Märgub İsxaqov

Margub Timergali uli Iskhakov (13 March 1923 – 1992) was a Chinese Tatar military officer who held several important commands in the armies of the Second East Turkestan Republic and the People's Republic of China. He defected to the Soviet Union in the 1962 Yi–Ta incident, amid the Sino-Soviet split. He died in Alma-Ata (Almaty), Kazakhstan, in 1992.

Biography

Iskhakov was born to an ethnic Muslim Tatar family in the Chinese city of Ghulja in 1923. A communist, Iskhakov was imprisoned for two years under the regime of Sheng Shicai, after which he joined the Ili Rebellion as a political commissar. In 1945, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Ili National Army of the Second East Turkestan Republic. Following the Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China in 1949, Iskhakov joined the Chinese Communist Party and accepted a commission in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was eventually appointed Chief of Staff of the Xinjiang Military Region and in 1955 became the youngest general in the PLA.

In 1956, the Sino-Soviet Split began, and during this period of political dispute many Tatars and ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang, including Iskhakov, sided with the Soviet Union and were granted Soviet citizenship. However, Iskhakov's relocation to the Soviet Union was handled legally and with few political consequences, resulting in his peaceful immigration to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1962. Following his immigration to the Soviet Union, the PLA removed the title of youngest general from Iskhakov and retroactively awarded it to Major General Wu Zhong.