To Die on the Steppe: Sino-Soviet-American Relations and the Cold War in Chinese Central Asia, 1944–1952

Abstract

Through a narrative retelling of a little known but incredible journey from Xinjiang to New York City made by a group of ethnic Russians in the mid-twentieth century, this article shows how some of the earliest and most poignant manifestations of the Cold War, including nuclear rivalry and espionage, were made evident in Chinese Central Asia. Wrapped up within an intense competition for resources, information, and influence between the United States, the Soviet Union, and two Chinese regimes, the Russians at the heart of this article reveal how the Cold War was a truly global conflict which was intimately experienced by ordinary peoples and often times in the places most far removed. This episode is furthermore a reminder that even if the Cold War did produce stability at the macro-level, the outcomes of the strategic rivalry and competition between the Soviet Union and the United States were violent and tragic, not necessarily or exclusively for these countries but especially for their allies and accomplices.

Acknowledgments

Kiprian Chanov and his family are due special thanks from the author, particularly for their willingness to open up to a stranger. Edward McCord, Gregg Brazinsky, Christian Ostermann, Meredith Oyen, Justin Jacobs, Tanya Harmer, Matthew Kraus, and Eric Setzekorn also helped to nudge this research along through their straightforward questions, honest criticisms, and cheerful encouragement.

Notes

¹ My title is drawn from H.R.H. Prince Peter of Greece, “A Russian Exodus from Sinkiang,” Journal of The Royal Central Asian Society 38, no. 4 (1951): 261–266, who wrote that the Russians at the heart of this paper “preferred the risk of ‘dying in the steppe’” to remaining under communist rule. I am not necessarily sympathetic to Prince Peter's interpretation, only to his turn of phrase.

² See Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Michael Szonyi, Cold War Island: Quemoy on the Front Line (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); and Jeffrey A. Engel, ed., Local Consequences of the Global Cold War (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007).

³ “19 Russians Fight and Hide Way Here,” The New York Times, March 30, 1952.

⁴ “Epic Escape from Reds Finally Ends in the U.S.,” Life 32, no. 15 (April 14, 1952): 36.

⁵ At least one best-selling author, William Lindsey White, even abandoned a book project about the Russians in the 1950s, perhaps after discovering that the group's story did not so neatly conform to the Cold War heroics described in the American media. See E. Jay Jernigan, William Lindsay White, 1900–1973: In the Shadow of his Father (Norman University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 234–237. See also W.L. White to George L. Hams, March 4, 1953, and W.L. White to Eugene H. Bird, April 6, 1953, both in National Archives and Records Administration, General Records of the Department of State (hereafter RG 59), Records of the Office of Chinese Affairs, “P” Files, 1952–53, Box 23, “#6p Sinkiang, 1953.”

⁶ Melvyn P. Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War (New York: Hill and Wang, 2007).

⁷ John Lewis Gaddis, The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). For implicit criticisms of the “long peace,” see Hal Brands, Latin America's Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010); Heonik Kwon, The Other Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010); and Yangwen Zheng, Hong Liu, and Michael Szonyi, eds., The Cold War in Asia: The Battle for Hearts and Minds (Boston, MA: Brill, 2010).

⁸ See also Justin Jacobs, “Empire Besieged: The Preservation of Chinese Rule in Xinjiang, 1884–1971” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, San Diego, 2011).

⁹ James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).

¹⁰ Linda Benson and Ingvar Svanberg, “The Russians in Xinjiang: From Immigrants to National Minority, ” Central Asian Survey 8 (1989): 99; Michael Share, “The Russian Civil War in Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang), 1918–1921: A Little Known and Explored Front,” Europe-Asia Studies 62 (May 2010): 389–420.

¹¹ Benson and Svanberg, “The Russians in Xinjiang,” 97.

¹² Owen Lattimore, Pivot of Asia: Sinkiang and the Inner Asian Frontiers of China (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co., 1950), 146.

¹³ Millward, Eurasian Crossroads, 192–194.

¹⁴ Interview with the author.

