The Communist Party of Turkmenistan was the ruling communist party of the Turkmen SSR, and a part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1985, it was led by Saparmurat Niyazov. On 16 December 1991, as the Soviet Union was in the process of dissolving, Niyazov reorganized the CPT as the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. The current Communist Party of Turkmenistan was made illegal during the presidency of Niyazov after independence and remains banned.

The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Turkmenistan, the Turkmen SSR, Turkmenistan, or Turkmenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union located in Central Asia existed as a republic from 1925 to 1991. Initially, on 7 August 1921, it was established as the Turkmen Oblast of the Turkestan ASSR before being made, on 13 May 1925, a separate republic of the USSR as the Turkmen SSR.