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158-587: Although its significance was not at first fully recognized by Chinese observers, the October Revolution would eventually have a profound effect on China. Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang's reaction to the news was immediately positive. Sun Yat-sen called Vladimir Lenin a "great man", and indicated he wished to follow the same path that Lenin had. However, this was unusual. It took other Chinese radicals such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao until after

316-567: A Constituent Assembly . This new Soviet government was known as the council (Soviet) of People's Commissars ( Sovnarkom ), with Lenin as a leader. Lenin allegedly approved of the name, reporting that it "smells of revolution". The cabinet quickly passed the Decree on Peace and the Decree on Land . This new government was also officially called "provisional" until the Assembly was dissolved. That same day, posters were pinned on walls and fences by

474-606: A sealed train carriage through their territory. According to Deutsche Welle : On November 7, 1917, a coup d'état went down in history as the October Revolution. The interim government was toppled, the Soviets seized power, and Russia later terminated the Triple Entente military alliance with France and Britain. For Russia, it was effectively the end of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm II had spent around half

632-630: A Bolshevik appeal, Moscow's working class began a protest strike of 400,000 workers. They were supported by strikes and protest rallies by workers in Kyiv , Kharkiv , Nizhny Novgorod , Ekaterinburg , and other cities. In what became known as the Kornilov affair, General Lavr Kornilov , who had been Commander-in-Chief since 18 July, with Kerensky's agreement directed an army under Aleksandr Krymov to march toward Petrograd to restore order. According to some accounts, Kerensky appeared to become frightened by

790-689: A Chinese Communist cell. Zhou was recruited by Zhang Shenfu , whom he had met in August of the previous year in connection with Li Dazhao . He also knew Zhang through Zhang's wife, Liu Qingyang, a member of the Awakening Society. Zhou has sometimes been portrayed at this time as uncertain in his politics, but his swift move to Communism suggests otherwise. The cell Zhou belonged to was based in Paris; in addition to Zhou, Zhang, and Liu it included two other students, Zhao Shiyan and Chen Gongpei. Over

948-565: A billion euros ($ 582 million) in today's money to weaken his wartime enemy. Upon his arrival Lenin gave his April Theses that called on the Bolsheviks to take over the Provisional Government, usurp power, and end the war. Throughout June, July, and August 1917, it was common to hear working-class Russians speak about their lack of confidence in the Provisional Government. Factory workers around Russia felt unhappy with

1106-601: A deep interest in politics and current events, in particular, the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Bolsheviks' new policies. He began to read avidly Chen Duxiu 's progressive and left-leaning magazine, New Youth . He read early Japanese works on Marx, and it has been claimed that he even attended Kawakami Hajime 's lectures at Kyoto University. Kawakami was an important figure in the early history of Japanese Marxism, and his translations and articles influenced

1264-483: A diplomatic note of 1 May, the minister of foreign affairs, Pavel Milyukov , expressed the Provisional Government's desire to continue the war against the Central Powers "to a victorious conclusion", arousing broad indignation. On 1–4 May, about 100,000 workers and soldiers of Petrograd, and, after them, the workers and soldiers of other cities, led by the Bolsheviks, demonstrated under banners reading "Down with

1422-671: A generation of Chinese communists. However, it now seems unlikely that Zhou met him or heard any of his lectures. Zhou's diaries also show his interest in Chinese student protests in opposition to the Sino-Japanese Joint Defense Agreement in May 1918, but he did not actively participate in them or return to China as part of the "Returning Home Movement". His active role in political movements began after his return to China. Zhou returned to Tianjin sometime in

1580-631: A great impression on him. His participation in debates and stage performances contributed to his eloquence and skills of persuasion. Zhou left Nankai with a great desire to pursue public service, and to acquire the skills required to do so. Following many of his classmates, Zhou went to Japan in July 1917 for further studies. During his two years in Japan, Zhou spent most of his time in the East Asian Higher Preparatory School,

1738-536: A gunboat with a mostly Communist crew moved from Whampoa to Guangzhou without Chiang's knowledge or approval. This event led to Chiang's exclusion of Communists from the academy by May 1926, and the removal of numerous Communists from high positions in the Nationalist Party. In his memoirs, Nie Rongzhen suggested that the gunboat had moved in protest of Zhou Enlai's (brief) arrest. Zhou's time in Whampoa

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1896-610: A language school for Chinese students. Zhou's studies were supported by his uncles, and apparently Nankai founder Yan Xiu as well, but their funds were limited; during this period, Japan suffered from severe inflation. Zhou originally planned to win one of the scholarships offered by the Chinese government; these scholarships, however, required Chinese students to pass entrance examinations in Japanese universities. Zhou took entrance examinations for at least two schools but failed to gain admission. Zhou's reported anxieties were compounded by

2054-785: A leading role in the Communists' first major military action, the Nanchang Revolt . In July 1926, the Nationalists began the Northern Expedition , a massive military attempt to unify China. The Expedition was led by Chiang Kai-shek and the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), an amalgam of earlier military forces with significant guidance from Russian military advisors and numerous Communists as both commanding and political officers. With

2212-534: A means of reaching military forces he hoped would be friendly to the Provisional Government outside the city and ultimately borrowed a Renault car from the American embassy, which he drove from the Winter Palace, along with a Pierce Arrow . Kerensky was able to evade the pickets going up around the palace and to drive to meet approaching soldiers. As Kerensky left Petrograd, Lenin wrote a proclamation To

2370-649: A member of the Provincial Committee's Military Section. Zhou vigorously extended Communist influence at the academy. He soon arranged for a number of other prominent Communists to join the Political Department, including Chen Yi , Nie Rongzhen , Yun Daiying , and Xiong Xiong. Zhou played an important role in establishing the Young Soldiers Association, a youth group which was dominated by the Communists, and Sparks,

2528-614: A mistake. Fleeing Shanghai, Zhou made his way to Hankou (now part of Wuhan ) and was a participant at the CCP's 5th National Congress there from 27 April to 9 May. At the end of the Congress, Zhou was elected to the Party's Central Committee, again heading the military department. After Chiang Kai-shek's suppression of the Communists, the Nationalist Party split in two, with the Nationalist Party's "left-wing" (led by Wang Jingwei ) controlling

2686-528: A nationwide boycott of Japanese goods. As the boycott became more effective, the national government, under pressure from Japan, attempted to suppress it. On 23 January 1920, a confrontation over boycott activities in Tianjin led to the arrest of a number of people, including several Awakening Society members, and on 29 January Zhou led a march on the Governor's Office in Tianjin to present a petition calling for

2844-520: A number of essays and articles written by Zhou at this time, and these reflect the discipline, training, and concern for country that Nankai's founders attempted to instill in their students. At the school's tenth commencement in June 1917, Zhou was one of five graduating students honored at the ceremony, and one of the two valedictorians. By the time that he graduated from Nankai, Zhang Boling's teachings of gong (public spirit) and neng (ability) had made

3002-567: A peaceful demonstration in Petrograd, the so-called July Days . The Provisional Government, with the support of Socialist-Revolutionary Party - Menshevik leaders of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Soviets, ordered an armed attack against the demonstrators, killing hundreds. A period of repression followed. On 5–6 July, attacks were made on the editorial offices and printing presses of Pravda and on

