The End of the Chinese Long March

Map of the Journey of the Red Army

By Lewis Goode, Third-Year History

"Speaking of the Long March, one may ask, "What is its significance?" We answer that the Long March is the first of its kind in the annals of history, that it is a manifesto, a propaganda force, a seeding-machine". Mao Zedong, On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism 

In 1934, the Red Army of the Communist Party of China (CPC) marched across China in retreat during what would be the end of the Chinese Civil War. On October 19th, 1935, the Red Army ended its journey and now sought to consolidate and strengthen themselves.  

After suffering a near annihilation at the hands of the Nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, known as the Kuomintang, the leader of the Red Army, Zhu De, decided to make the long journey to muster their forces at the Communist stronghold at Yan'an, in the Chinese province of Shaanxi. The journey, for some, lasted an entire year, travelling approximately 6,000 miles across mountains and rivers. It was a perilous journey for the vast 300,000 soldiers, where 1 in 10 soldiers would die from natural disasters, conflicts, illness, and exhaustion.  

The Long March is a fundamental event in the history of Communist China as it was seen as the galvanising moment for Mao Zedong's leadership. With Mao emerging as a leading figure within the CPC, he was able to weave himself increasingly into the political ideology of the Communists in Yan'an, away from the threat of Nationalist forces and within a focused Communist community. When the Japanese invaded in 1937, it enabled the Communists to use their isolated and concentrated positions to their advantage.  

Adopting guerrilla warfare tactics meant that by 1945 they could stage a revolution against the Nationalist government, which the Japanese had battered. The people, having suffered under the rule of the Japanese and the Nationalist forces, were swept up in and supported the utopian ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, especially in rural areas.  

The victory of the CPC and Mao's ascension to power after the Long March has now been shrouded in myth, legend, and exaggeration as it has become one of the founding stories of the Communist government in China. The story enshrines Mao's position as the leader and saviour of the Chinese Communist Party, and retellings have placed Mao at the centre of it all. The almost mythical retelling of the hardships of the Long March has enshrined Mao and the Chinese Communist Party into the story of Chinese history – and these hardships are fundamental to the political identity of Maoist Communism during his rule.  

After arriving at Yan'an, Mao wrote this poem along with many others, which demonstrate the almost mythical nature of the Long March: 

The Red Army fears not the Trials of the Long March  

And thinks nothing of a thousand mountains and rivers.  

The Wuling Ridges spread out like ripples;  

The Wumeng Ranges roll like balls of clay.  

Warmly are the cliffs wrapped in clouds washed by Gold Sand;  

Chilly are the iron chains lying across the width of the Great Ferry.  

A thousand acres of snow on the Min Mountain delight 

My troops who have just left them behind. 

Mao Zedong, September 1935