INFLUENCE OF THE SOVIET UNION ON CHINESE HIGHER EDUCATIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT: 1920-1950 (MARXISM/LENINISM, YENAN, KUOMINTANG, COMMUNIST, UNIVERSITY)

The educational and scientific development of the People's Republic of China was indirectly and directly influenced by the Soviet Union. This study investigates that influence during four periods in the growth of the Chinese Communist Party and its management of the Chinese Revolution.;During the Kiangsi Soviet, 1931 to 1934, the Chinese began applying Soviet educational goals and technical concepts toward designing a prototype of Chinese communist higher education. During most of the Yenan period, 1937 to 1945, the validity of Soviet influence was challenged by the Maoists, while simultaneously its educational, economic, and technical accomplishments were studied intensely. From summer 1945 through 1950, following the Soviet occupation of Manchuria and the Chinese communist advance into the Northeast, the indirect Soviet scientific, technical, and educational influences turned into a variety of direct contacts, leading to the establishment of Soviet standards for China's higher educational and scientific development.;Following are the central hypotheses of the study: First, early Soviet influence on Chinese higher educational and scientific development was ideological and political, not technical. Consequently, regardless of the opportunity to view Soviet developments, the Chinese communists missed an early appreciation for the role of education and science in Soviet national development. Second, between 1921 and 1943, this influence was, with exceptions, indirect rather than direct. Third, the degree of subsequent and increasingly direct Chinese contact with Soviet technical, educational, and scientific sources was linked to the rising communist potential for victory in the revolution and to the consequent need for establishing a source of technical support.;This historical and descriptive study uses primary and secondary Chinese language documents and diaries, including selections from Mao Tse-tung's writings. Soviet materials available in Chinese translation during the period are also investigated.;The first period examined is 1920 to 1930. Specific institutions of higher education were established in Moscow to train Chinese Party leaders. Here, they acquired theoretical foundations for the validity of Marxist dialectics to educational and scientific development. This would form the basis for their advocacy of a Marxist development alternative to China's then prevailing Western educational and scientific orientation.