Habib Yunich

Habib Yunich
Хәбиб Юнич
Yunich in 1932
Education Minister of the East Turkestan Republic
In office 18 November 1944 – January 1945
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Saifuddin Azizi
Personal details
Born	1906 (1906) Ghulja, Xinjiang Province, Great Qing
Died	January 1945 (aged 38–39) Ghulja, East Turkestan Republic
Parent	Faziljan Yunich (father)
Occupation	Educator, journalist
Chinese name
Chinese	海比甫·玉尼奇
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hǎibǐfǔ Yùníqí
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	海比甫·尤尼切夫
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hǎibǐfǔ Yóuníqièfū
Second alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	哈比卜·約奇
Simplified Chinese	哈比卜·约奇
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Hābǐbo Yuēqí
Uyghur name
Uyghur	يۈنىچ خەبىب فازىلجانۇلى‎
Transcriptions Latin Yëziqi Yünich Xebib Faziljanuli
Russian name
Russian	Хабиб Юничев
Romanization	Khabib Yunichev
Tatar name
Tatar	Юнич Хәбиб Фазылҗан улы Yüniç Xäbib Fazılcan ulı [jyˈniɕ xæˈbib fʌzɤɫˈʑɑn uɫɯ]

Habib Yunich (also russified as Yunichev; 1906–1945) was a Chinese Tatar educator, journalist, and politician. He served as the Second East Turkestan Republic's first education minister, from the state's establishment in 1944 until his sudden death from typhus in 1945. He was succeeded by his deputy Saifuddin Azizi.

A highly educated polyglot, Yunich was concerned primarily with improving the cultural and educational institutions of his hometown Ghulja (Yining). He founded the city's first public library and Uyghur-language newspaper.

Early life and education

Habib Yunich was born in 1906, in the Uyghur-majority city of Ghulja. His father was Faziljan, an ethnic Tatar from Russia who became a respected aqsaqal (local elder) of Ghulja. A tsarist, Faziljan chose not to return to Russia following the February Revolution of 1917 and successfully applied for Chinese citizenship.

Yunich studied in Turkey and the Soviet Union as a young adult, learning a plethora of Turkic languages in addition to his native Tatar. By the time he returned to Ghulja from Turkey in 1934, he had become fluent in Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, and Uzbek. He was also fluent in Chinese, English, and Russian.

Shortly after returning to Ghulja, Yunich organized the first Uyghur-language newspaper in the city, and more broadly in Ili District. He was the newspaper's editor from 1934 to 1944. He also established Ghulja's first public library and taught at a Tatar school in the city during the 1940s.

Political career

The Second East Turkestan Republic (ETR) was proclaimed in Ghulja on 12 November 1944 by Soviet-backed Turkic revolutionaries, among them Yunich. On 18 November 1944, the ETR government appointed Yunich as Minister of Education, citing his rich cultural and linguistic education. Saifuddin Azizi, a Soviet-educated Uyghur, was appointed his deputy.

Yunich was the editor of the ETR government's official newspaper, Free East Turkestan (later Revolutionary East Turkestan). It was published in four languages – Uyghur, Russian, Kazakh, and Chinese – and began circulation on 17 November 1944.

Death

Yunich contracted typhus from one of his students amid an outbreak of the disease in Ghulja in the winter of 1944–45. He died in January 1945; Azizi succeeded him as the ETR's education minister on 13 March 1945.

References

Sources

• Brophy, David (4 April 2016). Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia-China Frontier. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-97046-5.
• Khisamov, Nurmukhammet Shagvaleevich; Abuziarov, R. G. (2002). Творчество Тукая в контексте евразийской культуры [Tuqay's creativity in the context of Eurasian culture] (in Russian). Fiker. ISBN 978-5-93091-044-5.
• Liu, Weixin. 海比甫玉尼奇 [Habib Yunich]. CNKI (in Chinese). China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House.
• Newby, Laura (1986). The Rise of Nationalism in Eastern Turkestan, 1930–1950 (Thesis). University of Oxford.
• The Voice of East Turkestan. East Turkestan Publications Center. 1986.
• Xu, Yuqi, ed. (1998). 新疆三区革命史 [Revolutionary History of the Three Districts of Xinjiang] (in Chinese). Publishing House of Minority Nationalities. ISBN 978-7-105-03219-8.
• "Хәбиб Юнич". Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.
• 中国少数民族文化大辞典: 中南, 东南地区卷 [Dictionary of Chinese Ethnic Minority Cultures: South-Central and Southeast Region Volume] (in Chinese). Publishing House of Minority Nationalities. 1997. ISBN 978-7-105-03389-8.
• 新疆民族辞典 [Dictionary of Xinjiang Nationalities] (in Chinese). Xinjiang People's Publishing House. 1995. ISBN 978-7-228-03623-3.
• 西北民族词典 [Dictionary of Northwest Nationalities] (in Chinese). Xinjiang People's Publishing House. 1998. ISBN 978-7-228-04377-4.