Margub Iskhakov
{{Short description|Chinese Tatar military officer (1923–1992)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Margub Iskhakov
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| image = Markov Ishakov.jpg
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| birth_date = 13 March 1923
| birth_place = Ghulja, Republic of China
| death_date = 1992
| death_place = Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan
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| allegiance = {{ubl|{{flag|People's Republic of China}} (1949–1961)|{{flag|Second East Turkestan Republic|name=East Turkestan Republic}} (1944–1946)}}
| branch = {{ubl|{{armed forces|People's Republic of China}} (1949–1961)|East Turkestan National Army (1945–1949)}}
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| rank = 30px Major General of the PLA
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| commands = {{ubl|PLA Fifth Army (1949–1954)|Ili Military Region (1954–1960)|Xinjiang Military Region (1960–1961)}}
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| battles = Ili Rebellion (1944–1946)
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| relations = Asgat Iskhakov (brother)
| module = {{Infobox Chinese
| child = yes
| s = 马尔果夫·伊斯哈科夫 | t = 馬爾果甫·伊斯卡果夫 | p = Mǎ'ěrguǒfǔ Yīsīkǎguǒfū
| rus = Маргуб Тимергалиевич Исхаков
| lang1 = tt | lang1_content = {{lang|tt|Мәргуб Тимергали улы Исхаков}}
{{lang|tt-Latn|Märgub Timergali ulı İsxaqov}} }}
}}
Margub Timergalievich Iskhakov (13 March 1923 – 1992) was a Chinese Tatar military officer who held several important commands in the armies of the Second East Turkestan Republic and the People's Republic of China. He defected to the Soviet Union in the 1962 Yi–Ta incident, amid the Sino-Soviet split. He died in Alma-Ata (Almaty), Kazakhstan, in 1992.
Biography
File:Saifuddin Azizi.jpg, 1955]]
Iskhakov was born to an ethnic Muslim Tatar family in the Chinese city of Ghulja in 1923. A communist, Iskhakov was imprisoned for two years under the regime of Sheng Shicai, after which he joined the Ili Rebellion as a political commissar. In 1945, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Ili National Army of the Second East Turkestan Republic. Following the Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China in 1949, Iskhakov joined the Chinese Communist Party and accepted a commission in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was eventually appointed Chief of Staff of the Xinjiang Military Region and in 1955 became the youngest general in the PLA.{{cite book |last=Wang |first=David |author-link= |date=1999 |title=Under the Soviet Shadow The Yining Incident: Ethnic Conflicts and International Rivalry in Xinjiang, 1944–1949|url= |location= |publisher=Chinese University Press |page=151 |isbn= 9622018319}}
In 1956, the Sino-Soviet Split began, and during this period of political dispute many Tatars and ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang, including Iskhakov, sided with the Soviet Union and were granted Soviet citizenship. However, Iskhakov's relocation to the Soviet Union was handled legally and with few political consequences, resulting in his peaceful immigration to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1962.{{cite book |last=Chen |first=Jack |author-link= |date=1977 |title=The Sinkiang Story |url= |location= |publisher=Macmillan |page= |isbn= 0025246402}} Following his immigration to the Soviet Union, the PLA removed the title of youngest general from Iskhakov and retroactively awarded it to Major General Wu Zhong.{{cite web|url=https://m.sohu.com/n/465117660/|title=他是我军历史上最年轻开国将领：32岁晋升少将竟抛|newspaper=Sohu|date=19 August 2016|access-date=20 December 2024}}