Great Game Timeline
(From The Great Game and Setting the East Ablaze, by Peter Hopkirk)
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711 An Arab army conquers Sind
997-1026 Mahmud of Ghazni raids northern India
1175-1206 Mohammad of Gor invades India six times
1219-1240 Russian principalities fall to the Mongols
1398 Timur (Tamerlane) sacks Delhi
1480 First armed confrontation between the Russians, under Ivan III (the Great, 1462-1505), and the Mongols on the River Ugra ends in both sides fleeing from each other
1526 Babur invades India and establishes the Mogul Empire
1553 Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible, 1547-1584) captures the Mongol fortress of Kazan
1717 Russian expedition to Khiva sent by Tsar Peter the Great (1682-1725) under leadership of Prince Alexander Bekovitch ends in the slaughter of the Russians in Khiva
1725 Death of Peter the Great and beginning of story that he had commissioned his heirs to possess India and Constantinople as the keys to world domination
1737 The Russians build the Fortress of Orenburg north of the Caspian Sea in order to subdue and control the Kazak tribes
1739 Nadir Shah of Persia invades India and briefly seizes Delhi
1756 Ahmad Shah Durrani of Afghanistan invades India and sacks Delhi
1791 Tsarina Catherine the Great (1762-1796) considers a plan to "deliver" India from the growing British influence there
1798 Napoleon's invasion fleet departs from France, bound
for
Egypt and India (May)
Lord Wellesley, Governor-General of India, starts to add territory
to
Britain's growing empire in India
Admiral Nelson defeats the French fleet near Alexandria, thus eliminating the threat to India (Aug.)
1800 Capt. John Malcolm heads up a British diplomatic mission to the Persian Shah in Teheran which results in two treaties being signed (summer)
1801 Tsar Paul I (1796-1801) proposes to Napoleon a joint
Franco-Russian
invasion of India
Paul dispatches an invasion force to India, shortly thereafter
recalled
upon his death (Jan.)
Tsar Alexander I (1801-1825) annexes Georgia (Sept.)
1804 Russian armies lay siege to Yerevan, Armenia, a Persian possession, but Britain does not come to Persia's aid (June)
1807 Napoleon signs a treaty with the Persian Shah which
severs
Persia's relations with Britain and allows French troops right of
passage
through Persia (May)
London learns that Napoleon, after defeating the Russians, has proposed to Alexander I a joint Franco-Russian invasion of India (summer)
1808 Malcolm's second mission to Persia, resulting in a new treaty with Britain that prohibits the troops of other countries crossing Persian territory to attack India (May)
1810 Lt. Henry Pottinger and Capt. Charles Christie travel from Baluchistan to Persia, spying out a possible approach route to India for an invading army (March-June)
1812 Napoleon invades Russia, thus removing any possibility
of
a joint invasion of India (June)
A Russian force under General Kotliarevsky annihilates the Persian army on the River Aras and then captures the Persian stronghold of Lenkoran on the Caspian Sea
1813 The Treaty of Gulistan forces the Persian Shah to
surrender
all his territory north of the River Aras, including Georgia, Baku and
naval rights on the Caspian Sea
John MacDonald Kinneir publishes A Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, which outlines possible attack routes to India
1814 Alexander I enters Paris in triumph (Mar.)
The Congress of Vienna redraws the map of Europe, with Russia receiving a significant portion of Poland
1817 Sir Robert Wilson writes A Sketch of the Military and Political Power of Russia, warning of Russia's territorial expansion
1819 Capt. Nikolai Muraviev undertakes a solo mission to Khiva to make contact with the Khan, evaluate his military power and find out the plight of the Russian slaves there(summer-Dec.)
1820 William Moorcroft embarks on a journey from India via
Ladakh
to Bukhara to find horses for the East India Company (Mar.)
Russian mission to Bukhara establishes trade links with the Khanate and opens doors for the import of Russian goods (Oct.)
1825 Moorcroft reaches Bukhara (Feb.)
Moorcroft and his companions die near Balkh, Afghanistan (Aug.)
Russian troops, under General Yermolov, occupy the area between Yerevan and Lake Sevan, resulting in the Persians raiding into Russian territory and recapturing Lenkoran, followed by the Russians recapturing Yerevan and ultimately defeating the Persians (Nov.)
1828 Treaty of Turkmanchi adds Yerevan and Nakitchevan to
the
Russian Empire and reduces Persia to a virtual protectorate of Russia
Col. George de Lacy Evans publishes On the Designs of Russia, warning of Russia's plans to attack India
1829 Alexander Griboyedov, the Russian ambassador to Persia,
is murdered in Teheran by a mob (Jan.)
