The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) (russian: link=no, Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training school for important
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
political leaders. The school operated under the umbrella of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
and was in existence from 1921 until the late 1930s. Part of the university was split into the
Moscow Sun Yat-sen University
Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, officially the Sun Yat-sen Communist University of the Toilers of China, was a Comintern school, which operated from 1925–1930 in the city of Moscow, Russia, then the Soviet Union. It was a training camp fo ...
.
History
![Chiang Ching-kuo 1948](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Chiang_Ching-kuo_1948.jpg)
The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) was established in 1921 in Moscow by the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
(Comintern) as a technical college for communist cadres from the Soviet periphery, though it also matriculated students from the Arab world, Africa, and East and South Asia.
The school officially opened on 21 October 1921. It performed a similar function to the
International Lenin School
The International Lenin School (ILS) was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Uni ...
, which mainly accepted students from Europe and the Americas. It was headed in its initial years by
Grigory Broydo
Grigory Isaakovich Broydo (; 7 November 1883 – 23 May 1956) was a Soviet politician who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan
The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan was the head of the C ...
, later
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan
The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Tajikistan was the head of the Communist Party of Tajikistan and the highest Executive power in the republic of Tajikistan from 1924 until November 1990.
History
Shortly after the Soviet Union was f ...
.
The curriculum included both theoretical and practical matters, including Marxist theory, party organization and propaganda, law and administration, theory and tactics of
proletarian revolution
A proletarian revolution or proletariat revolution is a social revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie and change the previous political system. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists ...
, problems of socialist construction, and trade union organization.
From summer 1922, KUTV had regional branches in
Baku
Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...
(in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
),
Irkutsk
Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...
(in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
, Russia), and
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...
(in
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
). The University published ''Revolutionary East'' (Революционный Восток, ''Revoliutsionnyi Vostok''). Amongst those who taught there were
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...
,
Anatoly Lunacharsky
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (russian: Анато́лий Васи́льевич Лунача́рский) (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's ...
,
Leonid Krasin
Leonid Borisovich Krasin (russian: Леони́д Бори́сович Кра́син; 15 July 1870 – 24 November 1926) was a Russian Soviet politician, engineer, social entrepreneur, Bolshevik revolutionary politician and a Soviet diplomat. In ...
,
Mikhail Pokrovsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky (russian: Михаи́л Никола́евич Покро́вский; – April 10, 1932) was a Russian Marxist historian, Bolshevik revolutionary and a public and political figure. One of the earliest professio ...
,
Khalid Bakdash
Khalid Bakdash (occasionally spelled Khalid Bagdash or Khaled Bekdache, ar, خالد بكداش) (1912 – July 15, 1995) was a Syrian politician who lead the Syrian Communist Party (SCP) from 1936 until his death in 1995. In 1954, Bakdash became ...
, Igor Reisner, and
Boris Shumyatsky
Boris Zakharovich Shumyatsky (russian: Бори́с Заха́рович Шумя́цкий; November 16, 1886 – July 29, 1938) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician, diplomat and the ''de facto'' executive producer for the Soviet film monopolie ...
.
In 1928, the Japanese Foreign Ministry estimated that some 1,000 foreign students studied at KUTV, and that the 400 Chinese students comprised the largest group, followed by 350 ethnic minorities within the Soviet Union, and between 30 and 40 Japanese. The Soviet Union solicited working-class Japanese to study at the KUTV without the Japanese government's consent. The Japanese students studied under Sadaki Takahashi and Keizo Yamamoto, along with several Russian instructors. The Japanese students studied economics, the history of
world revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but whe ...
,
Leninism
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vanguardis ...
, philosophy, labor union theory, and Japanese studies.
Kyuichi Tokuda
was a Japanese politician and first chairman of the Japanese Communist Party from 1945 until his death in 1953.
Biography
Kyuichi Tokuda was born in 1894 in Okinawa and became a lawyer following graduation from Nihon University in 1920. He joi ...
, a member of the
Japanese Communist Party
The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world.
The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...
, was instrumental in recruiting and sending these Japanese workers to KUTV via
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
and
Vladivostok
Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea ...
.