3160-648: A plane crash . Amid these events, Zhou was designated as Mao's successor in 1973, but struggled internally against the Gang of Four . In 1975, he fell out of the public eye for medical treatment and died one year later. The outpouring of public grief which his death provoked in Beijing turned to anger at the Gang of Four, leading to the 1976 Tiananmen incident . Though Zhou was succeeded by Hua Guofeng as premier and designated successor, after Mao's death Zhou's ally Deng Xiaoping

3318-570: A result, Zhou was a prominent figure at most Academy meetings, often addressing the school immediately after commandant Chiang Kai-shek . He was extremely influential in establishing the political department/party representative (commissar) system which was adopted in Nationalist armed forces in 1925. Concurrent with his Whampoa appointment, Zhou became secretary of the Communist Party's Guangdong Provincial Committee, and at some point

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3476-675: A series of armed workers strikes in 1926, and organized also by Zhou Enlai in 1927, Chiang went on to kill a large number of Communist forces in mid-1927, an event known as the Shanghai massacre . The massacre occurred about halfway through the Northern Expedition, ultimately ruining the First United Front and resulting in the Chinese Civil War . The Civil War was later postponed when the two sides formed

3634-428: A short-lived Communist front group. He thus recruited numerous new Communist party members from cadet ranks, and eventually set up a covert Communist Party branch at the academy to direct the new members. When Nationalists concerned with the increasing number of Communist members and organizations at Whampoa set up a "Society for Sun Yat-senism ", Zhou attempted to squelch it; the conflict between these student groups set

3792-464: A solution to China's problems. In Sun's view, China was not of the rich and the poor; rather, it was the country of the poor and the poorer. The guidelines of the Kuomintang were based on Sun's " Three Principles of the People ": nationalism , democracy and the people's livelihood ( socialism ). The Kuomintang gradually became a powerful and disciplined party under Russian guidance. The decisive factor

3950-530: A statement denouncing the government's actions. At 10   a.m., Bolshevik-aligned soldiers successfully retook the Rabochiy put printing house. Kerensky responded at approximately 3   p.m. that afternoon by ordering the raising of all but one of Petrograd's bridges, a tactic used by the government several months earlier during the July Days . What followed was a series of sporadic clashes over control of

4108-495: A university in August 1919, Zhou was in the first class, but was an activist full-time. His political activities continued to expand, and in September, he and several other students agreed to establish the "Awakening Society", a small group, never numbering more than 25. In explaining the goals and purpose of the Awakening Society, Zhou declared that "anything that is incompatible with progress in current times, such as militarism,

4266-731: The Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement . Zhou returned to Paris by June 1922, where he was one of the twenty two participants present at the organization of the Communist Youth League of China , established as the European Branch of the Chinese Communist Party. Zhou helped draft the party's charter and was elected to the three member executive committee as director of propaganda. He also wrote for and helped edit

4424-746: The Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography ), October coup , Bolshevik coup , or Bolshevik revolution , was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It was the second revolutionary change of government in Russia in 1917. It took place through an insurrection in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg ) on 7 November 1917 [ O.S. 25 October]. It

4582-671: The Green Gang and soldiers under the command of Nationalist general Pai Ch'ung-hsi attacked the Communists and quickly overcame them. On the eve of the Nationalist attack, Wang Shouhua, who was both the head of the CCP Labor Committee and the Chairman of the General Labor Committee, accepted a dinner invitation from "Big-eared Du" (a Shanghai gangster) and was strangled after he arrived. Zhou himself

4740-477: The July Days ). It declared Russia as a republic on 1 September (O.S.; 14 September, N.S.) 1917. Events came to a head in late 1917 as the Directorate , led by the left-wing Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (SRs), controlled the government. The far-left Bolsheviks were deeply unhappy with the government, and began spreading calls for a military uprising. On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October, N.S.),

4898-456: The North and their Beiyang government . Upon his return from exile in 1917, Sun revived his banned nationalist party, the Kuomintang, but this time he gave it the new name, the Kuomintang of China. His plan was that after defeating the warlords the party would guide China until the country would be ready to move to democracy. The rival government led by Sun, however, was at a disadvantage against

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5056-663: The Palace of Kshesinskaya , where the Central Committee and the Petrograd Committee of the Bolsheviks were located. On 7 July, the government ordered the arrest and trial of Vladimir Lenin , who was forced to go underground, as he had done under the Tsarist regime. Bolsheviks were arrested, workers were disarmed, and revolutionary military units in Petrograd were disbanded or sent to the war front. On 12 July,

5214-493: The Petrograd Soviet , led by Leon Trotsky , voted to back a military uprising. On 24 October (O.S.; 6 November, N.S.), the government shut down numerous newspapers and closed the city of Petrograd in an attempt to forestall the revolution; minor armed skirmishes broke out. The next day, a full-scale uprising erupted as a fleet of Bolshevik sailors entered the harbor and tens of thousands of soldiers rose up in support of

5372-550: The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , which began on this day. After the majority of the petrograd Soviet passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks, [Trotsky] was elected its chairman and in that position organized and led the insurrection of October 25. Lenin on the organization of the October Revolution, Vol.XIV of the Collected Works . Kerensky and

5530-673: The Second United Front to combat the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War . [REDACTED] Communist Party / [REDACTED] Soviet Republic ( [REDACTED] Red Army ) → Liberated Area ( [REDACTED] 8th Route Army , New Fourth Army , etc. → [REDACTED] People's Liberation Army ) → [REDACTED]   People's Republic of China October Revolution Bolshevik victory The October Revolution , also known as

5688-909: The University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow, and the establishment of the Chinese Nationalist Party ( Kuomintang or KMT) European branch. In June 1923, the Third Congress of the Chinese Communist Party accepted the Comintern's instructions to ally with the KMT, led at the time by Sun Yat-sen . These instructions called for CCP members to join the Nationalist Party as "individuals", while still retaining their association with

5846-488: The elected parliament of Russia, and used machine-gun fire against demonstrators in Petrograd, killing about 100 demonstrators and wounding several hundred. Dybenko in his memoirs mentioned this event as "several shots in the air". These are disputed by various sources, such as Louise Bryant , who claims that news outlets in the West at the time reported that the unfortunate loss of life occurred in Moscow, not Petrograd, and

6004-599: The "politically correct" version of the October events in Petrograd came to be taken as truth. Historical falsification of political events such as the October Revolution and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty became a distinctive element of Stalin's regime. A notable example is the 1938 publication, History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) , in which the history of the governing party

6162-560: The Awakening Society met with several Beijing organizations and agreed to form a "Reform Federation"; during these activities Zhou became more familiar with Li Dazhao and met Zhang Shenfu, who was the contact between Li in Beijing and Chen Duxiu in Shanghai. Both men were organizing underground Communist cells in cooperation with Grigori Voitinsky , a Comintern agent, but Zhou apparently did not meet Voitinsky at this point. Soon after his release, Zhou decided to go to Europe to study. (He

