The Revolt of Three Kazakh Districts (Ili, Altai, Tarbaghatai) against Chinese rule in Xinjiang: A Cold War Prologue (1944-1949)

The article argues that the first military operation of the Cold War occurred in three provinces, populated mostly by Kazaks, in Xinjiang (northwest China): Ili, Tarbaghatai, and Altai between 1944 – 1949. The uprising, known as the Three Districts Revolution, was between the Soviet-backed East Turkestan Republic (ETR) and the Kuomintang authorities supported by the US. In 1947, a leader of the liberation movement, Ospan Batyr, changed political allegiance to Kuomintang and began fighting the East Turkestan Republic reflecting the changing struggle between the two sides. The article outlines the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, resulting in clashes between the Kazakh groups of Ospan batyr and Dalelhan Sugirbayev, the fight for land containing tungsten mines, the Peitashang incident, which almost started World War III, and a mysterious plane crash, which killed most members of the East Turkestan Republic government and coincided with the testing of the first Soviet atomic bomb.