Mikhail Borodin Organized the First United Front

Borodin's Kuomintang and Communist Party

The first United Front between the KMT and Communist Party of China began in 1923.  The KMT had its leader Sun Yat-sen and had experienced some local power in Guangdong province in south China.  But since Song Jiaoren campaigned skillfully and successfully for the party during the first election of the Republic of China and was then assassinated, the KMT had not done much national campaigning and organizing.

In the early 1920s, the KMT was too dependent on warlords.  If they supported the party, then it had a territorial base.  If not, then the KMT was homeless.  It did have support from the overseas Chinese, but that was mostly financial and moral.  To get the overseas Chinese to volunteer to join a KMT army, there had to be a clear enemy, like Yuan Shikai when he tried to become emperor.

For a while Sun had, then lost the support of Chen Jiongming, then governor of Guangdong.  Sun was forced to flee his house in Guangzhou before Chen’s soldiers attacked it.  His young wife Song Qingling, who was Sun’s third wife, stayed behind with guards.  They drew fire at the house while Sun secretly escaped. Those left behind gave the impression that he had not fled.  It was a horrifying experience for Qingling who very nearly was killed and suffered a miscarriage during the ordeal.  A doctor told her that she would never be able to have children as a result.  When it eventually dawned on her that her husband had prioritized his own safety well above his wife’s, the spell she was under ended.  The adoration she had for her famous husband turned into a more mature, open-eyed understanding.  She became more self-assured and would no longer be his personal assistant, supporting him unquestioningly from the rear.  She advanced to his side and created a more powerful role for herself as Madame Sun Yat-sen. 

[Intro Music]

In 1923, Sun Yat-sen’s newest government in Guangzhou city was at risk from warlords on two sides. That year, it was attacked from Guangxi warlords from the west and from Chen Jiongming, the former governor of Guangdong, from the eastern part of the province.  Sun also faced hostile forces to the north who were allied with Wu Peifu.  Sun’s government was completely dependent on mercenaries, mostly from Yunnan province.  They had no real loyalty to the government and were sucking the territory dry to feed themselves and line their own pockets.  They seized railway assets, increased taxes and disregarded orders from Sun’s government.  Because of those high taxes, instability and poor government, locals including merchants despised the government and later formed a militia to defend their businesses.

Many members of the KMT were uncomfortable with the new Communist Party members.  KMT supporters for the most part, did not identify as socialists or communists.  They identified as nationalists.

But it was clear that both parties needed to organize.  The Communists, taught by Russians who had just gone through a successful revolution, knew how to organize and mobilize.

Sun and Mikhail Borodin became close.  Borodin’s real family name was Grusenberg.  Borodin was an alias he had taken.  Grusenberg had grown up in Byelorussia.  His earliest political involvement was with the General Jewish Labour Bund, before switching to the Bolsheviks around 1903.  He was involved in the partially successful 1905 Russian Revolution.  But the Czar survived it and spent the following years consolidating his power again.  In 1906 Grusenberg was arrested and given the choice of Siberia or exile in Europe.  He chose Europe and moved to London.  But he was not welcome there and then moved to the United States.  He was living there until the 1917 Revolution broke out in Russia and by 1918 had joined Communist Russia and was active in its international work.  In 1923, the Comintern assigned him to China.  He and Sun both spoke English and they talked together in that language.

Grusenberg flattered Sun when they were together, but privately wrote to his comrades in negative terms about Sun’s intelligence.  Mikhail believed, for instance, that Sun “reasons in a simple way like a man on the street”.  If his plan was to manipulate Sun, then Sun seems to have had the same intention towards Grusenberg.  Sun had tried to keep his options open and reached out both to Hong Kong colonial authorities and to Japan for support and was not putting all his eggs in the Soviet basket.

Grusenberg (Borodin) didn’t think much of the Kuomintang (KMT) at this point.  He wrote that “it was impossible even to call the Kuomintang a party.  From all points of view- political, organizational and theoretical – it was something very diffuse and undefined.”  Grusenberg went about organizing the KMT. Sun was fine with that.  He recognized the need but was himself not suited for that role.

To the Chinese Communists, Grusenberg explained that the reorganization provided an opportunity for infiltration of the Guomindang.  “It must never be forgotten that in reality the work is done for the stabilization of the Communist Party, which aim should always be kept in mind.”

In November 1923, Chen Jiongming’s troops were advancing from the east and threatening Sun’s position around Guangzhou.  Grusenberg urged the KMT to mobilize the masses.  He said they were still passive and were essential.  He proposed two decrees.  The first would be redistribute land and the second to limit the working day to 8 hours.  Militants should ride out to the countryside by bicycle or any means of transportation they could find and spread the word.  He organized volunteers to man defences while another 500, mostly trained by the communists, were sent to the front.

