CCP Retreat to the Countryside, 1927-1935

Failure of Communist Revolution in Cities

GMD-CCP Split, April 12, 1927

Suppression of workers and CCP

Failed uprisings under orders from Stalin and CCP underground leadership in Shanghai

Nanchang Uprising, August 1, 1927

Changsha "Autumn Harvest Uprising," Sept. 7, 1927

Canton Uprising, Dec. 11, 1927

CCP Retreat to the Countryside

*Mao Zedong

Changsha uprising, Sept. 1927

Jinggang Mountains, Oct. 1927

Zhu De

*Jiangxi Soviet (Base Area), late in 1928

Ruijin

Why was the GMD government unable to prevent a nascent communist insurgency in these base areas?

Topographical Map of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Fujian Provinces

Mao-Centered View of CCP Rural Strategy

Secure territorial base
Mass support of peasantry
Self-sufficiency
Guerrilla warfare

“The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.” (Spence, Search for Modern China, p. 369)

How does Averill's article "Party, Society, and Local Elite in the Jiangxi Communist Movement" challenge the Mao-centered view of the origins of the communist activism in the rural highlands of Jiangxi Province?

Mao learns how to lead

Organize and motivate
Fight enemies
Purge allies

Jiangxi Soviet Reforms

Land

Reformist phase, 1929-30

Wins cooperation of elite

Tax remission

Interest reduction

Radical phase, mid-1930

"Futian Incident," Dec. 1930 (Averill, "Party, Society, and Local Elite," pp. 296-98)

Destroys power of local elite

Purge of CCP cadres

Authoritarianism (Venerable Master Kao)

Land redistribution

Society

Marriage

Status of women

GMD's annual encirclement campaigns, 1930-34

Annual campaigns, 1930-1934

German advisers

Economic and military blockade

5th Campaign, 1934

100,000 Red Army soldiers

700,000 GMD

*Long March

Depart Jiangxi, Oct. 16, 1934

85,000 soldiers

15,000 govt. officials

Zunyi, Guizhou, January 1935

Mao returned to power

*Yan'an, Shaanxi, Oct. 20, 1935

8,000 survivors

6,000 miles