Abdulkerim Abbas

Abdulkerim Abbas was born in 1921 in Przhevalsk, Soviet Union, now Karakol, Kyrgyzstan.

His family was native to Artush (Artux) in far western Xinjiang and, in 1926, they moved to Ghulja (Yining).

Abbas attended primary school in Uqturpan (Wushi) in southern Xinjiang and then enrolled in the Xinjiang Province No. 1 Middle School in the provincial capital, Dihua (now Ürümqi) in 1936.

The school was one of the first modern multiethnic schools in the region.

Abbas began to learn Chinese and joined an anti-imperialist society organized by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members.

In 1937, he met Saifuddin Azizi, who had returned from exile in the Soviet Union and gave him books on Marxism–Leninism.

In August 1938, Abbas enrolled in the High School of the Xinjiang Academy and studied under political science teacher, Lin Jilu, who was a Chinese communist.

Liu tutored Abbas in Chinese and Mao Zedong's writings.

Abbas also learned about the guerilla warfare tactics of the Chinese Red Army and the Long March.

In 1939, he participated in the Xinjiang Academy Summer Tour Group to Ili, organized by the academy's president Du Chongyuan, and toured his home region with Chinese communists.

At that time, Sheng Shicai, the Soviet-friendly, Chinese warlord who ruled of Xinjiang, shifted his political allegiance to the Chinese Nationalist government, and launched a crackdown on communist and pro-Soviet activities.

Abbas' father was arrested and Abbas was expelled from school and sent to teach at a primary school in Shawan County in the Dzungar Basin of northern Xinjiang.

In Shawan, he translated Mao Zedong's essay On Protracted War into Uyghur.

In 1942, he was permitted to return home to Ghulja where he initially taught at the Ili High School for Girls and then served as an interpreter for the local government.

He was one of the leaders of the Ili Rebellion of 1944, which led to the founding of the Second East Turkestan Republic (ETR) in northern Xinjiang.

In April 1944, Abbas, along with the influential Ghulja imam Elihan Tore and Rahimjan Sabir Khoja, formed the 12-person Ghulja Liberation Organization to free the region of Chinese Nationalist rule.

To evade government surveillance, Abbas relocated to Korgas where he received assistance and materiel from the Soviet Union.

In September 1944, Sheng tried to seek the Soviets' favor again and was recalled from Xinjiang by the Chinese Nationalist government.

Sheng's recall left a power vacuum and several rebellions sprang out in northern Xinjiang.

In October 1944, Abbas returned to Ghulja with a guerilla force and, on 7 November 1944, launched the Ili Rebellion.

Abbas and Soviet advisor Peter Romanovich Alexandrov led 60 men in seizing the bridge over the Ili River.

Chinese Nationalist troops sent to retake the bridge were ambushed and the city was effectively cut off from Chinese Nationalist reinforcements.

Other rebel forces from Nilka fought their way into the city and quickly seized control.

Nationalists strongholds were taken with the support of Soviet warplanes and artillery.

After taking Ghulja, the revolutionaries massacred large numbers of Chinese Nationalist prisoners of war and Han Chinese residents.

The revolution drew support from Islamists, Pan-Turkic nationalists, and Marxists, and spread to Ili, Tarbaghatay (Tacheng) and Ashan (Altay).

On 11 November 1944, the revolutionaries founded the Second East Turkestan Republic in Ghulja with Elihan Tore as its president.

Abdulkerim Abbas was appointed its interior minister.

Unlike the Islamists and Turkic nationalists who wanted to create a pan-Turkic regime in Xinjiang, Abbas regarded the revolution as a struggle against Chinese Nationalist repression and capitalist exploitation of the working-class people of all ethnicities.

He opposed a proposal to forcibly move all Han Chinese from Ghulja to internment camps in Künes County.

He issued orders protecting Han Chinese residents in Ili and moved the families of Han friends and associates into his house for their protection.

After fighting ceased in Ghulja, the ETR government, at his direction, created a Han Affairs Office to assist Han Chinese residents, published a Chinese-language newspaper, reopened the Han Chinese primary school, and founded an orphanage for Han Chinese children.

On 8 April 1945, the various guerilla and partisan units of the revolution were organized into the East Turkestan National Army (ETNA) and Abbas became its political director.

The ETNA was a multiethnic army led by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Russians, with Hui, Mongol and Xibe cavalry brigades, as well as some Han Chinese recruits.

With the support of Soviet advisors and military personnel, the ETNA launched a series of offensives to expand ETR control beyond the Ili Valley.

Abbas, along with Ehmetjan Qasim, headed the Marxist faction within the ETR, which in 1946 set aside the rebellion's declaration of independence and joined the Chinese nationalists in forming provincial coalition government.

Abbas and Qasim led the ETR faction which joined the Chinese communists toward the end of the Chinese Civil War.

Abdulkerim Abbas (also russified as Abbasov; 1921 – 27 August 1949) was a Uyghur revolutionary active in Xinjiang, China, during the 20th century.

They and several other senior leaders of the ETR perished in August 1949 in a plane crash while traveling en route to Beiping (Beijing) where they were invited to participate in the Chinese communists' political consultative conference, which resulted in the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Abbas is officially in hailed in the People's Republic of China as a revolutionary martyr.