Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek vs. Mao Zedong and the Communists
Chiang Kai-shek in a photograph taken circa 1966.
В previous article We talked about the origins and youth of Jiang Jieshi (Jiang Zhongzheng), better known in our country as Chiang Kai-shek, who managed to become the closest associate of the founder of the Kuomintang party Sun Yat-sen and his successor in this post, and then the de facto ruler of the Chinese Republic. Today we will continue this story.
Confrontation with the Communists
In 1927, the temporary alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China began to rapidly disintegrate. In March, Shanghai fell under communist control, angering Chiang Kai-shek. Having formed an alliance with a local criminal group, the Green Gang (which originated in the 12th century from a boatmen’s guild), he carried out a massacre in Shanghai on April XNUMX, killing between four and five thousand people. As a token of gratitude, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Du Yueshen, the leader of this gang, which made a lot of money from the drug trade, as chairman of the Opium Suppression Bureau.
Du Yueshen, nicknamed "Big-Ear Du"
The next day, the outraged Shanghai residents went out to demonstrate, which was shot at by bandits and Kuomintang fighters. All this became the reason for the rupture of diplomatic relations between China and the USSR (they were restored in 1932 – after the beginning of the Japanese aggression in Manchuria). And in China, a new civil war actually began. One of its victims was Mao Zedong’s second wife, Yang Kaihui, nicknamed Xia (“Little Dawn”) – the daughter of Mao’s favorite teacher at the First Pedagogical College.
Yan Kaihui
In October 1930, she and her son were captured by one of the Kuomintang military leaders, Onu Jian, who demanded that she publicly renounce her husband and the communists. The woman refused and, after many days of torture, was executed in Changsha on November 14, 1930. At that time, she was 29 years old. Her son Mao Anying survived and died many years later in the Korean War.
The communists did not accept defeat and in September 1931 they proclaimed a Soviet Republic in the territory of 10 regions of China under their control, with a population of several million people.
The Long March of the Chinese Communist Army
By 1934, the communists had managed to repel four punitive campaigns by Chiang Kai-shek's troops. Finally, in the spring of 4, the Kuomintang army, in order to deliver the final and decisive blow, headed for the capital of the unrecognized republic, the city of Ruijin. The communist leaders, led by Mao Zedong, decided to break through to the north, where they could hope for help from the USSR. 1934 soldiers of the Chinese Red Army remained to hold back the attacks of the enemy troops, and 16 set out on the famous Great (Long, Northwestern) March on the night of October 80, 10. It lasted a year and four days, and by December, the Chinese Red Army soldiers had fought their way through 1934 km of the most difficult mountain roads, overcoming four "lines of defense", the last of which was equipped under the supervision of German military engineers.
We remember that in 1924-1927, Chiang Kai-shek's chief military adviser was V.K. Blucher, to whom the NRA commander practically "prayed" at the time. Now, this role was filled by the German General Hans von Seeckt, one of the creators of the concept of maneuver warfare involving all branches of the armed forces. During World War I, he was for some time the Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Army, then became the Chief of the Reichswehr Ground Forces Directorate.
Hans von Seeckt
Chiang Kai-shek's entourage included other Germans, such as Walter Stennes, the former Oberführer of the Nazi storm troopers of the Ost district and deputy supreme leader of the SA for the Eastern district. Not long ago, Stennes had up to eight and a half thousand storm troopers under his command – in Berlin, Brandenburg, East Prussia and Pomerania.
Walter Stennes, photograph from the late 1920s - early 1930s.
He came into conflict with Hitler and other NSDAP leaders, whom he accused of wastefulness, arrogance and conceit, asking rhetorically:
"What is more important: soles for the boots of the SA members or a palace for the party bigwigs?"
Things reached an open clash with the SS units. Stennes was arrested, but released from prison at the request of his old acquaintance, Hermann Goering. After that, he decided to leave Vaterland. At first, he became the head of Chiang Kai-shek's security, then the head of the "European information service of the Generalissimo" (chief of intelligence), and later began to cooperate with representatives of the USSR.
