From the Ural Mountains to Fuji: A Geochronicle of the Journey of Ishan Kurbangali

Iunusova Aislu Bilalovna ORCID: 0000-0002-7210-5771 Doctor of History Chief Researcher; R.G. Kuzeev Institute of Ethnological Research; Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences 6 Karl Marx St., Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, 450076, Russia aislu557@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction. Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev (1889-1972), known as Ishan Kurbangali, is a figure whose life spans a wide range of historical events in the first half of the 20th century, such as the Bashkir national movement, the Civil war in Siberia, the life of Turkic-Muslim emigrants in Japan, and the Kwantung operation of the Soviet Army. Argayash Bashkir Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev, a representative of the ancient Ishan Kurbangaliev family ^{[1, pp. 75-81]}, was a religious figure, a White Guard, the founder of the Muslim community and mosque in Tokyo, a geopolitical thinker, a prisoner of the Vladimir prison, and, eventually, remained in the memory of his countrymen as a "Japanese mullah" who returned to his native lands.

This work is a continuation of the research on the extraordinary fate of Kurbangaliev and the Bashkir White Guards who found themselves in Japan ^[1-4]. The accumulated material requires the use of new approaches and methods to cover the history of Muslim emigration in the Far East. The purpose of the study is to reconstruct and visualize Kurbangaliev's biography using methods of historical informatics and geoinformation technologies, based on archival materials. Unlike the traditional cliche "Bashkir imam in Japan", this study examines Kurbangaliev through the prism of the methodology of "cross-border biographies" and "global history" by S. Konrad, which proposes to analyze biographies as networks of intersecting identities (religious, political, cultural), as a process of constant rethinking oneself in changing circumstances ^{[5, 6]}. One of the key principles of S. Conrad's approach is the rejection of binaries ("friend/foe") in favor of hybridity. Another principle is the analysis of "interaction spaces". Space in global history is not fixed borders, but zones of interaction, in our case it is the Far East, namely, Transbaikalia (Russia), Manchuria (China), Tokyo (Japan), those regions that shaped Kurbangaliev's survival strategies. The historical and geographical approach proposed in this study (geochronics and a geodata database based on archival research) complements the methods of S. Konrad with accuracy in tracking movements and contacts.

The historical and geographical view of the events is reflected in the title of the article, the analysis of geodata clarifies the spatial aspects of Kurbangaliev's life and work. However, the title of the article "From the Urals to Fuji" is not only related to the geography of Kurbangaliev's movements. In the ethnopolitical context, it reflects Ishan's views on the role of Islam in uniting the Muslims of the Urals, Siberia, Central Asia and the Far East. Back in 1924, the Japanese edition of Manmou (Manchuria and Mongolia) published a series of publications by Kurbangaliev: "Indo-European peoples" (Manmou, No. 49, August 1924), "Ural-Altaic peoples in Asian Russia", "Pan-Slavism and Ural-Altaic peoples" (Manmou, No. 50, September 1924). In them he substantiated the cultural community of the peoples of the Far East, Southern Siberia, Central Asia and the Urals. In 1934, his article "Ural-Altaic peoples" about the revival of the Ural-Altaic peoples in a single geopolitical space under the protectorate of Japan was published in the journal "Yapon Mukhbiri" (Japanese Bulletin), which Kurbangaliev edited and printed in Turkish in the printing house he created with Arabic script ^[7]. Criticizing the idea of the Turkic-Muslim leader Gayaz Iskhaki on the creation of the Idel-Ural state, Kurbangaliev justified the impossibility of the existence of an independent Turkic-Muslim state between the Volga and the Urals, both from the west and from the east adjacent to Russia divided into two parts. But everything could look different, he believed, if such a state were expanded at the expense of Central Asia, which was torn away from the USSR and Xinjiang, which is under Chinese rule. Moreover, this geographically significant Muslim political entity could have been created with the support of Japan, Manchukuo, as well as the governments of the Islamic world. M.-G. Kurbangaliev acted as a translator of Japan's foreign policy ambitions, which sought to unite Muslim states in Central (including Chinese Xinjiang) and Southeast Asia under Japanese protectorate. Asia. The failed and politically untenable projects of Gayaz Iskhaki and Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev are exaggerated from time to time, finding supporters among radical nationalists, Islamists, and Turanists, which increases the relevance of the research topic.

The article sets out the tasks: a) to mark geolocations on the map with reference to dates, events and participants in events, b) to create map layers during mapping in accordance with the stages of geographical movements of M.-G.Kurbangaliev. Mapping allows not only to reconstruct and visualize Kurbangaliev's biography, but also to show the scale of his activities in the context of the White Movement, the emigration of Russian Muslims and the history of Islam in the Far East.

Materials and methods. The research was based on "Materials of the investigative case No. 1741 on charges against Kurbangali Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai, born in 1889, a native of the village of Medyak in the Chelyabinsk district of the Orenburg province, Bashkir, the son of a mullah with a higher spiritual Mohammedan education, living in the city of Dairen (Manchuria)" from the Central Archive of the FSB ^[8]. The three-volume case file includes handwritten materials from 1946-1992, including 28 interrogation protocols, 10 transcripts of testimony, resolutions extending the terms of the investigation, the protocol of the end of the investigation, the medical examination report of M.-G.Kurbangaliev, the indictment, extracts from the decisions of the special meeting at the Ministry of State Security, accompanying documents, a certificate of rehabilitation – a total of 520 sheets handwritten text.

