This article is interesting to me because it shows the difficulties the Communist party faced in the late 1920s, and begins to hint at why Mao was emerging as a potential figurehead for the party. What strikes you about the rational behind the Soviet's thinking?
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It's safe to say that Maos group desperately needed help. People were ditching or dyeing due to poor conditions and they had already lost an incredible amount of supplies. The soviets obviously would want to help because it would be in their interest to spread the theologies of communism especially to those requiring assistance in the same way Moa was. And despite Moa's struggle it didn't really stop him from being clever with planning tactics, just that story about why he was four days late so he could see the state of his men before fighting was slick- sneaky, but slick. And it was this slick thinking that probably pushed Moa forward as the potential figurehead.
ReplyDeleteThe Communist party had great struggles, but just as every other party did. You cannot become popular overnight. It is a long process which involves slowly working your way up until you have enough support to proceed with your plans. Mao was a mastermind when it came to this sort of thing, and therefore was the ideal leader for the party.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me wad the number of troops Mao lost but he still was determined to emerge as a figurehead if the Communist Party. The goal of the Soviets was to bring Communist Chinese to power. In order to do this, they needed a powerful army. What struck me the most was Mao's plan to narrow down the uprising plan and how he followed this plan by becoming "powerful through the barrel of the gun". He chose peasants for his army, but there were unexpected problems Mao faced, such as loosing more than half of his army. I found it interesting that he chose the term "Mountain Lords" to describe his army, which made the troops dumbfounded.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I am still a little confused as to why Russia wanted to bring Communist China to power in the first place...I probably just missed it somewhere it previous readings. Anyways, regarding this reading, I found Mao's secretiveness quite interesting, and I feel it definitely aided in promoting him to a "figurehead" status. For example, in his peasant uprising, Mao was "not actually involved in any action". This uprising was called The Autumn Harvest. Moreover, he "actually sabotaged it". This detail infers to me that Mao's slyness and perseverance despite losing so many men in battle earned him his communist leadership.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was so striking to read about how violent the Soviet Red Army was. Their slogan of "burn, burn, burn, kill, kill, kill!" just demonstrates how focused they were in implementing violence in hopes that fear would "prod" peasants into doing things that "left no way back into normal life". However, what surprised me the most after these Russian ordered uprisings ultimately failed, was that most of the Red Army ended up giving themselves to Mao himself. And even Stalin gave up the CCP leadership role to Mao even though he was "disobedient" and "insubordinate". With just a little bit of militaristic work, Mao's ultimate goal was basically handed to him by the Soviets!
ReplyDeleteI thought that the most striking part of the reading was when it described the number of casualties that Mao lost while on his way to leadership. Of course, there are always thoughts going through peoples heads during throughout the duration of building yourself as a leader. And you never get power over night so it must have taken a vary long time. But even after all of the men died at his feet, he still refused to stop and quit.
ReplyDeleteIt was obvious that Mao's revolution was in a state of disrepair. His forces were abandoning left a right due to a lack in resources, morale, or just plain dying. By the time Mao had reached his destination he had a mere 600 troops a number far less than half of what he had started. But almost in order to prove his worth Mao vowed the make these 600 remaining "loyal" bandits and outsiders the seeds of the new china as it were. As for the Soviets it was a logical decision from their position given they had no Asian countries allied with them and China was a rising communist power.
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