But let us return to the detachments of the Chinese Red Army and see that only 30 thousand fighters who remained by that time entered the city of Zunyi in January 1935, where they managed to replenish supplies and receive reinforcements. Mao Zedong was appointed the chief political commissar of this army, and from that time on it was he who actually led this campaign. Here is a poem in the genre of "shi" (based on folk songs of the XNUMXnd-XNUMXth centuries) that he wrote at that time:
The Red Army is not afraid of a campaign.
What thousands of rivers and ice on the rocks?
Five steep slopes to her - like the rise of low waves.
She will pass through the Uman mountains,
The wave will not lead Jinsha astray,
The Dadu Bridge will not be burned through by the cold steel.
The Minshan Range in the snow behind -
Joy blossoms on our faces.
What thousands of rivers and ice on the rocks?
Five steep slopes to her - like the rise of low waves.
She will pass through the Uman mountains,
The wave will not lead Jinsha astray,
The Dadu Bridge will not be burned through by the cold steel.
The Minshan Range in the snow behind -
Joy blossoms on our faces.
In June 1935, Mao's army met with Zhang Guotao's detachment in Western Sichuan, who proposed to consolidate their position in the province. Mao did not agree, and the communist troops again separated. Guotao's western column was defeated in the autumn of 1936 by the allied forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the "Ma clique" (Xibei san Ma - military leaders of the Huizu people - "faithful, venerable Muslims", who controlled the provinces of Qinhai, Gansu and Ningxia from 1919 to 1949). After this defeat, Zhang Guotao went over to the side of the Kuomintang.
Mao Zedong's Eastern Column (about 10 people) headed north to Shanxi Province. Since Manchuria was occupied by the Japanese, the detachment was called the Anti-Japanese Vanguard. In turn, Chiang Kai-shek in September 1935 headed the specially created "Northwestern Headquarters for the Extermination of Communists". In mid-October 1935, having driven back the cavalrymen of one of the Kuomintang horse brigades, seven to eight thousand fighters of the Chinese Red Army completed the Long March in the city of Wayaobao. Of the veterans who set out on this march on October 10, 1934, no more than four thousand remained in this army.
Rally of Chinese Red Army soldiers after the end of the Long March
During this time of the “Great March”, they covered more than 10 thousand kilometers through the territories of 12 provinces, overcoming 18 mountain ranges and crossing 24 major rivers.
The Great March on the Map
Now the communist troops occupied the territory called the "Special Region of China".
It should be noted that this campaign greatly strengthened the authority of Mao Zedong in the Communist Party of China, who from that time on began to claim the role of leader. It was then, in 1935, that he was introduced to the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPC, and in 1943 he became the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Moreover, it was during the Long March that Mao came to the conclusion that the revolutionary struggle should be based on the peasantry (which contradicted the ideas of Marx and Engels), an idea he promoted in all subsequent years. And in 1947, the CPC Congress proclaimed that the party “in all its work is guided by the ideas of Mao Zedong” (and not by the ideas of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin!).
But what happened in China after the end of the Long March?
In 1936, Chiang Kai-shek's own generals rebelled against him, suddenly demanding to unite with the communists to fight the Japanese occupiers. Marshal Zhang Xueliang, the military governor of Fengtian Province, who commanded troops in Shaanxi, and General Yang Hucheng, who supported him, arrested Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an on December 13, 1936.
Zhang Xueliang in a photograph from 1928.
The leader of the Kuomintang was then effectively saved by Stalin, to whom the secretary of the USSR embassy in China, I. M. Oshanin, reported on a meeting with the acting head of the Chinese government, Kong Xiangxi. He stated:
"If Jiang Zhongzheng is killed, China will certainly rely on Japan, China's human and material resources will be given to Japanese militarists, and will become capital of aggression. This is a serious threat to Asia and the Soviet Union. I hope that the USSR will find a way to guarantee Jiang Zhongzheng's life. As for other issues, it will be possible to seek a solution over time."