Peace Treaty between Russia and Turkey negotiated at Adrianople
gives
Russia free passage through the Dardanelles and trading privileges in
the
Ottoman Empire (Sept.)
Evans publishes On the Practicability of an Invasion of British
India
Capt. Arthur Conolly departs from Moscow for India via the Caucasus (autumn)
1830 Conolly arrives in Herat (Sept.)
1831 Conolly arrives on the northwest frontier of India
(Jan.)
A British mission under Lt. Alexander Burnes departs up the Indus River to deliver horses to Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of Lahore, as well as to discover the feasibility of transporting British goods up the Indus (Jan.)
1832 Burnes embarks on a journey through Afghanistan to Bukhara, meeting Dost Mohammad, the Afghan ruler, and the Vizier of Bukhara (Mar.)
1833 Burnes and his party return to Bombay (Jan.)
A large fleet of Russian warships drops anchor off Constantinople to
protect the Ottoman Sultan from an attacking Egyptian army (Feb.)
In exchange for saving it from the attacking Egyptians, Turkey signs a treaty with Russia giving the latter exclusive access to the Dardanelles (summer)
1834 Burnes publishes Travels into Bokhara, an
account
of his travels
Conolly publishes Journey to the North of India, an account
of
his travels
David Urquhart makes first contact with the Circassians and becomes committed to their cause of independence from Russia
1835 Dost Mohammad secretly approaches the Russians regarding getting help to recapture Peshawar from Ranjit Singh, an ally of Britain (Oct.)
1836 Urquhart becomes First Secretary at the British Embassy
in Constantinople
Sir John McNeill publishes The Progress and Present Position of
Russia
in the East, detailing Russian expansion over the previous century
and a half
The Vixen, a British vessel, sails across the Black Sea to "trade" with the Circassians, resulting in the vessel being seized by the Russians (Nov.)
1837 Lt. Henry Rawlinson encounters Capt. Yan Vitkevitch and
a party of Cossacks in eastern Persia, carrying gifts intended for Dost
Mohammad in Kabul (autumn)
Lt. Eldred Pottinger enters Herat on a reconnaissance mission (Aug.)
Burnes, dispatched by Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of India,
arrives in Kabul (Sept.)
The Persians begin their siege of Herat (Nov.)
1838 Auckland sends a letter to Dost Mohammad, telling him
to
abandon the idea of recovering Peshawar (Jan.)
Dost Mohammad receives Vitkevitch in Kabul, resulting in Burnes
leaving
to return to India (Apr.)
Russian-led Persian attack on Herat, repelled under the direction of
Pottinger (June)
British troops land on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, causing the
Persian Shah to break of his attack on Herat (June)
Britain, Ranjit Singh and exiled Afghan ruler Shah Shujah sign a
secret
agreement enabling the British to invade Afghanistan and overthrow Dost
Mohammad (June)
Col. Charles Stoddart arrives in Bukhara (Dec.)
1839 Robert Bremmer publishes Excursions in the Interior
of
Russia and the Marquis de Custine publishes La Russe en 1839,
both of which warn of Russia's designs in Asia
The British invade Afghanistan via the Sind, launching the First
Afghan
War (spring)
The British and Shah Shujah enter Kandahar (Apr.)
The British capture Ghazni (May)
The British enter Kabul without a fight, Dost Mohammad having fled
(July)
Stoddart is arrested in Bukhara and thrown in the Emir's bug pit
(Aug.)
A Russian expedition, led by General Perovsky, departs from Orenburg
for Khiva (autumn)
Capt. James Abbott departs from Herat for Khiva (Dec.)
1840 Abbott arrives in Khiva (Jan.)
A Russian expedition to Khiva turns around before reaching its goal
and returns to Orenburg, due to extreme weather (Feb.)
Abbott sets out from Khiva for Ft. Alexandrovsk (Mar.)
Lt. Richmond Shakespear departs from Herat for Khiva (May)
Shakespear arrives in Khiva (June)
Shakespear sets out from Khiva for Ft. Alexandrovsk with freed
Russian
slaves (Aug.)
Conolly sets out from Kabul for Bukhara (Sept.)
Shakespear arrives in St. Petersburg en route to London (Nov.)
Dost Mohammad surrenders to the British and goes into exile in India (Nov.)
1841 Conolly arrives in Bukhara (Nov.)
Burnes and others are murdered by a mob in Kabul (Nov.)
