In 1962, 60,000 refugees fled to the Soviet Union, regretting it afterwards and never coming back
In 1962, an unprecedented event occurred in the Ili region of Xinjiang.
In what was supposed to be the planting season, the local villagers behaved strangely. They hide in their homes during the day and only move out of nowhere at night. Starting with only a few households, by March, the anomaly had spread to most of the villages.
By April, the situation had worsened. The villagers no longer concealed it, and every night they came to the border area with large and small luggage, some alone, some with their families. Even more shocking are the fact that there are also people pulling carts and driving livestock, determined to cross the border.
Once these villagers crossed the border, they never looked back. This behavior is not only surprising, but also widely concerned. After all, their destination was none other than the Soviet Union.
Generally speaking, the sudden influx of border residents into the Soviet Union in our country will not be easily accepted by the Soviet Union. On the one hand, it was difficult for the Soviet Union to properly accommodate such a large number of displaced people; On the other hand, the massive influx of border residents also posed a challenge to the security of the Soviet Union.
What is the mystery behind this defection? What impact will a cross-border wave have on the two countries? Let's uncover the truth about the 1962 border defection.
However, the reaction of the Soviet Union was unexpected, and they were very positive about these border people who had come from afar. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev personally ordered:
Help border people cross the border at all costs. "
The border people faced many difficulties in crossing the border, mainly in three aspects, but the Soviet Union tried to remove obstacles for them.
First of all, the question. Border residents need legal documents to cross the border, but this requires approval from higher-ups, and once the approval is involved, defection is difficult to achieve.
To this end, the Soviet Union took direct action to bring relevant documents to Xinjiang for the border people*** and secretly sent ** to ensure that the formalities for the border residents were complete.
Second, most of the border residents choose to cross the border at night, but there is not enough lighting in the border area, causing some border residents to lose their way.
In order to help them cross the border smoothly, the Soviet Union invested manpower and material resources, quickly built lighting facilities, and set up directional signs to guide the border residents.
Finally, after crossing the border, border dwellers still have to face a long trek, but the lack of rest points along the way makes them tired.
The Soviet Union invested heavily in the construction of a number of reception stations, and equipped translators who were proficient in Chinese and Xinjiang dialect to provide assistance and support to the border residents throughout the process, ensuring that they arrived safely in Soviet cities.
At first, the defections were organized spontaneously by border people, but then the USSR joined them. With the help of the Soviet Union, more and more border people crossed the border and defected.
In just one year, in 1962 alone, nearly 70,000 border residents poured into the Soviet Union, taking more than 300,000 head of livestock with them, and the Xinjiang region suddenly became desolate.
One can't help but wonder why these border people abandoned their land, crowded together to break through the border, and poured into the Soviet Union at all costs. It is worth thinking about why the Soviet Union helped these border people to defect so much at any cost.
The defection of the major generals caused an uproar. At the time, more than 670,000 people flocked to the border, taking their families and children to the Soviet Union, and what is even more shocking is that the organizers behind this defection include two founding major generals.
One of them was Margov, as one of the first founding major generals, he was young and promising, brave and extraordinary, and was highly regarded by *** and other marshals.
However, Margov's life seems destined to bear the shadow of defection.
Born in Xinjiang in 1923, he is of Russian descent and has been of Russian descent since childhood. As a teenager, during the Anti-Japanese War, Sino-Soviet relations were friendly, and as a descendant of Russia, he had close ties with the Soviet Union.
Subsequently, he joined the army and served in Xinjiang. He even became the commander of the Ili Military District for a time.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xinjiang needed strong leaders, and Margov earned a leadership position due to his proficiency in the local language and his heroic performance.
In 1955, he was awarded the rank of major general, and at the same time, another major general in Xinjiang was promoted.
Although they were sent to study in the Soviet Union in order to absorb advanced knowledge for the benefit of Xinjiang, Margov's mentality began to change as contacts with the Soviet Union became more frequent.
In 1962, China's relations with the Soviet Union gradually deteriorated, and at the same time, Sino-Indian relations were tense and the United States was not clear, which put China in a very unfavorable position.
The development of Xinjiang has also been hampered by internal and external troubles, and many border residents are still living in poverty, which is extremely dissatisfied.
At this time, the Soviet Union sent ** to constantly appeal and incite the border people by setting up radio speakers in the border areas.
The broadcasts, all in Xinjiang, praised the living conditions in the Soviet Union, proclaimed that the Soviet Union had plenty of food and meat every day, while the border people in Xinjiang were living in hardship and the gap between the rich and the poor was huge, which made the border people begin to waver.
Subsequently, the Soviets spread rumors that China and India were about to go to war and that the flames of war would spread to the Xinjiang region, which caused great panic among the border residents.
To make matters worse, the Soviet Union also claimed that relations between the United States and China had deteriorated and that a conflict could arise.
