The influence of the Russian Revolution of 1917 There was a

Last updated: 9/21/2023

The influence of the Russian Revolution of 1917 There was a striking similarity in the position of Russia and China In the early twentieth century Both countries had recently been defeated by Japan both were trying to come to terms with the need for economic and political modernisation and both were pour relations when compared with the advanced wealth producing nations of Western Europe and the USA The was therefore much about Russia that appealed to Chinese revolutionaries rekemers This attraction was intensified when the Chinese learned of the Bolshevik success in the October Revolution Chinese intellectuals wrote admitingly the achievements of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in taking power and establie a workers state Admiration increased when the Chinese learned of the Bolsheviks defest of the foreign interventionists in Russia in the period 1918 20 Here was a living example of the overthrow of Western imperiali made mare impressive by the fact that the nations which the Bolsheviks hi repelled were the very same as those currently occupying China The revoluticeary ideas of Karl Marx had been known in China since the beginning of the century but what gave them special appeal was the appa failure of the 1911 Revolution and of the republic that folkwed to advanc China s cause Disallusioned Chinese radicals turned impatiently away fro what they regarded as the failure of democracy in China They were draw instead to another Western philosophy but this time one that had been r by the West The fear with which the imperialist nations regarded Marxis it an added attraction for Chinese Nationalists To the young intellectuals who became drawn to Marxist ideas the great inspiration therefore was the successful October Revolution in Russia in They could now observe Marxism in action in anti imperialist and anti Russia The rejection of Western values impact in the Bolshevik Revolut appealed greatly to Chinese revolutionaries for whom the main attract of Marxism Leninism was its explanation of the imperialist phase of apitalism the mess which had led to China s current humiliation a