¹⁵ Allen S. Whiting and General Sheng Shih-ts'ai [Sheng Shicai], Sinkiang: Pawn or Pivot? (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1958).

¹⁶ Millward, Eurasian Crossroads, 206–207.

¹⁷ A. Doak Barnett, China on the Eve of Communist Takeover (New York: Praeger, 1963), 274–275. Accounts about Osman have appeared in numerous languages, and the appropriation of Osman Batur's namesake by so many different individuals at different cross purposes is dealt with at length in Justin Jacobs, “The Many Deaths of a Kazak Unaligned: Osman Batur, Chinese Decolonization, and the Nationalization of a Nomad,” American Historical Review 115 (December 2010): 1291–1314.

¹⁸ The recollections of the Russians verify that the Soviets bankrolled and perhaps even micromanaged much of the war effort against the GMD in autumn 1944, helping put to rest the long-disputed claims that decorated Soviet officers were among the anti-government forces. See Belov Bc-21 in Papers of William Lindsay White, William Allen White, and other White family members, 1815–1983 (RHMS-608), Box 46, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries. (Hereafter shortened to RHMS-608.)

¹⁹ Jacobs, “The Many Deaths of a Kazak Unaligned,” 1297. While the literature on the East Turkestan Republic is extensive, it is still colored by heated debates. In English, see David D. Wang, Under the Soviet Shadow: The Yining Incident: Ethnic Conflicts and International Rivalry in Xinjiang, 1944–1949 (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1999) and Linda Benson, The Ili Rebellion: The Moslem Challenge to Chinese Authority in Xinjiang, 1944–1949 (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1990). In Japanese, see Wang Ke, Higashi Torukisutan Kyo¯wakoku kenkyu¯: Chu¯goku no Isuramu to minzoku mondai (A Study on the East Turkestan Republic: Muslims and the National Question in China) (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppanka, 1995). In Russian, see V.A. Barmin, Sin'tszian v sovetsko-kitaikikh otnosheniiakh, 1941–1949 gg. (Sino-Soviet Relations and Xinjiang, 1941–1949) (Barnaul: Barnaul'skii gosudarstvennyii pedagogicheskii universitet, 1999). And in Chinese, see Xinjiang sanqu geming shi bianzuan weiyuanhui, ed., Xinjiang sanqu geming dashiji (Chronicle of Major Events in Xinjiang's Three Districts Revolution) (Wulumuqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 1994) and Xinjiang sanqu geming shi bianzuan weiyuanhui, ed., Xinjiang sanqu geming (Xinjiang's Three Districts Revolution) (Wulumuqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 1994).

²⁰ Chanov 5-88– Chanov 6-29 in RHMS-608. See also Linda Benson, “Osman Batur: The Kazak's Golden Legend,” in The Kazaks of China: Essays on an Ethnic Minority, ed. Linda Benson and Ingvar Svanberg (Uppsala, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1988), 162–163.

²¹ Chanov 8-42 in RHMS-608.

²² Belov Bc-21 in RHMS-608.

²³ Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind, 76.

²⁴ Donald Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System after World War II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

²⁵ John Hall Paxton, “The General Problem of Displaced Persons in Sinkiang,” August 26, 1947, in RG 59, Central Decimal Files 1945–1949, 840.48 Refugees/8-2647. (Hereafter shortened to CDF 1945–1949.)

²⁶ Chanov 8-42 in RHMS-608; Chanov 8-56 – Chanov 8-78 in RHMS-608.

²⁷ Jacobs, “The Many Deaths of a Kazak Unaligned.”

²⁸ Fuyun xian zhengxie “Fuyun xian zhengxie zhi” bianxie zu, ed., Fuyun xian zhengxie zhi (1950.10 – 2002.12) (Records of the Fuyun County CPPCC, October 1950 – December 2002) (Wulumuqi: Wulumuqi xin xie yin wu gongsi, 2005), 22.

²⁹ Chanov H-96 in RHMS-608.

