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Geography

80% of the country is covered by the Tien Shan mountains. In September of 1934 a group of military climbers made it to the top of Lenin Peak (24,000' above sea level), and left (predictably) a bust of Lenin. 

Population and Ethnicity

Prior to the Revolution, this area was all part of the (much-larger) Turkmenistan province of the Russian Empire. Before the Revolution, it was a predominantly-Turkic, Islamic area; but many ethnic Russians have been settled in the urban areas. The total population is about 1 million persons, of whom 750,000 are Kirgiz; the next-largest group are the Kazakhs.

The local nomadic clans have many connections in Afghanistan and towards China. Except for the Kazakhs, the locals speak Kirgiz (currently written in the Latin script, but was in Arabic script up until 1928). Up until about 1933, the Soviet Union encouraged schools of the Central Asian republics to teach in the local languages; but just recently a vigorous program to replace and suppress local languages has begun.

Cities

The capital city, Frunze, has about 50,000 residents; the vast majority of them are Cossacks or ethnic Russians. The city was mostly built either during the Russian Imperial period, or since the Revolution. The second-largest city, Osh (pop. about 20,000) has a larger proportion of Kirgiz.

Transport

There are Aeroflot flights landing at Frunze every couple of days -- passing through from Tashkent, headed onwards to Sergiopol (now Ayagoz) in the Khazakh SSR. Frunze and Osh have the only established airfields (with fuel, hangars, etc.). A rail line runs from Frunze to Tashkent; another one is being built from Osh towards the Uzbek ASSR.

An old, important caravan route winds north from Yarkand in the Sinkiang basin, through the Tien Shan mountains, and continues northeast through Kirgizistan towards Alma Ata.

Government

Bayaly Isakeyev is chairman of the Council of People's Commissars

Military

The Kirgiz ASSR is part of the Central Asian Military District, with headquarters in Tashkent; the district covers the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tadjik, Kigiz and Kazakh ASSRs. Component Red Army units include 3 divisions of cavalry, a motorized division of armored cars and truck-mounted infantry, and the 58th Rifle Corps (three mountain rifle divisions - the 68th, 83rd at Ashkabad, and 194th up to 1935) -- these are spread all over the military district, of course. There are a couple of air regiments which move around between Kharkov, Frunze, Tashkent and Stalinabad; their aircraft include Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance bombers, ANT-9 transports, and Polikarpov Po-2 utility aircraft. Russian military aircraft of this period do not include oxygen equipment; if high-altitude flights must be made, oxygen bottles attached with surgical tubing to pipe-stems are used as a primitive system.

Within the Kirgiz ASSR, there are military posts (and presumably garrisons) at Frunze, Osh, Narynsk, and Przhevalsk.

Three regiments (the 14th, 15th, and 66th; each with 1500 men) of NKVD (so-called since 1934) troops guard the borders of the four ASSRs, internal and external; and operate some forced-labor camps at gold mines, lumber camps, hydroelectric dam projects, etc.. A couple of NKVD armored rail battalions guard the rail lines.

For a 1937 expedition into Sinkiang, the Red Army organized ...

On the orders of the People’s Defense Commissar, on 21 June 1937 two small forces began to be prepared for operations. Each consisted of two regiments (one Red Army and one NKVD), a mountain battery, a sapper company, and a signal company. The groups’ mission was a secret from all the soldiers and most of the command element. Officially, both groups were moving to the border “to conduct protracted exercises under mountain encampment conditions.” As one of the orders stated: “Loading units and their subsequent transport by railroad must be done with the strictest secrecy. All personnel must be warned against any mention in letters of their units’ or subunits’ actions, as well as any local place names… Do not allow any unauthorized actions in connection with the local population.”

In addition, to maintain secrecy the campaign’s participants were ordered to use their winter quarters’ address in letters home and not “exercise area.” A long wait was also in store for letters from relatives. They first arrived at the permanent station and only after examination by the military censor were they sent to the addressees.

Before being sent off, the groups’ commanders were ordered: “While organizing, you along with your commissar must carefully check all personnel, weeding out and leaving behind in winter quarters anyone unfit for campaign service.”

Besides all this, for camouflage and deception our regiments, batteries, and companies… changed clothes. On 4 July 1937 the commanders of both groups received identical telegrams:

Special-order uniforms are being sent for the units in the group under your command. The indicated uniform clothing is to be issued upon the orders of the force commander… You are not to take with you any equipment marked with a star and in general take nothing of the regulation uniform… The special-order uniform clothing has no labels or stamps and is trimmed in various colors. You will give orders that every unit must remove tags from saddles and boots, as these items are not being replaced. On leather items markings are to be obscured with ink.

From the examination of subsequent documents it becomes clear that the “special uniform clothing” consisted of native khalat robes and caps. However, in that case it is unclear why footwear was not replaced. Really, boots of artificial kirzovyi leather, even with markings rubbed off, were worn only by Soviet soldiers. This would turn out like the well-known anecdote about Shtirlits who immediately recognized his contact in Berlin by the parachute trailing behind him.

The groups themselves were dubbed “Osh” and “Narynsk” after their assembly places before the campaign. The first included the 42nd Mountain Cavalry Regiment, a battery and specialist subunits of the 19th Mountain Cavalry Division, and the 19th NKVD Cavalry Regiment, all under the command of Colonel Bekzhanov. The second was made up the 48th Mountain Cavalry Regiment, a battery and specialist subunits from the 21st Mountain Cavalry Division, and the 13th NKVD Mechanized Motor Regiment, under the command of Kombrig Selivanov. On 25 June unit commanders received orders and were given maps of Sinkiang, and as early as 9 July both groups were encamped at the border. In the traditional Russian manner preparations were sometimes slipshod. Thus, the 42nd Cavalry Regiment received machinegun ammunition belts from 1916 and 1917, some of which were decayed and falling to pieces. In the 48th Cavalry Regiment the horses were not shod on their hind legs, and in the 21st Signal Squadron they simply did not take any spare horseshoes at all.

Wars and Brigandage

The Red Army fights several battles with the Nationalist Chinese along the edges of the Sinkiang basin in the mid-Thirties; battles also happen regularly between Whites, Turkic nationalists, Han or Muslim Chinese, various provincial governors/warlords, agents of the Japanese and British, brigands, etc.. The Japanese, British, Nationalist Chinese, Communist Chinese, Soviets, and the Shah of Afghanistan all have their agents and paid collaborators in the Sinkiang province. It's quite the wild west.