Mao's loyal supporter Zhou Enlai became a mediator in the negotiations, but Chiang Kai-shek, although he cooperated with the communists, did not forgive the general. Zhang Xueliang's fate is simply astonishing: at the end of December, he was arrested and spent 40 years under house arrest, and Chiang Kai-shek did not forget about him, even when he was forced to flee to Taiwan - he took him with him to Taipei. The former marshal received the right to move freely only in 1991 - 16 years after Chiang Kai-shek's death.
Chiang Kai-shek was nevertheless forced to enter into a new alliance with the communists, but only after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945. Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, also supported such an alliance. The hero of the article received the title of Generalissimo of the Chinese Republic, and the USSR became the first and so far the only state at that time to provide China with military and financial assistance, the volume of which amounted to 1937 million dollars in 1942-122,5. Of the 4 military advisers and specialists sent to this country, 211 died, 14 pilots received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, six of them shot down 5 or more Japanese planes.
At the head of the Republic of China
So, since 1938, Chiang Kai-shek has officially headed the Kuomintang, and even the communists, led by Mao Zedong, recognized him as the ruler of China.
Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in a photograph from 1945.
It is curious that in the autumn of 1941, Chiang Kai-shek vainly warned Roosevelt of the Japanese intentions to strike Pearl Harbor (information was obtained from prisoners of war). The American president and his entourage then came to the conclusion that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to provoke a military conflict between Japan and the USA.
It was Chiang Kai-shek, and not de Gaulle, who was considered a member of the “big four” leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition countries – along with Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.
Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt and Churchill, Cairo, November 1943. The translator at this meeting was the second wife of the hero of the article, Song Meiling, who was described in first article
In October 1942, Great Britain and the United States declared the annulment of previously concluded unequal treaties with China, and at the end of 1943 – the need to return the islands of Taiwan and Penghu (which were ceded to Japan in 1895) to China, as well as its northeastern territories immediately after the end of World War II. All of these are unconditional diplomatic successes of Chiang Kai-shek. Incidentally, it was the Chinese Republic (Taiwan), headed by him, that occupied a seat on the UN Security Council until October 25, 1971.
Chiang Kai-shek in a photograph from 1945.
Chiang Kai-shek's decision to refuse reparations from defeated Japan was controversial.
Defeat of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang in Mainland China
However, the rivalry between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China resumed, and the people's sympathies turned to the Communists. In mid-1946, a new civil war began, the denouement coming in April 1949, when Mao Zedong's troops crossed the Yangtze, occupying Wuhan and Nanjing. At Chiang Kai-shek's request, the Americans began evacuating his supporters to the large tropical island of Taiwan (its former common name, given to it by the Portuguese, was Formosa, "Beautiful"). It is separated from mainland China by the strait of the same name, the width of which varies from 127 to 224 km.
Taiwan on the map
It should be noted that this partially recognized state includes 86 more small islands. The total area of the state is 36,6 thousand square kilometers (including all the islands), of which 35,5 thousand square kilometers is the area of the island of Taiwan. Is this a lot or a little? Let's compare it with other countries. The area of another island state, Jamaica, is 10 square kilometers, Belgium - 991 square kilometers, Moldova - 30 square kilometers, the Netherlands - 528 square kilometers. And the area of the Russian Yaroslavl region is 33 square kilometers.
Dictator of Taiwan
It is believed that between one and a half and two million people moved to Taiwan in total, and on October 1, 1949, the Republic of China was proclaimed here. Chiang Kai-shek himself arrived here on December 10, 1949, taking all the valuables of the state treasury. The native population of the island was not happy with the newcomers, especially the new Kuomintang officials, and at the end of February 1947, an uprising began in Taiwan, which was suppressed with great difficulty only a month later. In this process, between 10 and 30 people were killed. On the orders of Chiang Kai-shek, martial law was introduced in Taiwan on May 20, 1949, which remained in effect for over 38 years. But we will talk about this in more detail in the next article.
