The Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) was a state within China, proclaimed on 7 November 1931 by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders Mao Zedong and Zhu De in the early stages of the Chinese Civil War. The discontiguous territories of the CSR included 18 provinces and 4 counties under the communists' control. The CSR's government was located in its largest component territory, the Jiangxi Soviet. Due to the importance of the Jiangxi Soviet in the CSR's early history, the name "Jiangxi Soviet" is sometimes used to refer to the CSR as a whole. Other component territories of the CSR included the Northeastern Jiangxi, Hunan-Jiangxi, Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi, Hunan-Western Hubei, Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou, Eyuwan, Shaanxi-Gansu, Sichuan-Shanxi, and Haifeng-Lufeng Soviets.
Xu Xiangqian was a Marshal of the People's Republic of China (PRC). He was the son of a wealthy landowner, but joined the Kuomintang's (KMT) National Revolutionary Army (NRA), against his parents' wishes, in 1924. When the Chinese Civil War started in 1927, Xu joined the Eyuwan Soviet led by Zhang Guotao; Xu became commander of the Eyuwan-based Fourth Red Army. Zhang and Xu retreated to northern Sichuan after being defeated by a KMT encirclement campaign. Xu politically survived Zhang's defection to the KMT in the late-1930s; he rejoined the Red Army in a less senior position under the leadership of Mao Zedong.
Zhang Guotao, or Chang Kuo-tao, was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Comintern, organizing the CCP labor movement in the United Front with the Kuomintang. From 1931 to 1932, after the Party had been driven from the cities, Zhang was placed in charge of the Eyuwan Soviet. When his armies were driven from the region, he joined the Long March but lost a contentious struggle for party leadership to Mao Zedong. Zhang's armies then took a different route from Mao's and were badly beaten by local Muslim Ma clique forces in Gansu. When his depleted forces finally arrived to join Mao in Yan'an, Zhang continued his losing challenge to Mao, and left the party in 1938. Zhang eventually retired to Canada, in 1968. He became a Christian shortly before his death in Scarborough, Ontario, in 1979. His memoirs provide valuable and vivid information on his life and party history.
Wei Lihuang was a Chinese general who served the Nationalist government throughout the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War as one of China's most successful military commanders.
Encirclement campaigns, officially called in Chinese Communist historiography as the Agrarian Revolutionary War, were the campaigns launched by forces of the Chinese Nationalist Government against forces of the Chinese Communist Party during the early stage of the Chinese Civil War.
The first encirclement campaign against the Hubei–Henan–Shaanxi Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Nationalist Government of China against the Communist Party's Hubei–Henan–Shaanxi Soviet and its local Red Army. The Red Army successfully defended the Soviet against Nationalist attacks from January to February 5, 1935.
The second encirclement campaign against the Hubei–Henan–Shaanxi Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Nationalist Government of China against the Communist Party's Hubei–Henan–Shaanxi Soviet and its local Red Army. The Red Army successfully defended the Soviet from February 1935 to April 18, 1935.
The second encirclement campaignagainst Jiangxi Soviet was a series of battles launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of encircling and destroying the Jiangxi Soviet after the previous campaign had failed. The Red Army repelled the encirclement by launching their second counter-encirclement campaign, also called by the communists as the second counter-encirclement campaign at Central Revolutionary Base, in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended the Jiangxi Soviet against the Nationalist attacks from April 1, 1931, to May 31, 1931.
The third encirclement campaignagainst Jiangxi Soviet was the third campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government in the hope of destroying the Red Army in Jiangxi. It was launched less than a month after the previous campaign failed. However, this encirclement was repelled by the Red Army's third counter-encirclement campaign at the Central Soviet, also called as the third counter-encirclement campaign at the Central Revolutionary Base.
Xu Haidong was a senior general in the People's Liberation Army of China.
The Yan'an Soviet was a soviet governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 1930s and 1940s. In October 1936 it became the final destination of the Long March, and served as the CCP's main base until after the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the CCP and Kuomintang (KMT) formed the Second United Front in 1937, the Yan'an Soviet was officially reconstituted as the Shaan–Gan–Ning Border Region.
The third encirclement campaign against the Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists' third counter-encirclement campaign at Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet, also called by the communists as the third counter-encirclement campaign at Shaanxi–Gansu Revolutionary Base, in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the border region of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces against the Nationalist attacks from August 1935 to October 25, 1935. Some Chinese communist historians also consider the Zhiluozhen Campaign fought a month later as part of this third counter-encirclement campaign at Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet.
