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This article investigates the Ili Rebellion in Xinjiang (1944–49). Relying primarily on Chinese sources, the author identifies variations in the rise and fate of non-Han ethnic guerillas, and the patterns of military conflict in different regions during the expansionist stage of the Ili Rebellion from 1944 to 1946. The article argues that neither a nationalist nor a geopolitical explanation adequately account for such variations. Rather, the overlapping and intersecting geopolitical influence (both the Soviet Union and the two Chinese regimes) as well as local conditions (including local ethnic composition and social structure) explain such patterns. Finally, this article discusses broader implications of the role of nationalism and geopolitics in revolutions in small and dependent states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nationalists usually emphasise the timeless and primordialist origins of the nation, but states also make conscious efforts to construct nations. Drawing on the case of the Uyghurs, this article shows how states support certain nationalist tendencies and use them – with varying degrees of success – to advance particular ideologies. In the 1930s, as a consequence of Soviet national policy, different ethnicities joined a new Uyghur nation. The state therefore constructed the Uyghurs (together with other ethnic groups) through a political decision. In doing so the state emphasised the primordial aspect of Uyghurdom, however, whereby the nation should have existed from time immemorial and its attributes should be stable and firm. After World War II, both the Chinese government and Uyghur leaders in Xinjiang fighting against that government adopted this Soviet-inspired concept of a united Uyghur nation, and it was also adopted by Uyghurs in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. States have the capacity to construct new nations, but other factors (geographic, political, cultural and intercommunal) can nullify or amplify these efforts. This is evident in southern Kyrgyzstan, where coexistence with Uzbeks has led to the assimilation of the Uyghurs, while in the north the Uyghurs have maintained their cultural characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I would like to show that China's rough treatment of Uyghurs is related not only to domestic tensions in Xinjiang but also to the legacy of Uyghurs' association with the Soviet Union and Russia against China's nationality policy. Both, but particularly Moscow, used the Uyghurs in their virtual propaganda and, moreover, also in actual acts of organizing outfits-mainly civilian but also military-including espionage, sabotage, and even preparations for invasion. While most-if not all-of these attempts failed, the memories of these actions still survive. Behind the apparent friendship between China and Russia today are hidden mutual suspicions as well as unsettled accounts going back as far as the seventeenth century. Given these potential, and occasionally actual, tensions and China's growing economic advantage over Russia, a future conflict is an eventuality that should be taken into consideration, meaning that Uyghurs may become pawns in this playground yet again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changing relationship between ethno-national and local narratives in the historiography of Kazakhstan's Uyghurs through the parallel analysis of general and local histories compiled in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Uyghur history writing in the post-Soviet period is discussed in relation to the divided loyalty of the Uyghur community: while interest in writing ethno-nationalist histories is based on the growing feeling of being a part of the broad, transnational category of the Uyghur, deep attachment to the Semirech'e region is expressed in the emerging histories of Uyghur villages and neighbourhoods. In analysing the local histories of Kazakhstani Uyghurs in the post-Soviet period, the author focuses on the gradual transition from Soviet-style local histories praising the uniqueness of the ‘Soviet’ Uyghurs to new local histories emerging ‘from below’ as exemplified by the history of the Sultanqorghan neighbourhood of Almaty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article details the personal and professional life of Ibrahim Muti'i (1920–2010), a well-known Uighur linguist. Through a series of interviews, Mr. Muti'i sketched the events he wanted to be remembered. Mr. Muti'i's life story corresponds with many of the significant events in Northwest China both in the Republican era (1911–1949) and the first decades of the People's Republic of China era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]