Chiang Kai-shek in a photograph from 1950.
Mao Zedong planned to attack Taiwan in the second half of 1950 and counted on the help of the USSR, but the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR N. Bulganin told the Prime Minister of the PRC Zhou Enlai, who had arrived in Moscow:
"We cannot take direct part in this operation. We have criticized and continue to criticize the Americans for their interference in China's internal affairs. We do not want to find ourselves in such a situation. If we take direct part in the operation, it will be considered as direct interference in China's internal affairs, which is not to our advantage. Our participation can only be expressed in providing instructors, equipment, and giving our advice. If, of course, you wish it."
At this time, 3600 Soviet military advisers and specialists were operating in China.
May 21, 1950 Chief of Staff of the Group of Forces Defense In Shanghai, Guards Colonel Vysotsky, based on aerial reconnaissance data, approved a detailed map of Taiwan indicating possible landing sites on the island and ship approaches to it; specialists from the Soviet General Staff carried out calculations for a “landing operation of Chinese troops on Formosa.”
But on June 25, 1950, the Korean War began, in which the PRC army also took an active part. In addition, the Americans brought ships of their Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait. fleet. And in December 1954, a treaty on mutual defense was signed between Taiwan (the “Republic of China”) and the United States, and in January 1955, the American Congress gave the president permission to use force if necessary to defend Taiwan and “associated positions and territories.”
By the way, in the USSR Taiwan was often called the “unsinkable aircraft carrier of the USA.”
In June 1954, Taiwan committed a daring provocation by seizing the Soviet tanker Tuapse and its crew (125 people) in the South China Sea 49 miles from Taiwan. Among the hundreds of Taiwanese soldiers who boarded the tanker were Americans, who are believed to have led the operation. The Soviet sailors managed to disable the engines, but their ship was taken in tow and brought to the port of Kaohsiung.
Unable to bear the abuse, 20 Soviet sailors asked for political asylum, some of them later returned to the USSR. The more resilient crew members arrived home in July 1955 and were even honored with a meeting with the highest leaders of the state – N. Khrushchev, A. Mikoyan, K. Voroshilov and N. Bulganin: earlier, polar explorers were greeted in this way, then – cosmonauts. In addition to state awards, the returning sailors received a year’s salary, bonuses and vouchers to a Crimean sanatorium. Based on these events, the film “ChP – Chrezvychaynoye Proisheshestvie” was shot in 1958, which, with over 47 million tickets sold, became the leader of the film distribution in 1959 (in this film, the Soviet tanker “Tuapse” changed its name to “Poltava”).
The capture of a Soviet tanker in the film "Ch.P. - An emergency"
Crisis in Soviet-Chinese relations
The deterioration of relations between the USSR and the People's Republic of China and the improvement of relations between the PRC and the United States led, among other things, to a reduction in tensions between mainland China and Taiwan.
The first blow to the traditionally friendly relations between the USSR and China was Khrushchev’s infamous report on the “cult of personality,” delivered at the 9th Congress of the CPSU. On October 1957, XNUMX, at the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong declared:
"First of all, we have disagreements with Khrushchev on the issue of Stalin. We do not agree that he is dragging Stalin into the mud. After all, he is denigrating Stalin to the point of disgrace. And this concerns not only one of their countries, but all countries."
He was absolutely right: with his report, Khrushchev dealt a blow not only to Stalin, but also to the international authority of the USSR and the entire world communist movement.
Sinologist B. T. Kulik wrote on this matter:
"The refusal of the CPC leadership to follow Khrushchev on the issue of the Stalin cult was not caused by Mao Zedong's tendency to self-aggrandizement, but by more fundamental and understandable motives... Unlike Khrushchev and his associates, the CPC leadership was able to understand that, objectively, by aiming at Stalin, they were shooting at socialism."
