New historical sources, documents of OGPU-NKVD on Turko-Tatars in China
The article describes the archival document no. 274 from the fonds of Archives and Records Management Section of KGB under the Ukrainian SSR’s Council of Ministers dated July 10, 1935 and named “A report of Department of Foreign Affairs of NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR on the Tatar white emigration in the Far East “On the status of Tatar white emigration in the Far East”” declassified by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council in May 2009 and containing “The briefing material on the Japanese Intelligence Department’s use of Tatar emigration in the Far East. Moscow, 1935”. The document published by a Moscow typography in 1935 is of interest for researchers of the Turko-Tatar emigration in China. The document was published with reductions and presents in detail the crucial moment in the life of the Turko-Tatar emigration in the Far East in 1934-1935ss when it split according to ideological features (the nationalist wing under the leadership of Gayaz Iskhaki and the conservative-religious one). The nationalist part aimed at unification and centralizing and managed to implement it. This kind of activity caused anxiety on the part of Soviet Russia, and, consequently, a keen interest on the part of intelligent agencies. According to the facts stated in the document, it is obvious that the Turko-Tatar emigration in the Far East was supported by Japanese authorities. The reliability of the information recited in the documents of OGPU-NKVD should be cross-checked using other documents and materials. At complete declassification of the documents on the Russian emigration from OGPU-NKVD’s archives researchers will be able to retrace thoroughly the life of our compatriots abroad during the pre-war and war periods.