中共湘鄂西蘇區的發展及其內部整肅(1927-1933)

Abstract

After the split between the KMT and CCP in July 1927, Communist activists including He Long tended to go back to their native places in western Hubei and Hunan to stir up the peasants. From 1928 to 1930, they set up two major base areas in western Hubei and Hunan. One was the Hong Lake Soviet; the other was the Hubei-Hunan Border Soviet around He Lung's hometown Sangzhi County, Hunan Province. In July 1930, these two soviets merged into Xiangexi Soviet with He Lung as its superior military commander. The CCP tried to have a permanent soviet area around Hong Lake and then to expand from it outwardly. However, after a series of fiascos, the Xiangexi Soviet was caught in severely prolonged inner conflict. Subsequently, the superior party leader of the Xiangexi Soviet, Xia Xi, decided to start interior purges. These cruel and decimating purges and the annihilation campaign against the Xiangexi Soviet by the Nationalist Army finally led to the retreat of the Red Army from the Hong Lake Soviet to the Hubei-Hunan Border Soviet in September 1932. Moreover, the Red Army was expelled completely from the western Hubei-Hunan border area by the Nationalist Army in the end of 1933. This article is going to examine the cause and process of the development and interior purges of Xiangexi Soviet, and reveal the difference between the Xiangexi Soviet and other Soviets.