6320-606: The Bolshevik party had risen from 24,000 members in February 1917 to 200,000 members by September 1917. The Bolsheviks created a revolutionary military committee within the Petrograd soviet, led by the Soviet's president, Leon Trotsky . The committee included armed workers, sailors, and soldiers, and assured the support or neutrality of the capital's garrison. The committee methodically planned to occupy strategic locations through

6478-412: The Bolsheviks had illegally seized power and they walked out before the resolution was passed. As they exited, they were taunted by Trotsky who told them "You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on—into the dustbin of history!" The following day, 26 October, the Congress elected a new cabinet of Bolsheviks, pending the convocation of

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6636-635: The Bolsheviks' Central Committee voted 10–2 for a resolution saying that "an armed uprising is inevitable, and that the time for it is fully ripe." At the Committee meeting, Lenin discussed how the people of Russia had waited long enough for "an armed uprising," and it was the Bolsheviks' time to take power. Lenin expressed his confidence in the success of the planned insurrection. His confidence stemmed from months of Bolshevik buildup of power and successful elections to different committees and councils in major cities such as Petrograd and Moscow. Membership of

6794-663: The Bolsheviks' popularity in the soviets grew significantly, both in the central and local areas. On 31 August, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies—and, on 5 September, the Moscow Soviet Workers Deputies—adopted the Bolshevik resolutions on the question of power. The Bolsheviks were able to take over in Briansk , Samara , Saratov , Tsaritsyn , Minsk , Kiev, Tashkent , and other cities. On 10 October 1917 (O.S.; 23 October, N.S.),

6952-476: The Bolsheviks. Bolshevik Red Guard forces under the Military-Revolutionary Committee began the occupation of government buildings. In the early morning of 26 October (O.S.; 8 November, N.S.), the Winter Palace (the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of Russia) was captured. As the revolution was not universally recognized, the country descended into the Russian Civil War , which would last until late 1922 and ultimately lead to

7110-632: The CCP. After joining the KMT, they would work to lead and direct it, transforming it into a vehicle of revolution. Within several years, this strategy would become the source of serious conflict between the KMT and the CCP. As well as joining the KMT, Zhou helped organize the founding of the Nationalist Party European branch in November 1923. Under Zhou's influence, most of the European branch's officers were in fact communists. Zhou's wide-ranging contacts and personal relationships formed during this period were central to his career. Important party leaders, such as Zhu De and Nie Rongzhen , were first admitted to

7268-443: The Citizens of Russia , stating that the Provisional Government had been overthrown by the Military-Revolutionary Committee. The proclamation was sent by telegraph throughout Russia, even as the pro-Soviet soldiers were seizing important control centers throughout the city. One of Lenin's intentions was to present members of the Soviet congress, who would assemble that afternoon, with a fait accompli and thus forestall further debate on

7426-461: The Communist head in Shanghai, Chen Duxiu , the Party's general secretary, with a special committee of eight party officials coordinating Communist actions. The committee also consulted closely on decisions with the Comintern representatives in Shanghai, headed by Grigori Voitinsky . The partial documentation available for this period shows that Zhou headed the Communist Party Central Committee's Military Commission in Shanghai. He participated in both

7584-423: The Cossacks breaking rank and fleeing, leaving their artillery behind. On 31 October 1917 (13 November, N.S.), the Bolsheviks gained control of Moscow after a week of bitter street-fighting. Artillery had been freely used, with an estimated 700 casualties. However, there was continued support for Kerensky in some of the provinces. After the fall of Moscow, there was only minor public anti-Bolshevik sentiment, such as

7742-437: The February and March actions, but was not the guiding hand in either event, instead working with A. P. Appen, the Soviet military advisor to the Central Committee, training the pickets of the General Labor Union, the Communist controlled labor organization in Shanghai. He also worked to make union strong arm squads more effective when the Communists declared a "Red Terror" after the failed February uprising; this action resulted in

7900-456: The First Corps Political Department. Soon after, the Nationalist Party's Central Executive Committee appointed Zhou Nationalist Party party representative, making Zhou chief commissar of the First Corps. The first major battle of expedition saw the capture of Chen's base in Huizhou on 15 October. Shantou was taken on 6 November, and by the end of 1925, the Nationalists controlled all of Guangdong province. Zhou's appointment as chief commissar of

8058-437: The First Corps allowed him to appoint Communists as commissars in four of the Corps' five divisions. Following the conclusion of the Expedition, Zhou was appointed special commissioner for the East River District, which placed him in temporary administrative control of several counties; he apparently used this opportunity to establish a Communist party branch in Shantou and strengthen the CCP's control of local unions. This marked

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8216-409: The Guangdong Army under Xu Chongzhix, and two training regiments of the Nationalist Party Army, led by Chiang Kai-shek and staffed by Academy officers and cadets. The fighting lasted through May 1925, with the defeat, but not destruction, of Chen's forces. Zhou accompanied the Whampoa cadets on the expedition as a political officer. When Chen regrouped and attacked Guangzhou again in September 1925,

8374-422: The KMT and its members, while Chiang's aim was to control the Communist Party from the inside. Having said that, he was also the main reason the relationship fell apart, due to his desire to control the Communist Party, ultimately leading to the disintegration of the First United Front. After purging the Communists and Soviet advisors from Whampoa and his Nationalist army during the 1926 " Canton Coup ", and following

8532-403: The Kuomintang along Leninist lines, making the party significantly more effective. They founded the Whampoa military academy as well as a civil university to educate KMT cadres. During the time of warlords, Sun Yat-sen kept the idea of a united Chinese republic alive. His goal was to establish a rival government in Guangzhou , southern China , and go from there to fight against the warlords in

8690-599: The May Fourth incident seem to have been crucial to his Communist career. Zhou's friends in the Awakening Society were similarly affected. 15 of the group's members became Communists for at least some time, and the group remained close later on. Zhou and six other group members travelled to Europe in the next two years, and Zhou eventually married Deng Yingchao , the group's youngest member. Zhou's group arrived in Marseille on 13 December 1920. Unlike most other Chinese students, who went to Europe on work-study programs, Zhou's scholarship and position with Yishi bao meant that he

8848-432: The Military-Revolutionary Committee designated the last of the locations to be assaulted or seized. The Red Guards systematically captured major government facilities, key communication installations, and vantage points with little opposition. The Petrograd Garrison and most of the city's military units joined the insurrection against the Provisional Government. The insurrection was timed and organized to hand state power to

9006-486: The Moscow and Petrograd workers, miners in the Donbas, metalworkers in the Urals, oil workers in Baku , textile workers in the Central Industrial Region , and railroad workers on 44 railway lines. In these months alone, more than a million workers took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution . Workers organized these strikes through factory committees . The factory committees represented

9164-407: The NRA and defections from his army, Sun reduced his forces in Shanghai, and the Communists, whose party headquarters was located in Shanghai, made three attempts to seize control of the city, later called "the three Shanghai Uprisings", in October 1926, February 1927 and March 1927. Zhou was transferred to Shanghai to assist in these activities, probably in late 1926. It seems he was not present for

9322-435: The Nationalist party). Zhou's talents also attracted the attention of Yan Xiu and Zhang Boling. Yan in particular thought highly of Zhou, helping to pay for his studies in Japan and later France. Yan was so impressed with Zhou that he encouraged Zhou to marry his daughter, but Zhou declined. Zhou later expressed the reasons for his decision not to marry Yan's daughter to his classmate, Zhang Honghao. Zhou said that he declined

