Soviet invasion of Xinjiang The Soviet invasion of Xinjiang was a military campaign in the Chinese northwestern region of Xinjiang in 1934 . White Russian forces assisted the Soviet Red Army . Background . In 1934 , Ma Zhongying ' s Chinese Muslim troops , supported by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China were on the verge of defeating the Soviet puppet Sheng Shicai during the Battle of Urumqi ( 1933 – 34 ) in the Kumul Rebellion . General Ma Zhongying , a Hui ( Chinese Muslim ) , had earlier attended the Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing in 1929 , when it was run by Chiang Kai - shek , who was also the head of the Kuomintang and leader of China . Ma Zhongying then was sent back to Gansu province after graduating from the academy and fought in the Kumul Rebellion where , with the tacit support of the Kuomintang central government of the Republic of China , he tried to overthrow the pro Soviet provincial government first led by Governor Jin Shuren then Sheng Shicai . Ma invaded Xinjiang in support of Kumul Khanate loyalists and received official approval and designation from the Kuomintang as the 36th Division . In late 1933 , the Han Chinese provincial commander General Zhang Peiyuan and his Han army defected from the provincial government side to Ma Zhongying ' s side and joined him in waging war against Jin Shuren ' s provincial government . Soviet Union invades Republic of China . In 1934 , two brigades of about 7 , 000 Soviet Russian GPU troops , backed by tanks , airplanes and artillery with mustard gas , crossed the border to assist Sheng Shicai in gaining control of Xinjiang . The brigades were named " Altayiiskii " and " Tarbakhataiskii " . Sheng ' s Manchurian army was being severely beaten by an alliance of the Han Chinese Ili army led by the Han general Zhang Peiyuan , and the Chinese Muslim 36th Division led by the Chinese Muslims general Ma Zhongying . Ma fought under the banner of the Kuomintang Republic of China government . The joint Soviet - White Russian force was called " The Altai Volunteers " . Soviet soldiers disguised themselves in uniforms lacking markings , and were dispersed among the White Russians . Despite his early successes , Zhang ' s forces were overrun at Kulja and Chuguchak , and he committed suicide after the battle at Muzart Pass to avoid capture . Even though the Soviet Russians were superior to the 36th Division in both manpower and technology , they were held off for weeks and took severe casualties . The 36th Division managed to halt the Soviet forces from supplying Sheng with military equipment . Chinese Muslim troops led by Ma Shih - ming managed to hold off the superior Russian forces armed with machine guns , tanks , and planes for about 30 days . When reports that the Chinese forces had defeated and killed the Soviets reached Chinese prisoners in Urumqi , they were reportedly so jubilant that they jumped around in their cells . Ma Hushan , Deputy Divisional Commander of the 36th division , became well known for victories over Russian forces during the invasion . At this point , Chiang Kai - shek was ready to send Huang Shaohong and his expeditionary force which he assembled to assist Ma Zhongying against Sheng , but when Chiang heard about the Soviet invasion , he decided to withdraw to avoid an international incident if his troops directly engaged the Soviets . Battle of Tutung . In 1934 , two Soviet Russian GPU brigades , consisting of about 7 , 000 troops backed by tanks , planes , and artillery , attacked the 36th division near Tutung . The battle raged for several weeks on the frozen Tutung River . 36th Division troops dressed in sheepskins in the snow , and stormed Soviet machine gun posts with swords to defeat a Soviet pincer attack . Soviet planes bombed the 36th Division with mustard gas . Both sides suffered heavy casualties before Ma Zhongying ordered the 36th Division to withdraw . Battle of Dawan Cheng . Ma Zhongying was chased by a mixture of White Russian , Mongol , and collaborationist Chinese forces . As he pulled back his forces , Ma Zhongying encountered a Soviet armored car column of a few hundred soldiers near Dawan Cheng . The 36th Division wiped out nearly the entire column , after engaging the Soviets in fierce melee combat , and toppled the wrecked Russian armored cars down the mountain . When a White Russian force showed up , Ma Zhongying withdrew . During the Battle of Dawan Cheng , Ma Zhongying for the last time tried to retake initiative from invading Soviet troops . He dug full - profile trenches in a narrow mountain pass and blocked the advance of Soviet troops for weeks . However , mustard gas air bombings of his positions , affecting about 20 % of his troops , forced him to withdraw his forces on the end of February 1934 from Dawan Cheng to Turpan . Conclusion of operations . During Ma Zhongying ' s retreat , he and 40 of his Chinese Muslim troops , fully armed , hijacked lorries at gunpoint from Sven Hedin , who was on an expedition from the Nanjing KMT government . When Hedin showed him his passports from Nanjing , Ma Zhongying ' s men , who were technically under Nanjing ' s command , responded by saying : " This has nothing to do with Nanking . There ' s a war on here , and no passports are valid in wartime . " The Chinese Muslim forces also reminded Sven that since they were serving Nanjing too , the lorries should be put under their command . Chang , who was in the service of General Ma Chung - ping , one of Ma Zhongying ' s subordinate generals , explained : " Military matters come before everything else ! Nothing can be allowed to interfere with them . Nanking counts for nothing in a war in Sinkiang . For that matter , we are under Nanking too , and it ought to be in both your interest and Nanking ' s to help us . " Hedin and his party were detained in Korla by Soviet and White Russian forces . Hedin personally met General Volgin . Torgut Mongols and White Russians served under the Soviet forces and joined them in occupying numerous cities . The Russians first advanced from