Northeastern Jiangxi Soviet
The Northeastern Jiangxi Soviet (), first known as the Xin River Soviet and later as the Minzhegan Soviet, was a soviet governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that existed between 1928 and 1934 as part of the Chinese Soviet Republic. The core of the Soviet included the counties of Chong'an in Fujian, Kaihua in Zhejiang, Wuyuan in Anhui, and Yiyang and Hengfeng in Jiangxi. It was founded and led for much of its existence by Fang Zhimin and was the base of the Tenth Red Army. History Background Northeast Jiangxi is a rugged and relatively remote region centered around the Xin River, near where it empties into Poyang Lake. The region borders three other provinces, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Anhui, and together the whole cross-border area is known as Minzhewan'gan. The economy of the region relied on agriculture and handicrafts, and had been badly hit by foreign competition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a result, northeast Jiangxi became the home to bandits, triads, and secret societies. The elites were divided between large, absentee landlords living in the city and smaller landlords living in towns or among the peasantry. Starting in the early 1900s, elite families sent their sons to bigger cities to study. Many of these students were radicalized by their education and experience outside Jiangxi and joined one of the two emerging political parties, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Kuomintang (KMT). In the mid-1920s, the CCP and KMT formed an alliance known as the First United Front against the warlords that governed China. The United Front sent cadres to northeast Jiangxi to organize the peasant associations in support of the anti-warlord movement. These cadres were mostly natives of the region who used their family connections to gain recruits. This was essential for starting the movement, but it caused the leaders of other family lineages to see the Communists as rivals for influence. Only after the peasant associations had built a reputation for standing up to landlord abuses did these rival clans begin to join. When the Northern Expedition brought the region of the United Front's military control, the organizers rapidly expanded their activities. The peasant associations became much larger and more assertive. They burned land deeds and debt records, and against the wishes of the cadres, executed particularly hated landlords. In some cases, they even took control of tax collection and dispensing justice. This period of growth came to an end when in April 1927 when KMT general Chiang Kai-shek led the right-wing of the party to turn against the Communists. Over the next few months Jiangxi was taken over by the right-wing of the KMT. After the Nanchang Uprising failed to retake control of Jiangxi's capital (and similar attempts to take power in cities across the country also failed), the CCP decided to switch to a rural revolutionary strategy. Creating the Soviet In the fall of 1927, a number of CCP cadres arrived in northeast Jiangxi to rebuild the revolutionary peasant movement.