The+Long+March-

Key Terms: toc
 * The Communist Party || This party was founded in 1921. The Communist party fought against the Guomindang during the Chinese Civil War. ||
 * Mao Zedong || Leader of the Communist party from 1943-1976. ||
 * The Guomindang Party || This party was founded in 1912 by Dr. Sun Yet-Sen. Was first cooperative with the Communist party however after Chaing Kai-shek came into power there was open civil war between the Communist and KMT party. ||
 * Chiang Kai-shek || Leader of the Goumingdang party from 1938-1975. ||
 * Red Army || Red army was formed after Mao during 1928. This army include 12,000 peasants who supported Mao. They followed Mao to the Hunan-Jianxi border during the long march. ||
 * The Long March || The Long March lasted 368 days crossed over 9,000 kilometers of land starting on October 1934 and ended on October 1935. ||

According to a poem by Mao Zedong:

//The Red Army, never fearing the challenging Long March,// //Looked lightly on the many peaks and rivers,// //Wu Meng's range rose, lowered, rippled,// //And green-tiered were the rounded steps of Wu Meng// //Warm-beating the Gold Sand River's// //waves against the rocks,// //And cold the iron chains of Tatu bridge,// //A thousand joyous li of fresh snow on Min Shan// //And then, the last pass vanquished, the Armies smiled.//



= Background Information = The Communist Party and the Guomindang party were created around 1920 with both parties having different ideas of governance. Both parties however had a common goal which was suppressing the numerous warlords and uniting China. During the early years the Guomindang, founded by Sun Yatsen, found itself in need of financial aid from imperialist powers. The Soviet Union lent financial aid and also sent advisers, Michael Borodin and Otto Braun. However by accepting the Soviet aid, the Soviet union also required that the Guomindang admit its membership to the Communist Party of China. During the early years, relations between the Communists and Guomindang went smoothly. Even Chiang Kai-shek, future leader of the Guomindang, went to Moscow for training and his also. In 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of cancer and the party was unsure of who would succeed him as leader of the Guomindang. Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the leader of the party after a short period of political maneuvering. Chiang Kai-shek's first plan as leader was to organize a northern expedition to defeat the warlords who controlled the areas of northern China. The expedition of 1926-1927 was a great success with 39 warlords defeated.



The expedition then continued to Shanghai where where a communist uprising was staged prior to the entry of the army. Then without Chiang's approval the uprising established a city government causing the Guomindang to fear that the Communists were striving for control of China. The army then turned on the Communists in Shanghai and slaughtered them. Other Communist slaughters within the Guomindang also occurred after wards. The people who escaped then joined the communist centers in Southern China with major Communist strongholds in the areas of Jiangxi and Hunan provinces. Mao Zedong was the major leader of the communists in Jiangxi Soviet.



= Mao Zedong(Mao Tse-Tung) 1893-1976 =

Mao Zedong was born during 1893, in China from the village of Shaoshan within the Hunan Province. His family was considered to be fairly well off peasants owning land. Mao was educated in basic literacy and Chinese classics since his father wanted him to be educated in order to handle family businesses later on. His education lasted from the age of 7 to 12 and ended at the age of 13 when his father decided that he had enough education and had him work full time on the farm. Mao then rebelled against his father and left the family to study for higher education at a higher primary school. Then at the age of 18 he went to the Changsha Normal School in the provincial capital of Changsha. At this school, he was influenced and impressed by a number of Western and Chinese writings of political revolutionaries such as the leader of the Guomindang, Sun Yat-sen. Mao's early career was as a soldier in the revolutionary army (Guomindang Army) which succeeded in overthrowing the Qing Empire in 1911 after four failed attempts. After the revolution he became an assistant librarian at Beijing University where he participated in student organizations giving him a taste of political organization. Mao was influenced and committed to Marxism in 1921 and he was not given training in Moscow or West Europe unlike the other Communist leaders. Mao's ideas were also different from the other Communist leaders due to the fact that he believed that rural Chinese peasants were the base of the Communist party's base. Which meant that they were an important factor in Communism.

= The Chinese Civil War 1927-1949 = "After Chiang Kai-shek came into power, he established a unified government in Nanjing in April 1927." Chian was opposed to the idea of the continuing collaboration between the KMT and Communists. The continued collaboration to unify China from the feudal warlords and the Japanese ended in April 1927 when the KMT attacked the Communists. Urban insurrections were organized by the Communists however they were unsuccessful against the might of the KMT. Many of the Communist parties went to rural strongholds such as the Jiangxi Soviet run by Mao Zedong. The conflict between the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and the KMT soon became the first phase of the Chinese Civil War.The Chinese Soviet Republic was established in provinces of Jianxi and Fujian. There were four attempts by the KMT to defeat the Communists however they were repelled by forces led by Mao. However in September 1933, the National Revolutionary Army led by Chiang Kai-shek completely encircled Jiangxi with the help of a German adviser, Hans von Seeckt. d

