The 1927 Shanghai massacre , also known as the April 12 incident, is the mass extermination of the Chinese Communists by the Kuomintang and its allies in Shanghai on April 12, 1927 .
| Shanghai massacre of 1927 | |||
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| date | April 12, 1927 | ||
| A place | Shanghai , Republic of China | ||
| Cause | deepening disagreements between the CCP and the Kuomintang | ||
| Total | Kuomintang victory | ||
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| Commanders | |||
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| Forces of the parties | |||
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Supporters of the Kuomintang call the incident “ Party Purge ” (清 黨) in Chinese, while in the communist tradition it will be called the “ Shanghai Massacre of 1927 ” [1] , the “ Counterrevolution April 12 ” (四 一二 反革命 政变) or “ The tragedy of April 12th ”(四 一二 慘案). As a result of the incident, many prominent members of the CCP were killed or arrested. Communist killings and terror continued throughout China for weeks. After defeating CPC supporters in major cities, Chiang Kai-shek completely seized power in the Kuomintang and soon became a dictator of China. After the fall of July 15, 1927, the Wuhan government, the Communists were finally forced to go underground.
Content
Background
For several years right up to the events of April 12, 1927, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang collaborated on the First United Front . Their common goal was to overthrow the power of the Chinese militarists who seized power in the country after the fall of the Qing Dynasty . In 1923, the government of Sun Yat-sen , the founder of the Republic of China , agreed on assistance from the USSR . The Soviet government was the only one who recognized it. Political and military advisers began to arrive in China - Borodin , Blucher , etc. Their task was to reorganize the Kuomintang in order to create from it a powerful political party like the CPSU (b) , and the formation of a combat-ready army . CCP members were allowed to join the Kuomintang. With the help of the Comintern and the founders of the CPC, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, Sun Yat-sen founded a government in Canton and established a military academy to train officers. The head of the Academy was appointed Chiang Kai-shek. Some CCP members have become influential people in the Kuomintang; Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianin served as political instructors of the academy, while Mao Zedong was the administrator of the Kuomintang in Hunan Province during this period.
In 1925, Sun Yat-sen died, and after his death, a conflict arose between the right wing of the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek and the left wing led by Wang Jingwei . Wang Jingwei became chairman of the national government, but military power was concentrated in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek, who commanded the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). In July 1926, the Northern Campaign began - the NRA military expedition, whose goal was the expulsion of militarists and the unification of China. After the Communists and the left wing of the Kuomintang tried to carry out land reform and transfer land to the peasants in the regions captured by the NRA, the sympathies of the landowners and wealthy merchants turned to Chiang Kai-shek. He was supported by foreigners living in concessions in major cities of China.
In January 1927, with the support of the CCP and Soviet agents, Wang Jingwei transferred the government to the city of Wuhan captured by the NRA and proclaimed it the new capital . On March 3, 1927, workers led by Zhou Enlai raised a rebellion in Shanghai, defeating the troops of the military governor and his allies . Workers occupied the entire territory of Shanghai with the exception of foreign concessions - the International Settlement and the French Concession , which were protected by the military and sailors of the United States , Britain , Italy , Japan and other countries. Soon, NRA units approached the city under the command of Bai Chunxi , a loyal ally of Chiang Kai-shek. The Kuomintang right wing was alarmed by the growing influence of the Communists in the new government, as well as in the trade unions and the labor militia [2] . After the international scandal that followed the Nanking incident , Chiang Kai-shek decided to break with the Communists and leftists in the Kuomintang.
Beginning of Arrests and Executions
Believing that the Communists are preparing a seizure of power, on April 2, Chiang Kai-shek , Li Zongren, and Bai Chunxi secretly organized the Shanghai Central Monitoring Committee. This committee drew up a plan for the physical destruction of the supporters of the CCP and began preparing for its implementation.
Chiang Kai-shek negotiated with Du Yusheng and other leaders of the Green Gang and Hongman Gang so that they would prepare an attack on the strongholds of the Red Guards. On April 9, the Central Monitoring Committee declared a state of emergency in Shanghai, accusing the communists of the Wuhan government of destabilizing the situation. On April 11, a secret order was sent to all the provinces under the control of Chiang Kai-shek that communists should be removed from party and government bodies.
Territories of foreign concessions were fenced with barbed wire and carefully guarded by military and sailors from foreign ships.
An agreement was reached with the Municipal Council that the people of Du Yuesheng would be able to travel freely through the territory of the International Settlement. The chairman of the Municipal Council, Sterling Fessenden, not only provided gangsters with passes, but also provided them with trucks and weapons.
At the signal of the ship's siren at 3 a.m. on April 12, gangsters attacked strongholds of the Red Guards in the areas of Zhabei, Nanshi and Pudong. As a result of the massacre, 4 to 5 thousand people died. The soldiers of the 26th Guomindang Army disarmed the workers' militia. At the same time, about 300 people were injured.
On April 13, thousands of workers and students took to the streets and headed for the headquarters of the 2nd Division of the 26th Army, protesting the actions of Chiang Kai-shek and his allies. The soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators. According to various sources, from 100 to 300 people died.
Chiang Kai-shek dissolved the Shanghai government, trade unions and other organizations controlled by the Communists. More than a thousand people were arrested, about 300 executed. Arrests and executions followed in Canton , Xiamen , Fuzhou , Ningbo , Nanjing , Hangzhou and Changsha . In Beijing on April 28, Zhang Zolin ordered the execution of 20 communists taken as hostages in the Soviet embassy. Among those executed was Li Dazhao , one of the founders of the CCP.
Summary and Importance
After the massacre, many members of the Central Committee of the Wuhan government declared Chiang Kai-shek a traitor to the revolution, including the widow of Sun Yat-sen , Song Qinglin . In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek announced the creation of a new government in Nanjing , thereby challenging the Wuhan government under the control of Wang Jingwei . The confrontation between the two capitals, known as 寧 漢 分裂, did not last long: the “left wing” of the Kuomintang also began to clear out the Communists from the government. Without military support, the latter were forced to leave Wuhan. Borodin’s chief political adviser, Song Qinglin, as well as several foreign correspondents sympathizing with the Chinese revolution, traveled in different ways to the USSR.
In June 1928, Beijing was taken by the allies of the Kuomintang, which led to the final unification of the country under the rule of Chiang Kai-shek. In Shanghai, the administration of the Chinese part of the city dissolved the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions organized by the Communists and reorganized the network of trade unions already under its leadership - and under the leadership of Du Yuesheng [3] .
Literature
- Shanghai document. D / f. dir. Y. M. Blioha . USSR, 1928
- Kostarev N.K. My Chinese Diary. - L .: Surf, 1928.
- Baryakina E.V. White Shanghai. - M .: Ripol-classic , 2010. - ISBN 978-5-386-02069-9
Notes
- ↑ Zhao Suisheng. [2004] (2004). A Nation-state by Construction: Dynamics of Modern Chinese Nationalism. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-5001-7 .
- ↑ Elizabeth J. Perry. . The Fate of Revolutionary Militias in China (Neopr.) . - Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 2003 .-- April 11.
- ↑ Patricia Stranahan. . The Shanghai Labor Movement, 1927-1931 (neopr.) . - East Asian Working Paper Series on Language and Politics in Modern China, 1994.