Tannu Tuva

[Ian_Lee]

Do any fellow Chinese posters remember the long lost territory – Tannu Tuva?

Where is Tannu Tuva? It is the most central part of Asia which is neighboring the northwestern part of Mongolian Republic.

In 1911, the Tuvans, like the neighboring Khalka Mongols, ousted the Qing Garrison from Ulianghai (the capital of Tannu Tuva). After the Communist Revolution in neighboring Outer Mongolia in 1921, Tannu Tuva seceded from Mongolia as well as China (Tannu Tuva used to be administered as a part of Mongolia during Qing Dynasty) and became a socialist Republic under the heavy influence of USSR .

But Stalin did not annex Tannu Tuva until 1944. When USSR annexed the Tuva Republic in 1944, Choibalsan (Outer Mongolia’s leader) was weeping in Ulan Bataar.

Why did Stalin annex Tuva in 1944? There are two reasons:

(1) Stalin had already sensed the war was near the end. In order to suppress the emergence of a strong KMT led China after WWII, Stalin staged to create a ring of satellites in Inner Asia. Manchuria controlled by CCP was the first Soviet satellite (Stalin never anticipated PLA could arrive as far south as Hainan), Outer Mongolia was the second, while East Turkestan set up in 1944 under the assistance of Red Army was the third. The second tier next to these outer satellites like Tuva would be firmly incorporated in the Soviet yolk.

(2) In 1944, Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai gave up his power to Chiang and for the first time in modern Chinese history, China really had a firm grip on this remote region. Stalin worried that Chiang might even extend his influence to Tuva, so he incorporated it first. In fact, Soviet warplanes and Mongolian Army were fighting the Chinese Army when the latter tried to suppress the East Turkestan uprising.

This history has long gone and Tuva remained a firm part of Russia even after shakeup of USSR. But many westerners are very fascinated with this remote region because:

(1) It is one of the world’s few lamaist countries. Dalai Lama has visited there in early ‘90s.

(2) Its stamps are very aesthetically designed (like Liechenstein) and loved by Philatelists.

(3) Tuvan singers are very famous because their voices are articulated from the throat.

National Geographic channel has a special documentary covering the Tuvan people’s life. Other than Tuva itself, they also live sparsely in northwestern Mongolia and northeastern Xinjiang.

[yan]

Of course Tuva is actually Mongolian territory. All of your points why westerners are so fascinated about Tuva proove it

Also see this article: http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/virtualmongolia/kara_korum/mongol_tuva.htm

In fact, Soviet warplanes and Mongolian Army were fighting the Chinese Army when the latter tried to suppress the East Turkestan uprising

I've always wondered what the Mongolian Army did at the end of WWII. I've read somewhere that they also tried to occupy Inner Mongolia (more than had been agreed on with Stalin), but all the sources I can find either only mention the role of the combined soviet/mongolian cavalry/mechanized group in the soviet Manchurian operation (old east-german books) or completely ignore the MPA (western books)

[Ian_Lee]

Yan:

But Tuvans are identified as Turkic people from every other website (besides those Mongolian) I can find.

[yan]

Hehe, seems like the authors of that article share the chinese understanding of the meaning of the word nation. Of course, the argumentation along the line of 'united ever since the times of the Great Khans (and particularly during the Manchu empire)' might also fit on the relation between Tuva and Mongolia .

Anyway, apart from the difference in language Mongolian and Tuvan culture are very similar, not just lamaism, throat singing and beautiful stamps. And the relationship between Mongols and Tuvans defintely and Tuvans was always very close, at least as far as I know. And when Genghis Khan was appointed king of all nomads, that definitely included Tuva.

But I wonder about your second point. If the Tannu-Tuvans shared the same animosity towards China as the Outer Mongolians, Stalin wouldn't have had to be afraid of Chinese influence at all.

I think his annexation of Tannu-Tuva was rather rooted in expansionism, just like the annexation of the Baltic states. That also might be the reason why Choibalson was weeping (not just the loss of -maybe- Mongolian land). Stalin also wanted to annex Outer Mongolia, and the annexation of Tannu-Tuva would seem like the prelude for the annexation of Outer Mongolia.