³⁰ Enclosure No. 2 to “Arrival of 23 Russian Refugees from China via Tibet,” in RG 59, Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs, Office of Refugee and Migration Affairs, Box 3, “Sinkiang White Russians.” (Hereafter abbreviated to “Sinkiang White Russians.”)

³¹ Chanov I-14 in RHMS-608.

³² Interview with the author; Belov BH-33 in RHMS-608.

³³ Interview with the author; Chanov I-125 in RHMS-608.

³⁴ The city was sometimes rendered as “Ghushien” in U.S. diplomatic reports.

³⁵ Interview with the author. See also Barnett, China on the Eve of Communist Takeover, 276. In February 1948, the Russians were moved out of Guchung to Jimsar (Jimusa'er) in order to follow Osman's movements. Interview with the author; Belov 1-9, in RHMS-608.

³⁶ Walter Sullivan, “Chief Vows Fight On Sinkiang Reds,” New York Times, April 18, 1949.

³⁷ Andrew D.W. Forbes, Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 161; Wang, Under the Soviet Shadow, 67; Jia Chunyang, “Meiguo zhu Dihua lingshiguan de sheli yu qi ‘Jiang du’ zhengce de yuanqi” (“The Establishment of the U.S. Consulate in Dihua and the Origins of U.S. Policy towards the Issue of ‘Xinjiang's Independence’”), Guoji luntan 4 (July 2010): 41; O. Edmund Clubb, The Witness and I (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975), 61.

³⁸ Xiaoyuan Liu, Recast All Under Heaven: Revolution, War, Diplomacy, and Frontier China in the 20th Century (New York: Continuum, 2010), 30.

³⁹ John J. Muccio, “Tihwa Inspection Report, Part III-5, Citizenship Work,” “Tihwa Inspection Report, Part III-4, Immigration Work,” and “Tihwa Inspection Report, Part III-2, Commercial and Economic Work,” June 28, 1948, all in RG 59, Foreign Service Inspection Reports (FSIR), Box 116, Tihwa 1948. (Hereafter FSIR Box 116.)

⁴⁰ Muccio, “Tihwa Inspection Report, Part I, Personnel” and “Tihwa Inspection Report, Part III-1, Political Work,” in FSIR Box 116.

⁴¹ Muccio, “Tihwa Consulate Personnel” and “Tihwa Inspection Report, Part I, Personnel,” in FSIR Box 116.

⁴² For explanations of Mackiernan's mission in Xinjiang, see Ted Gup, The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives (New York: Anchor Books, 2000) and Thomas Laird, Into Tibet: The CIA's First Atomic Spy and His Secret Expedition to Lhasa (New York: Grove Press, 2002).

⁴³ Belov 1-12, Bel-1–14, Bel 1-15, Belov 1-27 in RHMS-608.

⁴⁴ Chanov - r-116 and Chanov -s-1 in RHMS-608.

⁴⁵ Laird, Into Tibet, 78; Belov-1-30 in RHMS-608.

⁴⁶ Muccio, “Tihwa Inspection Report, Part III-9, Miscellaneous,” in FSIR Box 116.

⁴⁷ Craig Campbell and Sergey Radchenko, The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008); John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 85–112.

⁴⁸ Qu Xinru, “Xinjiang jiefang qianhou Ying, Mei didui shili de jiandie huodong” (“Espionage Committed by the Hostile British and American Forces Before and After Xinjiang's Liberation”), Junshi lishi 1 (2000): 65.

⁴⁹ Chanov - r-105 in RHMS-608; “Guanyu Xinjiang Meiguo jianmou Ye-luo-duo-fu an tupian ji shuoming” (“Pictures and Explanation from the Case of the American Spy Ye-luo-duo-fu in Xinjiang”), January 1–December 31, 1950, Document No. 118-00084-04, Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Beijing, China (hereafter PRC MFA); Xinjiang Weiwu'er zizhiqu difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui and “Xinjiang tongzhi √ Gong'an zhi” bianzuan weiyuanhui, eds., Xinjiang tongzhi: Di ershi juan: Gong'an zhi (Xinjiang Gazetteer, Volume 20: Public Security) (Wulumuqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 2004), 809; Nan Shi, ed., Fuxiao de jiaoliang—Xin Zhongguo jiaofei yu zhenya fangeming jishi (The Dawn of the Contest: Documentary of Bandit Annihilation and the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries in New China) (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1999), 52–53.

