Posted by Prestol Vlasti Thursday, 20/05/2010 – 18:54
The Chinese page of Marshal Blucher’s life in Guangzhou. Speech at the Harbin Conference
Dear friends!!! Colleagues!!!
We talked a lot about the Russian and Soviet presence in China. Of course, in our south, in Guangzhou, there are not many traces left of the historical heritage of our Homeland, but still there are some aspects that I would like to introduce you to.
The fact is that the name of one of the legendary commanders of Soviet Russia, V.K. Blucher, is associated with the south of China, namely Guangzhou. From 1924-1927, he lived and worked in Guangzhou, training and building the Chinese army. I would like to tell you about some moments of his life in general and in China in particular.
Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher – Marshal of the Soviet Union (1935)
Vasily Blucher was born on November 19, 1889, in the village of Barshchinka near Rybinsk, in a peasant family. In 1914, Vasily went to the front, rose to the rank of junior non-commissioned officer, and was awarded two St. George Crosses. In 1917, Blucher was elected chairman of the regimental committee in Samara. In October 1917, he became the head of the Samara Military Committee. In March 1918, Vasily Blucher commanded the eastern detachment operating against the Cossacks of ataman Alexander Dutov. After the uprising of the Czechoslovak corps, he created the Ural Red Detachment, which was soon transformed into the Ural Partisan Army. Blucher proposed to break through to join the Red Army.
From August 5 to September 14, 1918, under the command of Vasily Konstantinovich, a raid was carried out from the Orenburg and Verkhneuralsk regions through the Ural Ridge to the Kama Region with a length of 1.5 thousand km. Having defeated seven regiments of Whites, Czechoslovaks and Poles, disorganizing the White rear, the partisans joined with the main forces of the Eastern Front of the Reds. In the presentation of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 3rd Army, which included the partisans of Blucher V. K., it said: “The transition of the troops of Comrade. In impossible conditions, Blucher can only be equated with Suvorov’s crossings in Switzerland.”
For this feat, on September 30, 1918, the Central Executive Committee awarded Blucher the Order of the Red Banner of the RSFSR No. 1. For his exploits during the Civil War, Blucher was awarded the Order three more times. V.K. Blucher received the fifth Order (but already the Red Banner of the USSR) for his work as a military adviser to the revolutionary government of China. In September 1918, Blucher was appointed commander of the 4th Ural Division, which fought in the Kungur and Perm directions. From February 1919, he was commander of the 3rd Army. Since August, he commanded the 51st Division, which defended the Kakhovka bridgehead in August-October 1920. Then the military commander was appointed commander of the shock group, which took Perekop in November 1920.
In 1921, Vasily Konstantinovich was assigned to the Far East, where in 1921-1922 he commanded the troops of the Far Eastern Republic, in February 1922 he captured well-fortified white positions in the Volochaevka area.
Since the second half of 1923, at the request of Sunyatsen, the Soviet leadership began to send military specialists of the most important types of the Armed Forces and special forces to Guangzhou. In 1924, there were 25 Soviet military advisers and instructors working in Guangzhou. The decision to send Blucher to China was made on August 2, 1924.
Already on September 27, he arrives in Beijing and at the end of October in Guangzhou. A few days later, he has a personal meeting with Sunyatsen, their first conversation lasts several hours. By that time, Blucher had already familiarized himself with the military-political situation in China and compiled a note “A general summary of the prospects for the next job.”
During the conversation, Blucher introduced Sunyatsen to its contents. It outlined considerations for strengthening the defense of Guangzhou, preparing for the eastern campaign in order to clear a number of territories captured by General Chengjuming, which would serve to strengthen the revolutionary base of the Kuomintang in southern China. He also outlined his thoughts on the Northern Campaign, which is a priority for Sunyatsen. He said that it was not worth going on this campaign until the Kuomintang’s position in Guangzhou became strong. Sunyatsen told Blucher, “Stay here and help our cause with your experience. I believe in you and I am confident in you.”
In the first stage of his work, Blucher paid special attention to strengthening the defense of Guangzhou and building an army. Also in his area of attention was the Huangpu Military School, which was engaged in the training of politically literate cadres of the junior command staff of the South Chinese Army. The Huangpu School was organized in May 1924 with funds and assistance from the Soviet government. Sunyatsen’s old friend, General Chankaishi, becomes the head of the school. Due to a number of material disadvantages, the numerical growth of the school is very slow. In October 1924, the school had about 100 student cadets. Soviet military and political instructors played a leading role in the school. For the first time in the history of the Chinese Army, political education was introduced at the school, the purpose of which was to educate cadets in loyalty to the party and hatred of enemies. Gradually, the authority of the school begins to grow, and at the same time, the number of its cadets. The CCP pays great attention to the school and throws a significant number of its employees into it, into whose hands all the political work at the school has passed. Later, Zhouenglai himself became the head of the political department of the school.
By the end of 1924, the political influence of the school went beyond the island and became a major factor in all political events in Guangzhou. Gradually, she becomes the head of the socio-political movement in Guangzhou. The influence of the school on the public is becoming so great that often the peasants (when bandits attacked their village) sent their walkers to the school and it sent punitive detachments. Finally, during the days of the peasants’ clash with the landlords, the government used the name of the Huangpu School to neutralize nearby troops, preparing, if necessary, to speak out in support of the peasants. Huangpu’s political activism finds a warm response in other troops and causes alarm not only among the Yunnan government, but also among the Guangdong generals. It was the officers of this school who became the backbone of the army of Chankaishi.