Sun didn’t sign those decrees, because he said that the overseas Chinese would not agree with land confiscations.  Nevertheless, Grusenberg’s plan worked and Chen’s troops were pushed back.  Guangzhou was saved and Sun was even more appreciative of his Soviet ally.  Now Sun gave Grusenberg even more freedom to organize.  Sun called him his “Lafayette”.  Lafayette was the young French nobleman who had supported George Washington and the American Revolution and helped them win national liberation. 

In the KMT’s Reorganization Congress in January 1924, there were delegates from various provinces, major towns and the overseas communities. Sun appointed half the delegates and the other half were elected by local party members.  The alliance with Communists was controversial.  Sun gave 8 speeches during the Congress and encouraged the party to follow the Russian model.  He was active in the proceedings, intervening and forcing votes as needed.  The main opposition came from Guangdong and the overseas Chinese, especially the Chinese businessmen in southeast Asia. They were opposed to Communism.  Long-time KMT members criticized Chen Duxiu, the Communist Chairman, because he had previously been so forceful against the KMT. 

One controversy was about the redistribution of land.  Among the opponents of land redistribution was Wang Jingwei.  Wang is a fascinating character and one who will keep re-appearing in the story.  He will be a leftist alternative to Chiang Kai-shek for leadership of the KMT after Sun Yat-sen’s passing.  When he failed to control the KMT, he eventually allied with the Japanese and led their puppet government in Japanese controlled China.  He is certainly considered a Chinese villain as history is usually taught.  He will become the Chinese Quisling.  But for now, he was a rising star in the KMT, usually considered on the left of the party.  But in 1924, he was opposed to land confiscations because it would promote class conflict. 

Watered down language was eventually agreed to.  The party stood for land redistribution to peasants but didn’t specify how the land would be obtained.

On January 25, 1924, the congress was suspended for a few days, to mourn and honour Vladimir Lenin who had just died.  When it reconvened, twenty-four members of the KMT’s Central Executive Committee were elected. Three of them were Communists.  Seven more were elected as deputies.  Communists oversaw organization, peasants and labor.  But the KMT’s conservatives controlled two-thirds of the top positions. 

Sun Yat-sen had always valued weapons and soldiers.  Before the end of the Qing Dynasty, he had had to fundraise to purchase weapons and to pay secret societies to fight for his revolution.  Now a new option appeared.  The Russians would fund and provide weapons for an army if it built a military academy.

A military academy had been crucial in building Yuan Shikai’s power base.  He had built the Baoding Military Academy and many of his important supporters, and future warlords, had become officers after training at the Boading Military Academy.

Now the KMT, with the support of the Russians and the new Communist Party of China, would create its first military academy.  Sun had always wanted this from the Russians. Their weapons and support for the new Whampoa Military Academy was their main contribution to China at this time.  The Whampoa Military Academy was founded on an island twenty-five kilometers downstream from Guangzhou.  A fort had been built there in 1870 but was now out of date and poorly supplied.  A young Chiang Kai-shek was made its Director.  He had gone to Russia for training.  He returned and personally was critical of communism, the Soviet system and of class struggle.  But he kept his true feelings as concealed as he could.  He made the Soviets believe he was sympathetic to them and even wrote pro-Russian words in his diary assuming it might be read by others. He also wrote a “private letter” that was flattering to the Russians, believing that it would be intercepted and read.

Chiang was the son of a salt merchant.  He had decided on a military career early and studied at Japanese military schools from 1908 to 1911.  He returned to China once the Revolution started and fought in the Shanghai area.  He then returned to Japan for a while.  By 1923, he had supported Sun loyally and was trusted by him.  That might be because Chiang had shot a critic of Sun dead in a Shanghai hospital.  Chiang then pushed to be sent by Sun to Moscow for further military training.  He could see the advantage that Russian military support would bring and wanted to be part of that. He even threatened to resign if he was not sent to Russia. 

He was very hands on at the Whampoa Academy.  He said his sole purpose was to create “a revolutionary army for the salvation of China.  Four Russian military experts arrived in January 1924 and later, more joined them.    

A KMT member was head of the political department at the Academy, assisted by the Communist Zhou Enlai.  He would later be China’s Premier under Chairman Mao Zedong.  The People’s Three Principles were emphasized in the political lessons at Whampoa.  The history of the revolutionary party was taught by Wang Jingwei. 

The first group of trainees were 500 cadets who were young men who had not previously served in warlord armies. 

Grusenberg missed Chiang’s true feelings.  At one point he wrote “Chiang is an ordinary soldier; he has no political ideas at all.” Grusenberg saw Chiang’s previous request to train in Moscow as a positive and a potential sympathy with the Soviets.  In truth, Chiang believed the Russians didn’t have any sincerity and only had one objective in China, building up the Communist Party.  And perhaps Russia had territorial ambitions around China too.  But Chiang was a good enough poker player to deceive Grusenberg.  This was crucial in allowing Chiang to run the Whampoa Military Academy and to build a future power base in a manner like Yuan Shikai. 

Sun Yat-sen was always interested in a northern expedition, to move troops north from Guangdong and to seize national power.  An army was critical for that goal. 