Davan - ch ' eng and then to Korla via Toqsun and Qara - shahr . The Torgut and Russian army marched into Korla on March 16 . Russian Cossacks were seen serving in the Soviet forces . Ma Zhongying had warned Sven Hedin to avoid Dawan Cheng due to the battle going on between Chinese Muslim and Russian forces . General Volgin then met with Hedin , and started verbally attacking Ma Zhongying by saying : " General Ma is hated and abused everywhere , and he has turned Sinkiang into a desert . But he is brave and energetic and sticks at nothing . He isn ' t afraid of anything , whether aeroplanes or superior numbers . But now a new era has begun for Sinkiang . Now there is to be order , peace and security in this province . General Sheng Shih - ts ' ai is going to organize the administration and put everything on its legs again . " General Ma Zhongying ' s retreating army often hijacked lorries to assist in their retreat . Volgin noted that Ma Zhongying often destroyed Russian lorries during battle . A White Russian informed Sven that " We have been coming here from Qara - shahr all day , troop after troop . Two thousand Russians arrived to - day , half White , half Red . There are a thousand Torguts here ; and two thousand troops of all arms have gone straight on to Kucha to attack Ma Chung - ying without touching Korla . Most of the two thousand who are in Korla now will continue westward to - morrow . We were five thousand strong when we started from Urumchi . " When the White Russian started to brag about what their army had done , Sven Hedin concluded that the Russian was lying , giving as one example of these lies the White Russian ' s exaggerated number of lorries they used . The Mongol soldiers were reported to have ill treated the people of Korla . Sven met another two White Russian officers serving under the Soviets , Colonel Proshkukarov and General Bekteev ( aka General Bektieieff ) , who demanded an explanation as to why Hedin ' s lorries were in the service of Ma Zhongying ' s forces . Before Ma Zhongying himself retreated from the front line , he sent an advance guard of 800 troops under General Ma Fu - yuan to defeat the pro Soviet Uyghur forces of Hoja - Niyaz , who were armed with weapons supplied by the USSR , and to assist Ma Zhancang in the Battle of Kashgar ( 1934 ) to destroy the First East Turkestan Republic . Thomson - Glover stated that the Soviets gave Hoya Niyaz " nearly 2 , 000 rifles with ammunition , a few hundred bombs and three machine guns . " Hoja Niyaz ' s Uighur forces were defeated by the advance guard at Aksu , and he fled to Kashgar with 1 , 500 troops on January 13 , 1934 . During the Battle of Kashgar , he and the Turkic forces failed in all of their attacks to defeated the Chinese Muslim forces trapped in the city , suffering severe casualties . Ma Fuyuan ' s 800 Chinese Muslim troops , along with 1 , 200 conscripts , routed and bulldozed the East Turkestani army of 10 , 000 . Ma Zhongying , and his army retreated to Kashgar , arriving on April 6 , 1934 . GPU Soviet troops did not advance beyond Turfan . Ma was chased by provincial forces of White Russians , Mongols , and Sheng Shicai ' s Chinese troops from Manchuria , all the way to Aksu , but the pursuit gradually abated . Ma arrived in Sven Hedin ' s hijacked lorry , with the final part of his army , the rear guard , behind the advance guard . His forces were reported to be superior in hand - to - hand combat , but the Soviets continued to bomb his positions . General Ma told the British consulate in Kashgar that he immediately required assistance against the Russians , pointing out that he owed allegiance to the Chinese government , and that he intended to save Xinjiang from the grip of the Russians . Ma Zhongying consolidated his position at Maral Bashi and Fayzabad , establishing defensive lines against the Soviet / provincial attack . Ma Hushan directed the defense against the provincial forces . Bombing runs continued at Maralbashi in June , Ma Zhongying ordered his forces to shift from Kashgar to Khotan . However , for unknown reasons , Ma Zhongying himself crossed the border into the Soviet Union and was never heard from again . Captured Russian equipment . The 36th Division was severely lacking in arms . Rifles and other equipment dated around 1930 were seized from the Russians as booty to augment their own arms . Casualties . Soviet Russian Casualties . In Novosibirsk a hospital for Soviet wounded for their invasion of Xinjiang was disguised as a " hospital for the injured from the Manchurian War " , it was " discovered " by the Evening Standard reporter Bosworth Goldman . Goldman ' s account of the hospital stated that : " Men were sitting about in a gloomy hall , many of them with some part of their body hidden in bandages ; they ranged in nationality from Laplanders to pure Mongols . . . I asked some of them where they had been , and they replied that they had been fighting in the southern Altai , in co - operation with some Chinese , against ' anti - social elements ' disturbing the advance of the class warfare banner into Sinkiang . . . Later , other men with whom I spoke about this struggle often told me that they had never heard of a hospital at Novosibirsk . On the other hand , an occupant of the one I visited told me it was ' the best of the three ' . Civilian casualties . Uyghur , Chinese Muslims , and other civilians fled from Soviet poison gas bombs , which were taking a heavy toll among the civilian population . One Turki ( Uyghur ) complained about Tungan soldiers ( Chinese Muslims ) , saying : " I am under Allah ' s protection , No man can harm me . But these Tungans are no men . They are wild beasts roaming about the streets . It is hopeless to talk to wild beasts . They always have their rifles and pistols ready . They do not understand any other language . " The Soviets bombed at will in civilian centers . All day , the doctors heard tragic stories . A Chinese Muslim boy had a septic wound from a splinter from a Soviet airplane bomb . His parents and brother were killed by the bomb .