ABSTRACT
The story of Abdukerimhan Mehsum is one of the few in the Kashi series that provides a direct insight into the social and religious life of Uyghurs in Kashgar. It illustrates the importance of this background for understanding the revolt of 1933-34 from the point of view of a Uyghur, albeit one who became close to the CCP. Abdukerimhan’s story begins long before the attempts by Uyghurs to form an independent Eastern Turkestan government in Kashgar and the crushing of the Uyghurs’ dreams of independence by Dungan Muslim troops, the provincial armies of Governor Sheng Shicai and eventually the Communist forces of the PLA. It also illustrates the close connection between the Muslim population of Xinjiang and their co-religionists across the border in Asiatic Russia, connections that were to prove important in political relations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Soviet Union.
