In the "Resolution on Several Historical Issues Concerning the Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", although the historical merits of the "Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army persisted in fighting under very difficult circumstances" were fully affirmed. However, in some anti-Japanese historical materials, the records related to the Anti-Japanese League are very brief, and the historical records of the "Anti-Japanese League" Teaching Brigade, which played an important historical role, are even fewer.
So the question is, what kind of army is the "Teaching Brigade"? I looked up some information and talked to you next.
Stills from the movie Far East Task Force
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After the outbreak of the "918" incident, a vigorous anti-Japanese struggle was launched in the northeast. In particular, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army, founded in 1936, dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese aggressors.
However, with the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", the Kwantung Army stepped up its "encirclement and suppression" of the Northeast "Anti-Japanese Alliance". By the end of 1938, the number of anti-coalition people had plummeted to 5,000, and by the end of 1939, there were less than 1,000 people. Coupled with the enemy's policy of merging villages and villages into tuns, even the minimum living conditions of the "Anti-League" fighters were seriously threatened.
Further reading: History | White Mountain and Black Water SingIng Lamentations: How difficult was it for the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition to do that year?
The early Northeast Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army
It is interesting to note that before the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the Soviet Union's attitude toward Japan's aggression against northern China had always been relatively ambiguous. Not only have they never openly supported the Northeast Anti-Japanese League, but they have even deliberately "embarrassed" the anti-coalition soldiers.
For example, in January 1938, Zhao Shangzhi, commander of the Third Army of the Anti-Japanese Coalition and commander-in-chief of the Anti-Japanese Coalition of The Communist Party of China and commander-in-chief of the Anti-Japanese Coalition of The Communist Party of China, was detained by the Soviet side when he was invited to the Soviet Union; more than 500 fighters of the Third Army, the Sixth Army and the Eleventh Army of the Anti-Japanese Coalition were all disarmed and transferred to the Xinjiang region of China when they were scattered by the Kwantung Army and forced into the Territory of the Soviet Union.
Statue of Zhao Shangzhi
Until the outbreak of the "ZhangGufeng Incident" and the "Nomonhan Incident", the Attitude of the Soviet Union against the United States changed. At an internal meeting held on April 26, 1939, Marshal Voroshilov, People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, for the first time raised the subject of "Comrade Dimitrov, President of the Comintern, often raises to us all kinds of assistance to Chinese comrades".
In May of the same year, Zhao Shangzhi, who had been imprisoned for a year and a half, was released and appointed by the Comintern as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition" and returned to the northeast to preside over the work. In July, he personally led more than 100 officers and men of the Anti-Japanese Coalition back to the northeast to carry out guerrilla activities. Unfortunately, due to supply and liaison problems, the small force had to return to the Territory of the Soviet Union three months later.
Read More: An Overview: Why Was Japan So Afraid of the Soviet Union?
The Red Army at the Battle of Nomonkan
In September of the same year, Feng Zhongyun (1908-1968), member of the Standing Committee of the Northern Manchurian Provincial Party Committee and political commissar of the Third Route Army of the Anti-Japanese Coalition, first crossed the border to Boli (Khabarovsk). At the invitation of the Soviet Far Eastern Military Region, Zhou Baozhong (1902-1964), secretary of the Jidong Provincial Party Committee and commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army of the Anti-Japanese Coalition, also came to Boli on November 28.
During their stay in Boli, Zhou Baozhong, Feng Zhongyun, Zhao Shangzhi, and others held a discussion meeting for more than ten days (the "Boli Conference"), and finally unanimously adopted the "New Theses on the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Movement in Northeast China," which stipulated the fundamental tasks, struggle tactics, and specific policies for the future, effectively consolidated the unity and unity of the Northeast Party organizations and the Anti-Japanese League, and at the same time resolved the problems related to the establishment of a temporary guidance relationship with the FAR East organization and the army of the CPSU.
Basilica of the Eminence of Berli
In March 1940, Zhou Baozhong, Feng Zhongyun, and Zhao Shangzhi held several talks with Ivanov, secretary of the Far Eastern Frontier Committee of the United Communist Party, Wang Xinlin, minister of far eastern military intelligence (a different translation of "Vasili"), and the heads of the garrisons of Boli and the Twin Cities (Ussurisk).
