The Soviet first funded a military cadet school in Whampoa, near Canton for the KMT in 1924. This was to arm the KMT with a revolutionary army for the elimination of warlords to the north and so to unify China. By the end of the year, Moscow had about 1000 military and political personnel working in China and was providing the KMT with monthly subsidies. From this point on until the 1960s, the Soviet Union would be the decisive foreign influence in China. Compared to the Soviet, the Western influence was largely through the missionaries and the universities. The Western liberal influence in this period appears to be non-political and non-strategic. It was not the kind of influence that could satisfy the urgent needs of the time. Whereas the Russian influence felt much more direct and timely due to the political needs of the time to build party and to fight unification wars. The two peoples' similar position as backward countries under the pressure of the West also made cooperation between them easy to understand. However, the Western influence proved to be much more long lasting and is still ongoing.
With the help of the Soviet, Sun in effect started a new period of Chinese politics, namely the era of Leninist parties: the reorganized KMT and the CCP, both under Soviet funding and manipulation. Sun died of cancer in 1925 and left a long lasting legacy. He was recognized as the founding father of the republic. His three Principles of the People and his phased program to achieve a constitutional democracy became the KMT bible and written into all subsequent KMT constitutions.
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