Life at Yanan

What was the Yanan Soviet?

The Yanan Soviet was the new safe area established by the CCP at the end of the Long March.

Who was at the Yanan Soviet?

There were 3 main groups that survived the Long March to arrive at the safety of Yanan.

• ❖ The First Red Army, commanded by Mao Zedong, consisted of the few surviving soldiers from the march and their families.
• ❖ The Second Red Army reached Yanan after completing its own Long March from Hubei in central China.
• ❖ The Fourth Red Army also reached Yanan.

When was the Yanan Soviet established?

The survivors of the Long March arrived in Yanan during October 1935.

Where was the Yanan Soviet?

The Yanan Soviet was established in Shaanxi province of North West China.

What were the key changes in the Yanan Soviet?

There were 4 key changes that resulted from the establishment of the Yanan Soviet:

• ❖ The first key change was political. The Yanan Soviet would be governed as a communist state. The CCP would rule, but peasants would be given chances to join their own local councils.
• ❖ The second key change was in the structure of society. Social equality would be implemented for all residents.
• ❖ The third key change was economic. There would be a redistribution of wealth and shared responsibility for production.
• ❖ The fourth key change was the adoption of a new approach to fighting the Japanese and the GMD. The Red Army would now fight a guerrilla war in the countryside.

What political changes developed under Mao Zedong at Yanan?

At Yanan, Mao Zedong used his position as the head of the CCP to increase his hold on power through 7 key political strategies:

• ❖ Revolutionary correctness.
• ❖ Rectification campaigns.
• ❖ Democratic centralism.
• ❖ Revisionism.
• ❖ Public self-criticism.
• ❖ Punishment, show-trials, torture and death.
• ❖ Focus on the peasants.

What changes to people's lives happened at Yanan?

Everyday life changed in 8 main ways for people living within the Yanan Soviet:

• ❖ A Land Law was implemented that redistributed land from the wealthy estate owners to landless peasants.
• ❖ Rents and taxes were abolished or made fairer to allow the poorest peasants to improve their standard of living.
• ❖ The Red Army produced thousands of new pieces of farming equipment, and volunteer brigades helped on the farmers' lands.
• ❖ Women were provided with new-found freedoms, such as the right to choose whom they married and the right to divorce abusive husbands.
• ❖ Brutal and oppressive traditions such as foot binding, infanticide (the murder of female babies), prostitution and the sale of women were outlawed.
• ❖ Society was organised along the principal of equality. Communist officials lived and worked alongside the peasants.
• ❖ Hospitals, schools and factories were built to provide for the Soviet, and to improve the living standards of the inhabitants.
• ❖ There were programmes to address illiteracy and to provide education to all peasants.

Whet was the guerrilla warfare in the Yanan Soviet?

Mao Zedong had carefully considered how best to fight his enemies and developed a theory of guerrilla war. His book, 'On Guerrilla Warfare', included the following 6 principles:

• ❖ 'Concentrate a big force to strike at a small section of the enemy force.' This remains a principle of field operations in guerrilla warfare today.
• ❖ 'The basic principle of guerrilla warfare must be the offensive, and guerrilla warfare is more offensive in its character than regular warfare.'.
• ❖ 'People who live at subsistence level want first things to be put first. They are not particularly interested in freedom of religion, freedom of the press, free enterprise as we understand it, or the secret ballot. Their needs are more basic: land, tools, fertilisers, something better than rags for their children, houses to replace their shacks, freedom from police oppression, medical attention, primary schools.'.
• ❖ '(1) a sound mass base, (2) a sound party organisation, (3) a fairly strong Red Army, (4) terrain favourable to military operations, and (5) economic resources sufficient for sustenance.'.
• ❖ 'Guerrilla leaders spend a great deal more time in organisation, instruction, agitation, and propaganda work than they do fighting, for their most important job is to win over the people.'.
• ❖ 'What is common to both, however, is the accumulation of many minor victories to make a major victory.'.

What was the significance of the Yanan Soviet?

The Yanan Soviet was significant for 7 key reasons:

• ❖ The Red Army had been reduced from 100,000 to 10,000 men and Communist Party membership had fallen from 300,000 to around 40,000. However, Yanan would enable the communists to recover their strength.
• ❖ Yanan enabled Mao Zedong to establish supreme power over the Communist Party.
• ❖ It was at Yanan that the cult of Mao was established. The influence of his political writings and destruction of all opposition voices in the party was so great that Chinese communism became 'Maoism'.
• ❖ Mao won over the peasants with his political, social and economic policies. Acting less harshly than at Jiangxi proved to the Chinese people the communists could make their lives better.
• ❖ The Red Army lived by Mao's rules of Red Army Discipline that prevented them from harming the peasants or their possessions. This won them the support of the peasants in their fight against the Japanese and the GMD.
• ❖ Yanan was a great propaganda success as it proved to the people of China there was an alternative government to the GMD and a better way of life under communism.
• ❖ Mao became so revered at Yanan that he was called the 'Great Helmsman' in recognition of his importance as the leader of Chinese communism.