ABSTRACT
In the avalanche of events, Marxists of whatever sort sought desperately to understand what was happening. Innocent of Marxist sophistication, the Chinese Communist Party enlisted in the Communist International organized by the leaders of Bolshevik Russia almost immediately after the October revolution. During the lifetime of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, two “Internationals” had given expression to Marxist views on world revolution. According to the standard version, “fascism” was understood to be a quintessential “bourgeois” and nationalist phenomenon, meaning that, in principle, it opposed itself to the “international proletarian revolution.” In 1928, Leon Trotsky insisted that developments in China might well be of decisive importance for the anticipated “proletarian world revolution.” In 1949, Mao Zedong, successful in his military campaign against the Kuomintang (KMT), emerged as leader of the newly proclaimed People’s Republic of China. The “temporary agreements” anticipated by the Communist International in China were those with the KMT, the Nationalist party of Sun Yat-sen.
