Long March

long march, Chin., Changzheng, the journey of c.6,000 mi (9,660 km) undertaken by the Red Army of China in 1934–35. When their Jiangxi prov. Soviet base was encircled by the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-shek, some 90,000 men and women broke through the siege (Oct., 1934) and marched westward to Guizhou prov. There, at the Zunyi Conference (Jan., 1935), Mao Zedong won leadership of the Communist party and decided to join the remote Shaanxi prov. Soviet base. Overcoming numerous natural obstacles (such as towering mountain ranges and turbulent rivers) and despite constant harassment by Nationalist troops and the armies of provincial warlords, the Red Army arrived at its new home in the north in Oct., 1935. However, more than half of the original marchers were lost in this almost incredible trek. Those who survived settled around the city of Yan'an.

Bibliography

See E. Snow, Red Star over China (rev. ed. 1968) and R. G. Wilson, The Long March, 1935 (1971).

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Long March

(1934–35) Trek of 6,000 mi (10,000 km) by Chinese Communists, resulting in the relocation of their revolutionary base from southeastern China to northwestern China and the emergence of Mao Zedong as their undisputed leader. Having withstood four of Chiang Kai-shek's campaigns against their base area, the Communists were nearly defeated by his fifth attack. The remaining 85,000 troops broke through Nationalist lines and fled first westward under Zhu De and then north under Mao. By the time Mao arrived at Shaanxi, he was followed by only about 8,000 survivors, most of the rest having been killed by fighting, disease, and starvation (among the casualties were Mao's two children and a brother). At their new base the Communists were able to build up their strength at a safe remove from the Nationalists in preparation for their eventual victory in 1949.

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Long March 

(in Russian, Northwestern March), the movement during the period 1934–36 of the main forces of the Chinese Red Army (CRA) from Chinese soviet areas in Central and South China to the northwestern provinces of Shensi and Kansu.

By September 1934, the soviet base areas in Central China, at the juncture of Kiangsi and Fukien provinces, were encircled by Kuomintang troops. As a result, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) decided to break through the encirclement with the main forces of the CRA First Front and to continue the struggle under the banner of the soviets. The Long March began Oct. 16, 1934. Pursued by Kuomintang forces, the units of the CRA First Front (together with the CPC Central Committee) in November and December 1934 passed through the provinces of Kiangsi, Kwangtung, Hunan, and Kwangsi and entered Kweichow Province. There, in January 1935 in the city of Tsuni, a conference was held by members of the Politburo and of the Central Committee, which led to a strengthening of the position of Mao Tse-tung and his supporters in the leadership of the CPC.

From Kweichow, the troops of the First Front were compelled to move on to Yünnan Province. After crossing the Chin-sha Chiang River (upper Yangtze) on May 8, 1935, they entered Hsik’ang Province. In early June 1935, they entered western Szechwan Province, where they rendezvoused with the troops of the CRA Fourth Front, commanded by Hsü Hsiang-ch’ien and Chang Kuo-t’ao. In early August 1935 a decision was reached at a meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in Mao-erh-kai to continue the march with the combined forces of two columns (eastern and western) northward to the regions bordering on the USSR. However, a critical struggle within the party leadership between Mao Tse-tung, who strove to seize leadership of the party and army, and Chang Kuo-t’ao and his supporters, led to a split in the party and the armed forces.

Accompanied by some of the members of the CPC Central Committee and its Politburo, including Mao Tse-tung, the First Front’s I and III corps (part of the eastern column of the CRA) in October 1935 reached the soviet region at the border of Shensi and Kansu provinces, which was under the control of Kao Kang and Liu Chih-tang. Large units of the CRA, headed by Chu Te and Chang Kuo-t’ao (the western column of the CRA), which operated for a year at the border of Szechwan and Sikang provinces, arrived in the border region of Shensi and Kansu provinces in October-November 1936, together with the II and VI corps (Second Front) of the CRA, which until then had operated at the border of Hunan, Szechwan, and Kweichow provinces. The Long March was at an end.

Despite the tremendous losses suffered by the CRA and the CPC as a result of the long, grueling journey, with fighting along the way, and despite the difficulties created for the party by the fractional struggle of Mao Tse-tung and others, the Long March ended by strengthening the revolutionary base in the border region of Shensi and Kansu provinces, which became the seat of the CPC Central Committee until the summer of 1947. Thus ended a dramatic page in the history of the heroic liberation struggle of the Chinese people.

REFERENCES

Noveishaia istoriia Kitaia. Moscow, 1972. Pages 156–70.
Braun, O. Kitaiskie zapiski, 1932–1939. Moscow, 1974. (Translated from German.)

A. S. TITOV