ABSTRACT
With Soviet encouragement, the CCP used Manchuria as a battleground against the KMT from 1945 until the end of the Civil War in 1949. During this period the CCP transformed the bases of traditional elitist oligarchy in the region by initiating a mass mobilization of peasants and mine workers (Levine 1987: 237), which proved its strength by defeating the urban-centric strategy of the KMT. As a result, many peasants and mineworkers supported the communists in the Civil War by besieging the Nationalists in the cities. Some informants proudly told me that the Northeastern peasants were the pillars of CCP support, and thus few dare to portray them critically, even though peasants elsewhere have often been teased by urban people.
