The Long March Part A Practice
The Long March took place in China from October 1934 to October 1935. It was a strategic retreat from Jianxi province in the south, all the way to Yan’an in the north of China. The Long March began Mao Zedong's ascent to power, whose leadership during the retreat gained him the support of the members of the party. The bitter struggles of the Long March, which was completed by only about one-tenth of the force that left Jiangxi, came to represent a significant event in the history of the Communist Party of China. This sealed the personal prestige of Mao and his supporters as the new leaders of the party in the following twenty years, creating the new party elite. Some historians, such as Spence, are sceptical about the significance of the Long March on the CCP. However it is clear that at the time it was an incredibly significant event for the communists. This is shown by Sources 2 and 6, both intimating that the Long March was crucial. The success of the Long March created propaganda for the communists and helped to spread the communist message amongst the population of China.
One short term effect of the Long March was that communism was spread around China and events during the Long March were mythologised and used as propaganda against Chiang and the KMT. It was vital in helping the CCP to gain a positive reputation among the peasants due to the determination and dedication of the surviving participants of the Long March. Source 7 is a drawing of the Luding Bridge, and shows how the famous victory was turned into propaganda by exaggerating the terrain and how hard it was to cross, and also talking about how the bridge itself was dangerous and hard to traverse. This obvious exaggeration makes the validity of the source questionable. However the very fact that it is exaggerated shows how the CCP used the Long March for propaganda purposes. Lynch also agrees that the Long March was used as propaganda to spread the communist message. It has been used as an example to depict the nationalistic fighting spirit of the Chinese people and the rallying call to communism. As a propaganda theme, many facts about the Long March have been altered from historical truth. This is significant, as it was this propaganda which increased support for the Communists, and was further increased during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The spread of communist ideas and propaganda is also significant in allowing the Communists to win the civil war and take power in 1949.