For the border people in Xinjiang, they had no idea about such a situation, they just believed the Soviet rhetoric, and so they began to think that India would attack China.
Under the pressure of economic difficulties and security threats, these border people began to consider fleeing to the Soviet Union. At this time, the Soviet Union proposed generous treatment, promising to allow border residents to settle in the Soviet Union, providing jobs and good salaries.
Under the double situation of money and security, these border people were finally unable to resist and gradually defected across the border line from 1962.
Even the founding major general Margov was no exception, and together with another major general, he put aside his military affairs and took the initiative to lead the border people to defect.
As the major general joined the ranks of defectors, the border residents who were originally worried about being found became more relieved, and the scale of the defection became even larger.
Xinjiang originally had a large area of arable land, with herds of cattle and sheep, but after the defection, all of this cultivated land was abandoned, and the losses were uncountable. The population of the entire county has plummeted, and there are even fewer than 100 people left in some counties.
Most of these people are old, weak, sick and disabled, and it is inconvenient for them to flee. According to statistics, in 1962 alone, there were 6The news of the defection of 70,000 border residents shocked Beijing and shocked the whole country.
Some suggested sending troops to recover the deserters immediately, but *** responded with only one sentence:
Don't come back if you leave. "
Sure enough, after arriving in the Soviet Union, these border people soon began to regret it, and even had the idea of returning to Xinjiang.
However, will ** agree to their request? What will happen to these border people?
Before their defection, the Soviet Union promised them a good life, and many border residents looked forward to settling in the Soviet Union. However, when they arrived in the USSR, they found out that it was all **.
These frontier people were not placed in Soviet cities, but were assigned to the Siberian region. It was desolate and cold, with temperatures as low as minus tens of degrees, and they were forced to work hard in such an environment.
In Xinjiang, border residents were free to decide their own actions, but in the Soviet Union, they lost their freedom and could only perform intensive labor every day.
Working in Siberia for a long time, the living conditions were poor, and many border people fell ill, but the Soviet Union did not give them a chance to breathe. For the Soviet Union, they were just laborers who came to work, and their only value was to reclaim wasteland for the Soviet Union.
Despite everything they have given for the Motherland, the only thing they care about is the Motherland. After the influx of these border people into the Soviet Union, China has been looking for an opportunity to rescue them back home.
However, the Soviet Union only agreed to let go of a group of border residents.
These border people were those who were old, physically weak, and unable to perform labor, and because they could not provide value to the Soviet Union, they were allowed to return to Xinjiang.
As Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated in the mid-1960s, very few people were actually able to return to China from the Soviet Union. The two major generals who defected never returned.
The Soviet Union encouraged the influx of border people at first, but tried to squeeze them in the later period. The reason is simple.
First of all, the USSR faced the problem of labor shortages.
In the 50s, the Soviet Union had just gone through World War II and lost more than 60 million people, most of them men. This led to a severe shortage of labor in the Soviet Union, with serious shortages in many industries and fields, and even cultivated land left untended.
The Soviet Union responded by taking a variety of measures, on the one hand, encouraging women to give birth as soon as possible, and women were called "heroic mothers" when they had children from the age of 14.
On the other hand, the Soviet Union also sent local residents to Siberia to reclaim the land, but these residents quickly abandoned due to difficult conditions.
As a result, the Soviet Union set its sights on the border people in China's Xinjiang region.
The Chinese people have a fine tradition of enduring hardships and standing hard work, and the Soviet Union thought it was only appropriate to let Chinese border people go to Siberia to reclaim wasteland.
In order to attract the Chinese border residents, the Soviet Union spread all kinds of rumors, boasted about the good conditions of the Soviet Union, and at the same time created panic among the border residents.
By 1962, these border people really moved their minds, and under the leadership of two major generals, they poured into the Soviet Union in droves.
For the USSR, these frontier dwellers were naturally welcome, because they were free labor.
The Soviet Union's large-scale recruitment of border residents was actually a hidden blow to the stability of China's Xinjiang region. These border dwellers were not treated well in the Soviet Union, and from the very beginning they were treated as coolies, with poor working conditions and low salaries. Even if they wanted to return home, they were hindered by the Soviet Union. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union that they had a glimmer of hope, but they had already become Soviet citizens, and it had become extremely difficult to return to their home countries. Some border people have even been disabled for life due to long-term labor, some have been living abroad for a lifetime, and some have died of illness in foreign countries, which is really embarrassing. On the contrary, our country emerged as the ultimate winner in this incident. The betrayal of these border people finally cleared 60,000 unstable factors for our country and eliminated the potential influence of the Soviet Union in the Xinjiang region, which is undoubtedly a great thing for the benefit of the country and the people. This also once again verifies the chairman's foresight. We should be vigilant against those who turn their backs on the state for their own selfish interests, and we do not deserve sympathy.