Dalelkhan Sugirbayev

Dalelkhan Sugirbayev, also Dālil Khan, Delilhan, Delilhan Sugurbayoglu or Talilhan Sukurbayeff (دەلىلقان سۇگۇربايۇف; دالەلحان سۇگىرباەۆ/Дәлелхан Сүгірбаев, Dälelhan Sügırbaev; 24 June 1906 – 27 August 1949) was a Kazakh leader in Xinjiang, China during the first half of the 20th century.

Dalelkhan Sugirbayev was born in 1906 to a nomadic Kazakh family in the Bayan-Ölgii Region of Qing China (the westernmost aimag of modern-day Mongolia).

His grandfather and father were both chieftains of the Qieruqi branch of the Abaq Kerey tribe.

Other sources say they were part of the Naiman tribe.

The family moved about the pastures in the Altai Mountains, separating Mongolia and Xinjiang.

When his father died in 1918, his older brother, Duerbuti Khan, became chief.

In 1921, remnants of White Russian troops under Andrei Stephanovich Bakich entered the Tacheng region with the Soviet Red Army in pursuit.

After several thousand White Russians crossed the Irtysh River, Duerbuti agreed to help the Red Army gather intelligence on the intruders.

When Bakich learned that the local chieftain had refused to give livestock to his army and was helping the Soviets, he went to arrest Duerbuti.

The White Russians came during Dalelkhan's wedding.

They seized his brother and the family's wealth.

A month later, Duerbuti was executed and Dalelkhan fled to the Red Army, who defeated the White Russians.

In the spring of 1930, Dalelkhan sent his mother and brother from Bayan-Ölgii, which had become part of independent Mongolia, to the Ashan (Altay) region of Xinjiang.

Later, he followed them with a thousand tribesman.

Xinjiang at the time was ruled by warlord governor Sheng Shicai.

Dalelkhan was made the deputy chairman of the Society for the Advancement of Kazakh Culture.

In 1937, he became a core member of the Anti-Imperialist Society of the Altay region.

In September 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, Sheng Shicai began to move away from Soviet-backing.

Dalelkhan opposed Sheng Shicai and moved to the Soviet Union to study.

He received military training in Almaty and in October 1943, proposed organizing a national liberation army in Altay, Xinjiang.

By then Sheng Shicai had severed ties with Soviet and Chinese Communists and the Soviet authorities supported Dalelkhan's plans.

They sent a team of 12 military advisors to accompany him back to Ashan (Altay), via Mongolia, and they set up a militia base in Qinggil County, where they taught Kazakh nomads about the ideas of revolution and trained them into a partisan force.

Dalelkhan then joined forces with Osman Batur, an ethnic Kazakh guerrilla leader who had a larger following and backing from the Mongolian government.

Osman Batur's mother was from the Qieruqi tribe, and Dalelkhan's mother asked her to have Osman take care of Dalelkhan.

On account of the blood relations, Osman trusted Dalelkhan and gave him an important leadership position.

In February 1944, Osman and Dalelkhan's Kazakh guerrilla force rebelled against Sheng Shicai's government and captured the Qinggil County seat.

By April, the rebels had 1,000 fighters and spread the rebellion to Jeminay, Fuhai, Habahe and Chenghua (Altay).

In October, the rebel forces established a revolutionary government in the Altay region.

After the outbreak of the Ili Rebellion in the Ili valley, the Kazakhs began to cooperate with the Ili National Army, under the Russian commander A. Leskin.

In February 1945, the rebels captured Jeminay.

In early August 1945, Osman and Dalelkhan attacked Chenghua, with the help of the Mongolian army, but could not capture the city.

In September, they surrounded the city.

Nationalist Chinese defenders fled for the Mongolian border but were refused entry, and surrendered.

On September 20, the guerrilla forces around Altay was organized into the Altay Kazakh Cavalry Battalion with Dalelkhan as commander.

Then, the political situation changed as the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek pressed the Soviet Union to cease support for the rebellion.

A ceasefire in October halted the fighting.

On November 17, 1945, Dalelkhan issued orders protecting the legal and property rights of ethnic Han Chinese in the Altay region.

In the summer of 1946, the leaders of the Ili Uprising agreed to set aside their declaration of an independent East Turkestan Republic and joined in a coalition government with the Nationalists in Dihua.

Dalelkhan became the minister of the health bureau in the provincial government.

Tensions remained high between the rebels in the three districts of northern Xinjiang and the Nationalist authorities which controlled the rest of the province.