By the way, people who grew up in the USSR probably remember a popular joke from those years:
"Why was Khrushchev fired? For the seven "K's": cult, communism (which he promised to build by 1980), corn, China, the Cuban crisis and Kuzkina mother."
The Chinese communists later acted much more intelligently. Deng Xiaoping declared:
"We cannot allow ourselves to be overly critical of Comrade Mao's mistakes. To do so and to try to denigrate Comrade Mao is to try to denigrate our Party and our country."
Khrushchev's resignation did not lead to an improvement in Soviet-Chinese relations. Mao Zedong wrote about Brezhnev and his entourage:
"This is the same Khrushchev ensemble. The political careers of its central figures are inextricably linked with Khrushchev."
But let's return to the turbulent 50s of the XNUMXth century.
In August 1958, the PLA began shelling and bombing the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen and Matsu, and in September President Eisenhower announced his intention to use tactical nuclear weapons. weapon. The Soviet leadership condemned this statement, but the USSR Foreign Minister A. Gromyko, who arrived in Beijing, informed Mao that Moscow was not prepared to intervene in China’s armed conflict with the United States of America. Further escalation was avoided, but the Soviet leaders realized that Mao Zedong and his comrades wanted to drag the USSR into a war with the United States – even a nuclear one. And they began to take more seriously the words spoken by Mao at a joint meeting of the communist and workers’ parties in Moscow in November 1957. Mao Zedong then stated:
"Can we guess how many human victims a future war might cause? Perhaps it will be one third of the 2700 million people in the world, i.e. only 900 million people. I think that is still too little, if atomic bombs are really dropped. Of course, that is very scary. But it would not be so bad if half of humanity were destroyed, then half would still remain, but imperialism would be completely destroyed and there would be only socialism in the world."
And in Beijing, after the August crisis of 1958, they began to consider the Soviet leaders "margarine communists" and in October rejected the proposal to build a Soviet submarine base and a radar tracking station in China. The Soviet Union, in turn, refused previous agreements in the nuclear sphere, and in 1960, technical specialists working in China were recalled. After the Cuban missile crisis, China openly called the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba as adventurism, and their withdrawal as “capitulation.” In 1963, an appeal from the Chinese leadership was sent to Moscow outlining 25 points on which the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China differed from the position of the Soviet leadership.
Soviet-Chinese relations were rapidly deteriorating. The CPC leadership now put forward a new foreign policy concept, the essence of which was expressed in the idiom "sitting on a mountain and watching the fight of two tigers" (the USSR and the USA).
In 1965, the term “threat from the North” was already in full use in China; in October 1968, Zhou Enlai declared that “anything can be expected from the USSR, including an attack on China”; in 1969, Mao Zedong accused the USSR of “social imperialism.”
In March 1969, fighting for Damansky Island began (and lasted for two weeks), then for another five months armed clashes occurred every now and then along the entire perimeter of the Soviet-Chinese border. But relations between China and the United States began to "warm" literally before our eyes. In July 1971, a meeting was held between the head of the Chinese government Zhou Enlai and Henry Kissinger, on October 25, 1971, the United States even agreed to transfer a seat on the UN Security Council from Taiwan to China, and at the end of February 1972, President Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing on an official visit. All restrictions on trade with China were lifted, and by 1976, China's total trade turnover with capitalist countries was 3,2 times higher than the volume of trade with socialist countries. And in 1979, the United States officially established diplomatic relations with the PRC – and, accordingly, formally severed them with its long-standing partner and ally, Taiwan (but, of course, retained close informal ties). One way or another, all this contributed to the reduction of tensions in relations between China and Taiwan.
In the next article we will continue and finish our story about Chiang Kai-shek and the Republic of China (Taiwan) he led.
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