During the meeting, the commander of the Burleigh garrison proposed to "separate the Anti-Japanese League from the Chinese Communist Party organization" on the grounds that "it would be easier to provide support from the Soviet Union." However, Zhou Baozhong clearly expressed his objections. With the deepening of the meeting, the two sides agreed to formally establish the "work guidance and assistance relationship" between the Soviet Far East Frontier Party Organization and the Border Defense Army Command to the Northeast Anti-Japanese League under the "principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of the Chinese Party."
Panoramic view of the Twin Cities
On March 24, Zhou Baozhong and Feng Zhongyun asked the Soviet Border Guards to transmit a joint letter from the two to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The letter said: "We cannot but feel the pain of the northeast party organizations severing ties with the central authorities over the past four years. Therefore, our only request to the Party Central Committee now is to be founded and new instructions for contact. ”
At the end of September 1940, the Soviet liaison officer "Wang Xinlin" (a different translation of 'Vasily') sent a telegram inviting the heads of the various armies of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance to Go to Boli to attend an important meeting "attended by representatives of the CPC Central Committee."
According to historical records, Zhou Baozhong, commander-in-chief of the Second Route Army, and Cui Shiquan, chief of staff; Wang Xiaoming, commander of the second detachment; Chai Shirong, commander of the Fifth Army, and Ji Qing, political commissar; Li Zhaolin, commander-in-chief of the Third Route Army; Feng Zhongyun, political commissar, and Jin Ce, secretary of Northern Manchuria; Jin Richeng, deputy to the First Route Army; And anji and Xu Zhe, representatives of the South Manchurian Provincial CPC Committee; and so on.
It is worth noting that after the arrival of the participants on December 16, "Wang Xinlin" announced that "the deputies of the CPC Central Committee did not attend the meeting" and put forward the "proposal" of reorganizing the Anti-Japanese Coalition into "reconnaissance units belonging to the military regions of the Soviet Far East Border Defense Army" and no longer retaining their own organizational system. "Wang Xinlin" even claimed, "In view of the current predicament, the Anti-Coalition can only do this."
Regarding the "suggestion" of "Wang Xinlin", Zhou Baozhong expressed strong opposition. More than a month after the end of the conference, he personally sent a letter to Stalin and the President of the Comintern, Dimitrov (1882-1949, leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, outstanding activist of international communism, teacher of Zhou Enlai), stating his position. Soon, both expressed their positive and supportive opinions.
Stalin and Dimitrov
In March 1941, the Second Burleigh Conference was held. The meeting determined the strategy of shifting the activities of the Anti-Japanese Coalition to "focusing on the activities of small troops, mass work, organizational construction, and strengthening strength." At the same time, the Soviet Union promised to arrange anti-coalition activity bases in the Soviet Union.
In the winter of 1941, some officers and men of the Anti-Japanese Coalition formed the North Camp (also known as A Camp) in Yask Village, 75 kilometers northeast of Boli on the banks of the Heilongjiang River, and formed the South Camp (also known as B Camp) near a small station between Shuangchengzi and Vladivostok, which was the prototype of the Anti-League Teaching Brigade.
With the passage of time, the anti-coalition soldiers who remained in the Soviet Union were successively transferred to the north and south camps on the Far Eastern frontier for centralized training, and 15 small units were organized to continue their activities in the northeast.
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After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War (1941), the strength of the Japanese Kwantung Army soared from 400,000 to 760,000, and the situation of the anti-coalition soldiers became very difficult. Even if "in the most advantageous fighter, only a hundred or so people can be concentrated for a short blocking operation, and then it must be dispersed.... Otherwise, it is extremely vulnerable to annihilation". At the same time, the Kwantung Army "hung obscene pictures and women's attire everywhere on the trees, and left wine, food, and letters of affection" and tried every means to lure down the anti-coalition soldiers.
