This is the story of the Long March of the Communist Party leadership and the Red Army from South China to Northwest China. The source is mainly Harrison Salisbury's book The Long March. Salisbury's book is a very good book that well conveys the drama of the Long March and its three struggles:

• 1. the Red Army with the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-shek
• 2. the Red Army with the elements and terrain of western China
• 3. the factions within the Red Army with each other.

The latter struggle was primarily between the Mao Zedong faction and the Communist International (Comintern) faction led by the man Joseph Stalin imposed as a condition for aiding the communists, Otto Braun. There was also a power struggles between the First Army led by Mao Zedong and the Fourth Army led by Zhang Guotao. Salisbury is sympathetic to Mao but his book is objective and well worth reading.

Background

Both the Communist Party and the Guomindang (Nationalist) Party were created around 1920 and had a socialist orientation. The Guomindang although it had a socialist orientation was primarily concerned with establishing a nation state. This meant suppressing the numerous warlords and uniting China. The Guomindang needed financial aid to achieve this and it was not going to get such aid from the imperialist powers. The founder and leader of the Guomindang, Sun Yatsen, sought and received aid from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union not only sent material aid, it also sent advisors, Michael Borodin and Otto Braun. The latter was a German Communist representing the Communist International, the Comintern. The Soviet Union also required that the Guomindang admit to its membership the members of the Communist Party of China.

The Communists worked within the Guomindang during the early and middle 1920's. The arrangement appeared to work well. Chiang Kai-shek directed the Whampoa Military Academy and Zhou Enlai served as the political officer for that academy. Chiang Kai-shek went to Moscow for training and later sent his son, Chiang Ching-guo, to Moscow.

The trouble came when Sun Yat-sen died of cancer in 1925. It was uncertain who would succeed him as leader of the Guomindang. After a short period of political maneuvering Chiang Kai-shek emerged as the leader. The Guomindang actually split at this time into two factions, a left faction headed by Chiang Kai-shek who accepted continued cooperation with the Communists and a right faction which opposed such cooperation.

After consolidating his hold on the Guomindang Chiang Kai-shek organized a northern expedition to defeat the many warlords who controlled local areas of northern China.

Chiang's Northern Expedition of 1926-27 was a great success. Thirty nine war lords were defeated. The Northern Expedition then moved to Shanghai. The Communist-dominated labor unions staged an uprising prior to the entry of Chiang's army into the city. This uprising established a city government without Chiang's approval. This and other actions by the Communists within the Guomindang led Chiang to fear the Communists were following their own agenda and were striving for control. Chiang's followers turned upon the Communists in Shanghai and massacred them. A similar slaughter and purge of the Communists within the Guomindang throughout other parts of China took place shortly afterwards.

Those that could escaped and joined the rural communist centers in South China. The major rural Communist strongholds were in the rural areas of Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces. There were also strongholds in the more remote provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi. In the Jiangxi Soviet, as it was called, Mao Zedong was a major leader.

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong came from the clan village of Shaoshan in Hunan Province. He was born at the end 1893 and was notably older than the other Communist leaders. His family was moderately well-to-do, land-owning peasants. Mao's grandfather had lost the family farm to money lenders but Mao's father had got it back and had moved upward into trade and money lending. Mao's father wanted his son Zedong educated in order to be better able to handle the family businesses. In the village school Mao learned basic literacy and the Chinese classics from age seven to twelve. At age 13 Mao's father felt he had an adequate education and ended his schooling to have him work fulltime on the family farm. Mao's mother, a kind, hard-working woman who was a devout Buddhist, was a stronger influence on Mao Zedong than his hard-driving father.

Mao rebelled against his father and left the family to study at a higher primary school in a nearby county. He later then went on to Changsha Normal School in the provincial capital of Changsha at about age eighteen. At Changsha Normal he became acquainted with the writings of political revolutionaries, Western as well as Chinese. He was particularly impressed by the writings of Sun Yat-sen. Incidentally Mao first heard of America when reading a short biography of George Washington.

The revolution against the Qing Empire was finally successful in 1911, after four failed attempts. Mao joined the army of revolution and was a soldier for six months. But the success of the revolution brought a demobilization of the army and drifted from one pursuit to another uncertain of the what career he should prepare for. He graduated from Changsha Normal School and went to Beijing. He worked as an assistant librarian at Beijing University where he read and participated in some student organizations that gave him his first experience in political organizing.

