Stalin’s Shadow Over Xinjiang: How the Soviet Union Used, Armed, and Betrayed East Turkestan

For decades, the history of Xinjiang — or East Turkestan, as many Uyghurs call it — has been presented primarily as a story of Chinese rule and resistance. Yet one of the most important actors in shaping the region’s modern fate was not Beijing, but Moscow. In this episode of Eurasian Express, I explore the little-known history of Soviet involvement in Xinjiang during the 1930s and 1940s and explain how Josef Stalin’s policies helped determine the future of the region that remains one of the world’s most controversial geopolitical flash-points today. The Soviet Union intervened in Xinjiang repeatedly. In the 1930s, Stalin supported the Chinese warlord Sheng Shicai and sent Soviet troops, pilots, tanks, and military advisers to crush uprisings involving Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Dungans. Soviet aircraft bombed rebel positions, while Moscow gradually transformed Xinjiang into what many historians describe as a de facto Soviet protectorate. At the same time, Soviet leaders viewed Xinjiang not simply as a resource-rich frontier but as a strategic gateway toward China, British India, Tibet, and the Muslim world. Soviet intelligence networks, military planners, and political operatives became deeply involved in the region’s affairs. Yet only a decade later, Stalin dramatically changed course. After relations with Sheng Shicai deteriorated during World War II, Moscow began supporting a new uprising in northern Xinjiang. Soviet intelligence services helped organize, arm, and guide the rebellion that led to the establishment of the Second East Turkestan Republic in 1944. For many Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples of Xinjiang, the republic appeared to represent a long-awaited opportunity for self-determination and independence. However, Soviet support was never primarily about the aspirations of the local population. It was about Soviet strategic interests. When Mao Zedong’s Communist forces began winning China’s civil war, Stalin once again changed sides. Instead of supporting East Turkestan’s independence, he chose to back Mao and a future communist China. The leaders of the East Turkestan Republic were sidelined, and several of them died in the mysterious 1949 plane crash in Siberia while traveling to meet Chinese Communist leaders. Soon afterward, Xinjiang was incorporated into the newly established People’s Republic of China. This presentation examines how Stalin first used the peoples of East Turkestan as opponents, then as allies, and ultimately sacrificed their political aspirations in favor of a strategic alliance with Mao. We will also discuss the historical roots of today’s tensions in Xinjiang, Soviet military interventions, the role of Sheng Shicai, the East Turkestan Republic, Ospan Batyr, Ahmetjan Qasimi, Soviet intelligence operations, and the geopolitical calculations that shaped the modern history of Xinjiang. Understanding this forgotten history helps explain many of the political, ethnic, and security issues that continue to affect Xinjiang today. If you enjoy in-depth analysis of Eurasian geopolitics, history, international relations, and Central Asian affairs, please subscribe to Eurasian Express, like this video, and share it with others interested in one of the most fascinating and consequential regions of the world.