On May 1, 1929, during a two-hour battle, the Red Army detachment under the command of I.E. Petrov was defeated in Turkmenistan by the 3,000th cavalry detachment of Basmachi Ibrahim-bek.
A bloody battle that lasted several hours took place in the north of Afghanistan. After ten years of stubborn struggle, the command of the Central Asian Military District decided to destroy the raiders outside the USSR. The first to go on a campaign was a combined detachment of the 8th Cavalry Brigade. It was commanded by the future Army General and Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Petrov. It is believed that it was he who became one of the prototypes of the protagonist in the film "Officers".
For secrecy, part of the detachment changed into Uzbek robes and a turban, others put on Turkmen hats. Decades later, in the 80s, this method in Afghanistan will be resorted to by "caravan hunters" - the GRU special forces.
For some time, a small detachment was lucky, he managed to avoid a battle with large detachments of the Basmachi, and the posts and guards of the bases were destroyed. Then they decided to surround and destroy the Shuravi detachment. 3000 Basmachi Ibrahim-bek, the former kurbashi of the Emir of Bukhara, advanced from the east. A gang of 1,500 sabers of Seyid Hussein, adviser to the Afghan Shah, moved from the west.
Brigade commander Petrov decided to defeat the enemies one by one. An ambush was arranged on the way of Ibrahim-bek. Eight mountain guns were deployed against the Basmachi, and two Maxim machine guns were installed and disguised 200 meters from the road. As the Basmachi approached 500 meters, the guns opened frequent fire with shrapnel: three of them fired at the beginning of the column, three at the rear, and two at the middle. Machine guns literally mowed down the Basmachi. An attack on horseback completed the job. About 2,500 Basmachi were killed, 176 were captured. The rest fled.
However, on the other hand, a 1,500-strong detachment of Afghans was already advancing. Petrov's military ingenuity helped win the battle. He started negotiations and sent three captives to Seyid Hussein with a story about the defeat of Ibrahim-bek. The warning and the cannons made for the battle worked - the Afghans did not want to associate with the Russians and left.
At the end of May, Ibrahim-bek, furious with failures, gathered 4,000 horsemen with three artillery batteries. His plan was to lock up Petrov's detachment in a gorge near the Vakhsh River. However, this time too, he failed to carry out his intentions.
Two years later, Ibrahim-bek invaded Uzbekistan, but 30 kilometers west of Baysun he overtook him and defeated a special detachment of the OGPU Mukum Sultanov. The leader of the Basmachi was captured in the area of ​​​​the village of Bulbulon, while crossing to the right bank of the river in Kafirnigan. The prisoner was taken by plane to Dushanbe. On August 31, 1931, a court in Tashkent sentenced Ibrahim-bek to capital punishment.
Years later, Ivan Efimovich Petrov will become an outstanding Soviet army commander, army general, he will be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.