Word: sovietize
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Different Version. Moscow described the battle very differently. The Russians charged that Chinese troops had been systematically organizing "provocative intrusions" in the area since May, despite Soviet protests. Finally a force of 150 launched last week's attack. According to Russian commentators, Soviet border guards, using armored personnel carriers stormed Chinese positions with submachine guns and hand grenades. Two Russians were killed and eight reported wounded in a one-hour battle, while 25 Chinese died and 25 were wounded. A nagging discrepancy in the Russian account was the contention that the encounter took place six miles east...
...full-scale war ever erupts between the Soviet Union and China, a likely location for the opening battle is the Chinese region of Sinkiang. Occupying almost one-sixth of China's area, Sinkiang contains several volatile ingredients. Unlike other disputed border areas farther east, where the Amur and Ussuri rivers create a natural boundary, the 1,500-mile Sinkiang-Soviet frontier in many stretches is only vaguely demarcated. In addition, the area is the site of one of the most tempting targets in all of China: the nuclear testing grounds...
Russian involvement in Sinkiang dates to the Czars. In the mid-19th century, Alexander II sent troops into northwestern Sinkiang to quell a Moslem revolt. An 1881 treaty restored part of the area to China, but Russia retained a large hunk. Stalin expanded Soviet influence in Sinkiang by using Soviet consulates and cultural centers for propaganda. In 1944, Moslem rebels financed by Moscow set up the East Turkestan Republic in Sinkiang. Up to the time Mao Tse-tung won control of China, the Russians were trying to establish Sinkiang as an independent republic...
...sense, the Chinese Communists might be better off if Stalin had succeeded. Sinkiang has meant mostly trouble for them. The proud, independent tribesmen have resisted Communist indoctrination efforts. They resent attempts to collectivize their herds of goats and cattle. Playing on those resentments, the Soviets in 1961 encouraged Sinkiang's Moslems to stir up the native groups by comparing their bad treatment under the Chinese with better conditions in the Soviet Union. When the snows melted in the spring, some 60,000 Uighurs and Kazakhs fled across the border. Soviet trucks picked up the refugees, while Russian troops sometimes...
Since then, the situation has grown increasingly serious. Soviet radio stations beam programs into Sinkiang exhorting the minority groups to rise up in a war of liberation against the Maoists. The Chinese, badly outgunned along the entire Sino-Soviet border, are at a special disadvantage in Sinkiang. Against some 150,000 to 200,000 troops across the Soviet border the Chinese have only 85,000 to 100,000. The Soviet troops, moreover, are backed up by medium-range missiles...