⁵⁰ Belov 74–Belov 75, in RHMS-608; Enclosure to No. 3 to “Arrival of 23 Russian Refugees from China via Tibet,” 2 August 1951, 891.411/8-251, in “Sinkiang White Russians;” Xinjiang Weiwu'er zizhiqu difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui and “Xinjiang tongzhi √ Gong'an zhi” bianzuan weiyuanhui, eds., Xinjiang tongzhi: Di ershi juan: Gong'an zhi, 810.

⁵¹ “Deng Liqun jin Wusiman de jinqi dongxiang zhi zhongyang dian (jielu)” (“Excerpt of a Telegram from Deng Liqun to the Central Committee on Osman Batur's Recent Movements”), October 5, 1949, in Zhang Yuxi, ed., Xinjiang pingpan jiaofei (The Suppression of Bandits in Xinjiang) (Wulumuqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 2000), 29–30. See also Wang, Under the Soviet Shadow, 68.

⁵² See also “Withdrawal of Central Government Military Personnel from Tihua,” September 6, 1949, CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) No. CIA-RDP82-00457R003200320008-0; “Withdrawal of Troops and Anti-Communist Leaders from Sinkiang Province,” September 16, 1949, CREST No. CIA-RDP82-00457R003300210009-0.

⁵³ Frank Bagnall Bessac and Susanne Leppman Bessac with Joan Orielle Bessac Steelquist, Death on the Chang Tang, Tibet, 1950: The Education of an Anthropologist (Missoula: The University of Montana Printing & Graphic Services, 2006), 77.

⁵⁴ Douglas Mackiernan, Tihwa Dispatch No. 250, September 5, 1949, CDF 1945–1949 840.48 Refugees/9-849.

⁵⁵ Marcia Reynders Ristaino, Port of Last Resort: The Diaspora Communities of Shanghai (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001).

⁵⁶ Emma Haddad, The Refugee in International Society: Between Sovereigns (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 132–133.

⁵⁷ Alvin Roseman to George L. Warren, no date (likely after October 12, 1949), in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

⁵⁸ Enclosure No. 2, 3, to “Arrival of 23 Russian Refugees from China via Tibet,” in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

⁵⁹ Interview with the author. See also Xiao Feng, Mei Dong, and Bei Gen, Fan te zhenfan yundong shilu (Record of the Campaign Against Spies and to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries) (Beijing: Jincheng chubanshe, 1998), 205.

⁶⁰ Belov 68, 71, and 73 in RHMS-608.

⁶¹ Chanov v-95 in RHMS-608; interview with the author.

⁶² “Qian Meiguo zhu Dihua fulingshi Ma-ke-nan goujie gufei congshi jiandie huodong” (“The Former U.S. Vice Consul Mackiernan's Collaboration with Bandits and Espionage”), Renmin ribao, January 30, 1950.

⁶³ “Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi” bianzuan weiyuanhui, ed. Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi (Gazetteer of Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County) (Wulumuqi: Xinjiang daxue chubanshe, 1993), 427. See also Chanov W-11, Chanov W-19, Belov 82, and Belov 84 in RHMS-608.

⁶⁴ “Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi” bianzuan weiyuanhui, ed. Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi, 427; Chanov v-70 and Chanov v-80 in RHMS-608.

⁶⁵ “Arrival of Chinese Communist Troops in Sinkiang Province,” November 4, 1949, CREST No. CIA-RDP82-00457R003700100005-9.

⁶⁶ Bessac and Bessac, Death on the Chang Tang, Tibet, 1950, 61–71; Chanov w-1 in RHMS-608.

⁶⁷ Belov 80 in RHMS-608.

