Friends Close, Enemies Closer: The United Front in Action

06/04/20 • 23 min

As both the Guomindang and the Communist Party benefit from their collaboration, tensions build.
Further reading:
Tony Saich, The Origins of the First United Front in ChinaSteve Smith, A Road Is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-1927Alexander Pantsov, The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution, 1919-1927C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927Arif Dirlik, “Mass Movements and the Left Kuomintang”
Some names from this episode:
Sun Zhongshan/Sun Yatsen, leader of the Guomindang
Mikhail Borodin, Comintern agent and head of Soviet mission to aid the Guomindang
Chen Jiongming, Southern warlord, ally and then enemy of Sun Yatsen
Chiang Kai-shek, Japan-trained military officer, close confidant of Sun Yatsen
Lev Karakhan, Soviet ambassador to China beginning in 1923
Gregory Chicherin, Soviet People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs
Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party

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06/04/20 • 23 min

People's History of Ideas Podcast - Friends Close, Enemies Closer: The United Front in Action

Transcript

Welcome to episode 22 of the People’s History of Ideas Podcast.

On December 1, 1923, Sun Yatsen delivered the following words as part of a speech preparing his followers for the forthcoming reorganization of the Guomindang, which is where we left off in Episode 20:

“Now our good friend Borodin has come to us from Russia. The Russian Revolution started six years later than ours. However, the Russians managed to implement their ideas completely during one revolution. The position

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