In 1919 the Soviets, under Vladimir Lenin, dispatched Lev Karakhan to China to meet with Sun. Karakhan took the unprecedented step of freely and willingly relinquishing all Russian territorial concessions in China. Russia’s anti-imperialist moves got the attention of Sun and the Chinese people, who finally felt they had found an ally in their struggle against… Read more »
When the Qing Dynasty finally fell in 1911, the collapse was sudden and uneventful. Sun, traveling in America at the time, learned of the fall of the Qing from his morning paper. Sun returned to China at the invitation of the successful revolutionaries to be sworn in as China’s first president in 1912. China was in… Read more »
In 1911, Sun fell in love with his young secretary, Song Qingling. Song was the daughter of one of China’s most Westernized families. Charlie Song, her father, was a Vanderbilt-educated devout Christian, who had made a fortune as an entrepreneur in Shanghai. Sun and Qingling were married in 1915. Song Qingling’s older sister Ailing married a… Read more »