⁶⁸ Chanov W-34, Chanov W-40, and Chanov W-69 in RHMS-608.

⁶⁹ “Wusiman feishou gongren zuixing” (“The Bandit Chieftain Osman has Confessed”), Renmin ribao, May 5, 1951.

⁷⁰ Wang Zhuanpu, “Xinjiang heping qiyi qianhou de Zhenxi” (“Zhenxi Before and After the Period of Xinjiang's Liberation”) Xinjiang wenshi ziliao xuanji 11 (Wulumuqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 1982): 17–31.

⁷¹ Chanov Z-1 through Chanov Z-52 in RHMS-608.

⁷² Interview with the author.

⁷³ Zhonggong Balikun xianwei dangshi gongzuo weiyuanhui, ed., Zhongguo gongchandang Balikun Hasake zizhixian lishi dashiji (1949nian 10yue – 1997nian 12yue) (Major Historical Events of the Chinese Communist Party in Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County, October 1949 – December 1997) (Balikun: n.p., 1998), 1–2.

⁷⁴ “Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi” bianzuan weiyuanhui, ed. Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi, 427–428. In retrospect, Chinese scholars have recognized Osman's tactics as “being polite, but insincere” (xuyouweiyi). See Bai Xi, Kaiguo da zhenfan (Grand Suppression during the Founding of the Nation) (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 2006), 272–273.

⁷⁵ “Guanyu chuli yu Ying Mei zhu Dihua lingshi guanxi wenti de dianbao” (“Telegram on Handling the Consular Relations of the British and Americans in Dihua”), December 7, 1949, in Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi and Zhongyang dang'anguan, eds., Jianguo yilai Zhou Enlai wengao (Zhou Enlai's Manuscripts since the Founding of the PRC), vol. 1 (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2008), 637–638.

⁷⁶ On the surrender, see Belov 99 in RHMS-608.

⁷⁷ “Qian Meiguo zhu Dihua fulingshi Ma-ke-nan goujie gufei congshi jiandie huodong.”

⁷⁸ Bao Erhan [Burhan Shähidi], “Meidi qinrao Xinjiang renmin liyi de shishi, da le Aiqixun de zuiba!” (“The American Imperialists Have Violated the Interests of the People of Xinjiang; Hit Back at Acheson's Mouth!”), Renmin Ribao, January 30, 1950.

⁷⁹ “Guanyu Meiguo zhu Zhongguo Xinjiang Dihua lingshiguan fulingshi Ma-ke-nan yangmou huodong de cailiao” (“Materials on the Overt Schemes of Vice-Consul Mackiernan from the United States Consulate in Dihua”), January 1, 1950, Document No. 118-00005-02 and “Zhongguo diaohuo Meiguo zhu Zhongguo Xinjiang Dihua lingshiguan fandong xingwei” (“China has Investigated the Reactionary Behavior of the United States Consulate in Dihua”), January 1, 1950, Document No. 118-00005-03, PRC MFA.

⁸⁰ Xinjiang Weiwu'er zizhiqu difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui, ed., Xinjiang tong zhi: di shisi juan, gongchandang zhi (Gazetteer of Xinjiang: Volume 14: Communist Party Records) (Wulumuqi: Xinjiang renmin chubanshe, 2001), 397. See also Liu Xiangjun and Meng Nan, “Cong Xinjiang jiaofei douzheng kan Zhongguo gongchandang de minzu zhengce” (“The Ethnic Policies of the Chinese Communist Party during the Struggle to Suppress Bandits in Xinjiang”), Xibei minzu yanjiu 1 (2004): 92–98.

⁸¹ “Wang Zhen guanyu weijiao Wusiman gufei zuozhan jihua de anpai (jielu)” (“Excerpts from Wang Zhen's War Plans for Encircling and Annihilating Osman's Bandits”), March 16, 1950, in Zhang, Xinjiang pingpan jiaofei, 49–50. See also Jacobs, “Empire Besieged,” 478–479.