KUTV was closed in the late 1930s. Its tasks were transferred to smaller, local institutions in the various
Soviet republics
The Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Union Republics ( rus, Сою́зные Респу́блики, r=Soyúznye Respúbliki) were national-based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( ...
.
Notable alumni
Prominent alumni of the KUTV include:
*
Khertek Anchimaa-Toka
Khertek Amyrbitovna Anchimaa-Toka (russian: Хертек Амырбитовна Анчимаа-Тока΄ tyv, Анчимаа-Тока Хертек Амырбит уруу, translit=Anchimaa-Toka Khertek Amyrbit uruu; 1 January 1912 – 4 Novemb ...
, chairperson of the
Little Khural The Little Khural ( mn, Бага Хурал, ''Baga Khural'') or State Little Khural ( mn, Улсын Бага Хурал, ''Ulsyn Baga Khural'') was the presidium of the Mongolian People's Republic from 1924 until 1951 and then the standing legisl ...
of
Tannu-Tuva
The Tuvan People's Republic (TPR; tyv, Тыва Арат Республик, translit=Tywa Arat Respublik; Yanalif: ''Tьʙа Arat Respuʙlik'', ),) and abbreviated TAR. known as the Tannu Tuva People's Republic until 1926, was a partially rec ...
*
Khalid Bakdash
Khalid Bakdash (occasionally spelled Khalid Bagdash or Khaled Bekdache, ar, خالد بكداش) (1912 – July 15, 1995) was a Syrian politician who lead the Syrian Communist Party (SCP) from 1936 until his death in 1995. In 1954, Bakdash became ...
, secretary of the
Syrian Communist Party from 1936 until 1995
*
Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo (27 April 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a politician of the Republic of China after its retreat to Taiwan. The eldest and only biological son of former president Chiang Kai-shek, he held numerous posts in the government ...
, President of the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
(Taiwan), 1925 class
*
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...
, paramount leader of the People's Republic of China, 1925 class
*
Evangelista, Crisanto, founder of the
Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930, class of 1928.
*
Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev
Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev ( tt-Cyrl, Мирсәет Хәйдәргали улы Солтангалиев, ''Mirsäyet Xäydärğäli ulı Soltanğäliev'', pronounced ; russian: Мирсаид Хайдаргалиевич Султан-Галиев ''M ...
, architect of Muslim national communism
*
Hà Huy Tập, third General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam
*
Harry Haywood
Harry Haywood (February 4, 1898 – January 4, 1985) was an American political activist who was a leading figure in both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). His goal was to connec ...
, leading African American member of the
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
* Jane Golden, black American student who died during her time at KUTVA
*
Nâzım Hikmet
Mehmed Nâzım Ran (15 January 1902 – 3 June 1963), Note: 403 Forbidden error received 10 October 2022. commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet (), was a Turkish-Polish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. He was ...
, Turkish poet
*
Ho Chi Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...
, President of
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, 1923 class
*
Hasan Israilov,
Chechen insurrectionist
*
Sen Katayama
Sen may refer to:
Surname
* Sen (surname), a Bengali surname
* Şen, a Turkish surname
* A variant of the Serer patronym Sène
Currency subunit
* Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies:
* ...
of the American and Japanese Communist Parties
*
Jomo Kenyatta, first indigenous head of state of Kenya
*
Lê Hồng Phong, second General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam
*
Liu Shaoqi, President of the People's Republic of China, 1921 class
*
Magomet Mamakaev, Chechen writer
*
Tan Malaka
Tan Malaka (2 June 1897 – 21 February 1949) was an Indonesian teacher, Marxist, philosopher, founder of Struggle Union (Persatuan Perjuangan) and Murba Party, independent guerrilla, Indonesian fighter, and national hero. ''Tempo'' credited hi ...
of the Indonesian Communist Party
*
Manabendra Nath Roy
Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, better known as M. N. Roy; 21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954) was an Indian revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well as a noted philosopher in the 20th century. Roy ...
, helped found the Communist Parties of
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
*
Muhammad Najati Sidqi
Muhammad Najati Sidqi ( ar, محمد نجاتي صدقي, ', 1905–1979) was a Palestinian public intellectual and activist, trade unionist, translator, writer, critic and erstwhile communist. Though almost forgotten as a figure in the Palestin ...