The materials of the National Archive of the Republic of Bashkortostan were involved. In the fund of the Ufa Provincial Revolutionary Tribunal (R-322) there is a "Case on charges of citizens Kurbangaleev Abdulvaley and Kurbangaleev Gabidula in counterrevolution against the Soviet government" for September 20 – November 9, 1919 on 320 sheets – these are documents of the Kurbangaliev family seized during the arrest, an investigative case, a casation case, a verdict, an act of bringing execution sentences and other materials. The NKVD BASSR Foundation (R-1252) contains the case "Verdict of the Republic's Strategic Missile Forces in the Kurbangaleev case" for December 7-13, 1919 on 4 sheets. The fund of the Authorized Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the BASSR (R-4732) has material on the visit of Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev to Commissioner M.S. Karimov in August 1956, after his return from Vladimir prison.

Published collections of documents on the history of national movements in Siberia ^[9], the Bashkir national movement ^[10], Islam in the Southern Urals ^[11], memoirs and other publications were used for verification.

The research uses the methods of historical informatics, which, as L.I. Borodkin, the founder of the scientific school of historical informatics, emphasizes, "is part of historical science!" ^{[12, p. 39]}.This thesis with an exclamation mark is fundamentally important for us, since it determines the priority of history in the subject, direction, structure and content of research conducted using historical informatics methods.

In the course of working with archival materials of the investigative case, handwritten notes were initially digitized, then the material was translated into electronic text in word format, on the basis of which, according to the methodology of I.M.Garskova ^[13], a database was built in Excel and Access with geometries and other attributes. The table structure is simple: geolocation name, geodata (latitude, longitude), date, event, participants, sources. Next, geochronological tracking tools implemented through Google Maps and Google Earth services were used, which made it possible to create an interactive map of Kurbangaliev's routes.

The technology of creating a geochronological track is described in detail in the works of Ya.A. Ivakin and S.N. Potapychev ^[14], who consider geochronological tracking as a series of consecutive events in an individual's life with reference to the time and place of occurrence of these events. In our work, we were guided by the main thesis of Ya.A.Ivakin "Geochronological tracking is understood as the process of accumulation and integration of data on the spatial movements of the studied personalities recorded in historical sources during the time period under consideration with the presentation of the results in the form of a generalizing graph in GIS" ^[15], taking the place of birth of M.-G. Kurbangaliev as the starting point, from which started the movement. Paying attention to the shortage of specialized GIS tools for historical, ethnographic and humanitarian research in general, Ya.A. Ivakin considers geochronological tracking as an example of scientific, methodological and software-technological tools for network analysis of biographical data ^{[16, p. 132]}. The technology of using GIS methods in prosopographic research is also presented by A.A. Frolov and A.V. Zakharov. Based on archival materials from the Senate review of the nobility in 1721-1723, they created a geodata database and, using geochronological tracking, examined the spatial mobility of about 400 representatives of the nobility of the Petrine era ^[17].

Mapping has become a popular tool for biographical and person-centered research. Works representing the experience of mapping the route of the expeditions of P. S. Pallas and I. I. Lepekhin in the Middle Volga region in 1768-1769 ^[18] and the travels of L. N. Tolstoy ^[19] have been published. Continuing the topic of mapping biographies or individual events from the lives of the studied personalities, let us turn to the work of O.G. Nikolaev and A.B. Valishina, who propose the term "historical personality maps" ^[20]. The authors believe that although this term has not been fixed in the dictionary of Russian cartographers, and such maps were created mainly as an appendix to school history textbooks, nevertheless, they believe, there are conditions for the return of historical personality maps to the arsenal of modern thematic cartography. Agreeing with them, we can add that, in any case, there is a need for such maps. The electronic resource created during the preparation of the article, which displays both spatial and attributive characteristics of the movement of Ishan Kurbangali, can be attributed to historical personality maps.

To reconstruct and demonstrate Kurbangaliev's movements, 4 layers of the map were created, reflecting the stages of his life: "1917-1919. In Revolutionary Russia", "1919-1920. The Siberian campaign. Transbaikalia", "1921-1945. In exile", "1945-1956. Homecoming". The article consistently describes events related to geolocations marked on map layers.

Geography of Kurbangaliev's movements in 1917-1919 The first layer of the map covers the political events that took place on the territory of the European part of Russia from January 1917 to June 1919. (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Map, layer "1917-1919. In Revolutionary Russia"

The birthplace of the Kurbangalievs is the village of Medyak [Mediak] in the Chelyabinsk district of the Orenburg province – the initial geometry in our database. Here, in Medyak, in the widely known madrasah of his father Gabidulla Kurbangaliev, Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai received a religious education. The enterprising young imam was close to the Russian Mufti Safa Bayazitov. In January 1917, as an assistant, he accompanied the mufti on a trip to Petrograd, where Kurbangaliev was caught by revolutionary events. "I met the February Revolution with enthusiasm!" said Muhammad-Gabdulhai in 1945 in his testimony during the investigation ^[21]. From February 1917 to the summer of 1919, M.G. Kurbangaliev took an active part in political events in Chelyabinsk District, Bashkiria, and Russia (Fig. 1). In May 1917, he was a participant in the All-Russian Muslim Congress in Moscow, in July 1917, he was a delegate to the First All-Bashkir Kurultai in Orenburg, and in September 1918 he was elected Chairman of the Committee for the Dissemination of Citizenship and Freedom among Muslims of the 5 volosts of the Chelyabinsk district.

