<P> The Long March ( October 1934 -- October 1935 ) was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China , the forerunner of the People 's Liberation Army , to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang ( KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party ) army . There was not one Long March , but a series of marches , as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west . The best known is the march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934 . The First Front Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic , led by an inexperienced military commission , was on the brink of annihilation by Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek 's troops in their stronghold in Jiangxi province . The Communists , under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai , escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north , which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometers ( 5600 miles ) over 370 days . The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west , then north , to Shaanxi . </P>
who became the leader of the chinese communist party during the chinese long march
Mao Zedong