Sun Yat-sen and his political organization was not as successful in gaining control of China as they had been in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. The period from 1912 to 1919 saw China falling under the control of local warlords. Sun Yat-sen relinquished the presidency of the Chinese Republic to a man who had been a Qing Empire official but who secured the abdication of the Emperor. Sun Yat-sen felt this man would be best able to unify China. Instead that man sought to make himself the new emperor and also sought to exterminate Sun Yat-sen and his party.

The year 1919 saw a renewal of Sun Yat-sen's political organization. In that year the Allies of World War I chose to grant the German Concession in China to Japan rather than returning it to Chinese control. This sparked violent protests. Sun Yat-sen organized a political party called Guomindang (Nationalist Party). The ideological roots of the Guomindang are a bit uncertain but there was an emphasis on nationalism and socialism. Mao was in Beijing at the time of the protests, the May Fourth (1919) Movement. In July of 1919 Mao wrote an editorial which said,

Mao Zedong

In the summer of 1919 Mao left Beijing to organize opposition to Japan among students, workers and merchants in Jiangxi Province in southern China. The fact that peasants were not at this time considered to have revolutionary potential reflected the influence of Marxism. Mao talked and wrote about the Soviet experience but he did not commit himself to Marxism until 1921. Mao differed from the other Communist leaders in that he did not travel to Western Europe or Moscow for study. He moved toward a focus on the Chinese countryside and the peasants. However much this focus on the peasants was at variance with orthodox Marxism, Mao instincts still directed him unerringly to greatest reservoir of revolutionary potential in China.

Zhou Enlai

As most who observed him must have suspected, Zhou Enlai came from an upper class, gentry background. He was born in 1898 in Huaian in Jinagsu Province which is north of Shanghai. He was raised by his uncle in Shaoxin in Zhejiang Province which is south of Shanghai. Zhou graduated from a secondary school in Tianjin and then went to Japan for further study in 1917. He returned from Japan in 1919, just in time to be involved in the May Fourth Movement. He was arrested in 1920 and upon his release he left China to go to France for study. While in France he participated in the founding, along with Ho Chi Minh, of the Communist Party of France. Later, when the Communist Party of China was formed in 1921 in Shanghai Zhou joined it.

Zhou returned to China in 1924. Sun Yat-sen had asked for aid from the Soviet Union and received it on the condition that the members of the Chinese Communist Party could join the Guomindang (Nationalist Party). So Zhou returned to China during the era of cooperation between the Guomindang and the Communist Party. Zhou became the political officer at the Whampoa Military Academy, which was under Chiang Kai-shek command.

Chang Kai-shek led a Northern Expedition to subdue the warlords of North China. Chiang was able to defeat thirty some war lords. Chiang then led his armies to Shanghai. Zhou had gone to Shanghai in advance of the Northern Expedition and organized an insurrection in Shanghai. Chiang at that time decided that his Communist Allies were pursuing their own agenda and could not be trusted. Chiang turned against the Communists and had them slaughtered in Shanghai and in the cities around China. Zhou barely escaped. He went to Wuhan where he was elected to the Politburo (Political Bureau) of the Chinese Communist Party.

Zhou helped organize Communist insurrections in the cities but the Nationalist Army soon put them down. Zhou escaped and traveled to Moscow in 1928. He returned to Shanghai from Moscow but in 1931 had to flee. He traveled to Jiangxi Province where Mao Zedong, along with Zhu De, had organized a rural enclave called a Soviet. In 1932 the rest of the Communist organization in Shanghai followed Zhou to Jiangxi. Zhou became the political commissar of the Red Army which had been created in the Jiangxi Soviet by Mao Zedong and Zhu De.

Moscow had sent a representative of the Comintern (Communist International) to the Jiangxi Soviet. He was a German Communist named Otto Braun. He took the Chinese name of Li De. Otto Braun was supposed to have had some military experience as a street fighter in Europe, but his skill as a military is very doubtful. Li De, though political maneuvering came into control of the Red Army in the Jiangxi Soviet. The control of the Red Army was vested in a three member committee, a troika. The three members of the committee were Otto Braun, Zhou Enlai and a Chinese Communist named Bo Gu who had been trained in Moscow. Bo Gu always supported Otto Braun giving him a two-to-one majority over Zhou Enlai so Otto Braun effectively controlled the Red Army. So Mao, who was a genius in political and military strategy, was pushed aside in favor of Otto Braun, someone without any abilities at all to speak of, because of the slavish support of the Chinese Communists who had been to Moscow. Harrison Salisbury speaks disparagingly of the Chinese Bolsheviks who had gone to Moscow and had been stuffed full of "Marxist gibberish" like "Peking ducks." Although Zhou had gone to Moscow he was not one of the slavish Chinese Bolsheviks that supported Otto Braun.

