Chiang Zhong-zheng, courtesy name Kai-shek, is one of the most important great figures to influence modern Chinese history, and a historically rare helmsman who frequently engaged in self-reflection and repentance. He followed Confucian principles throughout his life, adhering to the basic practice of a Confucian scholar to examine oneself three times a day. After converting to Christianity, he continued to repent constantly as a believer. His reflections on himself and the nation are abundant in his articles, letters, and speeches, especially in his diaries.
Chiang Kai-shek’s greatest regret in life was the loss of the Chinese Mainland. This was the most painful lesson he contemplated upon his arrival in Taiwan.
In $1956$—a year of significant shifts in the global landscape, with armistices in Korea and Vietnam and the British and French retreats from the Middle East—Chiang Kai-shek published his reflections in the book Soviet Russia in China, examining the lessons of the failure on the mainland.
Many research findings on the KMT’s failure in China have been produced by various institutions and individuals, notably the White Paper compiled by the U.S. State Department under Dean Acheson. The work of Chiang Kai-shek, one of the two main principals in this period of Chinese history (the other being Mao Zedong), is naturally the most important text for studying this era.
The title Soviet Russia in China clearly indicates that Chiang Kai-shek considered the Soviet Union’s influence and its multi-faceted support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to be the primary cause of his and the KMT regime’s defeat.
The support from Soviet Russia, and later the Soviet Union, indeed played a critical role in the CCP’s victory.
“The cannon shot of the October Revolution brought Marxism-Leninism to China.” Russia delivered more than just an ideology; recently declassified national archives indicate that the Soviet Union consistently provided the CCP with massive assistance in the form of money, weapons, and other materials.
Chiang Kai-shek noted that the agreement reached between Sun Yat-sen and Adolph Joffe in January $1923$ stated that “the Russian Communist Party promised to assist the Chinese Revolution led by Mr. Sun.” This marked the beginning of “peaceful coexistence” and cooperation between the KMT/CCP and China/Russia.
The “thirty years of experience” Chiang Kai-shek writes about in the book roughly covers the period from the early $1920$s to the $1950$s. He broadly divides these three decades into three phases:
- The First Phase: From $1924$ (the KMT’s alliance with Russia and accommodation of the CCP) to $1927$ (the comprehensive purge of the CCP and the severance of Sino-Russian relations).
- The Second Phase: From $1932$ (the restoration of Sino-Russian relations and the CCP’s “begging for surrender and submission” in $1937$) to the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
- The Third Phase: From $1945$ to $1949$.
These $30$ years trace the process of the CCP’s founding, development, and ultimate victory across China, forming the core content of various versions of the CCP’s party history.
In the introduction to the first compilation of the book, Chiang Kai-shek discusses the purpose of his writing: “I sincerely hope that the bitter lessons China has suffered over these thirty years may be of benefit to the countries and their leaders that today are facing the same Communist threat.”
“I believe that the Soviet-Russian armed violence, like that of historical aggressive expansionists, is not to be feared and is destined to fail. However, its armed violence is latent beneath its cloak of ‘peaceful coexistence.’ The leaders of free nations find it very difficult to perceive the existence of this crisis, and by the time they discover it and rise to resist, it will be too late.”
“Fearing that the Russian Communists and their puppet Chinese Communists might repeat the same tactics they used to invade our mainland and enslave our compatriots, turning to inflict harm upon humanity worldwide in an unstoppable manner, I have dared, despite my inadequacy, to publish this book to the world.”
He further stated: “If this can contribute anything to the free world, especially to the non-Communist nations in Asia, then the price of this greatest sacrifice in our national history will have been compensated, and I will have fulfilled my due responsibility in the world anti-Communist struggle.”
The editor sometimes cannot help but wonder: How can children who now only play video games (and might not even win) disrespectfully criticize a military man who endured the great tides of history and fought hard through blood and tears, without any regard for decency??