Long March

Overview

The Long March was a military retreat by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese Red Army from advancing Kuomintang (KMT) National Revolutionary Army during the Chinese Civil War, occurring between October 1934 and October 1935. About 100,000 troops retreated from the Jiangxi Soviet and other bases to a new headquarters in Yan'an, Shaanxi, travelling approximately 10,000 kilometres. About 8,000 troops ultimately survived the Long March.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Long March was a strategic retreat by the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese Red Army, withdrawing from the Jiangxi Soviet under sustained pressure from Nationalist forces that outnumbered them by a significant margin. Approximately 100,000 troops began the withdrawal; only around 8,000 survived the roughly 10,000-kilometre march to a new headquarters in Yan'an, Shaanxi. The retreat preserved the CCP's political and military leadership at the cost of catastrophic personnel losses, relocating the communist base of operations away from Nationalist encirclement and establishing Yan'an as the movement's new center. Within the broader arc of the Chinese Civil War, the Long March allowed the CCP to survive a period when annihilation appeared probable, setting the conditions for the party's reconsolidation and eventual resumption of the conflict against the Kuomintang.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (11)