⁸² See Yuan Zhigang, Xibei da jiaofei jishi (Documentary of the Great Bandit Annihilation in the Northwest) (Beijing: Jiefangjun chubanshe, 2009), 236.

⁸³ Yao-le-bo-shi [Yolbars Khan], “Xinjiang xianfei qianhou qingxing baogao” (“A Report on the Bandit Takeover of Xinjiang”), 00112-00113, Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Institute of Modern History, Academica Sinica, Nangang, Taiwan, file 119.51/0001. A copy of this document was furnished to the author by Justin Jacobs. Eventually, an abridged version of this document was published in Taiwan in a moderately “sanitized” form. See Yao-le-bo-shi [Yolbars Khan], “Zuihou weishi zhi zhan—Cheli Tianshan ji” (“The Last Guardian's Battle: Record of the Withdrawal from the Heavenly Mountains”), Zhongguo bianzheng no. 1 (June 1963): 8–12.

⁸⁴ Chanov Ab-1 and Chanov Ab-24 in RHMS-608.

⁸⁵ Chanov AB-24 and Chanov AB-58 in RHMS-608.

⁸⁶ “Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi” bianzuan weiyuanhui, ed. Balikun Hasake zizhixian zhi, 429.

⁸⁷ “Xinjiang junqu guanyu jiaofei zuozhan de yubei mingling” (“The Xinjiang Military District's Preparation Commands for Bandit Suppression Operations”), April 19, 1950, in Zhang, ed., Xinjiang pingpan jiaofei, 58–59.

⁸⁸ “Yan Kuiyao deng guanyu weijiao Wusiman, Yao-le-bo-si tufei qingkuang zhi ge junqu bing zhongyang junwei dian” (“Telegram from Yang Kuiyao, Wang Zhengzhu, and Han Liancheng to the Every Military District and the Central Military Commission on the Situation of Encircling and Annihilating the Bandits Osman and Yolbars”), May 24, 1950, in Zhang, ed., Xinjiang pingpan jiaofei, 70–71. While earlier PLA reports suggested that as many as forty had been killed, a June 1950 report in People's Daily asserted that most of Osman's Russians had surrendered to the PLA in May. According to this story, only two Russians had been killed, while forty-six of Osman's “White Russian bodyguards” (bai E weidui) had surrendered. This article was likely based on a June 1, 1950, report from the Northwest Military Region, which offered similar surrender and death tolls. See “Xinjiang junqu budui san lu jin jiaofei ku” (“From Three Directions, Forces from the Xinjiang Military Region are Suppressing Bandits”), Renmin ribao, June 4, 1950; “Xibei junqu guanyu weijiao Wu, Yao tufei qingkuang zhi ge junqu bing xibei ju, Zhongyang junwei dian” (“Telegram from the Northwest Military Region to Every Military Region, the Northwest Bureau, and the Central Military Commission on the Situation of Encircling and Suppressing the Bandits Osman and Yolbars”), June 1, 1950, in Zhang, ed., Xinjiang pingpan jiaofei, 75–76.

⁸⁹ Chanov Ac-28 and Ac-38 in RHMS-608.

⁹⁰ Yao-le-bo-shi, “Xinjiang xianfei qianhou qingxing baogao,” 00119.

⁹¹ Yao-le-bo-shi, “Xinjiang xianfei qianhou qingxing baogao,” 00119-00120.

⁹² Interview with the author and enclosure No. 2, 4, to “Arrival of 23 Russian Refugees from China via Tibet,” in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

⁹³ Zhonggong Balikun xianwei dangshi gongzuo weiyuanhui, ed., Zhongguo gongchandang Balikun Hasake zizhixian lishi dashiji (1949nian 10yue – 1997nian 12yue), 3–4.

⁹⁴ Belov 104, 105, and 106 in RHMS-608.

⁹⁵ “Xinjiang junqu guanyu jinhou yige shiqi jiaofei renwu anpai de mingling” (“Orders from the Xinjiang Military District on Arrangements for Bandit Suppression from Today Onward”), July 25, 1950, in Zhang, ed., Xinjiang pingpan jiaofei, 91–92; Chanov Ao-85 in RHMS-608.