Sir William Mcnaghten, political head of the British mission to Kabul, and others are murdered by Mohammad Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammad (Dec.)
1842 The British, under General William Elphinstone, leave
Kabul
after Akbar agrees to guarantee their safety, but are massacred by
Afghan
tribesmen en route to the British garrison at Jalalabad (Jan.)
The British send reinforcements from India to Jalalabad and Kandahar
to prepare to march on Kabul (Mar.)
Execution of Conolly and Stoddart by Emir Nasrullah of Bukhara
(June)
British reinforcements, under Generals Pollock and Nott, reach Kabul
and Shakespear rescues the British hostages Akbar has been holding
(Sept.)
After razing the covered bazaar, the British leave Kabul for good (Oct.)
1843 Dost Mohammad returns to the throne in Kabul (Jan.)
The British seize Sind
1844 Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855) pays a state visit to Britain and states that he has no more territorial ambitions in Asia (summer)
1845 Rev. Joseph Wolff publishes Narrative of a Mission to Bukhara after journeying to Central Asia to determine the fate of Conolly and Stoddart
1848 Revolutions break out across Europe, including Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Prague and Budapest, prompting Nicholas I to clamp down on freedoms in Russia and to dispatch an army to Hungary to crush the uprising there
1849 The British seize the Punjab, detaching Kashmir as a separate state with a ruler friendly to them
1853 The Russians advance as far as Ak-Mechet on the Syr Darya
1854 During the Crimean War, the British and French lay siege to Sebastopol on the Black Sea (Sept.)
1855 Nicholas I dies (possibly having committed suicide) (Mar.)
1856 The Second Opium War between Britain and China
Prince Alexander Gorchakov becomes Russian Foreign Minister
Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881) negotiates a peace treaty with Britain
and France and the Congress of Vienna imposes restrictions on Russia,
including
a ban on naval activity in the Black Sea (Feb.)
Herat falls to the Persians (Oct.)
A British military force captures Bushire on the Persian Gulf,
causing
the Shah to withdraw from Herat and abandon his claims to it (Dec.)
Britain adopts the policy of "masterly inactivity" in its relations with Russia
1857 The Indian Mutiny threatens British rule in India (May)
1858 Nikolai Khanikov, a Russian agent, attempts to make
contact
with Dost Mohammad but is rebuffed by him (spring)
The Indian Mutiny is finally suppressed (spring)
The India Act abolishes the right of the East India
Company
to rule in India and transfers all authority to the British crown
(Aug.)
Count Nikolai Ignatiev heads up a Russian mission to Khiva and Bukhara to discover how far the British have penetrated in Central Asia (summer)
1859 Ignatiev heads up a mission to Peking to get the
emperor
to formally cede to Russia territories they have captured following the
Second Opium War (spring)
The Russians finally defeat Imam Shamyl, bringing to an end resistance in the Caucasus
1860 After the British and French leave Peking, Ignatiev negotiates the Treaty of Peking with the Chinese, giving Russia a large territory north of the Amur River and the right to open embassies in Sinkiang and Mongolia (Nov.)
1861 40 million Russian serfs are emancipated as part of a program of liberal reform in Russia
1863 Dost Mohammad captures Herat
1864 The Russians advance on Central Asia, consolidating
their
southern frontier by capturing Chimkent, Turkestan, and other towns and
forts in the northern domains of the Khan of Kokand
Arminius Vambery travels through Central Asia
Gorchakov distributes a memorandum to the European powers to explain Russian advances into Central Asia (Dec.)
1865 Yaqub Beg arrives in Kashgar from Kokand and goes about
consolidating his power in Kashgaria (Jan.)
The Russians, under General Cherniaev, capture Tashkent (June)
1868 The Russians, under General Kaufman, capture Samarkand
and
force the Khan of Bukhara to agree to becoming a Russian protectorate
(May)
Robert Shaw and George Hayward travel, separately, from Ladakh to Kashgar to establish contact with Yaqub Beg for trade and geographical survey purposes, respectively (Sept.-Dec.)
1869 The Russians build a permanent fortress at Krasnovodsk (winter)
1870 Hayward embarks on a journey to the Pamirs and is murdered by tribesmen near Darkot, between Chitral and Gilgit (July)
1871 The Russians, under General Kaufman, invade the Ili
Valley,
annexing it (June)
The British establish a direct submarine cable link between London and India
1872 The Russians dispatch a mission to Yaqub Beg's court to discuss trade terms designed to favour Russian goods over British ones (spring)
1873 Russia acknowledges that Badakhshan and Wakhan are part
of the domains of the Afghan Emir and that Afghanistan lies within the
British sphere of influence (Jan.)