9480-405: The Nationalists launched a second expedition. Nationalist forces by this time had been reorganized into five corps (or armies) and adopted the commissar system with Political Departments and Nationalist party representatives in most divisions. The First Corps, made up of the Nationalist Party Army, was led by Whampoa graduates and commanded by Chiang Kai-shek, who personally appointed Zhou director of

9638-401: The Provisional Government published a law introducing the death penalty at the front. The second coalition government was formed on 24 July, chaired by Alexander Kerensky and consisted mostly of Socialists. Kerensky's government introduced a number of liberal rights, such as freedom of speech , equality before the law, and the right to form unions and arrange labor strikes . In response to

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9796-443: The Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants. In September, the garrisons in Petrograd, Moscow, and other cities, the Northern and Western fronts, and the sailors of the Baltic Fleet declared through their elected representative body Tsentrobalt that they did not recognize the authority of the Provisional Government and would not carry out any of its commands. Soldiers' wives were key players in

9954-413: The Provisional Government were virtually helpless to offer significant resistance. Railways and railway stations had been controlled by Soviet workers and soldiers for days, making rail travel to and from Petrograd impossible for Provisional Government officials. The Provisional Government was also unable to locate any serviceable vehicles. On the morning of the insurrection, Kerensky desperately searched for

10112-449: The Red Chamber . Zhou's birth mother Wan died in 1907 when Zhou was 9, and his adoptive mother Chen in 1908 when Zhou was 10. Zhou's father was working in Hubei, far from Jiangsu, so Zhou and his two younger brothers returned to Huai'an and lived with his father's remaining younger brother Yikui for the next two years. In 1910, Zhou's uncle Yigeng, his father's older brother, offered to care for Zhou. The family in Huai'an agreed, and Zhou

10270-443: The Russian or the British way... I would prefer something in-between, rather than one of these two extremes". Still interested in academic programs, Zhou traveled to Britain in January 1921 to visit Edinburgh University . Concerned by financial problems and language requirements, he did not enroll, returning to France at the end of January. There are no records of Zhou entering any academic program in France. In spring 1921, he joined

10428-411: The SR Party no longer existed as a whole party by that time, as the Left SRs had gone into coalition with the Bolsheviks from October 1917 to March 1918 (a cause of dispute of the legitimacy of the returned seating of the Constituent Assembly, as the old lists, were drawn up by the old SR Party leadership, and thus represented mostly Right SRs, whereas the peasant soviet deputies had returned majorities for

10586-401: The Shanghai Communists were highly secretive at the time, and that his execution would have been noticed as a violation of the cooperation agreement between the CCP and the KMT (which was technically still in effect). Zhou was finally only released after the intervention of a representative of the Twenty-sixth Army, Zhao Shu, who was able to convince his commanders that the arrest of Zhou had been

10744-473: The Socialist Revolutionaries, describing the takeover as a "crime against the motherland" and "revolution"; this signaled the next wave of anti-Bolshevik sentiment. The next day, the Mensheviks seized power in Georgia and declared it an independent republic; the Don Cossacks also claimed control of their government. The Bolshevik strongholds were in the cities, particularly Petrograd, with support much more mixed in rural areas. The peasant-dominated Left SR party

10902-421: The Soviet Union modernized its calendar . To avoid confusion, both O.S and N.S. dates have been given for events. For more details see Old Style and New Style dates . It was sometimes known as the Bolshevik Revolution, or the Communist Revolution. Initially the event was referred to as the "October coup" ( Октябрьский переворот ) or the "Uprising of the 3rd", as seen in contemporary documents, for example in

11060-584: The United States, Taiwan, the Soviet Union ( after 1960 ), India, Korea, and Vietnam. Zhou survived the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, and was one of the main driving forces behind affairs of state as Mao dedicated much of his later years to political struggle and ideological work. Zhou's attempts at mitigating the Red Guards ' damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in its later stages. Mao's health began to decline in 1971, and Lin Biao fell into disgrace and later died in

11218-410: The age of fourteen, Zhou declared that his motivation for pursuing education was to "become a great man who will take up the heavy responsibilities of the country in the future." In 1913, Zhou's uncle was transferred to Tianjin, where Zhou entered the famous Nankai Middle School . Nankai Middle School was founded by Yan Xiu , a prominent scholar and philanthropist, and headed by Zhang Boling , one of

11376-474: The army and convinced them to stand down. The Bolsheviks' influence over railroad and telegraph workers also proved vital in stopping the movement of troops. The political right felt betrayed, and the left was resurgent. The first direct consequence of Kornilov's failed coup was the formal abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of the Russian Republic on 1 September. With Kornilov defeated,

11534-416: The arrestees' release. Zhou and three other leaders were themselves arrested. The arrestees were held for over six months; during their detention, Zhou supposedly organized discussions on Marxism. At their trial in July, Zhou and six others were sentenced to two months; the rest were found not guilty. All were immediately released since they had already been held over six months. After Zhou's release, he and

11692-544: The autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises in the Urals , the Donbas , and other industrial centers were closed down, leading to mass unemployment. At the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell to about 50% of what they had been in 1913. By October 1917, Russia's national debt had risen to 50 billion roubles . Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion roubles. The country faced

11850-502: The background for Zhou's removal from the academy. Zhou participated in two military operations conducted by the Nationalist regime in 1925, later known as the first and second Eastern Expeditions. The first was in January 1925 when Chen Jiongming , an important Cantonese military leader previously driven out of Guangzhou by Sun Yat-sen, attempted to retake Guangzhou. The Nationalist regime's campaign against Chen consisted of forces from

12008-526: The bourgeoisie, partylords, bureaucrats, inequality between men and women, obstinate ideas, obsolete morals, old ethics... should be abolished or reformed", and affirmed that it was the purpose of the Society to spread this awareness among the Chinese people. It was in this society that Zhou first met his future wife, Deng Yingchao . In some ways, the Awakening Society resembled the clandestine Marxist study group at Peking University headed by Li Dazhao , with

12166-560: The bridges, between Red Guard militias aligned with the Military-Revolutionary Committee and military units still loyal to the government. At approximately 5   p.m. the Military-Revolutionary Committee seized the Central Telegraph of Petrograd, giving the Bolsheviks control over communications through the city. On 25 October (O.S.; 7 November, N.S.) 1917, the Bolsheviks led their forces in

12324-533: The building, the cabinet of the Provisional Government surrendered, and were imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress . The only member who was not arrested was Kerensky himself, who had already left the palace. With the Petrograd Soviet now in control of government, garrison, and proletariat, the Second All Russian Congress of Soviets held its opening session on the day, while Trotsky dismissed

12482-422: The cases of destruction (usually burning down and seizing property from the landlord's estate) recorded between February and October occurred in October. While the uprisings varied in severity, complete uprisings and seizures of the land were not uncommon. Less robust forms of protest included marches on landowner manors and government offices, as well as withholding and storing grains rather than selling them. When

