First United Front

Also called: First KMT–CCP United Front, Whampoa Military Academy

In 1924 Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalist Party adopted the policies of “alliance with the Soviet Union, admission of communists, and support for peasants and workers”, letting Communists join as individuals, and founded the Whampoa Military Academy to prepare to overthrow the warlords.

Repeatedly hard pressed by warlords in Guangzhou, Sun Yat-sen turned to the Soviet Union rather than the Western powers for help. In 1923 he issued a joint statement with the Soviet envoy Adolph Joffe, and in January 1924 the Nationalists’ First National Congress in Guangzhou adopted the policies of allying with the USSR, admitting Communists and aiding peasants and workers. Communists joined the Nationalist Party as individuals while keeping their own party membership, and Sun reinterpreted his Three Principles of the People in an anti-imperialist, anti-warlord sense.

In June the Whampoa Military Academy opened with Soviet money and advisers. Chiang Kai-shek was commandant and Zhou Enlai ran the political department, and young Koreans, including members of the Heroic Corps, trained there. The alliance outlived Sun, who died in 1925 declaring that “the revolution is not yet complete”, and lasted into the Northern Expedition, until Chiang’s anti-communist coup of 1927 broke it.