Excerpt on Xinjiang from Minutes No. 69 of the VKP(b) CC Politburo Meetings

[Politburo agenda items]

[Handwritten note: Point 84 is in classified storage].

from 24 April 1948

84. Concerning measures to strengthen the political and economic situation in the Ili, Tarbagatai, and Altay Districts of Xinjiang.

The VKP(b) CC decrees:

The following measures are considered necessary to be taken in order to improve the civil and military administration and to strengthen the political and economic situation in the Ili [Yili], Tarbagatai [Tacheng], and Altay [Altai] Districts of Xinjiang:

1. Recommend to Ahmetjan Qasimi (the Deputy Chairman of the Xinjiang government) convene a conference in Ghulja [Yining] of governors and their deputies, and also the leaders of the financial and economic institutions of the three districts in order to discuss the situation which has developed:

Create permanently operating commissions of five to seven people at this conference which would be an administrative, political, and economic supervisory body for all three districts, but which would not act publicly.

In order to conceal from the Chinese the true task of this institution name it “the Commission to Study and Improve the Financial and Economic Situation”, but in the event the Chinese demand an explanation for the reason for the formation of this Commission it can be recommended that reference be made to the fact that its mission includes working out measures for all three districts and exercising control over the collection of the monetary and material means needed for the army and civil administration in view of the fact that the Chinese government is not releasing these resources and is thereby violating the corresponding point of the June 1946 agreement.

Give this Commission the right to monitor the political and economic activity of the civil administration, and also to give unpublicized instructions about these questions which are binding on all three districts.

The Commission is to include supporters of the national liberation movement in Xinjiang who have been tested in practice. It is recommended that Ahmetjan Qasimi and Iskhakbek Monunov, the Commanding General of the Ghulja forces, not be on the Commission, but remain as the leaders of the national liberation movement unconnected with the holding of specific posts in this Commission.

Charge the Commission with firstly developing the following measures through the governors of the three districts:

a) a uniform system of monetary and in-kind taxes in all three districts.

b) the imposition of in-kind and monetary taxes on all kinds of objects of taxation, striving, however, for the taxes on the population of the three districts being lower than the taxes which exist in the other districts of Xinjiang.

c) a system of financing administrative, economic, trade, industrial, and other institutions, accountability and monitoring of the expenditures of public funds and material reserves for the maintenance of the army, government institutions, the development of public education and health, and also to eliminate the conditions which allow public property to be squandered and stolen.

d) the 1948 budget for all three districts, including the individual budgets for the maintenance of the army, in accordance with the overall plan for the maintenance of the army worked out by the Commission.

e) the workforce and wage scales for the office workers of the administrative, economic, military, and other institutions, at the same time conducting a reduction and purge of the administrative management staff.

2. Approve the attached text of an appeal to the Xinjiang population about the creation of an “Association to Defend Peace and Democracy in Xinjiang”.

Recommend to Ahmetjan Qasimi and Iskhakbek Monunov that they take leadership of the Association upon themselves.

3. Conduct a purge of the three districts of active supporters of Ospan [Osman Batur] and Chinese agents with the efforts of local workers.

Create a “Commission to Promote the Consolidation of Legality and Order” locally in governor’s offices in order to involve the population in an active struggle with Ospan and the Chinese agent network. These Commissions are to include the most reliable tribal leaders and clergy. Charge these Commissions with the responsibility of hearing the results of investigations into cases of those arrested and making decisions on them which the governors subsequently confirm.

4. Create in Ghulja an “Ili Trade and Industrial Joint-Stock Company”, giving it the preferential right to large wholesale foreign and domestic commerce, and also the organization of new and the operation of existing industrial and cottage industry enterprises on the territory of the three districts (coal mines, petroleum production, distilleries, beer, and local tobacco plants, felt boots, mills, power stations, and other enterprises).

The main capital of the company should be the funds and material valuables of existing cooperative organizations: Matlubata (a military cooperative), “Soyuz invalidov [The Invalids’ Union]”, and “Ofitserskoe ehkonomicheskoe obshchestvo [The Officers’ Economic Company]”, which should act as the founders of this joint-stock company.

In order to attract additional money it is recommended that the founders of the joint-stock company issue shares for sale to merchant firms of the districts and individuals for an amount not to exceed 49% of the main capital of the company so that the remaining 51% of it belongs to the founders, who should organize the activity of the company so that it is economically and politically profitable for local governments.

To ensure the proper activity of the company and to give practical assistance to its founders put the necessary number of trusted people on the board, including one or two workers specially assigned for this purpose from the Soviet Union.

5. The USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade (Cde. Mikoyan) is to:

a) Deliver equipment to the “Ili Trade and Industrial Joint-Stock Company” by 1 September 1948 for a small oil refinery, power stations, cottage industry enterprises, and also telegraph and telephone equipment, medical support, medicines, and other objects at the request of the Joint-Stock Company for a total amount of 1,500,000 rubles in exchange for cattle and raw materials.

b) Organize trade with the three districts so that the majority of the trade and barter [-obmennye] operations are conducted through the Ili Trade and Industrial Joint-Stock Company, granting the latter preferences compared to other organizations and individuals in the sense of issuing goods at normal prices, an assortment of goods, and a settlement payments procedure.

6) Charge the CP(b) CC’s of the Uzbek and Kazakh SSR’s under the responsibility of Cdes. Yusupov and Shayakhmetov with:

a) Quickly identifying the Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Kirgiz who have left Xinjiang, settled in these republics, and received an education in order to return them to Xinjiang to augment the administrative management staff of these districts. The most prepared and suitable of them are to be sent to work in Xinjiang by coordination with F. F. Kuznetsov.

b) Organize special groups of Xinjiang youth studying in the Soviet Union in the educational institutions of the Uzbek and Kazakh SSR’s for training doctors, teachers, agronomists, and administrative workers, and also workers of other specialties for their subsequent use in work in Xinjiang.

Excerpts have been sent [to]: Cdes. Molotov, F. F. Kuznetsov – everything; Mikoyan – point 5, and Yusupov and Shayakhmetov, point 6.

CC Secretary I. Stalin