12640-526: The city, almost without concealing their preparations: the Provisional Government's President Kerensky was himself aware of them; and some details, leaked by Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev , were published in newspapers. In the early morning of 24 October (O.S.; 6 November N.S.), a group of soldiers loyal to Kerensky's government marched on the printing house of the Bolshevik newspaper, Rabochiy put ( Worker's Path ), seizing and destroying printing equipment and thousands of newspapers. Shortly thereafter,

12798-557: The creation of the Soviet Union . The historiography of the event has varied. The victorious Soviet Union viewed it as a validation of its ideology and the triumph of the working class over capitalism . On the other hand, the Western Allies , for various reasons, later intervened against the Bolsheviks in the civil war. The event inspired many cultural works and ignited communist movements globally. October Revolution Day

12956-456: The cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot from the harbor. Some of the revolutionaries entered the palace at 10:25   p.m. and there was a mass entry 3 hours later. By 2:10   a.m. on 26 October, Bolshevik forces had gained control. The Cadets and the 140 volunteers of the Women's Battalion surrendered rather than resist the 40,000 strong attacking force. After sporadic gunfire throughout

13114-523: The death of his uncle, Zhou Yikui, his inability to master Japanese, and the acute Japanese cultural chauvinism that discriminated against Chinese. By the time that Zhou returned to China in the spring of 1919, he had become deeply disenchanted with Japanese culture, rejecting the idea that the Japanese political model was relevant to China and disdaining the values of elitism and militarism that he observed. Zhou's diaries and letters from his time in Tokyo show

13272-565: The early successes of the Expedition, there was soon a race between Chiang Kai-shek leading the "right-wing" of the Nationalist Party and the Communists, running inside the "left-wing" of the Nationalists, for control of major southern cities such as Nanjing and Shanghai. At this point the Chinese portion of Shanghai was controlled by Sun Chuanfang , one of the militarists targeted by the North Expedition. Distracted by fighting with

13430-500: The end of World War I for them to appreciate the Bolsheviks' radical departure from the February Revolution . By early 1920, however, they had become convinced of the efficacy of this new revolutionary and political model and were moving towards founding the CCP. The foreign policy of the new Soviet Union towards China was likewise extremely significant. According to orthodox Marxist theory, countries like China lacked

13588-639: The final separation of the Nationalist and Communist parties and the end of the Soviet-Nationalist alliance in 1927. Zhou's activities immediately after his removal from his positions at Whampoa are uncertain. An earlier biographer claims that Chiang Kai-shek put Zhou in charge of "an advanced training center for the CCP members and commissars withdrawn from the army". More recent Chinese Communist sources claim that Zhou had an important role at this time in securing Communist control of Ye Ting 's Independent Regiment. The regiment and Ye Ting later played

13746-705: The first editions of Lenin 's complete works. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and replaced his government with the Russian Provisional Government . However, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I , which became increasingly unpopular. There was a nationwide crisis affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased. Gross industrial production in 1917 decreased by over 36% of what it had been in 1914. In

13904-485: The first uprising on 23–24 October, but he was certainly in Shanghai by December 1926. Early accounts credit Zhou with labor organizing activities in Shanghai after his arrival, or, more credibly, working to "strengthen the indoctrination of political workers in labor unions and smuggle arms for the strikers." Reports that Zhou "organized" or "ordered" the second and third uprisings on 20 February and 21 March exaggerate his role. Major decisions during this period were made by

14062-502: The government announced the immediate closure of not only Rabochiy put but also the left-wing Soldat , as well as the far-right newspapers Zhivoe slovo and Novaia Rus . The editors and contributors of these newspapers were seen to be calling for insurrection and were to be prosecuted on criminal charges. In response, at 9   a.m. the Bolshevik Military Revolutionary Committee issued

14220-641: The government in Hankou, and the party "right-wing" (led by Chiang Kai-shek) establishing a rival government in Nanjing. Still following Comintern instructions, the Communists remained as a "bloc inside" the Nationalist Party, hoping to continue expanding their influence through the Nationalists. After being attacked by a warlord friendly to Chiang, Wang's leftist government disintegrated later in May 1927, and Chiang's troops began an organized purge of Communists in territories formerly controlled by Wang. In mid-July Zhou

14378-402: The group members using numbers instead of names for "secrecy". (Zhou was "Number Five", a pseudonym which he continued to use in later years.) Indeed, immediately after the group was established, it invited Li Dazhao to give a lecture on Marxism. Zhou assumed a more prominent active role in political activities over the next few months. The largest of these activities were rallies in support of

14536-532: The growing shortages of food, supplies, and other materials. They blamed their managers or foremen and would even attack them in the factories. The workers blamed many rich and influential individuals for the overall shortage of food and poor living conditions. Workers saw these rich and powerful individuals as opponents of the Revolution and called them "bourgeois", "capitalist", and "imperialist". In September and October 1917, there were mass strike actions by

14694-594: The high point of Zhou's time at Whampoa. In personal terms, 1925 was also an important year for Zhou. Zhou had kept in touch with Deng Yingchao , whom he had met in the Awakening Society while in Tianjin; and, in January 1925, Zhou asked for and received permission from CCP authorities to marry Deng. The two married in Guangzhou on 8 August 1925. Zhou's work at Whampoa came to an end with the Zhongshan Warship Incident of 20 March 1926, in which

14852-600: The inaugural Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1949 to 1958. Zhou was a key figure in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and ally of Mao Zedong during the Chinese Civil War , later helping consolidate its control, form its foreign policy , and develop the economy . Born in Jiangsu , as a student Zhou was involved in the 1919 May Fourth Movement , and in the early 1920s studied in France, where he joined

15010-501: The influence of Zhang Shenfu, who had previously worked there. Zhou was Whampoa's chief political officer. While he was serving in Whampoa, Zhou was also made the secretary of the Communist Party of Guangdong-Guangxi, and served as the CCP representative with the rank of major-general. The island of Whampoa, ten miles downriver from Guangzhou, was at the heart of the Soviet-Nationalist Party alliance. Conceived as

15168-463: The insurrectionists were under strict orders not to harm foreigners, which they obeyed. The forces of Sun Chuanfang withdrew and the uprising was successful, despite the small number of armed forces available. The first Nationalist troops entered the city the next day. As the Communists attempted to install a soviet municipal government, conflict began between the Nationalists and Communists, and on 12 April Nationalist forces, including both members of

15326-474: The ladder in civil service, the men in these families often had to be transferred, and in the late years of the Qing dynasty, Zhou Enlai's branch of the family moved to Huai'an. Even after the move, however, the family continued to view Shaoxing as its ancestral home. Zhou's grandfather, Zhou Panlong, and his granduncle, Zhou Jun'ang, were the first members of the family to move to Huai'an. Panlong apparently passed

15484-562: The landowners had spread to 482 of 624 counties, or 77% of the country. As 1917 progressed, the peasantry increasingly began to lose faith that the land would be distributed to them by the Social Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks . Refusing to continue living as before, they increasingly took measures into their own hands, as can be seen by the increase in the number and militancy of the peasant's actions. Over 42% of all