, writer, activist in the Palestinian independence movement, from 1925 to 1928
*
Ja'far Pishevari
Sayyed Ja'far Pishevari ( fa, سید جعفر پیشهوری; 26 ( Azerbaijani: سید جعفر پیشهوری ) August, 1892 – 11 June, 1947) was an Iranian Azerbaijani communist politician who most-notably founded and led the Azerbai ...
, founder and chairman of communist
Azerbaijan People's Government
The Azerbaijan People's Government ( az, آذربایجان میللی حکومتی - Azərbaycan Milli Hökuməti; fa, حکومت خودمختار آذربایجان) was a short-lived unrecognized secessionist state in northern Iran from Nov ...
*
Salchak Toka
Salchak Kalbakkhorekovich Toka (russian: Салчак Калбакхорекович Тока, – 11 May 1973) was a Tuvan and later, Soviet politician. He was General Secretary of the Tuvinian department of the CPSU from 1944 to 1973; previou ...
,
Tuvan government official
* Sbulawelani Shwala, leader of the Young Communist League of South Africa and Revolutionary writer
Republic of South Africa
*
Trần Phú
Trần Phú (1 May 1904 in Tuy An District – 6 September 1931) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and the first general secretary of the Indochinese Communist Party, later renamed the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Biography
Trần Phú was born ...
, first General Secretary of the
Communist Party of Vietnam
The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North ...
*
Wang Fanxi
Wang Fanxi (; March 16, 1907 – December 30, 2002) was a leading Chinese Trotskyist revolutionary.
Born near Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, he joined the Communist Party of China, then an illegal organisation, in 1925. In 1927, he went to Mos ...
, prominent Chinese Trotskyist
*
Yusuf Salman Yusuf
Yusuf Salman Yusuf ( syr, ܝܘܣܦ ܣܠܡܢ ܝܘܣܦ, ar, يوسف سلمان يوسف), better known by his nom de guerre Comrade Fahd ( ar, فهد) (19 July 1901, in Baghdad – 14 February 1949), was an Assyrian of Chaldean Catholic faith and ...
, secretary of the
Iraqi Communist Party from 1941 to 1949
*
Nikolaos Zachariadis
Nikos Zachariadis ( el, Νίκος Ζαχαριάδης; 27 April 1903 – 1 August 1973) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1931 to 1956, and one of the most important personalities in the Greek Civil War.
Ear ...
, General Secretary of
Communist Party of Greece and chairman of Greek communist
Provisional Democratic Government
The Provisional Democratic Government (Greek: Προσωρινή Δημοκρατική Κυβέρνηση, ''Prosoriní Dimokratikí Kyvérnisi'') was the name of the administration declared by the Communist Party of Greece on 24 December 1947, du ...
, 1947 to 1949
See also
*
Moscow Sun Yat-sen University
Moscow Sun Yat-sen University, officially the Sun Yat-sen Communist University of the Toilers of China, was a Comintern school, which operated from 1925–1930 in the city of Moscow, Russia, then the Soviet Union. It was a training camp fo ...
*
*
List of modern universities in Europe (1801–1945)
The list of modern universities in Europe (1801–1940) contains all universities that were founded in Europe after the French Revolution and before the end of World War II. Universities are regarded as comprising all institutions of higher ed ...
*
Chinese-Lenin School of Vladivostok
The Chinese-Lenin School of Vladivostok ( rus, links=no, Китайская Ленинская Школа во Владивостоке, r=Kitaiskaya Leninskaya Shkola vo Vladivostoke) was a Soviet educational institution and espionage training ce ...
"Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and the Chinese Revolution: A Personal Account" by Yueh Sheng
References
Citations
Sources
*
entry
*
speech by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
(Marxists Internet Archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Communist University Of The Toilers Of The East
Comintern
Universities and institutes established in the Soviet Union
Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
Educational institutions established in 1921
1921 establishments in Russia
Defunct universities and colleges in Russia
Education in the Soviet Union
Universities and colleges in Moscow