Kurbangaliev was completely on the side of Kolchak's Siberian government. The key events of this stage were meetings with the Supreme Ruler. On December 4, 1918, Kurbangaliev, as a representative of the Bashkirs of the Chelyabinsk District, arrived in Omsk and attended a reception with Kolchak, as reported by the newspaper Sibirskaya Rech in the December 6 issue (Fig. 2) ^[22].

Fig. 2. An article in the newspaper Sibirskaya Rech dated December 6, 1918.

In February 1919, he attended a reception given by the Supreme Ruler Kolchak in Chelyabinsk. The admiral made an indelible impression on Kurbangaliev. Inspired by the meeting, on February 25, 1919, Kurbangaliev signed an appeal to the Bashkir people, calling for an armed struggle against the Soviet government, supporting the idea of a "united and indivisible Russia." The proclamation said: Brothers! The struggle against Bolshevism, which is a bitter enemy not only of the Bashkirs, but also of all Muslims in Russia, can be successful only if the entire force and the entire army are concentrated in one center. Long live the dictatorship of Admiral Kolchak, which establishes order, tranquility, and preserves the lands. ^[23].

In March–April 1919, units of the White Army captured the cities of the Urals and Urals Ufa, Birsk, Bugulma, Izhevsk, Votkinsk. However, as a result of the Red counteroffensive, Soviet troops occupied Ufa in late April and June 1919, and Kungur, Perm, Zlatoust, and Yekaterinburg in July. As a result of the unsuccessful Chelyabinsk operation, parts of Kolchak's army began to withdraw to Siberia. In June 1919, after the retreat of Kolchak's army and the retreat beyond the Urals, Kurbangaliev left Chelyabinsk and took his family – his mother, wife, two children and younger brother – to Akmolinsk (now Astana). He then goes to Petropavlovsk to meet the troops of the White Army, where his brother Mukhamed-Harun Kurbangaliev commanded a Bashkir company in the army of General Kappel.

The second stage of geochronics "1919-1920. The Siberian campaign. Transbaikalia" (Fig. 3). Moving East as part of the Bashkir squadron of General Kappel's White Army, commanded by his brother, Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai attempts to unite the disparate units of Bashkirs and Tatars into a single national military unit. "We were retreating into the depths of Siberia," Akhmedsha Gizatullin, one of the leaders of the Idel–Ural society, said during the interrogation. During the entire period of the Kappel army's retreat before arriving in the city of Chita, Kurbangali was part of the Bashkir squadron, following with its baggage train" ^[24].

Fig. 3. Map, layer "19219-1920. The Siberian campaign. Transbaikalia"

In December 1919, in the city of Achinsk, M.G. Kurbangaliev met with the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front, Lieutenant General V.O. Kappel, during which he appealed to the general with a request to consolidate the Bashkirs into one division. Kappel agreed with the proposal of the Kurbangaliev brothers to unite Bashkirs into a single division in order to create "more favorable conditions for the national life of Bashkirs and provide them with the opportunity to perform Muslim rituals" ^[25]. This information is confirmed in the memoirs of Kurbangaliev's colleague, Lieutenant Galimyan Tagan, "Bashkirs in Transbaikalia" ^[26], who writes: "The Bashkir warriors themselves hoped that with their presence (we are talking about M.-G. Kurbangaliev and Galimyan Tagan) it would be easier for them to exist and with their assistance they would be able to create national units, facilitate the satisfaction of their national and religious rituals will soften the result of a bitter transition and homesickness. Some measures were taken in this direction by Bashkir commissioner Kurbangaliev, who asked General Kappel in December in the city of Achinsk to consolidate the Bashkirs into one division. The glorious General Kappel, being a supporter of democracy and alien to any antagonism and oppression, promised to help in this, but circumstances did not allow him." The subsequent death of the general on January 26, 1920 postponed the resolution of this issue. Command passed to Lieutenant General G. M. Semenov, who on January 4, 1920, received full authority from Kolchak "on the territory of the Russian eastern outskirts."

On February 12, 1920, at the Mysovaya station, Kurbangaliev appealed to the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, Lieutenant General S.N. Wojciechowski, with a request to send a memo addressed to Semenov with a proposal to bring the Bashkirs into a single military unit. Wojciechowski took the note with him to Chita to report to Ataman Semenov. Galimyan Tagan wrote later: "The Bashkirs on the way were just waiting to join the troops of Ataman Semenov <..Some squad leaders organized Bashkir squadrons along the way, who rode under their national flags and with national songs and, feeling like they belonged to their national family, were much better attuned than others" ^{[27, p. 118]}. Grigory Semenov approved Kurbangaliev's idea, counting on his assistance in the transition of Muslims from the remnants of V.O. Kappel's army units and support from local Muslims. "In the context of the civil war, military units of homogeneous tribal composition had a stronger internal cohesion," he later wrote in his memoirs ^[28]. I.A. Barinov, researching the history of Trans-Baikal Muslims during the Civil War, notes that the political positions of the local Muslim population significantly strengthened after the entry of two and a half thousand Bashkir soldiers into Transbaikalia in the spring of 1920, who came to the region along with the remnants of the 3rd army of Lieutenant General V.O. Kappel ^[29].