15642-572: The late 19th century. Zhou Yineng had a reputation for honesty, gentleness, intelligence and concern for others, but was also considered "weak" and "lacking in discipline and determination". He was unsuccessful in his personal life, and drifted across China doing various occupations, working in Beijing , Shandong , Anhui , Shenyang , Inner Mongolia and Sichuan . Zhou Enlai later remembered his father as being always away from home and generally unable to support his family. Soon after birth, Zhou Enlai

15800-654: The leaders of both the Kuomintang and the CCP graduated from the academy—the chief commander of the People's Liberation Army , Lin Biao , graduated from Whampoa, as did Zhou Enlai , who later became premier of Communist China . The First United Front was formed so the KMT and the CCP could join to strengthen China. The initial aim was to help defeat the warlord threat (through the Northern Expedition of 1926–28), but both parties actually had ulterior motives with this alliance. The CCP formed it mainly so it could spread communism within

15958-645: The leading position of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars when the Bolsheviks formed a new government, after the October Revolution in 1917, and suggested Trotsky for the position. However, Trotsky refused the position and other Bolsheviks insisted that Lenin assume principal responsibility which resulted in Lenin eventually accepting the role of chairman. The Second Congress of Soviets consisted of 670 elected delegates: 300 were Bolsheviks and nearly 100 were Left Socialist-Revolutionaries , who also supported

16116-509: The marriage because he feared that his financial prospects would not be promising, and that Yan would, as his father-in-law, later dominate his life. Zhou did well in his studies at Nankai; he excelled in Chinese, won several awards in the school speech club, and became editor of the school newspaper in his final year. Zhou was also very active in acting and producing dramas and plays at Nankai; many students who were not otherwise acquainted with him knew of him through his acting. Nankai preserves

16274-529: The material conditions (such as a large proletariat) to successfully transition to socialism. However, Lenin argued in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism , that capitalism in the early twentieth century had become dependent on imperialist exploitation of the third world. Anti-imperialist movements had the potential of destabilizing the worldwide capitalist system and in that way could hasten

16432-569: The miners) examining the conflict between workers and employers, and the conflict's resolution. After five weeks in London he moved to Paris, where interest in Russia's 1917 October Revolution was high. In a letter to his cousin, Zhou identified two broad paths of reform for China: "gradual reform" (as in England) or "violent means" (as in Russia). Zhou wrote that "I do not have a preference for either

16590-454: The model for official films made later, which showed fierce fighting during the storming of the Winter Palace, although, in reality, the Bolshevik insurgents had faced little opposition. Later accounts of the heroic "storming of the Winter Palace" and "defense of the Winter Palace" were propaganda by Bolshevik publicists. Grandiose paintings depicting the "Women's Battalion" and photo stills taken from Sergei Eisenstein 's staged film depicting

16748-716: The most important Chinese educators of the 20th century. Nankai's teaching methods were unusual by contemporary Chinese standards. By the time Zhou began attending, it had adopted the educational model used at the Phillips Academy in the United States. The school's reputation, with its "highly disciplined" daily routine and "strict moral code", attracted many students who later became prominent in public life. Zhou's friends and classmates there ranged from Ma Jun (an early communist leader executed in 1927) to K. C. Wu (later mayor of Shanghai and governor of Taiwan under

16906-409: The murder of twenty "anti-union" figures, and the kidnapping, beating, and intimidation of others associated with anti-union activities. The third Communist uprising in Shanghai took place from 20 to 21 March. Approximately 600,000 rioting workers cut power and telephone lines and seized the city's post office, police headquarters, and railway stations, often after heavy fighting. During this uprising,

17064-667: The newly-founded CCP. During the party's alliance with the Kuomintang (KMT), he worked in the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy . In 1927, Zhou led the worker uprising which was crushed by the KMT in the Shanghai massacre , after which he helped lead the Nanchang uprising . Zhou worked underground in Shanghai before being transferred to the Jiangxi Soviet , and after the soviet's defeat

17222-553: The newspaper Novaya Zhizn , which criticized the Bolsheviks' lack of manpower and organization in running their party, let alone a government. Lenin confidently claimed that there is "not a shadow of hesitation in the masses of Petrograd, Moscow and the rest of Russia" in accepting Bolshevik rule. On 10 November 1917 (23 November, N.S.), the government applied the term "citizens of the Russian Republic" to Russians, whom they sought to make equal in all possible respects, by

17380-414: The next day by order of the Congress of Soviets. Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai ( Chinese : 周恩来 ; pinyin : Zhōu Ēnlái ; Wade–Giles : Chou Ên -lai ; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the inaugural premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1949 until his death in 1976, and concurrently as

17538-476: The next several months, this group eventually formed a united organization with a group of Chinese radicals from Hunan, who were living in Montargis south of Paris. This group included such later prominent figures as Cai Hesen , Li Lisan , Chen Yi , Nie Rongzhen , Deng Xiaoping , and also Guo Longzhen, another member of the Awakening Society. Unlike Zhou, most of the students in this group were participants in

17696-502: The nullification of all "legal designations of civil inequality, such as estates, titles, and ranks." The long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November (O.S., 25 November, N.S.) 1917. In contrast to their majority in the Soviets, the Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary Party , which won 370 seats, although

17854-459: The number was much less than suggested above. As for the "several shots in the air", there is little evidence suggesting otherwise. While the seizure of the Winter Palace happened almost without resistance, Soviet historians and officials later tended to depict the event in dramatic and heroic terms. The historical reenactment titled The Storming of the Winter Palace was staged in 1920. This reenactment, watched by 100,000 spectators, provided

18012-505: The offensive's failure intensified the struggle of the workers and the soldiers. On 16 July, spontaneous demonstrations of workers and soldiers began in Petrograd, demanding that power be turned over to the soviets. The Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party provided leadership to the spontaneous movements. On 17 July, over 500,000 people participated in what was intended to be

18170-495: The opposing Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) from Congress. Some sources contend that as the leader of Tsentrobalt , Pavlo Dybenko played a crucial role in the revolt and that the ten warships that arrived at the city with ten thousand Baltic Fleet mariners were the force that took the power in Petrograd and put down the Provisional Government. The same mariners then dispersed by force

18328-409: The organized peasantry in this criminal violation of the will of the working class". This eventually developed into major counter-revolutionary action, as on 30 October (O.S., 12 November, N.S.) when Cossacks , welcomed by church bells, entered Tsarskoye Selo on the outskirts of Petrograd with Kerensky riding on a white horse. Kerensky gave an ultimatum to the rifle garrison to lay down weapons, which

18486-618: The overthrow of the Alexander Kerensky government. When the fall of the Winter Palace was announced, the Congress adopted a decree transferring power to the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, thus ratifying the Revolution. The transfer of power was not without disagreement. The center and right wings of the Socialist Revolutionaries, as well as the Mensheviks, believed that Lenin and

18644-456: The palace and returned to their barracks. While the cabinet of the provisional government within the palace debated what action to take, the Bolsheviks issued an ultimatum to surrender. Workers and soldiers occupied the last of the telegraph stations, cutting off the cabinet's communications with loyal military forces outside the city. As the night progressed, crowds of insurgents surrounded the palace, and many infiltrated it. At 9:45   p.m,

18802-473: The party by Zhou. By 1924, the Soviet-Nationalist alliance was expanding rapidly and Zhou was summoned back to China for further work. He left Europe probably in late July 1924, returning to China as one of the most senior Chinese Communist Party members in Europe. Zhou returned to China in late August or early September 1924 to join the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy , probably through

