The article describes and analyzes the unpublished manuscripts by the outstanding ethnologist of Turkmenistan, statesman Georgy I. Karpov (1890–1947). The documents were discovered by the authors in the Academic library of Moscow State University (manuscript of the candidate thesis in history “Ethnic composition of the Turkmen”. Ashgabat, 1942), in the Academic archive of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (in particular: “The Waqf” (studies and documents). 1937–1939; “Where the Tsar’s Estate Was. A History of the Kolkhoz "Bolshevik", Bayram-Aly District of the Turkmen Soviet Republic”, 1934), in the personal archive of a later scholar Sh. Kadyrov (copies of cases from the Central State Archive of Party Documents of Turkmenistan, in particular, the reports and materials on the Kazakh-Yomud conflict and struggle against banditry in 1923–1924 classified as “top secret”). The discovered archival documents contain unique information on various aspects of ethnography and social history of Turkmen, collected by Georgy I. Karpov during large-scale field research. These documents allow us to trace the formation of this man, who began as a simple worker and a soldier and finally became a prominent statesman, and then an outstanding scholar. Holding the highest posts in the governing body of the Turkmen Republic, Georgy I. Karpov quickly realized that the construction of the Soviet state is unthinkable without deep knowledge of history and ethnology, without understanding of the social and legal institutions and tribal relations. The scholar devoted his research to these issues. A scientific contribution by Georgy I. Karpov is significant: since the mid-twentieth century, any serious historian or anthropologist, writing about the Turkmen and Turkmenistan, necessarily cites his works. The problems Georgy I. Karpov worked on are still relevant for understanding and forecasting of social and political processes in modern Turkmenistan.