Moscow Sun Yat-sen University

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Moscow Sun Yat-sen University (莫斯科中山大学, official soviet name Sun Yat-sen Communist university of the Toilers of China, Коммунистический университет трудящихся Китая имени Сунь Ятсена) was a Comintern school, which worked in the 1925-1930. It was a training camp for Chinese revolutionaries from both the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT)

[edit] Origins

In 1923, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the KMT, made political overtures to the CPC and the Soviet Union. Dr. Sun had realized that the KMT needed to train more Chinese revolutionaries; it was impossible to build a republic in China by relying on secret societies and warlords, as the KMT had attempted to do.

The Soviet Union and Communist Party of China enthusiastically responded, and set up Moscow Sun Yat-sen university in 1925. University was set up by splitting Chineese department from Communist University of the Toilers of the East, which had about 100 Chinese students enrolled. The university was named after Dr. Sun out of respect for his contribution to the Chinese revolution.

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

[edit] Coursework

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, while others had 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 at the university focused on the basic theories of Marxism and Leninism. Students also learned methods of mobilization and propaganda, as well as theoretical and practical military instruction.

In addition to courses, there were regular presentations on the international communist movements 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 courses of study only lasted 2 years, the university had a great influences on those trained there. Graduates of note included the 28 Bolsheviks, Chiang Ching-kuo, Zuo Quan, Deng Xiaoping, He Zhonghan and Deng Wenyi. Many of them played active roles later in modern China.

[edit] Political change and closure

In 1927, as the CPC-KMT alliance broke up, the 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 to a university 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 in the CPC, Mif and the university played a major role China's modern history.

The university was closed in the mid-1930's due to the failure of the alliance with the KMT.