The Second ETR, initially led by
Elihan Tore, was founded in November 1944 during the
Ili Rebellion with Soviet support and was based in three northwest districts of Xinjiang. Tore disappeared in the Soviet Union in 1946, and another ETR leader,
Ehmetjan Qasimi, head of the pro-Soviet Sinkiang Turkic People's National Liberation Committee, reached a political agreement with the
Nationalist Chinese leader
Zhang Zhizhong to form a coalition provincial government in Dihua (present-day
Urumqi). The Second ETR was disbanded in name but the Three Districts retained autonomy. In June 1947, the Nationalist Chinese forces clashed with Mongolian and Soviet forces at
Beitashan in northeastern Xinjiang. In that conflict, Kazakh leader Osman Batur of the ETR repudiated the ETR and defected to join Nationalist Chinese forces in fighting against Soviet-backed Mongolian forces. In August 1949, the
People's Liberation Army captured
Lanzhou, the capital of the
Gansu Province. Kuomintang administration in Xinjiang was threatened. The Kuomintang Xinjiang provincial leaders
Tao Zhiyue and
Burhan Shahidi led the KMT government and army's defection to the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) side in September 1949. By the end of 1949, some Kuomintang officials fled to
Afghanistan,
India and
Pakistan, but most crossed over or surrendered to the CCP. On 17 August 1949, the Chinese Communist Party sent
Deng Liqun to negotiate with the Three Districts' leadership in
Ghulja (
Yining in Chinese).
Mao Zedong invited the leaders of the Three Districts to take part in the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference later that year. The leaders of the Three Districts traveled to the Soviet Union on 22 August by automobiles through
Horgos, accompanied by Soviet vice-consul in Ghulja Vasiliy Borisov, where they were told to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party. Negotiations between Three Districts and Soviet representatives in
Alma-Ata continued for three days and were difficult because of the unwillingness of Three Districts leader
Ehmetjan Qasimi (whose strategy was opposed by two other delegates-
Abdukerim Abbasov and
Luo Zhi, while Generals
Ishaq Beg and
Dalelkhan supported Ehmetjan) to agree to incorporate the Three Districts into the future Chinese communist state, supposedly in 1951. The
People's Republic of China was proclaimed two years earlier, on 1 October 1949. Ehmetjan regarded the current situation as a historic opportunity for
Uyghurs and other people of Xinjiang to gain freedom and independence that shouldn't be lost. So, the Three Districts delegation was offered to continue negotiations in Moscow directly with
Stalin before departure to
Beijing. On 25 August, the eleven delegates, Ehmetjan Qasimi, Abdukerim Abbasov, Ishaq Beg, Luo Zhi, Dalelkhan Sugirbayev and accompanying officers of the Three Districts, boarded
Ilyushin Il-12 plane in
Alma-Ata,
Kazakhstan, officially heading to Beijing, but flight was diverted for
Moscow. On 3 September, the Soviet Union informed the Chinese government that the plane had crashed near
Lake Baikal en route to Beijing, killing all on board. On the same day
Molotov sent a telegram to Ghulja to inform
Seypidin Azizi (interim leader of the Three Districts when Ehmetjan Qasimi was not in Ili, and a member of Communist Party of Soviet Union) about the
Tragic death of devoted revolutionaries, including Ehmetjan Qasimi, in airplane crash near Lake Baikal en route to Beijing. In accordance with instructions from Moscow, Seypidin Azizi kept the news secret from the population of the Three Districts and it was unreported by Beijing for several months until December 1949, when Seypidin Azizi departed to Moscow to join Mao Zedong's delegation to sign
Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship with Stalin and to retrieve bodies of The Three Districts leaders (their already unrecognisable bodies were delivered from the USSR in April 1950) and when the People's Liberation Army had already secured most of the regions of the former Xinjiang Province. After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, some former
KGB generals and high officers (among them
Pavel Sudoplatov) revealed that the five leaders were killed on Stalin's orders in Moscow on 27 August 1949, after a three-day imprisonment in the former
Tsar's stables, having been arrested upon arrival in Moscow by the Head of MGB Colonel General
Viktor Abakumov, who personally interrogated the Three Districts leaders, then ordered their execution. This was allegedly done in accordance with a deal between Stalin and Mao Zedong. The remaining important figures of the Three Districts, including
Seypidin Azizi (who led the Second delegation of the Three Districts, which participated in
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in September in Beijing, which proclaimed the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949), agreed to incorporate the Three Districts into the Xinjiang Province and accept important positions within the administration. However, some Kazakhs led by
Osman Batur continued their resistance until 1954. Units of the People's Liberation Army first arrived at
Ürümqi airport on 20 October 1949 on Soviet airplanes, provided by Stalin, and quickly established control in northern Xinjiang, before moving into southern Xinjiang together with units of the
National Army of the Three Districts, thus establishing control over all ten districts of Xinjiang Province. On 20 December 1949 the
Ili National Army joined the People's Liberation Army as the
Xinjiang 5th Army Corps, which underwent reforms before being eventually disbanded. == Accession of the KMT in Xinjiang ==