Concerning NKVD Operations in Xinjiang

[handwritten: from Minutes Nº [[reproduced off the page]]

Politburo decisions between 11 December 1937 and 21 January 1938

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from 10 January 1938

275. Concerning Xinjiang.

1. Permit the NKVD:

a) to withdraw the cavalry group of Colonel Noreyko and the aircraft from Xinjiang; return the units to the permanent deployment location.

b) deploy a reinforced cavalry regiment with an attached RKKA fighter squadron (15 I-15 aircraft) in the area of Hami with the permission of the Government of the Republic of China or the governor of Xinjiang, subordinating the air squadron to the regiment commander. The supply of the units deployed on the territory of Xinjiang is to be organized along the Khorgas [Huo’erguosi]-Urumqi-Kumul [Hami] road by a specially formed automotive transport company.

Count the regiment and the automotive transport company in the border troops, increasing their strength by 1,570 men and 1,025 horses.

c) The personnel of the units deployed on the territory of Xinjiang are to be dressed in the uniforms of units of the Urumqi government.

2. Allocate [the following] in January 1938 above the NKVD plan for the formation of the regiment and the automotive transport company:

and also allocate 120 tons of fuel and lubricants a month beginning in January 1938.

3. Hold the NKF responsible for providing for and ensuring the budgeting of the additional expenses connected with the deployment of the NKVD units in Xinjiang.

4. Recommend that the governor:

a) strengthen the government apparatus in the south of Xinjiang with politically reliable officials of the central institutions of the Urumqi government;

b) reinforce the Chinese units deployed in the south of Xinjiang with command staff, primarily [those] in the Hotan [Hetian] and Kashgar [Kashi] Districts, at the expense of the personnel of the detachment of the Chinese Red Army located in Urumqi;

c) man the Chinese units deployed in the south of Xinjiang with the best soldiers and disciplined officers of whose loyalty the governor has no doubt;

d) form police detachments of 30 to 100 men in all police headquarters and in the police stations in large cities and in the districts most active with banditry ;

e) begin building the Kashgar-Torugart and Aksu [Akesu]-Ishtyk Pass roads.

5. Suggest that the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade open Sovsin'torg branches in Hotan within a month.

Excerpts have been sent:

to Cdes. Frinovsky, Yezhov, Voroshilov, and Stomonyakov - all;

to Cde. Petrunichev - 2, 3, and 5;

to Cde. Chubar' - 3;

to Cdes. Mikoyan and Chvyalev - 5.

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