The increasingly difficult Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition soldiers
In September 1941, Major Herzenshtai of the Soviet Intelligence Service informed Dimitrov of The situation in Japan and northeast China — "In northeast China, the number of guerrillas is within 1,500 to 2,000. They are at a low ebb and have no governing body in the Northeast itself. From October to the end of December of the same year, except for a part of the detachment that was left to continue to operate in situ, most of the anti-Japanese troops in Northern Manchuria were transferred to the Soviet Union for training and study.
On July 7, 1942, Zhou Baozhong delivered a report on the "Commemoration of the Fifth Anniversary of the Great Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" at the A Camping Memorial Meeting. In addition to reviewing the course of the War of Resistance over the past five years, he foresaw "another possibility of recovering the northeast", that is, the outbreak of the Soviet-Japanese war: "At that time, the liberation struggle of the people of the northeast will be combined with the anti-Japanese war of the Soviet Red Army, and the people of the northeast may be able to win liberation victory from the trampling of the Japanese iron hooves under the help of the Red Army."
Commander of the Instruction Brigade, Zhou Baozhong (fourth from left), poses with officers of the Soviet Far Eastern Front
In August of the same year, with the consent of the Comintern, the anti-coalition forces remaining in Burley were formally reorganized into the Instruction Brigade (also known as the International Brigade or the Independent 88th Brigade of the Soviet Far East Army, and the external number was the 8461 Infantry Special Brigade). The Instruction Brigade was managed by the headquarters of the Soviet Far Eastern Army, and the internal organization system of the Anti-Coalition was maintained.
Zhou Baozhong served as brigade commander, Li Zhaolin served as political commissar (later renamed deputy political brigade commander), Shamal (Yang Lin) and Cui Shiquan were appointed as chief and deputy chiefs of staff, and Feng Zhongyun was appointed chief of the intelligence section of the Political Department and a political class teacher for education officers. The Teaching Brigade has four battalions, which are composed of personnel from the First Route Army, the Second Route Army, the Third Route Army and the Fifth Detachment of the Second Route Army.
Among them, the commander of the first battalion, Kim Il-sung, the political deputy battalion, An Ji, the second battalion commander, Wang Xiaoming, the political deputy battalion commander, Jiang Xintai, the third battalion commander, Xu Hengzhi (succeeded by Wang Minggui after Xu's sacrifice), and the political deputy battalion commander Jin Ce; the fourth battalion commander Chai Shirong, and the political deputy battalion commander Ji Qing.
Each battalion in the teaching brigade had a Chinese company and a Soviet company, and the radio battalion consisted of personnel from both sides. The total number of troops in the whole brigade is about 1,000, including more than 300 Soviet officers and men and 600-700 commanders and fighters of the "Anti-Japanese Alliance" army.
On September 13, the Teaching Brigade held a meeting of all CCP members and formally established the Special Branch Bureau of the Northeast Party Organization of the CPC (i.e., the Northeast Party Committee) with Cui Shiquan as the secretary, and abolished the three provincial party committees of Southern Manchuria, Jidong, and Northern Manchuria.
Group photo of officers and men of the Teaching Brigade
After the establishment of the teaching brigade, military training mainly consisted of platoon training, assassination training, bomb throwing training, parachuting training, live-fire shooting, summer armed crossing, winter skiing training, and other projects, and some female soldiers also needed to deeply learn radio communications and other projects.
The training base of the teaching brigade is equipped with a screening room, a library and a radio room, which is convenient for commanders and fighters to hold rallies and watch movies. The teaching brigade also runs its own newspaper, and each company has a poster and each platoon has a combat bulletin, the contents of which are mostly related to the education of military personnel, moral education, preparation or summary of military and political training, and so on.
In terms of livelihood, the officers and men of the teaching brigade also reclaimed wasteland, planted potatoes, soybeans and vegetables, and hunted and fished, which not only solved the difficulty of insufficient food, but also further improved the quality of life.
Hero Spectrum of the 88th Brigade
By the time of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Teaching Brigade had directly dispatched and commanded more than a dozen small guerrilla units to return to the northeast to carry out the anti-Japanese struggle. Some attacked the enemy, some destroyed the military facilities and transportation of the Japanese army, some propagated and encouraged the masses to resist Japan, and some reconnoitred and collected intelligence from the Japanese army.