⁹⁶ Belov 113-114 in RHMS-608.

⁹⁷ Enclosure No. 2, 5, to “Arrival of 23 Russian Refugees from China via Tibet,” in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

⁹⁸ Laird, Into Tibet, 171–177.

⁹⁹ Belov 170-190 in RHMS-608.

¹⁰⁰ “From the Altai Mountains to New York via Tibet and Calcutta,” Tolstoy Foundation News 2, no. 7 (May–June 1952): 4–5.

¹⁰¹ H.R.H Prince Peter of Greece, “A Russian Exodus from Sinkiang,” 266.

¹⁰² Evan M. Wilson to the Department of State, “23 White Russian Refugees from Communist China,” August 27, 1951, in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

¹⁰³ “Coming of White Russians to India,” Parliamentary Debates: Official Reports. Part 1. Questions & Answers 10 (September 26, 1951): 1700–1701.

¹⁰⁴ Lloyd V. Steer to the Secretary of State, New Delhi Dispatch No. 8, July 8, 1951; Lloyd V. Steer to the Secretary of State, New Delhi Dispatch No. 33, July 3, 1951; Dean Acheson to the American Consulate at Geneva, July 5,1951; Dean Acheson to the American Embassy at New Delhi, July 5, 1951; and Lloyd V. Steer to the Secretary of State, New Delhi Dispatch No. 132, July 10, 1951, all in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

¹⁰⁵ William G. Gibson to the Department of State, “Arrival of 23 Russian refugees from China via Tibet,” in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

¹⁰⁶ J.A. Linehan to George L. Warren, “Status of Refugees in India,” October 16, 1951, in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

¹⁰⁷ Michel Peissel, Tiger for Breakfast: The Story of Boris of Kathmandu (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1966), 182. See also Nikolai Listopadov, “A Russian in the Himalayas,” International Affairs 51 (2005): 194.

¹⁰⁸ Sidor Belov to the International Refugee Organization, July 28, 1951, Enclosure No. 1 to “Arrival of 23 Russian Refugees from China via Tibet,” in “Sinkiang White Russians.” One additional stray Russian joined the group of twenty-two while in India, bringing the group's size temporarily to twenty-three. The eldest group member, however, passed away while in transit to the United States.

¹⁰⁹ Ward to the Secretary of State, Geneva Dispatch No. 105, August 2, 1951 in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

¹¹⁰ James E. Webb to the American Consulate at Calcutta, August 14, 1951, in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

¹¹¹ Dean Acheson to the American Consulate at Calcutta, August 27, 1951, in “Sinkiang White Russians.” Though the Tolstoy Foundation is a private, non-profit group, the Soviet Union often alleged that it was backed by the CIA. See Association of Soviet Lawyers, ed., The White Book: Evidence, Facts, Documents (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1981), 75.

¹¹² James E. Webb to the American Consulate at Calcutta, Dispatch No. A-107, December 5, 1951, in “Sinkiang White Russians.”

¹¹³ K.P. Charnoff [Kiprian Chanov] to the Tolstoy Foundation, February 8, 1952, in “Sinkiang White Russians”; “20 Fleeing Russians Arrive in Hamburg,” The Washington Post, March 18, 1952.

¹¹⁴ “19 Russians Fight and Hide Way Here,” The New York Times; The Tolstoy Foundation, Thirty-Four Years of Assistance to Refugees (New York: The Tolstoy Foundation, 1972), 17.

¹¹⁵This Is Your Life, NBC Television, October 10, 1956.

¹¹⁶ Li Danhui, “Soviet Nationals and the Soviet Influence in Xinjiang (1949–1965),” trans. Song Jun, ed. David Kelly, Social Sciences in China 25 (Spring 2004): 54–65.

Charles Kraus is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at The George Washington University. Broadly interested in modern Chinese history, Kraus' research focuses on the interplay between central-local relations, foreign relations, and ethnicity on the Chinese periphery after 1945. Email: [email protected]