The Russians, under General Kaufman, capture Khiva (May)
British trade mission to Kashgar, headed up by Sir Douglas Forsyth
(summer)
Sher Ali, the Afghan Emir, approaches the British with a proposal for a defence treaty against the Russians, but is refused by the British
1874 Lt.-Col. Thomas Gordon and a small British party
explore
the Pamirs (spring)
Britain's Liberal government is replaced by the Tories under Disraeli, who abandon "masterly inactivity" and renew forward policies (spring)
1875 The Russians, under General Kaufman, capture Kokand,
after
an uprising against the Russians and the puppet Khan they had installed
there (Aug.)
The Khan of Khelat permanently leases the Bolan Pass and Quetta to
the
British (autumn)
Capt. Frederick Burnaby departs from Britain on his journey across
Russia
Central Asia (Nov.)
Rawlinson publishes England and Russia in the East
Uprisings in the Balkans against Turkish rule (summer)
1876 Burnaby reaches Khiva and meets with the Khan, now a
vassal
of the Russians (Jan.)
Burnaby returns to Britain, to write a book about his travels, A Ride to Khiva (Mar.)
1877 The Russians declare war against the Turks and begin
their
advance on Constantinople through the Balkans and from eastern Turkey,
but later halt their invasion short of Constantinople (spring)
Death of Yaqub Beg in Kashgar (May)
The Chinese recapture Kashgar (Dec.)
1878 The Congress of Berlin results in Russian gains in the
war
against Turkey being lost (July)
A Russian mission to Kabul results in the signing of a treaty of
friendship
between Russia and Afghanistan (Aug.)
The British inform Sher Ali that they intend to send a mission to
Kabul
and ask for safe passage (Aug.)
After Sher Ali rebuffs the British request for safe passage, the
British
march on Kabul, beginning the Second Afghan War (Nov.)
The Russians send military explorers to Herat, the Pamirs and Tibet, in anticipation of a planned invasion of India that is later called off (autumn)
1879 The British and the Afghans sign the Treaty of
Gandamak,
ending the war and granting significant concessions to Britain,
including
control of Afghan foreign policy (May)
The British mission, under Maj. Louis Cavagnari, reaches Kabul
(July)
The Russians attempt to capture the Turkmen stronghold of Geok Tepe,
but are defeated (Sept.)
The British mission in Kabul is attacked by an Afghan mob and all
are
killed (Sept.)
A British punitive force, under General Frederick Roberts, reaches
Kabul
(Oct.)
The British defeat an Afghan attack on them in Kabul (Dec.)
1880 Abdur Rahman, nephew of Sher Ali, returns from exile in
Samarkand to claim the Afghan throne (Feb.)
The Chinese threaten to take back Kuldja, in the Ili Valley, by
force
(spring)
The British garrison at Kandahar is defeated in battle at Maiwand,
near
Kandahar, by Ayub Khan, the ruler of Herat and Abdur Rahman's rival for
the throne (June)
The British agree to leave Kabul and let Abdur Rahman have the
throne,
in exchange for his promise to have relations with no other power but
Britain
(July)
Roberts' forces from Kabul defeat Ayub Khan, who is later defeated
and
driven out of Afghanistan by Abdur Rahman, who captures Herat (autumn)
The Russians begin to extend the Transcaspian Railway east from the
Caspian port of Krasnovodsk
The Tories are defeated by Gladstone's Liberals, leading to an abandonment of "forward policies"
1881 The Russians, under General Skobelev, capture Geok
Tepe,
slaughtering those who flee from the fallen fortress (Jan.)
The Treaty of St. Petersburg results in Russia returning Kuldja to China
1882 Arrival of Lt. Alikhanov in Merv to spy out Turkmen
defenses
of the city and prepare for annexation by Russia (Feb.)
Arrival of Nikolai Petrovsky, Russian Consul, in Kashgar
1884 Merv falls to the Russians (Feb.)
1885 Charles Marvin publishes several books on Anglo-Russian
relations, including The Russians at the Gates of Herat
Vambery speaks out in London on the Russian threat in Asia (spring)
The Russians, under Lt. Alikhanov, capture the Afghan town of
Pandjeh,
halfway between Merv and Herat (Mar.)