18960-541: The party magazine, Shaonian (Youth), later renamed Chiguang (Red Light). It was in Zhou's capacity as general editor of this magazine that Zhou first met Deng Xiaoping , only seventeen years old, whom Zhou hired to operate a mimeograph (copy) machine. The party went through several reorganizations and name changes, but Zhou remained a key member of the group throughout his stay in Europe. Other important activities Zhou undertook included recruiting and transporting students for

19118-632: The period. In July 1919, however, Zhou became editor of the Tianjin Student Union Bulletin, apparently at the request of his Nankai classmate, Ma Jun, a founder of the Union. During its brief existence from July 1919 to early 1920, the Bulletin was widely read by student groups around the country and suppressed on at least one occasion by the national government as "harmful to public safety and social order." When Nankai became

19276-411: The possibility that the army would stage a coup, and reversed the order. By contrast, historian Richard Pipes has argued that the episode was engineered by Kerensky. On 27 August, feeling betrayed by the government, Kornilov pushed on towards Petrograd. With few troops to spare at the front, Kerensky turned to the Petrograd Soviet for help. Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, and Socialist Revolutionaries confronted

19434-472: The pro-Bolshevik Left SRs). The Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November (O.S.) 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January (O.S.; 18 January, N.S.) 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the Constituent Assembly came into conflict with the Soviets, and it rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, resulting in the Constituent Assembly being dissolved

19592-430: The provincial examinations, and Zhou Enlai later claimed that Panlong served as magistrate governing Huai'an county. Zhou's father, Zhou Yineng, was the second of Zhou Panlong's four sons. Zhou's birth mother, surnamed Wan, was the daughter of a prominent Jiangsu official. Like many others, the economic fortunes of Zhou's large family of scholar-officials were decimated by a great economic recession that China suffered in

19750-555: The renewed civil war from 1946 assisted Mao in commanding military campaigns. After the establishment of the PRC in 1949, Zhou was appointed head of government and foreign minister. Advocating peaceful coexistence with the West after the Korean War , he participated in the 1954 Geneva Conference and 1955 Bandung Conference and helped orchestrate Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China . He helped devise policies regarding disputes with

19908-474: The revolt was a disaster, with the Communists' forces decimated and scattered. Zhou himself contracted malaria during the campaign and was secretly sent to Hong Kong for medical treatment by Nie Rongzhen and Ye Ting. After reaching Hong Kong, Zhou was disguised as a businessman named "Li" and entrusted to the care of local Communists. In a subsequent meeting of the CCP Central Committee, Zhou

20066-552: The revolution where material conditions were right. Thus, the early Soviet position on China was opposed to socialist revolution—in the Sun-Joffe Manifesto , they formally agreed that China was not ready for "the Soviet system". But they sought to encourage an anti-imperialist movement that included both "bourgeois nationalists" and the working class. The Sun-Joffe Manifesto began a period of extensive aid to Sun Yat-sen and his movement. Soviet advisors helped Sun reorganize

20224-469: The same letter, Zhou told his cousin that, regarding his adoption of a specific ideology, "I still have to make up my mind." While in Europe, Zhou, also named as John Knight, studied the differing approaches to resolving class conflict adopted by various European nations. In London in January 1921, Zhou witnessed a large miners' strike and wrote a series of articles for the Yishi bao (generally sympathetic to

20382-532: The spring of 1919. Historians disagree over his participation in the May Fourth Movement (May to June 1919). Zhou's "official" Chinese biography states that he was a leader of the Tianjin student protests in the May Fourth movement, but many modern scholars believe that it is highly unlikely that Zhou participated at all, based on the total lack of direct evidence among the surviving records from

20540-521: The threat of financial bankruptcy . Vladimir Lenin, who had been living in exile in Switzerland, with other dissidents organized a plan to negotiate a passage for them through Germany, with whom Russia was then at war. Recognizing that these dissidents could cause problems for their Russian enemies, the German government agreed to permit 32 Russian citizens, among them Lenin and his wife, to travel in

20698-549: The time of the event. In his book, The Stalin School of Falsification , Leon Trotsky argued that the Stalinist faction routinely distorted historical events and the importance of Bolshevik figures especially during the October Revolution. He cited a range of historical documents such as private letters, telegrams, party speeches, meeting minutes , and suppressed texts such as Lenin's Testament . Lenin initially turned down

20856-480: The training center of the Nationalist Party Army, it was to provide the military base from which the Nationalists would launch their campaign to unify China, which was split into dozens of military satrapies . From its beginning, the school was funded, armed, and partly staffed by the Soviets. The Political Department, where Zhou worked, was responsible for political indoctrination and control. As

21014-734: The unrest in the villages. From 1914 to 1917, almost 50% of healthy men were sent to war, and many were killed on the front, resulting in many females being head of the household. Often—when government allowances were late and were not sufficient to match the rising costs of goods—soldiers' wives sent masses of appeals to the government, which went largely unanswered. Frustration resulted, and these women were influential in inciting "subsistence riots"—also referred to as "hunger riots", " pogroms ", or "baba riots". In these riots, citizens seized food and resources from shop owners, who they believed to be charging unfair prices. Upon police intervention, protesters responded with "rakes, sticks, rocks, and fists." In

21172-504: The uprising in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg, then capital of Russia) against the Provisional Government. The event coincided with the arrival of a pro-Bolshevik flotilla—consisting primarily of five destroyers and their crews, as well as marines—in Petrograd harbor. At Kronstadt , sailors announced their allegiance to the Bolshevik insurrection. In the early morning, from its heavily guarded and picketed headquarters in Smolny Palace,

21330-512: The war!" and "All power to the soviets!" The mass demonstrations resulted in a crisis for the Provisional Government. 1 July saw more demonstrations, as about 500,000 workers and soldiers in Petrograd demonstrated, again demanding "all power to the soviets," "down with the war," and "down with the ten capitalist ministers." The Provisional Government opened an offensive against the Central Powers on 1 July, which soon collapsed. The news of

21488-526: The warlords from a military point of view. Despite his requests for aid from the West, badly needed financial and arms support never arrived in the country. In the 1920s the Kuomintang eventually received help from the Russian Bolsheviks . Material aid from Russia was good enough for Sun, who had previously shown flexibility when the question was about the promotion of the republic. He had neither sympathy towards Marxism nor did he see communism as

21646-480: The wisdom or legitimacy of taking power. A final assault against the Winter Palace —against 3,000 cadets, officers, cossacks, and female soldiers—was not vigorously resisted. The Bolsheviks delayed the assault because they could not find functioning artillery. At 6:15   p.m., a large group of artillery cadets abandoned the palace, taking their artillery with them. At 8:00   p.m., 200 cossacks left

21804-658: The work-study program. A series of conflicts with the Chinese administrators of the program over low pay and poor working conditions resulted in over a hundred students occupying the program's offices at the Sino-French Institute in Lyon in September 1921. The students, including several people from the Montargis group, were arrested and deported. Zhou was apparently not one of the occupying students and remained in France until February or March 1922, when he moved with Zhang and Liu from Paris to Berlin. Zhou's move to Berlin

