in south-eastern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. The descendants of these rebels and refugees still live in Kyrgyzstan and neighboring parts of Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. They still call themselves the Hui people (Huizu), but to the outsiders they are known as Dungan, which means Eastern Gansu in Chinese. After the Sino-Soviet split, Soviet propaganda writers such as Rais Abdulkhakovich Tuzmukhamedov called the Dungan revolt (1862–1877) a "national liberation movement" for their political purposes. Increase in Hui military power The revolt increased the power of Hui Generals and military men in the Qing Empire. Many Hui Generals who served in the campaign were promoted by the Emperor, including Ma Anliang, and Dong Fuxiang. This led Hui armies to fight again in the Dungan Revolt (1895) against the rebels, and in the Boxer Rebellion against Christian Western Armies. The Muslim Gansu braves and Boxers, attacked and killed Chinese Christians in revenge for foreign attacks on Chinese, and were the fiercest attackers during the siege of the legations from 20 June to 14 August 1900. Dungan rebels were known to avoid attacking Christians and people took refuge in Christian churches. Some, therefore, attribute the mass increase of Catholics and Protestant population along the west bank of yellow river in Gansu and Shanxi to people who sought refuge in churches. Ma Fuxiang, Ma Qi, and Ma Bufang were descendants of the Hui military men from this era, and they became important and high ranking Generals in the Republic of China National Revolutionary Army. These pro-Qing Hui warlords rose to power by their fighting against Muslim rebels. The sons of the defected Muslim warlords of the Dungan Revolt (1862–77) helped the Qing crush the Muslim rebels in the Dungan Revolt (1895–96). Border dispute with Russia After General Zuo Zongtang and his Xiang Army crushed the rebels, they demanded Russia return the city of Kuldja in Xinjiang, which they had occupied. Zuo was outspoken in calling for war against Russia and hoped to settle the matter by attacking Russian forces in Xinjiang. In 1878, tensions in the area increased. Zuo massed Qing troops toward the Russian occupied Kuldja. Chinese forces also fired on Russian expeditionary forces originating from Yart Vernaic, expelling them, which resulted in a Russian retreat. The Russians were in a very bad diplomatic and military position vis-a-vis China. Russia feared the threat of military conflict, which forced them into diplomatic negotiations instead.