Eva Sandberg
Encyclopedia
Eva Sandberg was a Jewish German
photographer who took Soviet
citizenship. In Moscow she met and married the Chinese communist poet Xiao San. In 1939, after twelve years in Moscow, Xiao was ordered to the revolutionary base at Yan'an
; Sandberg was allowed to accompany him.
for four years, having arrived there from their abandoned Jiangxi base
. Xiao, a Hunan
ese and an old classmate of Mao's, took over the editorial department at the Reds' Lu Xun
Academy of Arts. Under the exacting conditions of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Sandberg here bore Xiao two sons. She was the base's only resident western female; the reporter and spy Agnes Smedley
, who famously initiated the leadership's Saturday dances, was a visitor. After five years Sandberg returned to Moscow, taking Xiao's sons. The eventual Japanese surrender did not bring peace to China, of course, as the civil war
then sputtered to resumption. In March 1947 the Communists evacuated Yan'an and the National Army general Hu Zongnan
occupied it. Only in March 1949, with the leadership ensconced in a western suburb of Beijing, did Xiao board a train for Moscow with a delegation of writers; he was headed to Stockholm for committee work on the Geneva Conventions
but very much looked forward to seeing his wife and children however briefly after four years.
brought grand-scale modernisation to the country at last, but collectivisation resulted in famine; doubts raised among the aghast planners were met with political movements called Hundred Flowers
and Anti-Rightist
, and a plan for the years 1958-62 called Great Leap Forward
. In this climate even Xiao San, Mao's boyhood friend, dared write no more poetry; given his history the family could not long hope to avoid the regime's xenophobia, mounting even as Mao relinquished the State Chairmanship
to Liu Shaoqi
in 1959.
Eva had laid aside her Leica and begun making films of the People's Republic for use by the communist news agencies of Europe. In 1962 it emerged that her travels in this starving land where all travel was controlled by internal passports had aroused suspicion. She came under pressure—as did any Soviet wife then in China—either to take Chinese citizenship or to leave. When her friend Nadia left Zhang Bao and returned to the Soviet Union, Eva knew there were only two such women remaining : Elisabeth (Lisa) Kishkin, wife of Li Lisan
, a Lubianka survivor, and Grania, the uneducated wife of Chang Zhenhao, a veteran of the alternate Long March of Zhang Guotao
(purged 1937).
The simple Grania was put on trial, painted as a Revisionist and Capitalist roader
. Chang divorced her promptly, losing his son Victor, and was the prosecution's witness. Eva and Lisa spoke in her defense. The paranoid, Stalinistic charge of spying menaced all three women but could not be made to stick. For a few years they imagined nothing worse might come to Grania than the penury to which she as a single, visible-minority mother was reduced, and which they tried to alleviate. However in 1966 Liu, the official State Chair was outfoxed by his resurgent predecessor, and Law gave way to Expedience. Mao's so-called Revolution in Proletarian Culture
brought douzhenghui
violence to bear against the Soviet wives and the men who had married them (and against tens of thousands of other designated victims within and around the Party); all were charged with—and made to confess to—the most preposterous crimes. The following year they were formally arrested; Eva and Xiao, Lisa and Li, divorced Grania and deserted Zhang Bao. Li died within days of his arrest, on June 22, 1967; the others were to spend years in a Beijing prison and years after that in enforced rustification, a sort of internal exile. Eva's post-prison fate is unknown.
History of the Jews in Germany
The presence of Jews in Germany has been established since the early 4th century. The community prospered under Charlemagne, but suffered during the Crusades...
photographer who took Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
citizenship. In Moscow she met and married the Chinese communist poet Xiao San. In 1939, after twelve years in Moscow, Xiao was ordered to the revolutionary base at Yan'an
Yan'an
Yan'an , is a prefecture-level city in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China, administering several counties, including Zhidan County , which served as the Chinese communist capital before the city of Yan'an proper took that role....
; Sandberg was allowed to accompany him.
Only White Woman at Yan'an
The First (or Central) Red Army and CCP headquarters had been in northern ShaanxiShaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
for four years, having arrived there from their abandoned Jiangxi base
Jiangxi Soviet
The Chinese Soviet Republic , also translated as the Soviet Republic of China or the China Soviet Republic, and often referred to in historical literature as the Jiangxi Soviet , was a state established in November 1931 by the future Communist Party of China leader Mao...
. Xiao, a Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
ese and an old classmate of Mao's, took over the editorial department at the Reds' Lu Xun
Lu Xun
Lu Xun or Lu Hsün , was the pen name of Zhou Shuren , one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in baihua as well as classical Chinese...
Academy of Arts. Under the exacting conditions of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
Sandberg here bore Xiao two sons. She was the base's only resident western female; the reporter and spy Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedley was an American journalist and writer best known for her semi-autobiographical novelDaughter of Earth. She was also known for her sympathetic chronicling of the Chinese revolution...
