and practical military instruction. In addition to courses, there were regular presentations on the international communist movements and the Chinese revolution by prominent members from Comintern, the Soviet Union and the CCP. Those included Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Zhang Guotao and Xiang Zhongfa. Although courses of study only lasted two years, the university had great influence on those trained there. Many who studied there went on to play leadership roles in China, including some of the 28 Bolsheviks, Zuo Quan, Wu Xiuquan, He Zhonghan, Deng Wenyi, Ji Chaoding, and both Deng Xiaoping, future Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China and Chiang Ching-kuo, future president of the Republic of China . Political change and closure In 1927, as the CCP-KMT alliance broke up, the students from the KMT were sent back to China. As the power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky reached its peak, Radek was sacked and replaced by his deputy, Pavel Mif, who was too ambitious to be limited to a university campus. Mif himself became the vice director of the Far East Department of the Comintern and played an important role in the major decisions of the CCP. With his 28 Bolsheviks holding senior positions in the CCP, Mif and the university played a major role in China's modern history. Its final rector was Vladimir Veger. The university was closed in the mid-1930s due to the failure of the alliance with the KMT. See also Sun Yat-sen University (disambiguation) Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, People's Republic of China National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Republic of China Communist University of the Toilers of the East Communist University of the National Minorities of the West Chinese-Lenin School of Vladivostok References Sheng Zhongliang. Moscow Sun Yat-sen University and Chinese Revolution Chinese Civil War Universities and institutes established in the Soviet Union China–Soviet Union relations Defunct universities and colleges in Russia Education in the Soviet Union Universities and colleges in Moscow Comintern Educational institutions established in 1925 1925 establishments in the Soviet Union Politics of the Republic of China (1912–1949) Sun Yat-sen University Junior colleges