Excerpt on Xinjiang from Minutes No. 63 of the VKP(b) CC Politburo Meetings

[Handwritten:] from Minutes N 63

VKP(b) CC PB decision

point 84 is in a classified repository

from 24 April 1948

84. Measures to Improve the Political and Economic Situation in the Ili [Yili], Tarbaghatay [Tacheng or Qoqek], and Altai Districts of Xinjiang

The VKP(b) CC decrees:

It is considered necessary to adopt the following measures in order to improve the civil and military administration and strengthen the political and economic situation in Ili, Tarbaghatay, and Altai Districts of Xinjiang:

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

At this conference create a permanent commission of five to seven people who would be a political administrative and economic management body for all three districts but would not act publicly.

In order to conceal the true purpose of this institution from the Chinese call it a "Commission to Study and Improve the Financial and Economic Situation", and if the Chinese demand an explanation of the reasons for the formation of this commission it could be recommended that reference be made to the fact that its mission includes working out measures for all three districts and the exercise of control of the collection of monetary and material resources needed to support of 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.

Grant this commission the right to monitor the political and economic activity of the civil administration and also give unpublished instructions about these issues which are binding on all three districts.

The commission is to include supporters of the national liberation movement in Xinjiang who have been proven reliable. Recommend that Ahmetjan Qasimi and Iskhakbek Monunov, the commanding general of the Ghulja forces, not be part of this commission but remain leaders of the national liberation movement not tied down by occupying specific posts in this commission.

Charge the commission with first working out and pursuing the following measures through the governors of the three districts:

a) the same system of money taxes and taxes in kind in all three districts;

b) the rates of taxes in kind and money taxes for all types of items taxed, striving however for the taxes on the population of the three districts to be lower than the taxes which exist in other districts of Xinjiang;

c) a system of financing the administrative, economic, commercial, industrial, and other institutions, the accountability and monitoring of the expenditure of the people's money in order to ensure an accumulation of monetary and material resources for the support of the army, government institutions, the development of public education and health, and also the elimination of conditions which permit national property to be squandered and misappropriated;

d) budgets for all three districts for 1948, including separate budgets for the support of the army in accordance with the overall plan for the support of the army worked out by the Commission;

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

2. Approve the attached text of an appeal to the Xinjiang population about the creation of an "Association for the Defense of Peace and Democracy in Xinjiang".

Recommend that Ahmetjan Qasimi and Iskhakbek Monunov assume the leadership of the Association.

3. Purge the three districts of active Ospan [Batyr] [Osman Batur] supporters and Chinese agents using the local workforce.

Create a "Commission to Promote the Strengthening of Law and Order" at the local level under the governors' offices in order to involve the population in an active struggle against Ospan supporters and the Chinese agent network. These commissions are to include the most reliable tribal leaders and spiritual leaders. Charge these commissions with the responsibility of hearing the results of investigations of the cases of those who have been arrested and making decisions about them which are subsequently approved by the governors.

4. Create an "Ili Commercial and Industrial Joint Stock Company" in Ghulja, granting it a preferential right to large wholesale foreign and domestic trade and also [create] an organization of new and the operation of existing industrial and cottage enterprises in the three districts (coal mines; oil extraction; water, beer, and native tobacco [makhorochnyy] plants; fur shoe workshops; mills; electric power plants; and other enterprises).

The financial resources and the stock of material of existing cooperative organizations should form the primary capital of the company: "Matlubata", (a military cooperative), the League of Invalids, and the "Officers Economic Company" which should act as the founders of this stock company.

In order to attract additional resources it is recommended that the founders of the stock company issue shares for sale to merchant firms of the districts and individuals to an amount not exceeding 49% of the primary capital of the company in order that the remaining 51% of it belongs to the founders, who should organize the activity of the company so that it is profitable for the government bodies in both economic and political terms.

To ensure the proper activity of the company and to give practical assistance to its founders place a number of reliable people on the company's board, including one or two officials sent from the Soviet Union especially for this purpose.

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

a) deliver equipment for a small petroleum complex, power plants, and cottage enterprises, and also telegraph and telephone equipment, medical equipment, medicines, and other commodities totaling 1,500,000 rubles to the "Ili Commercial and Industrial Joint Stock Company" by 1 September 1948 at the request of the joint stock company in exchange for cattle and raw materials.

b) organize trade with the three districts so that the majority of the trade and barter operations are conducted through the "Ili Commercial and Industrial Joint Stock Company", granting the latter preference in comparison with other organizations and individuals in the sense of issuing goods at fixed prices, the selection of goods, and reciprocal payment procedures.

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 those Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Kirgiz who left Xinjiang and settled in these republics and received an education in order to return them to Xinjiang to bolster the administrative management staff of the three districts. The best trained and suitable among them are to be sent to work in Xinjiang in coordination with F. F. Kuznetsov;

b) organize special groups of Xinjiang youth at training institutions of the Uzbek and Kazakh SSR's who are studying in the Soviet Union to train doctors, teachers, agronomists, administrators, and workers in other specialties for their subsequent use at work in Xinjiang.

Excerpts were sent [to]: Cdes. Molotov and F. F. Kuznetsov - everything; Mikoyan - point 5; Yusupov and Shayakhmetov - point 6.

[handwritten:] CC Secretary I. Stalin