A British military survey party, under William Lockhart, is
dispatched
to map Chitral and Hunza (summer)
The Joint Afghan Boundary Commission begins its work of demarcating the Afghan boundary
1886 The Tories return to power in Britain and, as a result, return to a forward policy
1887 The Joint Afghan Boundary Commission settles the Afghan
border, except for the eastern frontier
Lt. Francis Younghusband travels across China from Peking to India (Apr.-Dec.)
1888 George Curzon travels through Central Asia and later
writes
Russia
in Central Asia and the Anglo-Russian Question (summer)
Scottish trader Andrew Dalgleish murdered in the Karakoram Pass area
1889 Younghusband leads an expedition to Hunza to warn the ruler against raiding British traders (Aug.-Dec.)
1890 Younghusband and George Macartney survey the Pamirs and travel to Kashgar, where Macartney becomes the British Consul
1891 Reports reach London that the Russians are planning to
annex
the Pamirs (July)
Younghusband encounters Russian troops in the Pamirs who have
claimed
Afghan and Chinese territory for the Tsar (Aug.)
The British and Kashmiris march against Hunza, resulting in its capture and incorporation into British India (Nov.)
1892 The Tories are defeated by Gladstone's Liberals in the British election
1893 The Russians clash with the Afghans and Chinese in the
Pamirs
Peter Badmayev, a Buryat Mongol, submits to Tsar Alexander III (1881-1894) a plan for bringing the Chinese Empire under Russian influence
1895 The British, under Major George Robertson, march on
Chitral,
placing their own choice of ruler on the throne (Feb.)
Umra Khan, ruler of Swat, lays siege to the British troops in the
palace
in Chitral (Mar.)
A British relief force, under Col. James Kelly, delivers the British in Chitral, ending the siege (Apr.)
1898 Russia gains the warm water naval base of Port Arthur
from
the Chinese
Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy of India
1900 The Boxer Uprising in China leads to the occupation of Peking by the European powers
1903 A British mission to Lhasa, Tibet, led by Younghusband,
is turned back by the Tibetans (Apr.)
The second British mission to Lhasa (Dec.)
1904 The Japanese attack the Russian fleet at Port Arthur,
initiating
the Russo-Japanese War (Feb.)
Tibetan troops are massacred by the British en route to Lhasa (Jan.)
The British mission enters Lhasa (Aug.)
1905 Port Arthur falls to the Japanese (Jan.)
The Japanese destroy the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Tsushima
Straits
(May)
Russia and Japan sign a peace treaty, ending the war (Sept.)
The British mission leaves Lhasa (Sept.)
The Liberals defeat the Tories (Dec.)
Revolution in Russia causes Tsar Nicholas II (1894-1917) to introduce Russia's first parliament, the Duma, which he later dissolves
1907 The Anglo-Russian Convention officially brings the Great Game to an end (Aug.)
1911 Fall of the Manchu dynasty in China and establishment of the Republic of China
1914 Britain and Russia enter World War I as allies (Aug.)
1917 The Russian Revolution leads to a collapse of the
Eastern
Front in the war and the Tashkent Soviet seizing power in Tashkent
(Oct./Nov.)
Creation of the Muslim Provisional Government of Autonomous
Turkestan
in Kokand (Nov.)
Lenin issues a call to Asia's millions to follow the example of the Bolsheviks (Dec.)
1918 Muslim Provisional Government of Autonomous Turkestan
informs
the Tashkent Soviet that it intends to elect a parliament in which 1/3
of the seats would be apportioned to non-Muslims (Jan.)
The Tashkent Soviet attacks Kokand, massacring thousands of Muslims
(Feb.)
First attempt by the Bolsheviks to capture Bukhara (Mar.)
Macartney is replaced by Col. Percy Etherton as British Consul in
Kashgar
(June)
The Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II and his family (July)
Col. Bailey crosses from Kashgar into Soviet Central Asia (July)
British forces clash with Bolsheviks near Ashkabad (Aug.)
Bailey arrives in Tashkent, followed soon after by Macartney (Aug.)
Bailey goes into hiding and White Russian leader Paul Nazaroff is
arrested
in Tashkent (Oct.)
World War I is brought to an end by the Armistice (Nov.)
1919 Anti-Bolshevik uprising in Tashkent led by Osipov
results
in Nazaroff's release but is quickly defeated by the Bolsheviks (Jan.)
British troops are ordered to withdraw from the Ashkabad region back
to Meshed, Persia (Feb.)
First meeting of the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow,
with the purpose of establishing a world Soviet (Mar.)
