The Chinese Railway Incident of 1929

In 1929, The Soviet Union was trying extremely hard to find itself and in doing so were trying to build a dominant world power under the Communist system that Stalin wanted to implement with his “5 Year Plan”. While the Soviet Union thought that Communism was the right system for the world to operate under, not every body had the same opinion.

In China, Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang forces fought against and destroyed the Chinese Communist forces and took over the majority of the power within China. Because of this, the Kuomintang cut off all ties with the Soviet Union and looked to extend their influence into Manchuria, a key strategic area for Soviet railways.

The railways in Manchuria were the property of the Soviet Union, but seeing the Communist Russians in the area angered many of the Kuomintang forces. Tired of this, on May 27, 1929, the Kuomintang raided the railway towns and captured many of the Soviet workers and their documents. Eventually, despite the wishes of the Soviet Union, the Kuomintang had full control of the area’s railways.

In September of the same year, the Red Army invaded Manchuria and seized the reigns to the railroad back from the Kuomintang by November and things were relatively back to normal. This inflamed relations not only between the Soviet Union and China but also with the Soviet Union and the United States, who did not support the Communist ways.

In summary, while the Soviet Union were bent on perfecting their Communist system and spreading it around the world, not quite everybody else shared the view and through some conflicts, international relations around the world were inflamed, leading to future conflicts.

Sources:

Freeze, Gregory. Russia: A History. 3rd Ed. New York: Oxford, 2009. 344-345. Print.

http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?page=subject&SubjectID=1929railway&Year=1929

http://www.soviethistory.org/images/Large/1929/sr1.jpg

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