| Soviet invasion of Xinjiang | |||||||
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| Part of Kumul Rebellion | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Republic of China | Soviet Union White Russian forces |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Chiang Kai-shek Ma Zhongying |
Joseph Stalin General Volgin |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) around 10,000 Chinese Muslim cavalry and foot soldiers 3,000 Han Chinese soldiers of the Ili Garrison[1] |
7,000 Soviet Russian GPU and Red Army troops in 2 brigades, airplanes, tanks, mustard gas[2] Several thousand White Russian soldiers |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Heavy casualties with several thousand civilians killed. | Heavy casualties, several thousand dead. Dozens of armored cars destroyed. | ||||||
The Soviet invasion of Xinjiang was a military campaign in the Chinese northwestern region of Xinjiang in 1934. White Russian forces assisted the Soviet Red Army.[3]
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In 1934, Ma Zhongying's Chinese Muslim troops, supported by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China were on the verge of defeating the Soviet puppet Sheng Shicai during the Battle of Urumqi (1933–34) in the Kumul Rebellion.
Ma Zhongying's birth name was Ma Buying.[4]
General Ma Zhongying, a Hui (Chinese Muslim), had earlier attended the Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing in 1929, when it was run by Chiang Kai-shek, who was also the head of the Kuomintang and leader of China.[5][6]
In late 1929, Chiang delivered a fervently anti-Soviet speech at the military academy, calling on the cadets to be prepared to fight against Russian aggression:
We are not yet dead! We still have a chance to prepare to fight and sacrifice ourselves for the nation. . . . The Soviet peoples believe that we Chinese are Utopians, meaning that we have no sense of order and discipline. That is why they browbeat us. . . . Hundreds of years of degenerate culture have made the Chinese an effete race. Intellectually and spiritually Utopian and physically weak—that is what the world at large considers us. ... Fortunately Russia is in no position to con-duct extensive armed aggression against us. . . . We must wait and be prepared![7]
Ma Zhongying then was sent back to Gansu province after graduating from the academy.
In 1934, 2 brigades of Soviet Russian GPU troops of about 7,000 backed by tanks, planes, and artillery with mustard gas, crossed the border to assist Sheng Shicai in gaining control of Xinjiang. The brigades were named "Altayiiskii" and "tarbakhataiskii".[8] Sheng's Manchu army was being severely beaten by an alliance of the Han Chinese Ili army led by the Han general Zhang Peiyuan, and the Chinese Muslim 36th Division led by the Chinese Muslims general Ma Zhongying.[9] Ma fought under the banner of the Kuomintang Republic of China government. The joint Soviet-White Russian force was called "The Altai Volunteers". Soviet soldiers disguised themselves in blank uniforms, and interspersed with the White Russians.[10]
Despite his early successes Zhang's forces were overrun at Kulja and Chuguchak, and he committed suicide after the battle at Muzart Pass to avoid capture.
Even though the Soviet Russians exceeded the 36th Division in both manpower and technology, they were held off for weeks, and took severe casualties. The 36th Division managed to halt the Soviet forces from supplying Sheng with military equipment. Chinese Muslim troops led by Ma Shih-ming managed to hold off the superior Russian forces armed with machine guns, tanks, and planes for about 30 days.[11]
When reports that the Chinese forces defeated and killed the Soviets reached Chinese prisoners in Urumqi, they were reportedly so jubilant that they were jumping around in their cells.[12]
Ma Hushan, Deputy Divisional Commander of the 36th division, became well known for victories over Russian forces during the invasion.[13]
At this point, Chiang Kai-shek was ready to send Huang Shaohong and his expeditionary force which he assembled to assist Ma Zhongying against Sheng, but when Chiang heard about the Soviet Invasion, he decided to withdraw to avoid an international incident if his troops directly engaged the Soviets.[14]
In 1934, 2 brigades of Soviet Russian GPU troops of about 7,000 backed by tanks, planes, and artillery with mustard gas, attacked the 36th division near Tutung. The battle raged for several weeks on the Tutung frozen river. 36th division troops dressed up in sheepskins in the snow, and stormed Soviet machine gun posts at short range with swords to defeat a Soviet pincer attack. Soviet planes bombed the 36th division with mustard gas. Heavy casualties mounted on both sides before Ma Zhongying ordered the 36th division to withdraw.[15][16] Both Chinese Muslims and Russian forces suffered serious losses.