The center of subsequent events in the spring and autumn of 1920 became Transbaikalia, where units of the White Army were stationed, including Bashkir units along with Kurbangaliev. On March 14, Kurbangaliev was received by Semenov at his home in Chita. During the conversation, Kurbangaliev spoke about the goals of uniting Bashkir soldiers. "For his part, the chieftain spoke about his desire to make Russia federal, but on capitalist legal principles, and <..He expressed his readiness, as commander-in-chief, to meet the desires of the Bashkirs and begin to convert the Bashkir soldiers of the Kappel army and the so-called Semenov units into a special combat unit" ^[30]. In addition, Semenov hoped to use Kurbangaliev in his contacts with representatives of the Japanese command in Transbaikalia, who showed a marked interest in Bashkir officers and Kurbangaliev.

On April 8, 1920, Captain Mukhamed-Harun Kurbangaliev died from a severe wound sustained in battle near Verkhneudinsky during the second Chita operation of the Red Army. "The Japanese command sent its representatives to my brother's funeral in Chita," Kurbangaliev said at the inquest, "as a sign of sympathy for me as a high–ranking official in the Mohammedan religious circles of Russia."^[31] This was also confirmed by another former lieutenant under investigation, Akhmedsha Gizatullin, who served in the 1919-1920s in the Bashkir company of the Kappel army under the command of Mukhamed-Harun Kurbangaliev. "I happened to attend the funeral of Kurbangali's murdered brother," he reported, "and then personal representatives of Ataman Semenov and a Japanese officer as a representative of the Japanese command arrived at the funeral as a sign of condolences to Kurbangali."^[32]

On April 16, Kurbangaliev, together with his long-time colleague, Lieutenant Galimyan Tagan, left Chita for Dauria at the invitation of Baron Ungern in order to inspect his Asian division.

On April 19, Kurbangaliev and Tagan left for Harbin. "The trip to Harbin took place on my personal initiative," Kurbangaliev said at the investigation. I meant to go there just to take my mind off the situation in which my brother died. However, I confirm that I did have an assignment from Ataman Semenov for the duration of my stay in Harbin. I received the assignment from Semenov due to the fact that I applied to him for permission to travel to Harbin. ... Semenov instructed me to investigate the political sentiments of the Mohammedans living in Manchuria and determine the possibility of uniting to participate in the White Movement. During my stay in Harbin, I met with a number of influential people from among Russian–born Muslims."^[33]

In May-June 1920, Kurbangaliev made short trips, acting as "a representative of the Bashkirs to the commander–in-chief of all the armed forces of the Russian Eastern Suburbs." On May 23, 1920, Semyonov signed the corresponding Order No. 375 in Chita: "Mukhamet-Gabdulkhai Gabidullich Kurbangaliev is enlisted to be with me as an elected representative of the Bashkir people. Lieutenant General Ataman Semenov." On June 17, the Ataman's Diploma was announced: "Following the succession of Supreme All-Russian power in the territory of the Russian Eastern Outskirts from the Supreme Ruler Admiral A.V. Kolchak and in accordance with the resolution of the meeting of representatives of the Bashkirs of the eight districts of Bashkiria (Priuralsky district), held on June 14-16, I, Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces and Marching Ataman of all Cossack troops of the Russian Eastern Outskirts, declare: 1. Bashkirs located on the territory of the Russian Eastern Outskirts should be considered on the grounds established for the Cossacks, assigning them the rights and duties in relation to those of the Orenburg Cossack army. 2. The military authority of the Bashkirs, on the rights of military boards and military headquarters of the Cossack troops, should be the Military National Directorate of the Bashkirs, which should develop, according to the geographical, historical and national situation of Bashkiria and submit to me for approval the regulations on the Bashkir army. 3. The final resolution of the issue of restoring Cossack rights to Bashkirs and the development of a final provision on them should be submitted to the discretion of the All-Bashkir Congress, which may be convened after cleansing 2/3 of the territory of Bashkurdistan. 4. Meeting the desires of the Bashkirs of the Russian Eastern Outskirts, I found it acceptable to assume patronage over them by including the Bashkir army among the Cossack and non-Native troops led by me as a Marching Chieftain and controlled through the headquarters of the Marching Chieftain. By announcing this Letter, I am confident that the rights conferred on the Cossacks will be a firm support for the Bashkirs, who, coming together, will create a strong-minded and healthy state stronghold for the further struggle for the restoration of our common homeland of Russia. Lieutenant-General Ataman Semenov" ^[34].

By this time, Kurbangaliev had managed to recruit a significant part of the Kappel Tatars and Bashkirs into Semenov's army. In the summer of 1920, 2,272 Bashkir soldiers were stationed in Transbaikalia ^{[35, p. 79]}. On June 22, Semenov signed Order No. 457: "In accordance with the desire expressed in the resolution of the meeting of Bashkirs of the Russian Eastern Outskirts of the Bashkirs to switch to the order of their military service in relation to the Cossack troops, and also taking into account the petitions of the commissioner from the Bashkir people of the Ural region M. G. Kurbangaleev, I order: 1. To establish the Bashkir national military administration on grounds equal to the military governments of the Cossack troops, with its subordination to the headquarters of the marching chieftain. <...> Lieutenant General Ataman Semenov" ^[36].

