Moscow Sun Yat-sen University

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Moscow Sun Yat-sen University (莫斯科中山大学) was a famous training camp of Chinese revolutionaries from both the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT) in the 1920s.

In 1923 Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the KMT, adopted a policy of alliance with the CPC and the Soviet Union after he realized that it was impossible to build a republic in China by relying on secret societies and warlords. The Soviet Union and CPC responded with enthusiasm. As part of the support, the Soviet Union set up the Moscow Sun Yat-sen university in 1925 to train Chinese revolutionaries. It was named after Dr. Sun out of respect for his contribution to the Chinese revolution.

Mikhail Borodin, the consultant of KMT sent by Soviet Union, directed the first enrollment of students. These students were elites chosen from both the CPC and KMT. The main missions of this university was to educate students in Marxism and Leninism, as well as training cadres for mass movement as qualified Bolsheviks.

Most of the instructors came from the Soviet Union. Among them were old Bolsheviks such as Karl Radek, who was the first president of the university. The students came from different classes and backgrounds: some were famous communism revolutionaries or scholars, others with little education but much experience in communist movements, the university grouped these students into different classes according to their education and experience.

The courses given by the university focused on the basic theories of Marxism and Leninism, and the summing-up of lessons in international communism movements. Students learned the methods of mobilization and propaganda. Theoretical and practical military courses were offered as well.

In addition to courses, there were regular presentations on the international communist movement and the Chinese revolution by prominent members from Comintern, the Soviet Union and the CPC. Those included Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Zhang Guotao and Xiang Zhongfa.

Although course of study lasted only 2 years, it had a great influences on those trained there. Among them were the 28 Bolsheviks, Deng Xiaoping, Zuo Quan, Chiang Ching-guo, He Zhonghan and Deng Wenyi. Many of them played active roles later in modern China.

In 1927, as the CPC-KMT alliance broke up, those students from the KMT were sent back to China. As the power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky reached its peak, Radek was sacked and replaced by his deputy, Pavel Mif, who was too ambitious to be limited in this campus. Mif himself became the vice director of Far East Department of Comintern and played an important role in the major decisions of the CPC. With his 28 Bolsheviks holding senior positions of CPC, even with the university being closed in the mid 1930's due to the failure of the alliance with the KMT, Mif and the university still made an important page of China's modern history.