Ma Zhongying was chased by a mixture of White Russian, Mongol, and collaborationist Chinese forces. As he pulled back his forces Ma Zhongying encountered a Soviet armored car column of a few hundred soldiers near Dawan Cheng. The 36th division wiped out nearly the entire column, after engaging the Soviets in fierce melee combat, and toppled the wrecked Russian armored cars down the mountain. When a White Russian force showed up, Ma Zhongying withdrew.[15][17][18]
During the battle of Dawan Cheng, Ma Zhongying the last time tried to retake initiative from invading Soviet troops. He dug full-profile trenches in a narrow mountain pass and blocked advancement of Soviet troops for weeks. However, mustard gas air bombings of his positions, affecting about 20% of his troops, forced him to withdraw his forces on the end of February 1934 from Dawan Cheng to Turpan.
During Ma Zhongying's retreat from the Russian invaders, he and 40 of his Chinese Muslim troops, fully armed, hijacked lorries at gunpoint from Sven Hedin, who was on an expedition from the Nanjing KMT government. When Sven showed him his passports from Nanjing, Ma Zhongying's men, who were technically under Nanjing's command, responded by saying: "This has nothing to do with Nanking. There's a war on here, and no passports are valid in wartime."
The Chinese Muslim forces also reminded Sven that since they were serving Nanjing too, that the lorries should be passed under their command. Chang, who was in the service of General Ma Chung-ping, one of Ma Zhongying's subordinate Generals, explained: "Military matters come before everything else! Nothing can be allowed to interfere with them. Nanking counts for nothing in a war in Sinkiang. For that matter, we are under Nanking too, and it ought to be in both your interest and Nanking's to help us."[19][20][21]
Sven Hedin and his party were detained in Korla by Soviet and White Russian forces. Sven personally met a General Volgin. Torgut Mongols and White Russians served under the Soviet forces and joined them in occupying numerous cities.[22]
The Russians first advanced from Davan-ch'eng and then to Korla via Toqsun and Qara-shahr. The Torgut and Russian army marched into Korla on Friday March 16. Russian Cossacks were seen serving the Soviet forces. Ma Zhongying had warned Sven Hedin to avoid Dawan Cheng due to the battle going on between Chinese Muslim and Russian forces.[23]
General Volgin then met with Sven, and started verbally attacking Ma Zhongying by saying: "General Ma is hated and abused everywhere, and he has turned Sinkiang into a desert. But he is brave and energetic and sticks at nothing. He isn't afraid of anything, whether aeroplanes or superior numbers. But now a new era has begun for Sinkiang. Now there is to be order, peace and security in this province. General Sheng Shih-ts'ai is going to organize the administration and put everything on its legs again."[23]
General Ma Zhongying's retreating army often hijacked Lorries to assist in their retreat, which was how Sven Hedin originally encountered Ma, after he seized several lorries and drivers. Volgin noted that Ma Zhongying often destroyed Russian lorries during battle. A White Russian informed Sven that "We have been coming here from Qara-shahr all day, troop after troop. Two thousand Russians arrived to-day, half White, half Red. There are a thousand Torguts here; and two thousand troops of all arms have gone straight on to Kucha to attack Ma Chung-ying without touching Korla. Most of the two thousand who are in Korla now will continue westward to-morrow. We were five thousand strong when we started from Urumchi."