Thus, by the middle of the summer of 1920, Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev was able to achieve his goal of uniting the Bashkirs in a single national military formation. Meanwhile, the situation in Transbaikalia was changing. After the agreement between representatives of the Japanese command and the Far Eastern Republic, signed on July 17, 1920 at the Gongota station, known as the Gongot Agreement, the evacuation of Japanese troops from Chita and Sretensk began. Having lost the support of Japanese troops and preparing to retreat to Primorye, Semenov was forced to look for options for crossing into Primorye through Manchuria. On July 1, 1920, Kurbangaliev traveled with Lieutenant Tagan to Harbin, where he studied the situation in Manchuria for 5 days. "As a Mohammedan religious figure," he told the investigation, "while in Harbin, I had to establish contact with representatives of the Turkic-Tatar Muslims living in Manchuria. With this in mind, Semenov instructed me to study the mood of the Mohammedans in terms of the possibility of attracting them to fight against the Soviet government. <..During my stay in Harbin, I met with a number of influential people from among Russian–born Muslims. <..After returning to Chita, I was received by Semenov, being invited to dinner, and informed him about the sentiments among the Mohammedans living in Manchuria, that is, I told him that they had no intention of participating in the armed struggle against the Soviet government. In other words, I gave Semenov the information in accordance with reality" ^[37].

On August 28, 1920, while already in Dauria, Semenov issued the Order of the 1st consolidated Manchurian ataman Semenov Division No. 44: "<..(§ 3) form a Bashkir Muslim company under Ataman Semenov's 2nd Manchurian Rifle Regiment, which, as reinforcements arrive from the Bashkir National Directorate, should be deployed into larger tactical units by order of the regimental commander; (§ 4) all Bashkirs and Muslims in the division's units should be sent through division headquarters to the emerging Bashkir Republic."A Muslim company."

On November 7, members of the Bashkir National Military Administration arrived in Manchuria. Here, on November 10, the Chairman of the department, M. G. Kurbangaliev, issued Order No. 28: "In connection with the current situation, I order: 1. Temporarily terminate the management entrusted to me until the future situation is clarified." On November 14, 1920, while at Manchuria Station, Kurbangaliev, by order No. 31, actually dismissed his soldiers, declaring: "<...> paying main attention to the international situation, I consider it advisable to be in a wait-and-see position. As for the movement of Bashkir soldiers from Manchuria to the east, due to the actual disintegration of the army, I consider it a private matter for each of them as free citizens."

Semenov's army retreated to the Chinese border, and with it two thousand Bashkir White Guards. On November 20, they were transferred to Manchuria, where the Bashkir soldiers were immediately disarmed by the Chinese authorities. Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev insisted that the Bashkir White Guards abandon the continuation of the armed struggle against Russia and remain in Manchuria, which he called upon the Bashkirs to do in his address on November 20, 1920, the day they crossed the Russian-Chinese border ^[38].

From the beginning of the retreat from the Urals to the crossing of the Russian-Chinese border (June 1919 – November 1920), Kurbangaliev traveled more than 4 thousand km. At the second stage of Kurbangaliev's geochronics, Chita became the main place of events, accounting for 36% of all geographical names mentioned in the investigation materials in connection with events during this period (Fig. 4).

4. The geometries of the events from July 1919 to November 1920 mentioned in the investigation file

The key figures of this period mentioned in the case are: Supreme Ruler Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak, Lieutenant General Vladimir Oskarovich Kappel, Lieutenant General Ataman Grigory Mikhailovich Semenov, Captain Mukhamed-Harun Kurbangaliev, Lieutenant Galimyan Tagan.

The third stage of geochronics. 1920–1945. In exile. In the autumn of 1920 and winter of 1921, Kurbangaliev made several trips to Harbin. In November 1920, he received letters of recommendation from the Japanese Consul in Harbin, Matsushima, for a trip to Tokyo, including letters addressed to Matsudaira, Director of the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan. Kurbangaliev, along with Colonel Bikmeev, went to Tokyo to "resolve the issue of arranging for about two thousand Bashkir White Guards from the remnants of the armies of Kappel and Semenov to reside and serve in Manchuria," as he claimed in his testimony after his arrest in August 1945 ^[39]. Welcoming the arrival of the Bashkir White Guards in Tokyo, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun wrote: "Muslims, longing for freedom and liberation, will become the head of the unification movement of the peoples of Asia" ^[40]. Immediately upon arrival, Kurbangaliev and Bikmeev went to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Japan, where they introduced themselves as representatives of the Bashkirs. They then visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and were received by the Director of its European Department, Matsudaira. In addition, Kurbangaliev and Bikmeev visited the Ambassador of tsarist Russia to Japan, Krupinsky, who introduced Bashkirs to a prominent Japanese public figure, chairman of the Japanese-Russian association Goto Simpei. Goto introduced Bashkir to Genro member Okuma Shigenov ^[41]. The meeting with them contributed to the growth of Kurbangaliev's authority in the circles of Japanese politicians and the public. During conversations with Okuma and Goto, an agreement was reached on Kurbangaliev's second visit to Japan, this time accompanied by a delegation of Muslim officers.

In February 1921, ten Bashkir and Tatar officers arrived in Tokyo. The Japanese were clearly supportive of the anti-Soviet white Muslim officers. The interest in them was also due to the active intelligence activities of the Japanese command in the area of the South Manchurian Railway (YMZHD), which ran from Mukden towards the Liaodong Peninsula. Because of this, Kurbangaliev was offered a job on the board of the YMJD as an "expert on the Mohammedan question."