King Amanullah of Afghanistan launches a brief and unsuccessful
invasion
of India, now known as the Third Afghan War (May)
Bailey leaves Tashkent as a Cheka officer, commissioned to find
himself
(Oct.)
Bailey leaves Bukhara for the Persian border (Dec.)
1920 Bailey and his party cross the border into Persia
(Jan.)
Special intelligence unit set up in India to counteract Bolshevism
and
monitor activities of the Comintern (Jan.)
Mikhail Frunze arrives in Central Asia to lead the Red Army against
the Muslim basmachi rebels (Feb.)
M. N. Roy, an Indian Communist, travels to Moscow to meet Lenin
(Apr.)
Nazaroff succeeds in escaping to Kashgar (summer)
The final defeat of the White Russian armies and the end of the
Allied
Intervention in the Russian Civil War (summer)
The Comintern, meeting in Baku, issues a call for Muslims to declare
a holy war against imperialism (Sept.)
The Red Army attempts to capture Warsaw, Poland, but is defeated
(autumn)
Roy proposes to train an army in Central Asia to invade India
(autumn)
Roy reaches Tashkent and sets up his secret military school to train
"The Army of God" for invading India (Nov.)
Baron Ungern-Sternberg leads his Cossack forces into Mongolia (autumn)
1921 Ungern-Sternberg attacks and captures Urga (Ulan
Bator),
Mongolia (Jan./Feb.)
Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement, concluded between London and Moscow,
grants
partial recognition of the Soviet state and demands the end of Soviet
plans
to overthrow British rule in India (Mar.)
Ungern-Sternberg moves into Soviet territory, intent on wiping out
the
Bolsheviks, resulting in his defeat and capture by the Bolsheviks and
the
establishment of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Government,
Moscow's
first client-state (May)
Ungern-Sternberg is executed in Novosibirsk, Siberia (Sept.)
Turkish General Enver Pasha meets with Lenin in Moscow, ostensibly
to
capture Chinese Turkestan and launch an invasion into India for the
Bolsheviks
(autumn)
Pasha arrives in Bukhara, where he switches allegiance to the basmachis (Nov.)
1922 Pasha is killed in battle against the Bolsheviks (Aug.)
Mikhail Borodin arrives in Britain and is later arrested and
deported
back to Russia (summer)
Etherton leaves Kashgar
1923 Lord Curzon, British Foreign Secretary, sends an
ultimatum
to Moscow, demanding that it withdraw its agents operating against
British
interests in Asia (May)
Borodin arrives in Peking and moves to Canton to help the Kuomintang government of Sun Yat-sen (autumn)
1924 Britain elects its first ever Labour government
(winter)
Britain accords full diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union (Feb.)
1925 Death of Sun Yat-sen, resulting in Chiang Kai-shek taking control of the Kuomintang and a swing to the right in party policy (Mar.)
1927 Chiang Kai-shek turns on the Communists and leftists,
massacring
many (spring)
Raid on the Soviet Trade Delegation in London results in the British
government voting to sever ties with the Soviet Union (May)
The Canton Uprising results in the brief seizure of power by the Communists, followed by capture of the city by the Kuomintang (Dec.)
1928 Governor Yang Tseng-hsin of Sinkiang is assassinated and power is seized by Chin Shu-jen (July)
1929 Arrest of Indian Communists and the Meerut Conspiracy Trial (Mar.)
1930 Chin orders that the city-state of Hami should be absorbed into Sinkiang results in Muslim revolts against Chinese authority
1931 Muslim warlord Ma Chung-yin begins his march into Sinkiang (summer)
1933 A Soviet-backed coup topples Chin, who is replaced by Sheng Shi-tsai (Apr.)
1934 Ma's troops reach Urumchi and Stalin offers Sheng the use of Red Army troops to put down the rebellion (Jan.)
1934-38 Stalin's purges in the Soviet Union
1939 Non-aggression Pact signed between Germany and the Soviet Union (Aug.)
1939 Britain and India declare war on Germany (Sept.)
1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union (June)
1942 Sheng demands that Moscow remove its advisors from
Sinkiang
(Oct.)
Nazaroff dies in South Africa
1944 Sheng unleashes an anti-Communist witch-hunt, followed
by
an anti-Kuomintang witch-hunt
Sheng leaves Sinkiang to take up a post in the Republican government in Formosa (Sept.)
1949 Communist victory in China
1951 Borodin dies in a Stalinist labour camp
1954 Roy dies in India
1967 Bailey dies in England, bringing to a close the Great
Game!
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