21962-423: The workers and were able to negotiate better working conditions, pay, and hours. Even though workplace conditions may have been increasing in quality, the overall quality of life for workers was not improving. There were still shortages of food and the increased wages workers had obtained did little to provide for their families. By October 1917, peasant uprisings were common. By autumn, the peasant movement against

22120-478: The younger brother of Nicholas II, declined to take power. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils ( soviets ) wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and its actions. The provisional government remained unpopular, especially because it was continuing to fight in World War I , and had ruled with an iron fist throughout mid-1917 (including killing hundreds of protesters in

22278-588: Was a public holiday in the Soviet Union , marking its key role in the state's founding, and many communist parties around the world celebrate it. Despite occurring in November of the Gregorian calendar , the event is most commonly known as the "October Revolution" ( Октябрьская революция ) because at the time Russia still used the Julian calendar . The event is sometimes known as the "November Revolution", after

22436-514: Was a member of the party's top leadership during its Long March . Zhou came to support Mao Zedong , who became leader of the CCP in 1935. During the Xi'an Incident in 1936, Zhou successfully persuaded KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek to agree to form a Second United Front against the Japanese. During the Second Sino-Japanese War , Zhou was the resident representative of the CCP in Chongqing , and during

22594-627: Was a significant period in his career. His pioneering work as a political officer in the military made him an important Communist Party expert in this key area; much of his later career centered on the military. Zhou's work in the CCP Guangdong Regional Committee Military Section was typical of his covert activities in the period. The Section was a secret group consisting of three members of the Provincial Central Committee, and

22752-542: Was able to secure his place as paramount leader by 1978. Zhou Enlai was born on 5 March 1898 in Huai'an , located in the province of Jiangsu , as the first son of his branch of the Zhou family. The Zhou family was originally from Shaoxing in Zhejiang . During the late Qing dynasty , Shaoxing was famous as the home of families such as Zhou's, whose members worked as government clerks generation after generation. To move up

22910-423: Was adopted by his father's youngest brother, Zhou Yigan, who was ill with tuberculosis. Apparently, the adoption was arranged because the family feared Yigan would die without an heir. Zhou Yigan died soon after the adoption, and Zhou Enlai was raised by Yigan's widow, whose surname was Chen. Madame Chen was also from a scholarly family and received a traditional literary education. According to Zhou's own account, he

23068-474: Was expelled from Nankai University during his detention.) Although money was a problem, he received a scholarship from Yan Xiu . In order to gain greater funding, he successfully approached a Tianjin newspaper, Yishi bao (literally, Current Events Newspaper), for work as a "special correspondent" in Europe. Zhou left Shanghai for Europe on 7 November 1920 with a group of 196 work study students, including friends from Nankai and Tianjin. Zhou's experiences after

23226-437: Was first responsible for organizing and directing CCP nuclei in the army itself. These nuclei, organized at the regimental level and above, were "illegal", meaning they were formed without Nationalist knowledge or authorization. The Section was also responsible for organizing similar nuclei in other armed groups, including secret societies and key services such as railroads and waterways. Zhou did extensive work in these areas until

23384-443: Was forced to go underground. Pressured by their Comintern advisors, and themselves convinced that the "revolutionary high tide" had arrived, the Communists decided to launch a series of military revolts. The first of these was the Nanchang Revolt . Zhou was sent to oversee the event, but the moving figures seem to have been Tan Pingshan and Li Lisan , while the main military figures were Ye Ting and He Long . In military terms,

23542-455: Was in coalition with the Bolsheviks. There were reports that the Provisional Government had not conceded defeat and were meeting with the army at the Front. Anti-Bolshevik sentiment continued to grow as posters and newspapers started criticizing the actions of the Bolsheviks and repudiated their authority. The executive committee of Peasants Soviets "[refuted] with indignation all participation of

23700-438: Was nearly killed in a similar trap, when he was arrested after arriving at a dinner held at the headquarters of Si Lie, a Nationalist commander of Chiang's Twenty-sixth Army. Despite rumors that Chiang had put a high price on Zhou's head, he was quickly released by Pai Ch'ung-hsi's forces. The reasons for Zhou's sudden release may have been that Zhou was then the most senior Communist in Shanghai, that Chiang's efforts to exterminate

23858-634: Was perhaps because the relatively "lenient" political atmosphere in Berlin made it more favorable as a base for overall European organizing. In addition, the Western European Secretariat of the Comintern was located in Berlin and it is clear that Zhou had important Comintern connections, though the nature of these is disputed. After moving operations to Germany, Zhou regularly shuttled between Paris and Berlin. Zhou participated in

24016-520: Was promptly refused. They were then fired upon by Kerensky's Cossacks, which resulted in 8 deaths. This turned soldiers in Petrograd against Kerensky as being the Tsarist regime. Kerensky's failure to assume authority over troops was described by John Reed as a "fatal blunder" that signaled the final end of his government. Over the following days, the battle against the anti-Bolsheviks continued. The Red Guard fought against Cossacks at Tsarskoye Selo, with

24174-610: Was sent to stay with his uncle in Manchuria at Fengtian (now Shenyang ), where Zhou Yigeng worked in a government office. In Fengtian, Zhou attended the Dongguan Model Academy, a modern-style school. His previous education consisted entirely of homeschooling. In addition to new subjects such as English and science, Zhou was also exposed to the writings of reformers and radicals such as Liang Qichao , Kang Youwei , Chen Tianhua , Zou Rong , and Zhang Binglin . At

24332-453: Was significantly altered and revised including the importance of the leading figures during the Bolshevik revolution. Retrospectively, Lenin's primary associates such as Zinoviev, Trotsky, Radek and Bukharin were presented as "vacillating", "opportunists" and "foreign spies" whereas Stalin was depicted as the chief discipline during the revolution. However, in reality, Stalin was considered a relatively unknown figure with secondary importance at

24490-607: Was the Bolshevik's assistance to the Kuomintang in the formation of its own army, the National Revolutionary Army. In order to train the army the Whampoa Military Academy was established near Guangzhou. As its director, Sun appointed his loyal supporter Chiang Kai-shek. Financially the Whampoa Military Academy operated with the support of the Soviet Union. The quality of education was guaranteed by regularly visiting Russian officers. Many of

24648-558: Was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War . The initial stage of the October Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human casualties . The October Revolution followed and capitalized on the February Revolution earlier that year, which had led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation of a provisional government . The provisional government, led by Alexander Kerensky , had taken power after Grand Duke Michael ,

24806-556: Was very close to his adoptive mother and acquired his lasting interest in Chinese literature and opera from her. Madame Chen taught Zhou to read and write at an early age, and Zhou later claimed to have read the famous vernacular novel Journey to the West at the age of six. By the age of eight, he was reading other traditional Chinese novels, including the Water Margin , Romance of the Three Kingdoms , and Dream of

24964-421: Was well provided for and did not have to do any work during his stay. Because of his financial position, he was able to devote himself full-time to revolutionary activities. In a letter to his cousin on 30 January 1921, Zhou said that his goals in Europe were to survey the social conditions in foreign countries and their methods of resolving social issues, in order to apply such lessons in China after his return. In

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