the capture of Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, Russia found itself increasingly in need of a port on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea which could help serve as a launch-pad to bring Transcaspia under its control and improve its lines of supply to its new domains. 

In 1869 a Russian force under the command of Nikolai Stoletov landed at Krasnovodsk and established a permanent fort. By the end of the 19th century, the port of Krasnovodsk had become the western terminus of the Transcaspian Railway and a town of vital strategic importance. This was not displayed in any scope of urban planning. Its most impressive building was for long its lively railway station, and Krasnovodsk took an out-of-the-way feel.  Karlis Ulmanis, the first prime minister of independent Latvia, died here in detention in 1942. 

Thousands of Japanese prisoners of war were left here after WWII and ordered to build roads and buildings. Since then the town has become moderately cosmopolitan, with a mix of Russians, Turkmen, Azeris, Turks and a handful of Western oil workers. The main buildings in the town center were the work of Japanese prisoners of war. In the Soviet period, many people were sent here who had been denied Moscow residence permits. 

With the Independence of Turkmenistan, Krasnovodsk has been renamed Turkmenbashy, “Leader of the Turkmen” the title held by ex-President Niyazov. The Turkmen government has made large investments in the modernization of the oil factory, the largest in Turkmenistan, which was moved here during World War II to keep it out of German reach. A redevelopment of the town’s coastal strip named Awaza, has been launched as well, developing better hotel accommodation. The town’s ethnic mix has been growing rapidly since independence, especially through the emigration of Russians and other non-Turkmen minorities.