YE Fan Stalin and the Communist University of the Toilers of China (UTC-CUTC) in the Second Half of the 1920s

Abstract: This article examines the crucial role played by J. V. Stalin in the creation of the Moscow University of the Toilers of China – UTC (renamed in 1928 as the Communist University of the Toilers of China – CUTC), which in the second half of the 1920s trained political activists for the Chinese Revolution. The article also considers the disagreements between the strategies of J. V. Stalin and L. D. Trotsky regarding the Chinese Revolution and the consequences of this intraparty political struggle on the fate of the students, the University of the Toilers of China and the Chinese Revolution in general. In writing this article the retrospective, comparative-historical and historical-dialectic research methods were used. The author examines the main reasons for Stalin’s change of attitude towards the university that resulted in its closure in 1930. One of the main reasons behind this decision was the disagreement in position and strategic assessment of the question of the Chinese Revolution between J. V. Stalin and L. D. Trotsky. The author comes to the conclusion that the opposition between the two leaders of the All-Union Communist Party directly influenced the situation within the university body. The Stalin-Trotsky disagreement intensified the political struggle between the students and the members of the Communist Party of China and of the Koumintang party. These processes had an effect on the life of individual students and on the Chinese Revolution in general.

Keywords: