On August 1, 1935, the USSR and its international organization, the Comintern, declared a worldwide front against fascism. The CCP was to abandon its policy of opposition to Chiang and give him its full support.23 Chiang and Mao both understood that Moscow’s new line had the potential to change Chinese domestic politics utterly. For the Communists, it was galling to have to embrace a former ally who had turned on them without warning just a decade
