---
title: "Long March of Chinese Communists"
year: 1934
country: "China"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1934/long-march-china"
slug: "long-march-china"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1934-10-16"
endDate: "1935-10-19"
---

# Long March of Chinese Communists

> Mao's Red Army retreated across 6,000 miles to evade Nationalist forces, transforming a military defeat into mythic revolutionary narrative.

In October 1934, roughly 100,000 troops from China's Communist Red Army fled their base in Jiangxi Province as Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces closed in. What became known as the Long March—a 6,000-mile trek across some of China's harshest terrain over the next year—turned a military catastrophe into a founding myth. Mao Zedong emerged from the journey as the Communist Party's undisputed leader, fundamentally reshaping the balance of power in the Chinese Civil War.

## Summary

The Long March was a military retreat by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Chinese Red Army from advancing Kuomintang (KMT) National Revolutionary Army during the Chinese Civil War, occurring between October 1934 and October 1935. About 100,000 troops retreated from the Jiangxi Soviet and other bases to a new headquarters in Yan'an, Shaanxi, travelling approximately 10,000 kilometres. About 8,000 troops ultimately survived the Long March.

## Sources

- [Long March](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1934/long-march-china