In 1922-1924, as an adviser to the YMJD on the Mohammedan issue, Muhammad-Gabdulhai traveled to cities along the South Manchurian Railway, established contacts with Chinese Muslims, conducted collective prayers, conversations, and got acquainted with their situation (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. The map "In the service of YMZHD". Chita - Harbin - Mukden

"I visited the cities of Mukden, Tianjin, Beijing, Hankow, Shanghai, Nanjing," he said at the investigation, "I established contacts with prominent Muslim figures there and exchanged views with them on the problems of Chinese Muslims. He studied the role and degree of influence of each of them in the Chinese Muslim masses, their mood and views. After returning from this trip, I presented to the Japanese, in particular, personally Matsuoko Yosuki, a report on the results of my stay in China. Soon, after being released from service on the board of the YMJD, I left for permanent residence in the city of Tokyo" ^[42].

In Mukden, Kurbangaliev prepared several references for the leadership of the YMJD: "On peoples speaking Turkic languages", "On the study of Oriental languages in Russia with recommended literature on dialectology and lexicography", "Proposal to the Minister of Public Education of Japan to open a Turkic branch at the Institute of Foreign Languages in Tokyo", "Letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Japan" with a request to facilitate the introduction of the Turkic language in public schools, while emphasizing the need for "cultural and economic rapprochement of the Turkic peoples of Russia with Japan" ^{[43, p. 191]}.

In October 1924, Kurbangaliev moved to Tokyo, where he began work on uniting Muslims living in Japan, creating a Muslim religious society, which included Muslim Bashkir and Tatar emigrants who were in Tokyo. He visits the cities of Kobe and Nagoya, where Muslim immigrants from Russia have also settled. In 1928, a congress of Muslims living in Japan was held in Tokyo, at which they united in the "Union of Mohammedans Living in Japan." Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev was elected President of this union. For the next ten years, he was the number one Muslim in Japan, and for many Japanese, Chinese and Korean followers of Islam, he was the "Great Imam of the Far East." Being a hereditary ishan by birth, spirit and upbringing, Kurbangali, as he was called, continued his spiritual, mentoring and educational activities. At his own expense and the funds of the Union of Mohammedans in Tokyo, Kurbangaliev opened the Islamiya school for teaching Muslim children, a printing house for printing textbooks and the Koran in Arabic script, and in 1937-1938 a mosque was built. Kurbangaliev became the editor of the journal Yapon Muhbiri, published by the Union of Mohammedans.

The growth of the Muslim community and the active participation of its members in discussing the legal status of religions in Japan were among the factors that accelerated the adoption of the "Law on Religious Societies", signed by the Emperor on April 7, 1939 and announced the next day. On behalf of the Tokyo Muslim Society, Muslims insisted that the new law list Islam as one of the three world religions along with Buddhism and Christianity, and not include it in the concept of "other religions and sects." During the discussion of the law, Prime Minister Hiranuma Kiichiro was forced to announce that Islam in Japan would receive equal rights with Buddhism and Christianity, but the word "Islam" was never written into the law.

In the 1930s, Kurbangaliev was actively involved by Japanese military and political circles in the implementation of the "Islamic factor" in Japan's military expansion in Northeast China, as well as in influencing the countries of the Muslim East. The materials of the interrogations of M.-G.Kurbangaliev, officers of the Kwantung Army and the General Staff of Japan, who were arrested by military counterintelligence in August 1945 on the territory of Manchuria, despite all the contradictory statements of those arrested, leave no doubt that Tokyo imam Muhammad-Gabdulhai Kurbangaliev was used as an agent of Japanese intelligence. His organizational skills, entrepreneurial spirit, and ability to get along with different people under different circumstances attracted the attention of Japanese intelligence agencies, and Kurbangaliev became one of the leaders of the Japanese General Staff's foreign policy aspirations. So, after the Japanese occupation of the Northeastern Provinces of China and the creation of Manchukuo, in December 1932, with the support of the Japanese military command, he held the All-Manchurian Congress of Muslims, held in Changchun. Kurbangaliev met with the commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces in Manchuria, Marshal Muto ^[44].

On October 17, 1937, the solemn laying of the mosque's foundation took place in the presence of Muslim parishioners representing 12 nations. There were representatives of the Japanese government, ambassadors, and high-ranking officials. Kurbangaliyev laid the foundation stone and delivered a speech, followed by speeches from representatives of Muslim countries. On behalf of the Japanese, Ogasawara Naganari, General Kawashima, representative of the Ministry of Public Education, congratulated. From the Chinese – Prince Pu Yi. A lunch for 600 people was served in honor of the laying of the mosque. There were a lot of speeches at lunch. "The whole procedure was photographed. Numerous police kept order, looked after cars, and in general. The celebration was held with great enthusiasm, despite the bad, cold weather that day."^[45]

In May 1938, Kurbangaliev was to inaugurate a mosque built on his initiative in Tokyo. However, a few days before its opening, he was detained by the Japanese police and, after a month-long arrest, deported to Dairen (Dalian, Far East). The mosque was opened by Kazy Abdurashit Ibrahim, who served as its imam until 1943. Despite his exile from the country, Japanese Muslims honor Kurbangaliev as the spiritual leader and founder of the mosque in Tokyo. (https://tokyocamii.org/history /) in the list of imams, Muhammad-Gabdulhai is listed as Imams of Tokyo Camii: Abdulhay Qurban Ali (Founder).