The first encirclement campaign against the Eyuwan Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government against the Eyuwan Soviet, a Communist base located in the border region between Hubei, Henan, and Anhui provinces. The Fourth Red Army responded with its second counter-encirclement campaign and successfully defended the soviet. The Nationalist attacks lasted from November 1930 to 9 March 1931.
The second encirclement campaign against the Eyuwan Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government against the Eyuwan Soviet, a Communist base located in the border region between Hubei, Henan, and Anhui provinces. The Fourth Red Army responded with its second counter-encirclement campaign and successfully defended the soviet. It lasted from April 1931 to July 1931.
The third encirclement campaign against the Eyuwan Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government against the Communist base in the Hubei–Henan–Anhui border region, the Eyuwan Soviet. The Fourth Red Army responded with its third counter-encirclement campaign, which successfully defended the soviet. The Nationalist attacks lasted from November 1931 to 17 June 1932.
The fifth encirclement campaign against the Eyuwan Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government against the Communist base in the Hubei–Henan–Anhui border region, the Eyuwan Soviet. It was met by the Twenty-fifth Red Army's fifth counter-encirclement campaign. As with the fourth campaign, this campaign ended in a Nationalist victory and the Twenty-fifth Red Army decided in mid-November 1934 to abandon the soviet area and head westwards, joining the Long March.
Communist-controlled China or the Revolutionary Base Area, officially called the Soviet Zone from 1927 to 1937, and the Liberated Zone from 1946 to 1949, was the part of the territories of China controlled by the Soviet-backed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1927 to 1949 during the Republican era and the Chinese Civil War with Nationalist China.
Xia Douyin (1885–1951) was a Republic of China National Revolutionary Army general. He was born in Macheng, Hubei. Originally a member of the Qing Dynasty New Army, he participated in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. In 1917, he joined the Constitutional Protection Movement and opposed local warlord Wang Zhanyuan. Defeated by Wang's forces, he fled to Changsha and enlisted the help of allies in Hunan against Wang. After suffering another defeat in 1919, he fled to the border region of Hunan and Jiangxi Provinces. In 1926, he was brought by Tang Shengzhi into the National Revolutionary Army and participated in the Northern Expedition as a divisional commander. On May 17, 1927, Xia led Kuomintang forces loyal to Chiang Kai-shek from Yichang against the forces of Ye Ting in Wuhan. After his victory, he notoriously took personal pleasure in mutilating the corpses of female revolutionaries he had killed. Chiang promoted Xia to army commander and he fought in the Central Plains War of 1930. Xia was then tasked with suppressing the Eyuwan Soviet in the border region between Hubei, Henan, and Anhui provinces. He ordered the massacre of thousands of civilians but was unable to stop the Communists' expansion. In 1932, Xia was promoted to full general and made governor of Hubei, although Zhang Qun actually acted in his place. From July to September 1932, Chiang Kai-shek ordered 300,000 troops of the National Revolutionary Army to surround and suppress the Eyuwan Soviet in the Fourth Encirclement Campaign. Xia directed a scorched earth campaign, killing all men found in the Soviet areas, burning all buildings, and seizing or destroying all crops. He was ultimately successful and the main Communist Red Army was forced to retreat westwards. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Xia fled to Chengdu after Hubei was occupied by the invading Imperial Japanese Army. In 1945, he retired from the military. Although he attempted to welcome the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) takeover of the mainland, the CCP rebuffed him and he fled to Hong Kong, where he died.
Chen Changhao (simplified Chinese: 陈昌浩; traditional Chinese: 陳昌浩; pinyin: Chén Chānghào; 18 September 1906 – 30 July 1967) was a member of the 28 Bolsheviks and an important military figure of Zhang Guotao's 4th Red Army from Hanyang, Wuhan. Chen had also been known as Cangmu.
The Eyuwan Soviet was a short-lived soviet government established in March 1930 by the Chinese Communist Party in the Dabie Mountains border region between Hubei, Henan, and Anhui provinces. At its height in 1931 and early 1932, the Eyuwan Soviet was the second-largest Chinese Soviet after the Central Soviet in Jiangxi. It improved the rights of women and redistributed land to poor and landless peasants. It was famously led by Zhang Guotao, a rival of Mao Zedong, who attempted to consolidate his control over Eyuwan with a series of purges. The Fourth Nationalist Encirclement Campaign defeated Eyuwan's Fourth Red Army in late 1932 and forced it to retreat westwards towards Sichuan and Shaanxi. The Soviet government ceased to function and the Communists retreated into the mountains. Despite several extermination campaigns intended to flush them out, the region remained a hotbed of Communist guerrilla activity until a truce was established in the Chinese Civil War.
Nationalist China 
Chinese Red Army 
Chiang Kai-shek 
