[Nightingale]

For a long time, I've pretty much had an understanding that the Soviet Union was a heavy backer of the Communist revolution in China and certainly served to lend the People's Liberation Army with their equipment, Mao with his prestige, etc., as well as bringing Soviet officials into high levels of the new government. (This is all prior to the Sino-Soviet split ofcourse)

However, I recall that, when I first heard of the Communist revolution in China, I assumed that it was an independent phenomenon and that Mao and Lenin were therefore people of roughly equivalent importance in the Communist movement because they were both simply followers of Karl Marx who started Communist revolutions in their respective countries. It was only later that I came to understand that the Chinese revolution preceded from the Russian (Soviet) revolution, that the former was brought about by the latter.

I'm looking for some specifics as to how strong the Soviet involvement in the Chinese revolution was.

Thank you.