From June 1938 to August 26, 1945, Kurbangaliev was in Dayren without any specific activities, living in the house of Ataman Semenov with his two daughters Najiya and Anisa. His wife and seven-year-old son, Muhammad-Askhad, remained in Tokyo. "I rented a house," Kurbangaliev said at the inquest, "that belonged to Ataman Semenov and maintained an acquaintance with him on this basis. My meeting with Ataman Semenov did not pursue any political goals. I maintained the closest relations with the Chinese Mohammedans: Zhang Tzowang, the chief akhun of Manchuria, and Wang, the chief akhun of Beijing, with whom I corresponded and enjoyed their authority. They called me the great imam, and the Mohammedan society in Dayren erected a monument to me in the Dayren Mosque as a sign of their respect for me."^[46]

According to Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev, during his stay in Dairen, where he was exiled without the right to return to Tokyo, he received several offers from the Japanese. In 1938, the secretary of the Prime Minister of Manchukuo, Ootes, came to Kakakasi with a proposal to go to Canton, Southern China, "to work on separating the chief of the General Staff of Changkaishi, Marshal Bai Chunxi (Bai Chunxi was Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of China - A.Yu.), a Muslim, from the camp of Changkaishi. Kurbangaliev refused to leave the place of exile – the children had to study, both daughters studied at the American school in Dayren, where the American Consulate General continued to function. In 1941, Kurbangaliev was asked to prepare reference materials for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Manchukuo "for the settlement of Muslim affairs." Finally, in 1944, which was Ishan's sixth year in Dairen, the Japanese military command invited him to go to the Philippines as a mufti. With the beginning of the occupation of the Philippines, the Japanese faced resistance from the Moro peoples. "To resolve the misunderstanding with the Moro tribe," Kurbangaliev was asked to come here. This failed trip could have radically changed the future fate of Ishan, but that's another story.

Return. On August 26, 1945, Kurbangaliev, who was in Dayren, was arrested by Soviet military counterintelligence and taken to Moscow. The investigation into his case took 2 years. On May 11, 1946, a decision was issued to charge Kurbangali Mukhamed Gabdulkhai: ... having considered the materials of the investigative case No. 1741 and taking into account that Kurbangali Mukhamed Gabdulkhai was sufficiently exposed for joining the White Army of General Kappel and then Ataman Semenov in September 1919, where he received Mohammedans from the soldiers as a mullah He swore allegiance to the White command and in his sermons called for a fight against the Soviet government. In addition, he recruited Tatars and Bashkirs into the national units of Semenov's White Army. In November 1920, he fled to Manchuria, and later to Japan, where he organized a Mohammedan religious society and, as a Turkic Tatar nationalist, carried out anti-Soviet activities. On the basis of the above, guided by Articles 128, 129 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the RSFSR, I decided: to involve Kurbangali Mukhamed Gabdulkhai as an accused under Article 58, paragraph 4 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, which should be announced to the accused against receipt in this resolution. On May 16, 1947, he was sentenced to be imprisoned in a correctional labor camp for a period of 10 years. Counting from August 26, 1945. On January 3, 1948, 10 years of ITL were commuted to 10 years of imprisonment.

Until August 26, 1955, Mukhamed-Gabdulkhaya Kurbangaliev was in prison in Vladimir. Vladimir prison was part of a system of "special camps and prisons" organized on the basis of Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 416-159 of February 21, 1948 "On the organization of high-security camps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the detention of particularly dangerous State criminals" for the detention of spies, saboteurs, terrorists, Trotskyists, Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries, anarchists, nationalists, white emigrants and members of other anti-Soviet organizations, as well as for the detention of persons who pose a danger due to their anti-Soviet ties and hostile activities. In official documents, it was listed as the "Vladimir special purpose prison of the MGB of the USSR."

On September 18, 1956, a man who introduced himself as the former imam of the Tokyo Mosque came to the reception of the Commissioner of the Council of Religious Cults of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the BASSR M.S. Karimov ^[47]. He said that he had served his sentence in the Vladimir prison, and currently lives in Chelyabinsk. The name of the visitor did not mean anything to Commissioner Karimov or Mufti Khiyalitdinov. As it turned out, after his release in August 1955, Kurbangaliev returned to Chelyabinsk. I tried several times to get an opportunity to fly to my family in Japan. According to him, Japanese Prime Minister Ichiro Hatoyama, with whom he was personally acquainted, was ready to include Kurbangaliev in the list of returning prisoners of war. Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai came to Ufa to seek help from Mufti Shakir Khiyaletdinov. Unable to return to Tokyo to live with his wife and son, Kurbangaliev remained in Chelyabinsk, where he lived until the end of his days. In the 60s, Muhamed-Gabdulkhai was known among the Muslims of Chelyabinsk as the "Japanese Mullah" and was highly respected. He died on August 22, 1972, and was buried in Chelyabinsk at the Muslim cemetery near the Red Mosque, ending his life in his homeland. Rehabilitated on June 24, 1992.

Geochronics and distances. Mapping the movements of M.G. Kurbangaliev shows that in the autumn of 1919 - winter of 1920, he covered a distance of more than 4 thousand km, moving with a wagon train of the Bashkir squadron of the White Army. While in Chita from spring to the end of November 1920, he undertook several trips around Transbaikalia, including twice traveling to Harbin by train in a special carriage provided by Ataman Semenov. The distance from Chita to Harbin by rail is about 1,200 km. While in Mukden, Kurbangaliev traveled on behalf of the directorate of the Chinese Railways to the cities of China – Beijing (about 700 km), Shanghai (1,700 km), Nanjing (1,600 km), Tianjin (700 km) and the city of Hankou, the most remote from Mukden, which is now part of the city of Wuhan (1,800 km). After moving to Tokyo, Kurbangaliev continued to travel to Korea and Manchuria on behalf of the Muslim community and the Japanese military command. In 1938, he was transported to Dairen (now Dalian) 1,600 km from Tokyo, and in August 1945 he was transferred from Dairen to Moscow (6,300 km by air, 8,500 km by land). At the most cursory glance, it can be seen that Kurbangaliev's routes number at least 20 thousand km (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. The map of M.-G.Kurbangaliev's movements in 1917-1956.

