The Problem of Sinkiang in the Soviet-British Relations of the Second Half 1920s — First Half 1930s

Abstract

The author examines the impact of the situation in Sinkiang, the largest administrative region of China, upon Soviet-British relations during the inter-war period. The relevance of the study is determined by the permanent attention of the world community to the state of affairs in this part of Eurasia, as well as the significance of the events in Sinkiang for the competition of great powers, and above all the interaction between the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. The involvement of a wide scope of previously inaccessible or less known sources to explore the regional aspect of Soviet-British dialogue emphasizes the novelty of research. The paper points out to the three stages of rivalry between Moscow and London to settle the problem of Sinkiang against the background of the restoration of the USSR position and the protection of British interests in Central Asia. At the same time, as the study demonstrates, each of these stages contributed to the transformation of the general paradigm of bilateral relationship through the second half of the 1920s — first half of the 1930s.