Abstract
Soviet assistance allowed Sun Yatsen’s Nationalist Party to enjoy unprecedented consolidation and growth, to which the young Communists made a significant contribution within a short period of time. But after Sun’s death, the Nationalist Party broke up because of a lack of leadership and also because it was easy for Moscow’s representative to lead the party down an expected and unacceptable path. This inevitably produced strong resistance within the Nationalist Party and eventually led to a complete split with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The USSR was certainly the strongest supporter of the Nationalist Revolution. At the same time, it also initiated a process to destroy the Nationalist Revolution and to bring about a complete break between the Nationalist Party and the USSR and the CCP.
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Notes
- 1.
As for Li Dazhao’s admission to the Nationalist Party, Li Yunhan, based on the Public Relations Journal of the Nationalist Party’s Public Affairs Department, concludes that it took place in early February 1922. According to Li Dazhao’s own recollections, however, it occurred during Sun Yatsen’s 1922 stay in Shanghai. According to Maring’s notes, Li Dazhao went to Shanghai between August and September to attend the meeting at West Lake in Hangzhou that discussed intraparty cooperation with the Nationalist Party. Since Chen Duxiu and the others had joined the Nationalist Party immediately after the meeting, it is reasonable to believe that Li Dazhao was admitted to the Nationalist Party roughly at the same time.
- 2.
According to Maring’s notes, it was called the “Reorganization Committee of the Nationalist Party.”
- 3.
Among the 25 members of the Central Executive Committee, Tan Pingshan, Li Dazhao, and Yu Shude were CCP members. Among the 17 alternate members of the Central Executive Committee, Shen Dingyi, Lin Zuhan, Mao Zedong, Yu Fangzhou, Qu Qiubai, Han Lingfu, and Zhang Guotao were CCP members.
- 4.
The Standing Committee of the Central Executive Committee consisted of three members. Liao Zhongkai and Dai Jitao were Nationalist Party members and Tan Pingshan was a CCP member.
- 5.
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Party against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926.
- 6.
In addition to the 2 million rubles for assistance that was formally approved in May 1923, Moscow contributed 2.7 million Chinese yuan to the establishment of Huangpu Military Academy, and also provided a 10 million Chinese yuan loan to help stabilize finance in Guangzhou and to establish the Central Bank. See Martin Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen: Frustrated Patriot (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), pp. 148–209.
- 7.
The first batch of weapons finally approved for Feng Yuxiang by the Politburo of the AUCP (b) in October 1925 was about one-quarter of the initially proposed amount.
- 8.
C. Martin Wilbur, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920–1927 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), pp. 608–9.
- 9.
The Eastern Expeditions of 1925 in Guangdong province, including the campaign against Chen Jiongming’s forces in eastern Guangdong in March, the suppression of a revolt by Yunnan and Guangxi forces in June, and a second campaign against Chen Jiongming in October and November served as “defining moment” trends that would characterize the Nationalist military forces in the following decades.
- 10.
After the Wuhan split, Jiang Jieshi insisted that Galen either remain in his army or be returned to Russia with high honors. After the beginning of the war against Japan, Jiang Jieshi sent repeated requests to the Soviet Union asking that Galen be his chief military adviser.
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Yang, K. (2020). The Nationalist Revolution Assisted by the Soviet Union. In: Shen, Z. (eds) A Short History of Sino-Soviet Relations, 1917–1991. China Connections. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8641-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8641-1_2
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