Geometries and frequency of mentions in the investigation file. In total, there are 204 unique geographical names in the three volumes of Kurbangaliev's investigative file, not counting the names of rivers, lakes, and seas. The frequency of their mentions varies, from 1 to 530. The diagram (Fig. 7) and the histogram (Fig. 8) show the results of statistical processing of geographical names mentioned in the case.

Fig. 7. The number of references to geolocations in the investigation file

Figure 8. The frequency of references to geolocations in the investigation file

Periods of active displacement occurred during the Civil War, 1923-1934, and were associated with participation in military operations in Siberia, emigration to Manchuria and Japan, and activities in the interests of Japanese military and political circles. The key centers of Kurbangaliev's activity are Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Chita, Manchuria, Harbin, Dairen, Tokyo – the largest number of events and names mentioned in sources are linked to these tags.

Participants of the events. In the studied archival materials, 507 personalities were identified with whom Kurbangaliev was in direct or indirect contact in 1917-1956. The participants in the events described were Mufti Safa Bayazitov, Admiral Kolchak, General Kappel, General Wojciechowski, General Semenov, Japanese Consul in Harbin Matsushima, YMJD manager Matsuoka, Hungarian scientist Benedek Baratoshi. An analysis of Kurbangaliev's contacts in Tokyo (1924-1938) revealed the core of the network: imams, leaders of emigrant communities in the Far East, officers of the General Staff, representatives of the ruling circles of Japan and the Ottoman Dynasty. The connecting intermediaries between the Russian and Japanese groups were Matsuoka, Okuma, Goto. The key figures in terms of frequency of mentions in the investigative case are General Semenov, ideologist of the Idel-Ural movement Gayaz Iskhaki, member of this movement Ibrahim Davletkildi, Imam Abdurashid Ibragimov, Lieutenant Galimyan Tagan (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 9. The frequency of mentioning participants in the events in the investigative case

Conclusion. The conducted research using the methods of historical informatics and geospatial analysis made it possible to reconstruct the life path of Mukhamed-Gabdulkhai Kurbangaliev in the context of key historical events of the first half of the 20th century. The main results of the work can be formulated as follows:

– a chronicle of the events of Kurbangaliev's life has been compiled;

– the routes of Kurbangaliev's movements from 1917 to 1956 have been established, covering the territory from St. Petersburg to Tokyo (more than 20 thousand km);

– the key geographical centers of his activity have been identified: Chelyabinsk, Chita, Harbin, Tokyo, Dairen, where the greatest concentration of events and contacts is recorded.;

– the relationship between the stages of his life (participation in the White Movement, emigration, religious and political activities) and the historical context is shown – the Civil War, the Japanese expansion in Asia, the Second World War.

Using Kurbangaliev's example, the study reveals little-studied aspects of the participation of Muslim figures in the White Movement and their role in the subsequent integration of Russian emigrants into the societies of the Far East. It is shown that his activities in Japan (creation of a mosque, publication of a magazine, relations with Japanese politicians) contributed to the institutionalization of Islam in the region, while Kurbangaliev's religious identity did not become an obstacle to his involvement in Japan's geopolitical projects. Hybridity as an approach allows us to see that Kurbangalieva implemented traditional Muslim upbringing and education in a foreign cultural environment in which he continued to remain a Muslim and Bashkir, but also actively acted in the interests of Japan; to see how Kurbangaliev used his religious authority for Japan's political influence among Manchurian Muslims, for example, during the preparation and holding of the All-Manchurian Congress of Muslims In 1932, Conrad's methodology highlighted the chain of Kurbangaliev's changing identities. The transition of Kurbangaliev's status from "Bashkir rural imam" to "Great Imam of the Far East," from "leader of the Bashkir national movement" to "translator of Japanese pan-Asian geopolitics," from "agent of Japanese influence" to "political prisoner" in the USSR requires considering him through the prism of "multiple identities."

The methodological results include the creation of a multi-layered database combining spatial and attribute characteristics, including 204 locations and 507 personalities (Fig. 10).

10. Fragments of the database "From the Urals to Fuji" in Acces

The method of geochronological tracking has been tested through the available Google Map and Google Earth pro services for studying biographies of historical figures, reconstructing routes and networks of interactions. The database opens up opportunities for subsequent network analysis of Kurbangaliev's contacts with representatives of the White Movement, Japanese politicians and Muslim leaders. Thus, the combination of traditional historical methods with digital tools, along with the methodology of cross-border biographies and multiple identities, allowed not only to restore Kurbangaliev's biography, but also to fit it into the broader context of transnational processes of the 20th century. The work confirms the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of complex historical figures whose activities crossed the borders of states and cultures. The prospects of the work are related to the expansion of the database at the expense of Japanese and Chinese archives, as well as the use of network analysis to study the community of Russian immigrants in Asia. The research materials can be used in comparative studies on the history of emigration and adaptation of Russian Muslims in Asia.