Abdulla Zakirov

Abdulla Zakirov (27 February 1918 – 3 December 1981) was a Chinese politician who held high-ranking positions in his native Xinjiang. A Uyghur from the far-western city of Yining (Ghulja), he was a leader of the East Turkestan Revolutionary Party before joining the Chinese Communist Party after the incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. His son Shohrat Zakir also became a prominent politician of the PRC.

Biography Born Abdulla Zakir on 27 February 1918 in Yining, Xinjiang Province, China, Abdulla spent most of his early life in the Soviet Union, where he received his higher education at a state university in Tashkent. Like many Soviet-educated Uyghur intellectuals at the time, he adopted the -ov suffix upon his return to Xinjiang to signify his higher education abroad. He founded the first Marxist–Leninist study group in the Northern Xinjiang district of Ili, and later joined the central executive committee of the East Turkestan Revolutionary Youth League. He then served in a number of prominent positions in Xinjiang, including Secretary-General of the Xinjiang Provincial People's Government, Vice-Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Government, and member of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Party Committee. He was also a delegate to the second National People's Congress.