Book contents
- The Shanghai Agents
- Reviews
- The Shanghai Agents
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Note on Naming Conventions
- Cast of Characters
- Prologue
- Introduction: Summer 1990
- Part IThe Arrests
- Part IIThe Agents and the Bureau
- Part IIIThe Rueggs on Trial
- 15The Global Left Steps In
- 16The Shanghai Defense Committee and the Defense of Shanghai
- 17The Defense Committee vs. the Guomindang
- 18The Russian Method
- 19Convicted
- 20What To Do with the Boy?
- 21Hard Times and Disappointment
- 22Freedom
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Index
21 - Hard Times and Disappointment
from Part III - The Rueggs on Trial
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2026
Book contents
- The Shanghai Agents
- Reviews
- The Shanghai Agents
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Note on Naming Conventions
- Cast of Characters
- Prologue
- Introduction: Summer 1990
- Part IThe Arrests
- Part IIThe Agents and the Bureau
- Part IIIThe Rueggs on Trial
- 15The Global Left Steps In
- 16The Shanghai Defense Committee and the Defense of Shanghai
- 17The Defense Committee vs. the Guomindang
- 18The Russian Method
- 19Convicted
- 20What To Do with the Boy?
- 21Hard Times and Disappointment
- 22Freedom
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Index
Summary
This chapter follows the fate of Rudnik and Moiseenko, as well as the fate of the FEB, after the couple’s conviction in 1932. For the prisoners, the next few years were extremely difficult. They had little hope of being released, they both experienced serious illness, and their young son nearly died of typhoid fever at his foster home. Meanwhile the Comintern tried to rebuild the FEB, but was hampered at every step by surveillance and repression at the hands of the Guomindang. In Germany, Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 led Willi Münzenberg to go underground, which made communication between the prisoners and Moscow extremely difficult. And to top it off, the foster family caring for Rudnik and Moiseenko’s son became staunch Nazi supporters. In 1936, much to the sorrow of Moiseenko, their son was sent to an orphanage in the Soviet Union.
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- Information
- The Shanghai AgentsThe Soviet Plot to Start a Revolution in Interwar China, pp. 251 - 274Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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