ho had then been the vanquished” (284).For Chiang Kai-shek and the leaders of the Kuomintang it was possible [...] to dispense with the support of popular forces [...] Indeed it became a necessity to dissociate from such allies, whose activities threatened the position of the privileged classes in town and countryside. The peasant upsurge, like that of the labour movement, objectively contributed to the political polarization and the eventual explosion on the revolutionary front which the Communists had been trying to prevent. At Shanghai on 12 April 1927 Chiang Kai-shek broke with the Communist Party and massacred thousands of militant workers(Chesneaux 99).In Hankow, Kyo meets with Vologin, the Russian leader in charge of Shanghai, to seek his support. But Vologin tells Kyo that the comrades must give up their arms to Chiang Kai-shek, even if it means their death. “You prefer to wait until Chiang has had our people murdered?” (147). Kyo feels betrayed – the Shanghai revolt is a success and Moscow wants them to give up their arms! (Moscow believes the Communists need Chiang Kai-shek in order to keep the other Chinese warlords in check.)The Communists “continued to treat Tchiang like a trustworthy revolutionary leader. [...] they nevertheless left the militias and the whole Shangai labor force politically unprepared for a possible attack from Tchiang. They were taken by surprise when he attacked on the night of April 12.” (Chesneaux, Barbier and Bergre 174)By developing Kyo’s character as a passionate leader who is concerned for the poor, Malraux reflects a part of his own childhood. Malraux’s writings... stand principally as testimony to his efforts to overcome the disadvantages of his childhood and establish a career in a profession normally reserved, in France, to the more comfortable bourgeoisie. So ashamed was Malraux of his origins that it took Clara Goldschmidt, his first w...