, who famously initiated the leadership's Saturday dances, was a visitor. After five years Sandberg returned to Moscow, taking Xiao's sons. The eventual Japanese surrender did not bring peace to China, of course, as the civil war
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
then sputtered to resumption. In March 1947 the Communists evacuated Yan'an and the National Army general Hu Zongnan
Hu Zongnan
Hu Zongnan , courtesy name Shoushan , native of Zhenhai, Ningbo, born May 16, 1896. A general in the National Revolutionary Army and then the Republic of China Army. Together with Chen Cheng and Tang Enbo, he formed the triumvirate of Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted generals during the Second...
occupied it. Only in March 1949, with the leadership ensconced in a western suburb of Beijing, did Xiao board a train for Moscow with a delegation of writers; he was headed to Stockholm for committee work on the Geneva Conventions
Geneva Conventions
The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
but very much looked forward to seeing his wife and children however briefly after four years.
Only Three Soviet Women in China
Reunited, the Xiao family returned to The PRC. The CPC-controlled government's first five-year planFive-Year Plans of China
The five-year plans of People's Republic of China are a series of economic development initiatives. The economy was shaped by the Communist Party of China through the plenary sessions of the Central Committee and national congresses...
brought grand-scale modernisation to the country at last, but collectivisation resulted in famine; doubts raised among the aghast planners were met with political movements called Hundred Flowers
Hundred Flowers Campaign
The Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement, refers mainly to a brief six weeks in the People's Republic of China in the early summer of 1957 during which the Communist Party of China encouraged a variety of views and solutions to national policy issues, launched...
and Anti-Rightist
Anti-Rightist Movement
The Anti-Rightist Movement of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s and early 1960s consisted of a series of campaigns to purge alleged "rightists" within the Communist Party of China and abroad...
, and a plan for the years 1958-62 called Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
. In this climate even Xiao San, Mao's boyhood friend, dared write no more poetry; given his history the family could not long hope to avoid the regime's xenophobia, mounting even as Mao relinquished the State Chairmanship
President of the People's Republic of China
The President of the People's Republic of China is a ceremonial office and a part of State organs under the National People's Congress and it is the head of state of the People's Republic of China . The office was created by the 1982 Constitution...
to Liu Shaoqi
Liu Shaoqi
Liu Shaoqi was a Chinese revolutionary, statesman, and theorist. He was Chairman of the People's Republic of China, China's head of state, from 27 April 1959 to 31 October 1968, during which he implemented policies of economic reconstruction in China...
in 1959.
Eva had laid aside her Leica and begun making films of the People's Republic for use by the communist news agencies of Europe. In 1962 it emerged that her travels in this starving land where all travel was controlled by internal passports had aroused suspicion. She came under pressure—as did any Soviet wife then in China—either to take Chinese citizenship or to leave. When her friend Nadia left Zhang Bao and returned to the Soviet Union, Eva knew there were only two such women remaining : Elisabeth (Lisa) Kishkin, wife of Li Lisan
Li Lisan
Lǐ Lìsān was an early leader of the Chinese communists, and the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930, member of Polit Bureau, and later member of Central Committee.-Early years:...
, a Lubianka survivor, and Grania, the uneducated wife of Chang Zhenhao, a veteran of the alternate Long March of Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao was a founding member and important leader of the Chinese Communist Party and bitter rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Comintern and organized the CCP labor movement in the United Front with the Guomindang...
(purged 1937).
The simple Grania was put on trial, painted as a Revisionist and Capitalist roader
Capitalist roader
In Maoist thought, a capitalist roader or is a person or group who demonstrates a marked tendency to bow to pressure from Bourgeois forces and subsequently attempts to pull the Revolution in a capitalist direction....
. Chang divorced her promptly, losing his son Victor, and was the prosecution's witness. Eva and Lisa spoke in her defense. The paranoid, Stalinistic charge of spying menaced all three women but could not be made to stick. For a few years they imagined nothing worse might come to Grania than the penury to which she as a single, visible-minority mother was reduced, and which they tried to alleviate. However in 1966 Liu, the official State Chair was outfoxed by his resurgent predecessor, and Law gave way to Expedience. Mao's so-called Revolution in Proletarian Culture
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
brought douzhenghui
Struggle Session
A struggle session was a form of public humiliation used by the Communist Party of China to enforce a reign of terror in the Mao Zedong era to shape public opinion and to humiliate, persecute, and/or execute political rivals, so-called class enemies...
violence to bear against the Soviet wives and the men who had married them (and against tens of thousands of other designated victims within and around the Party); all were charged with—and made to confess to—the most preposterous crimes. The following year they were formally arrested; Eva and Xiao, Lisa and Li, divorced Grania and deserted Zhang Bao. Li died within days of his arrest, on June 22, 1967; the others were to spend years in a Beijing prison and years after that in enforced rustification, a sort of internal exile. Eva's post-prison fate is unknown.