In addition, the cadres of the teaching brigade also studied in depth some documents on party history and rectification documents, and listened to Mao Zedong's report "On Coalition Government" delivered by Mao Zedong at the Seventh National Congress of the Party from radio, further improving their political level and command ability.
However, in view of the fact that the Soviet side had always been interested in viewing the Teaching Brigade as a "single command" armed force, until the surrender of Japan, the Teaching Brigade was unable to directly contact the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Photo of Stalin's commendation order in the memorial hall of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Teaching Brigade
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In May 1945, the Soviet side conveyed to Zhou Baozhong the instructions of General Pulkaev (1894-1953) Moscow, commander of the Second Far Eastern Front, that is, "it is planned that in the next few months there will be a War between the Soviet Union and Japan, and the 88th Brigade (Instruction Brigade) will be incorporated into the battle sequence of the Second Front in the Far East; after entering the northeast territory, the 88th Brigade will march west along the Songhua River to participate in the campaign to liberate Jiamusi."
In June of the same year, with the help of General Pulkayev, the brigade was instructed to formulate a five-point policy for a counter-offensive in the northeast. At the end of July, the Northeast China Party Committee was reorganized, and the original personnel were divided into two, one part counter-attacking Korea and some counter-attacking the northeast. Zhou Baozhong served as secretary, and 12 people, including Li Zhaolin, Feng Zhongyun, Lu Dongsheng, Jiang Xintai, Jin Guangxia, Wang Xiaoming, Peng Shilu, Wang Minggui, and Wang Yizhi, were members of the committee.
In the 2002 evaluation of the Russian Military Academy, General Pulkayev ranked 19th out of the 20 leaders of strategic directions on the List of Leaders of the Great Patriotic War
On August 8, the Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan. From August 9 to 10, some officers and men of the Teaching Brigade were incorporated into the airborne enemy rear combat team of the First Front of the Soviet Far East, and successively flew to the Hailin and Linkou areas northwest of the Mudanjiang River to carry out advance tasks.
On the 10th, the Northeast Committee of the COMMUNIST Party of China held a combat mobilization meeting in the camp, and the brigade commander Zhou Baozhong issued a general mobilization to the officers and men of the whole brigade to "cooperate with the Soviet army in combat, eliminate the Japanese Kwantung Army, and strive for the final victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan."
On the 11th, Zhou Baozhong decided to personally lead his troops to land from Fujin (belonging to Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province) and occupy Jiamusi. When the officers and men of the Independent Brigade were ready to go, Zhou Baozhong received a telegram from Stalin: "The northeast is the northeast of your Chinese people, the task of the Soviet Red Army is to liberate the northeast, and the task of building the northeast is yours." (You) are on standby. ”
Stalin believed that teaching the brigade officers to understand the landscape and terrain of their hometown not only had extensive contacts with the local people, but also had a good reputation for adhering to the anti-Japanese resistance, and it was the best option for them to assist the main soviet forces in taking the northeast and gaining a foothold. "Every soldier of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army is a precious talent who will charge forward and stand alone in the battle to liberate their motherland and build a new country, and they must not be allowed to suffer any losses."
Memorial Hall of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army Teaching Brigade
After receiving Stalin's telegram, Zhou Baozhong, Li Zhaolin, and others had to work together to redraw a new operational plan for instructing the brigade to accompany the Soviet army into 57 strategic towns in the northeast. On August 26, the General Command of the Soviet Far Eastern Army issued an instruction from The Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Vasilevsky, that "the existing Chinese officers and men of the 88th Brigade should occupy the strategic points of the northeast with all the soviet armies and be prepared to accept the appointment of the Soviet garrison headquarters in each city."
On the afternoon of August 28, the Instruction Brigade held a meeting of officers. In addition to the preparations for the deployment, orders for the redeployment of personnel were announced. Among them, the North Korean officers and men in the teaching brigade, led by Kim Il Sung, accompanied the First Front Army in the Far East to advance into Korea from the border area between China and North Korea to "restore the motherland."