Mao did monstrous things to the Chinese people with his Great Leap Forward and his Cultural Revolution but there is no doubt that he was extraordinarily skilled in political and military strategy. Mao may have been incompetent at choosing economic policies once in power but it is no hyperbole to say that Mao was a genius at guerilla warfare. In the Long March it was the heighth of stupidity to take control away from Mao who was unsurpassed at guerilla warfare and give it to Otto Braum who was a complete dunce in the matter. Sensibly the leadership was returned to Mao by the top officers.

Liu Shaoqi

Liu Shaoqi came from the same region and more or less the same social background as Mao Zedong. Liu was born in Hunan Province in 1898, the youngest son of a rich peasant landowner. Although Mao was also the son of a moderately well-to-do landowner there seemed to be a definite class difference between Liu and Mao in terms of demeanor and style. Liu seemed to be from a wealthier class than Mao.

Liu attended middle school in Ch'angsha, the capital of Hunan, but he journeyed to North China to study French. In 1920 he joined a socialist youth group and subsequently went to Moscow for further study. In Moscow he joined the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1922 Liu returned to China and became active in labor organizing for the Communist Party. He served for period as an aide to Mao. As well as organizing strikes Liu was also active in Communist Party organizational structure, receiving appointments a number of positions in the Party hierarchy.

This was the period of cooperation between the Goumindang (Nationalist Party) and the Communist Party. The cooperation ended abruptly in April of 1927 when Chiang Kai-shek struck against the Party, attempting to exterminate the Communist Party. Liu survived and moved up further in the Party hierarchy. After assignments in Manchuria and elsewhere he moved to Shanghai, where Party activity continue despite Guomindang persecution. The persecution of the Communist Party in Shanghai and other cities finally drove the Party to the rural soviets such as the one organized by Mao in Jiangxi Province.

In 1934 Liu was made a member of the Politburo for the Jiangxi Soviet. Soon afterwards the Party decided to evacuate the area in what became known as the Long March. Liu did not join the Long March but instead journeyed to Beijing to carry on Party activities for North China.

In 1939 Liu joined the survivors of the Long March in Yenan.

Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping was born in Sichuan Province in 1904 and hence about a half a generation younger than Mao Zedong. Deng's family was of Hakka background, the ethnic minority that migrated from North China to South China in the seventeenth century and were known as the guest people. The Hakka tended to be involved more in migration, business and radical politics than the rest of the Han people. Deng himself traveled to France at the early age of sixteen. He went there to study but spent most of his time working to support himself. Among other things, he worked as a machinist. He also joined the communist movement. After 1924 he traveled to the Soviet Union. He was in the Soviet Union until 1926 when he returned to China to work in the Jiangxi Soviet under Mao. Deng served as a political and military officer in the Communist Party organization in the Jiangxi Soviet, but he had more than his share of political problems. Before the Long March he was dismissed from his Party offices and publicly denounced. He was placed under armed guard. His wife divorced him.

Deng commenced the Long March without much official status, but he was a strong supporters of Mao and when Mao rose in power during the Long March Deng returned to power along with Mao.

Peng Dehuai

Peng Dehuai came to prominence within the Communist hierarchy by way of a different route than most of the other leaders. Peng was born in Hunan Province in 1898. He did not join the Communist movement at an early age nor did he go to France. Instead Peng pursued a military career in the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-shek. He was a general in that army when Chiang decided to exterminate the Communist elements. Peng left the Nationalist Army and became a Communist in 1928. He led guerilla movements and Mao made him one of his senior military officers. Peng was one of the top generals in the Long March.

Peng was one of top commanders in the war against the Japanese and the Civil War that followed World War II. Peng commanded the Chinese troops in the Korean War.

Peng was the Minister of National Defense of China from 1954 to 1959. When the Great Leap Forward was launched Peng recognized that it was not working. At a Communist Party Congress at Lushan in 1959 Peng submitted a letter raising questions about the wisdom of the Great Leap Forward. Mao Zedong treated Peng's constructive criticism of the Great Leap Forward as treason and had Peng denounced as a counter-revolutionary. Peng was removed from office and retired from public life. During the Cultural Revolution Peng was arrested and interrogated. He was beaten to make him confess to crimes imagined by the radicals but Peng never broke, even when he was close to death.

(To be continued.)