When the White Russian started to brag about what their army had done, Sven Hedin concluded that the Russian was pulling his leg and lying about the accomplishments of his army, Sven gave one example of these lies as the White Russian exaggerated the number of lorries they used.[24]
The Mongol soldiers were reported to have ill treated the people of Korla.[25]
Sven met another two White Russian officers serving under the Soviets, Colonel Proshkukarov and General Bekteev (aka General Bektieieff), who demanded an explanation into why Sven's lorries were in the service of Ma Zhongying's forces.[25]
Before Ma Zhongying himself retreated from the front line, he sent an advance guard of 800 troops under General Ma Fu-yuan to defeat the pro Soviet Uyghur forces Hoja-Niyaz, who were armed with Soviet weapons supplied from the USSR, and to assist Ma Zhancang in the Battle of Kashgar (1934) to destroy the First East Turkestan Republic. Thomson-Glover stated that the Soviets gave Hoya Niyaz "nearly 2,000 rifles with ammunition, a few hundred bombs and three machine guns."[26]
Hoja Niyaz's Soviet-equipped Uighur armies were defeated by the 800 Chinese Muslim troops of the advance guard at Aksu, and he fled to Kashgar with 1,500 troops on January 13, 1934. He and the Turkic forces during the Battle of Kashgar] failed in all of their attacks to defeated the Chinese Muslim forces trapped in the city, suffering severe casualties.[27] Ma Fuyuan's 800 Chinese Muslim troops, along with 1,200 conscripts routed and bulldozed the East Turkestani army of 10,000.[28]
Ma Zhongying, and his entire army of 10,000 troops retreated all the way to Kashgar, arriving on April 6, 1934. GPU Soviet troops did not invade beyond Turfan, Ma was chased by provincial forces of White Russians, Mongols, and Sheng Shicai's Chinese troops from Manchuria, all the way to Aksu, but the pursuit gradually abated. Ma had arrived in Sven Hedin's hijacked lorry, with the final part of his army, the rear guard, behind the advance guard. His forces were reported to be superior in hand to hand combat, but the Soviets continued to bomb his positions.[29]
General Ma told the British consulate in Kashgar that he immediately required assistance against the Russians, pointing out that he owed allegiance to the Chinese government, and he intended to save Xinjiang from the grip of the Russians. Ma Zhongying militarily consolidated his position, at Maral Bashi and Fayzabad, combat lines were created to defend against the Soviet/provincial attack, Ma Hushan directed the defense against the Provincial forces. Bombing runs continued at Maralbashi in June, Ma Zhongying ordered his forces to shift from Kashgar to Khotan. However, for unknown reasons, Ma Zhongying himself crossed the border into the Soviet Union and was never to be found again.[30]
The 36th division was severely lacking in arms. Rifles and other equipment dated around 1930 were seized from the Russians as booty which replenished their supply of arms.[31]
In Novosibirsk a hospital for Soviet wounded for their invasion of Xinjiang was disguised as a "hospital for the injured from the Manchurian War", it was "discovered" by the Evening Standard reporter Bosworth Goldman.[32]
Goldman's account of the hospital stated that:
"Men were sitting about in a gloomy hall, many of them with some part of their body hidden in bandages; they ranged in nationality from Laplanders to pure Mongols... I asked some of them where they had been, and they replied that they had been fighting in the southern Altai, in co-operation with some Chinese, against 'anti-social elements' disturbing the advance of the class warfare banner into Sinkiang... Later, other men with whom I spoke about this struggle often told me that they had never heard of a hospital at Novosibirsk. On the other hand, an occupant of the one I visited told me it was 'the best of the three'.
Uyghur, Chinese Muslims, and other civilians fled from Soviet poison gas bombs, which were taking a heavy toll among the civilian population. One Turki (Uyghur) complained about Tungan soldiers (Chinese Muslims), saying: "I am under Allah's protection, No man can harm me. But these Tungans are no men. They are wild beasts roaming about the streets. It is hopeless to talk to wild beasts. They always have their rifles and pistols ready. They do not understand any other language." The Soviets bombed at will in civilian centers. All day, the doctors heard tragic stories. A Chinese Muslim boy had a septic wound from a splinter from a Soviet airplane bomb. His parents and brother were killed by the bomb.[22]
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