Abstract

What did the Second World War mean for the Kazakh people? Was it part of the Soviet Great Patriotic War, the broader anti-fascist struggle, the Chinese War of Resistance against Japan, or a distinct struggle for survival? This paper rethinks these questions by examining the largely overlooked history of Kazakhs on the Chinese Front between 1937 and 1945. It focuses on how this transnational ethnic group navigated multiple political and military contexts, making contingent choices within a “non-native” wartime environment.Existing research has primarily centered on Kazakh participation in the Soviet war effort and the mobilization of Central Asian populations, while more recent studies have begun to recover Kazakh wartime experiences. However, Kazakh involvement in the Chinese Front remains insufficiently explored. In response, it conceptualizes Kazakhs on the Chinese Front as a unified analytical subject and situates their wartime trajectories within overlapping historical spheres of China, the Soviet Union, and Mongolia. Drawing on transnational ethnohistory, borderland studies, and identity-based approaches, the study highlights how wartime conditions reshaped ethnic identity, political alignment, and forms of participation.Methodologically, the research integrates archival materials, oral histories, semi-structured interviews, and transnational textual sources to reconstruct these fragmented experiences. By examining how Kazakhs engaged with competing ideological and political forces, this paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of World War II beyond state-centered narratives and offers a new perspective on transnational ethnic agency in times of global conflict.