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

time, an order was issued for the arrest of Hsu Ch'ien, Li Ta-chao,
Li Yu-yin, Yi P'ei-chi, and Ku Meng-yu, all of whom promptly either
fled Peking or went deep underground. Li Ta-chao moved into the
Soviet Embassy compound, and he became the only leader either of
the KMT or the CCP who was able to carry on his duties, although
naturally he did so secretly. Li Ta-chao, then, took charge of all
KMT and CCP activities in the area from his sanctuary in the Russian
Embassy. It was while he was in this sanctuary that he had approved
the list of students recommended for study at Sun Yat-sen University
and had passed this list to the Russians. Under the circumstances, had
any of us on the list applied for passports, we would promptly have
been arrested. And, in any case, the Russians knew who we were.
Consequently, we did not have yellow books either, and the Russian
authorities never asked for them. Of course, the Russian generosity
toward us had political motives. It was part of the general plan of the
CPSU and the Comintern to expand their influence to the Far East
and to undermine the positions of the Western imperialist powers in
China by inducing more Chinese youths to study in Moscow and
thereby pouring more oil on the fire of the Chinese revolution.
While in Shanghai, we were disgusted by the decadent luxuries
and seamy sights of this colonial city, and thus we were quite anxious
to depart for the Soviet Union. The Russian ship (after so many years
I, unfortunately, cannot remember the name of this ship) on which
we would travel to Vladivostok was unloading cargo at the Huang-pu
dock. Some of us could not resist taking a look at the ship that would
take us away from Shanghai. The police who were stationed at the
dock to watch the Russian crews did not pay any attention to us and
allowed us to board the ship as we pleased.
A few days later, the KMT-CCP organization that was in charge
of travel arrangements told us to board the Russian ship. When all
were aboard, I was quite startled to see that there were some sixty
male and female students going to Russia to study. The Russians, for
purposes of security, ushered us to the stowage area before the customs
officials came aboard for inspection. We were not allowed to leave that
area until the ship left Wu-sung-k'ou. I can still recall the foul stench
in this stowage area, which was to be our quarters until we arrived at
Vladivostok. All the male students were assigned these quarters in
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