The article is devoted to the analysis of the military-political crisis in the Tajik SSR in the early 1930s, caused by the activation of illegal armed groups led by Ibrahim Bek. Based on archival materials (OGPU reports, reports of the Red Army command), the article examines the reasons for the revival of the Basmachi movement after its suppression in the 1920s, the tactics of the gangs’ breakthrough into Soviet territory in the spring of 1931 and the USSR’s strategy to eliminate the threat.