After the KMT Reorganization Congress, internal opposition to the Communists increased.  Letters were circulated criticizing the Communists. Wang Jingwei made an anti-communist speech in mid 1924.  Chiang was careful to avoid those critics of the Communists.  Grusenberg was watching him.

By mid 1924, the Communists were active in organizing peasants for class warfare in rural Guangdong.  As part of the KMT, they founded the CEC’s Farmers Bureau and the Farmers’ Movement Training Institute.  As part of the Communist Party, it was the Farmers’ Committee.  Their goal was to organize peasant associations “to organize poor and exploited peasants”.  Within the KMT they worded it as “to liberate the working classes on the basis of the People’s Three Principles”.  In reality, it was to be instruments of class struggle in the countryside.  They deliberately excluded large landowners, priests and money lenders as members.

In early July 1924, thirty-eight students wanting “to go to the people” were given political instruction.  Two months later, the number was 225 and they were given military training. 

By August, Sun was becoming concerned.  He tried to control the movement.  “You must be very cautious in your propaganda...You should especially persuade all farmers to cooperate with the government, and deliberate carefully on the method to solve the relation of farmers to landlords so that the farmer will benefit and the landlord not suffer loss.”

But that instruction was ignored, and the peasant associations had violent battles with village militias controlled by local elites.  Grusenberg sent government troops from Guangdong to rural areas to support peasant associations.  Sun, meanwhile, was starting to be ill.

The KMT had a longer relationship with trade unions in Guangdong province.  In fact, that was what had attracted Sneevliet to the KMT and a major reason why he had pushed for a United Front between the Communists and the KMT. 

In the summer of 1924, there was a major strike in Guangzhou on nationalist grounds.  The Governor General of French Indochina had been visiting Guangzhou when he was assassinated in a foreign concession there. The British and French had responded by imposing a passport requirement on Chinese entering their concessions.  This offended Chinese nationalists who did not want to have to show a passport to travel within the Guangzhou city region.  Since the May Fourth movement, this was intolerable.  The strike resulted and Sun negotiated with the British and French.  They eventually relented and dropped the passport requirement, and the strike was considered a success.  Sun was seen as spokesman and supporter of mass nationalism.  He could be seen as an anti-imperialist. 

The Communists got involved and built their connections in the urban labour movement in Guangzhou. 

Meanwhile in Beijing, Cao Kun, the leader of the Zhili Clique had become President of the Republic in an embarrassing way.  He had openly bribed members of parliament to vote for him and was widely seen to have been extremely corrupt in his seizure of the Presidency. 

Then in September 1924, one of the warlords within the Zhili Clique powerbase rebelled.  Feng Yuxiang, the Christian Warlord, surprised Zhili Generals and seized Beijing.  Cao Kun was forced out in a coup d’état.

A northern expedition by Sun against the Zhili Clique was no longer needed. They had been removed from power.  Sun now tried to negotiate to assume the presidency and unite China.  This was certainly his idea.  It was not communist ideology for Sun to ally with the Christian and Manchurian Warlords and take control from Beijing.  But given that there was a power vacuum, Sun thought he had a chance.  His maneuvers were described as an attempt for a “great central revolution”.  Sun published a Manifesto on Going North to explain his goals.  On November 12^th, 1924, on his 58^th birthday, 20,000 people came out in Guangzhou in a lantern-lit parade to honor him.  The next day, he along with 18 supporters and his wife Song Qingling, boarded a ship to head to Hong Kong before sailing north. 

Meanwhile in the north, negotiations resulted in Duan Qirui coming out of a retirement and heading a provisional government.  The political vacuum was filling up.  And Sun’s anti-imperialist statements and alliance with the Communists were making him enemies.  He was not well received in Shanghai on his way north, which was a western stronghold and commercial power base.    Sun was using the trip north to negotiate with the Japanese for support.  He went to Kobe, in Japan.  But they preferred Duan Qirui over Sun.  He was warmly received but received no offers of support.  Sun was not invited to Tokyo.  Meanwhile, Duan’s representatives negotiated in Tokyo and received support there.  Sun left for Tianjin and arrived there on December 4^th, 1924, having received no advantage for his side trip to Kobe, Japan.

Sun received a warm reception when he landed in Tianjin, but a photo of that arrival shows him looking ill.  In fact, he was dying of cancer.  The next day, he was forced to bed.  He still negotiated from there for the Presidency, but Duan Qirui out negotiated him.  At the end of the month, Sun travelled to Beijing.  Not to assume the presidency, but for treatment at the Peking Union Medical College. It was the leading health facility there, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.    In January 1925, he had surgery and terminal cancer of the liver was diagnosed. 

Now Grusenberg (Borodin) was at the bedside of the dying man.  So too was Wang Jingwei.  The battle for Sun’s legacy and to be his successor was starting. 

Next time, we’ll discuss what Sun’s death meant for the struggles.  How would Sun be remembered?  Who would replace him?  Would the United Front hold?

Please join us for that.