But back to Blucher…
Thanks to his efforts, already during the first eastern campaign in February-March 1925, the troops of General Chenjiumin were defeated. Also, thanks to his great efforts, it was possible to defend Guangzhou from the rebellious Yunnan and Guangxi militarists, in late May – early June 1925. All this strengthened the authority of the Kuomintang on a national scale and created the prerequisites for the northern campaign.
Blucher’s second trip took place at the urgent request of Chankaishi, who was preparing to undertake a northern campaign as commander-in-chief of the NRA, for the success of which he needed a military genius – Blucher. At the end of May 1926, Blucher returned to Guangzhou, where he got acquainted with the plan of a military company developed by the Chinese. He proves the vulnerability of this plan, since it assumed simultaneous action against Wu Peifu and Sunchuanfang. The chief Adviser proposed his plan: to beat the enemy one by one. In one rush, reach the Yangtze Valley, capture Wuhan, defeating Wu Peifu’s troops on the way. And only after that, go East against the forces of Sunchuanfang. On June 23, 1926, the Blucher plan was adopted by the NRA Military Council. By the end of November, the NRA had completed the first part of the plan. By this time, the power of the national government had spread to 5 provinces: Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi. These successes contributed to the involvement of millions of Chinese in the revolutionary struggle.
Blucher also developed major military operations, such as the capture of Wuchang, Hubei, Jiangxi, Zhetian, Shanghai-Nanjing and Henan provinces. Since the northern campaign was the largest and central event of the national revolutionary movement in China in the 20s, it is legitimate to talk about the outstanding role of Blucher in the development of the national revolutionary movement in China.
In August 1929, due to the aggravation of the situation on the Chinese-Eastern Railway (CER), a Special Far Eastern Army (ODVA) was created. V.K. Blucher is appointed its commander. He now has to fight the Chinese army, which our country has spent a lot of money organizing and training, and he has spent four years of his life. Provocations by the Chinese became more frequent and on October 12, 1929, a group of ODVA troops under the command of Army Chief of Staff A.Ya. Lapina, as part of the Amur Military Flotilla and the 2nd Amur Infantry Division, crossed the border early in the morning, defeated the Sungari flotilla and captured the city of Lahasusa by the middle of the day. The retreating enemy units went to the city of Fugdin. By the end of the day, our troops returned to their territory.
However, the provocations of the Chinese did not stop and on October 30, our units in the same composition attacked the city of Fugdin with the support of naval artillery and aviation and captured it the next day.
By mid-November, the Chinese had concentrated two armies along the border with the USSR: one in Primorye, near the city of Mishan-fu, the second in Transbaikalia, near the Manchuria-Jalaynor stations. In this regard, it was decided to defeat the enemy on its territory with a rapid offensive. The command of the troops to defeat the Mishanfu group was carried out by A.Ya. Lapin, and the Manchurian one was commanded by the commander of the Trans–Baikal group of troops, S.S. Vostretsov. The Mishanfu operation took place at a rapid pace. It began on November 17th and ended the next day.
The task facing S. Vostretsov was more difficult. He was opposed by an army three times numerically superior to the troops of the Trans-Baikal group. In addition, the Chinese built powerful fortifications in the areas of Jalaynor and Manchuria.
On November 16, the commander of the ODVA, V. Blucher, went to the Trans-Baikal group for one day, reconnoitered the positions of Chinese troops in the area of the Manchuria station and approved S. Vostretsov’s plan to defeat the Manchurian-Jalaynor group of the enemy.
Using the advantages in technology and weapons, S.Vostretsov brilliantly conducted the Manchurian-Jalaynor operation. On November 17, launching an offensive, he separately defeated Chinese troops in the area of the city of Jalaynor, on November 20 surrounded and forced the surrender of the Manchurian garrison, taking 8,300 prisoners. All Chinese artillery (25 guns) and 2 armored trains were captured. Then our troops moved along the KVZhD and took the city of Hailar on November 27. In total, during the fighting on the CER, Soviet troops lost 281 people killed, 729 wounded and 17 missing.
On November 29, the Xueliang government proposed to the USSR to begin negotiations for a peaceful resolution of the conflict on the CER. The negotiations began on December 1 and ended successfully on December 22.
For the difference in the battles on the CER, the Special Far Eastern Army was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The same order was awarded to 625 of its fighters and commanders. For this operation, Blucher was awarded the Order of the Red Star No. 1. The badge was awarded to Blucher on May 13, 1930.
Since 1934, he has been a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). In 1935, he became one of the first marshals of the Soviet Union. During the conflict with the Japanese on Lake Hassan in July-August 1938, he commanded the Soviet army. Officially, a major victory was declared in the USSR, but following the results of the operation on Khasan, it turned out that the Red Army lost significantly more soldiers than the Japanese and could not fully complete the task. Blucher was arrested in October 1938. He was accused of a fascist military conspiracy and tried to force him to confess to sabotage during the terror and fighting on Hassan. Vasily Blucher did not admit the charges and died on November 9, 1938, during interrogations in the Lefortovo prison in Moscow. He was rehabilitated in 1956.
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With respect,
Guangzhou Russian Club
club@russianguangzhou.com
Wechat id: russianguangzhou