Moscow Sun Yat-sen University

Moscow Sun Yat-sen University
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	莫斯科中山大學
Simplified Chinese	莫斯科中山大学
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Mòsīkē Zhōngshān Dàxué - Wade–Giles Mo4-szu1-k'e1 Chung1-shan1 Ta4-hsüeh2
Russian name
Russian	Коммунистический университет трудящихся Китая имени Сунь Ятсена
Romanization	Kommunisticheskij universitet trudjashhihsja Kitaja imeni Sun' Jatsena

Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, officially the Sun Yat-sen Communist University of the Toilers of China, was a Comintern school, which operated from 1925-1930. It was a training camp for Chinese revolutionaries from both the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

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.

Sun Yat-sen University officially began its classes on November 7, 1925, the eighth anniversary of the October Revolution.^[1] The University was set up by splitting the Chinese department from the 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.

Located at No. 16 Volkhona Street, in an old and beautiful part of Moscow, about a thirty minute walk from the Kremlin. In Tsarist Russia the main university building, built in the early nineteenth century, had been Moscow First Provincial High School (gubernskii gimmnaziia).^[2]

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.

Coursework

Students and lecturers of Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. Moscow Region, 1926

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, many of whom were to go on and play leadership roles in China, included the 28 Bolsheviks, Zuo Quan, He Zhonghan, Deng Wenyi and both Deng Xiaoping, future leader of the People's Republic of China and Chiang Ching-kuo, future president of the Republic of China exiled on Taiwan.

Political change and closure

Students of Sun Yat-sen Communist university of the Toilers of China

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-1930s due to the failure of the alliance with the KMT.

See also

	Republic of China portal
	Soviet Union portal
	University portal

• Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
• National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Republic of China

References

1. ^ Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow: 1935-1930. Min-ling L. Yu. Department of History, New York University. January 1995. Page 21. UMI: 9528545
2. ^ Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow: 1925-1930 Min-ling L. Yu. Department of History, New York University. January 1995. Page 17. UMI: 9528545

• Sheng Zhongliang. Moscow Sun Yat-sen University and Chinese Revolution