2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The foundation of the Chinese Red Army and its impact on local societies,1924-1934.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19730115
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Politics
Research Institution	Tokyo Seitoku University
Principal Investigator	ANAMI Yusuke Tokyo Seitoku University, 人文学部, 講師 (50365003)
Project Period (FY)	2007 – 2010
Keywords	中国革命 / 中国共産党 / 紅軍 / 広東 / 土地革命 / 宗族 / ソヴィエト
Research Abstract	This research project's main goal was to analyze the process of the formation of the Red Army by the Chinese Communist Party in Guangdong province during the 1920s and 30s. This task was accomplished by carefully studying the CCP's internal documents, which are preserved in the Guangdong Provincial Archives. As a result, this research project revealed that the communist army mainly relied on the traditional armed forces of Guangdong province. These were village militias, bandits, and mercenaries. Previously, many scholars argued that the communist army was composed of peasants, which received land from the communist lead land reform. However, the internal documents indicated that the land reform was never successful in Guangdong, and that it was extremely difficult to mobilize ordinary peasants to join the army. This situation forced the CCP to conduct their armed struggle by heavily relying on traditional armed forces, which were abundant in Guangdong during the 1920s and 30s.