Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and the Chinese Revolution - KU ...

worker and peasant students. Although they had been given prominent
positions in Party and student organizations at the university,
many posts still were held by intellectuals, such as those of vice-rector,
deputy director of the Academic Affairs department, research associates
in many of the seminars, translators, and so forth, for such positions
were beyond the capacity of people who had no education at all. This
state of affairs was, in a way, a manifestation of the difference between
physical and intellectual labor which Marx had indicated would vanish
only in the final development of a Communist society. The university,
in truth, should not have been blamed for discrimination. Yet Ch'u
Ch'iu-pai and others, to accomplish their own political ends, instigated
worker and peasant students to make such charges as a way of attacking
the university administration, Mif, and Mif s Chinese supporters in the
university.
The Second Line coalition, then, consisted of the initial group of
the Second Line, the remnants of the former Academic Affairs faction,
the "Vanguardists" among CYC members, the Worker Opposition
faction, and the Trotskyites.
WHO WERE THE 28 BOLSHEVIKS?
Against the powerful Second Line coalition, the so-called 28
Bolsheviks took a firm stand. They were supported by students who
supported the leadership of the bureau of the Party branch and of the
university. The 28 Bolsheviks were united more by their ideological
position than by any formal organization. Nor did they need a
separate organization of their own, for they controlled the bureau of
the Party branch, and the Russian authorities supported them. The
group, moreover, had no recognized leader. Most of them had good
academic records and were efficient and active in Party, academic, and
administrative affairs at Sun Yat-sen University. Their good command
of the Russian language gave them extensive contacts with Russians
both within the university and outside it, and caused the Russians
in general to be favorably impressed by them. Nevertheless, except for
Ch'en Shao-yu (Wang Ming), whom Mif had long regarded highly,
none of the 28 Bolsheviks were members of a special elect group
specifically selected by Mif until this struggle had begun. Mif did not
create the 28 Bolsheviks. But because of their outstanding performance
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