The first on the left is Kim Il Sung
On 6 September, the first batch of "Anti-Japanese Coalition" troops assigned to the Second Far Eastern Front, led by Li Zhaolin and others, flew from Boli to Harbin, Jilin, and Yanji; on 7 September, Peng Shilu led the second batch to fly to the Jiamusi area; on 8 September, Zhou Baozhong personally led the third batch to Changchun and Shenyang; on 9 September, Wang Minggui and others flew to Changchun with the fourth batch, and then went to Qiqihar and Dalian respectively.
The officers and men of the Instruction Brigade who returned to the northeast cooperated with the anti-coalition troops who persisted in the struggle in the same place, and successively took control of 11 regions and 57 large and medium-sized cities, including Changchun, Songjiang, Nenjiang, Hailun, Suihua, Jiamusi, Mudanjiang, Jilin, Shenyang, Dalian, and Yanbian; Feng Zhongyun, Wang Xiaoming, Wang Minggui, Peng Shilu, and Jin Guangxia were appointed deputy commanders of garrisons in Shenyang, Jilin, Qiqihar, Jiamusi, and Mudanjiang.
As of October 15, the Northeast "Anti-Japanese Alliance" cooperated with the Soviet army to fight, and confiscated nearly 60,000 Japanese puppet rifles, more than 1,000 machine guns, more than 500 grenade launchers, more than 20 mortars, 5 mountain artillery field guns, and more than 12 million bullets. By 20 October, the Brigade had expanded by 11 regiments, a brigade, and two cavalry companies, bringing the total number of men to more than 40,000.
On the evening of September 20, Zhou Baozhong, then deputy commander of the Soviet Army's Headquarters in Changchun City Defense, and Feng Zhongyun, deputy commander of the Soviet Army's Garrison headquarters in Shenyang, reported to Peng Zhen and Chen Yun, members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, respectively, on the 14-year struggle of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition and the situation of stationing and taking over 57 cities in the northeast with the Soviet army.
While highly appraising the achievements of the officers and men of the Anti-Japanese Coalition, Peng Zhen and Chen Yun instructed them to "take advantage of the convenience of soviet status to control the railway line and welcome the arrival of a large number of cadres sent by the Party Central Committee to the northeast." On October 20, the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee was established, and Zhou Baozhong immediately handed over the archives of the Northeast Committee of the CPC Central Committee to the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
On October 31, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to formally form the Northeast People's Autonomous Army of the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and the Anti-Japanese Coalition Forces entering the northeast, with Lin Biao as commander-in-chief and Lü Zhengcao, Li Yunchang, and Xiao Jinguang as the first, second, and third deputy commanders. The next day, the Northeast Bureau sent a telegram to the CPC Central Committee that "Zhou Baozhong is the leader of the existing cadres of the former Anti-Japanese Coalition Army, and we propose him to be the third deputy commander", and on November 2, the CPC Central Committee approved the proposal of the Northeast Bureau.
In January 1946, the "Northeast People's Autonomous Army" was changed to the "Northeast Democratic United Army"
In December, Marshal Malinovsky (1898-1967), commander-in-chief of the Soviet Post-Baikal Front, informed Zhou Baozhong of the timetable for the withdrawal of Soviet troops. According to this circular, Zhou Baozhong demanded that all the commanders and fighters of the teaching brigade "take advantage of their favorable conditions to enable the Northeast People's Autonomous Army to immediately take over its garrison when the Soviet army retreats," and at the same time declare a disassociation from the Soviet army. In late April 1946, with the successful completion of the relevant handover work, the Teaching Brigade completed its glorious historical mission.
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In general, the Anti-Allied Teaching Brigade played an irreplaceable and important role in the process of liberating northeast China. In the process of liberating Northeast China, the reason why the Teaching Brigade was able to maintain close ties with the CPC Central Committee was inextricably linked to the far-sightedness of the leaders of the Anti-Japanese Coalition headed by Zhou Baozhong. In addition, we would like to affirm the important contribution made by the Soviet side. You know, it was with the support of the Soviet Union that the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance was able to leave the last flame.