Sixth Wave (Began 1920) 第六次留學熱
Key Words: 1920, CPC's founding, Soviet Union
Major Destination: Former Soviet Union
The establishment of the Soviet Union, the world's first socialist country, in 1922 exerted great influence on other countries such as China. As a result, Chinese nationals developed the desire to study in the Soviet Union to learn from the USSR's communist revolution. Following the May 4th Movement in 1919, the CPC's founding in 1921 and the first CPC-KMT cooperation (1924-1927) caused a surge of students travelling to the USSR to study the revolutionary theory and military know-how.
The Soviet Union founded several universities which accepted students from the Far East and Asia. The Communist University of the Toilers of the East, established in Moscow in 1921, trained many outstanding cadres for the CPC, including Liu Shaoqi, Qu Qiubai and Ren Bishi. By the end of 1930, China had sent more than 2,000 students to the Soviet Union. Most of these students, as well as those studying in other Soviet Union universities, became outstanding activists, writers and artists who shaped the success of China's revolution.