= The Long March 1934-1935 = - During the autumn of 1933, the Guomindang launched a counter-offensive against the Communist party. German general Hans von Seeckt was the adviser of the Guomindang since Germany was severely against the idea of Communism. He proposed that the Guomindang troops to surround the Jiangxi province and slowly advancce surrounding the province. 500,000 Guomindang troops advanced and built trenches and blockhouses to provide protection for the advancing troops. The purpose of this plan was to starve the Communist army to death. The Communist lost 50% of the territory they had controlled in 1933 and 60,000 soldiers were killed in 12 months. In 1934, leaders of the party forced Mao from the Politburo of the Communist Party and placed him under house arrest since they were discontented by him. Zhou Enlai then replaced Mao as the leader of the military commission while the Chinese Red Army was commanded by a three man committee. Li De (Russian Agent), the Comintern military advisor Bo Gu, and Zhou Enlai were part of this committee. Mao's hit and run mobile tactics were abandoned and was replaced with direct engagements with the Kuomintang army. The idea of confrontation was proposed by Braun. The Communist were not as well-equipped and trained as the Nationalist Army which caused heavy casualties and loss of supplies and territory.By August 1934, a spy placed by Zhou within the KMT informed him that Chiang Kai-shek was preparing for a major offensive on Ruijin, the Communist capital.



After hearing news of a major offensive, Braun proposed the idea of a full-scale retreat from Jiangxi to the Hunan base were another Communist army was based there. The retreat started in October 1934 and was called the Long March. The Red Army started the march and carried various items such as typewriters, furniture, and other non-military equipment with them. 33,000 guns were also taken and roughly 2 million cartridges were brought along. The time for the Red Army to get through the line of defenses built by the KMT was 40 days and after they had gone passed that area, they were attacked at Xiang. This battle became known as the Battle of Xiang and was bloody battle with the Communist suffering a lost of 45,000 men which was half of the men they brought along. The result of the ambush was because of Braun's poor strategy which was to go in a straight line which made the KMT able to predict their movements. Braun was then blamed for the failings and in January 1935, control of the Red Army was given to Mao. New tactics were used making the Red Army become unpredictable because as they mobilized from Xiang they used complex and twisting movement patterns to make prediction nearly impossible for the KMT. The Red Army was also divided into small factions to make them harder to find. Mao also set a new course for the army to travel to the Shaanxi province to the north of China. The path which lead to the Shaanxi province from the south was set in a very harsh environment.



The Red Army had to cross Mountains near the Himalayas and some of the highest mountains in the world. Hundreds of lives were also lost in deep marshes. Starvation and the cold also claimed thousands of lives. Along the way, the Red Army was also constantly ambushed by warlords residing in the north hindering their movement and man power. At one point, the soldiers in the army had nothing to eat so they consumed leather from their shoes and other clothing. They boiled the leather until it was soft enough to be consumed. By October 1935, less than 10,000 men made it to the Shaanxi province out of 87,000 soldiers. The march had crossed over 9,000 kilometers of land and had taken 368 days. "The long March is considered one of the greatest physical feats of the Twentieth Century.





=Video:=

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=Bloom's Questions:=

What would happen to the Communist party during the Long March if the Red Army never exist? What is the different between the Guomindang party and the Communist Party? What would happen if the Communists follow Mao's advise instead of following Russian agents to full frontal attacks the Guomindang? Who do you think is the most responsible for the communist failure? Do you think it's worth it to go around the yunan border to reach the Yunan basement? Compare and Contrast Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai Shek.

= Challenge Question: = __ Compare and Contrast the fall of the Provisional Government with the retreat of Jiangxi Soviet.__ The Provisional Government fell during the October revolution which was from October 25-26. The Communists in the Jiangxi province were also almost defeated when the KMT surrounded them and it looked like all was lost. The retreat of the Communists and the fall of the Provisional Government is similar in some ways since they were both losing. The Provisional Government and Communists (when Li De proposed frontal confrontation) also rallied troops to fight back their enemies and the battles were lost. However the outcomes for the Provisional Government and Chinese Communists weren't the same since when Alexander Kerensky rallied troops to fight against the Bolsheviks he lost while the Communists also lost during the frontal assaults, but were able to escape the wrath of the KMT and flank them to go to the Communist base in the north. Alexander Kerensky went into hiding after that however the Chinese Communists did not give up and found a way to escape. However the casualty cost of the Communist retreat was very high being around 160,000 men and a tremendous amount of supplies. They were are also different due to the fact that the peasants and middle class looked at the Communists after the Long March was done as heroes while the low and middle class in Russia hated the Provisional Government.

= Links: =

[|Pre-Communist China and China under Communist Rule]

Unit Two - The Rise of Communism

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