The story of how the co-founder and first General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party became a Trotskyist.

Further reading:
Gregor Benton, China’s Urban Revolutionaries: Explorations in the History of Chinese Trotskyism, 1921-1952
Gregor Benton, Prophets Unarmed: Chinese Trotskyists in Revolution, War, Jail, and the Return from Limbo
Lee Feigon, Chen Duxiu: Founder of the Chinese Communist Party
Chang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (2 volumes)
Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party
Jane Price, Cadres, Commanders, and Commissars: The Training of the Chinese Communist Leadership, 1920-1945

Some names from this episode:
Chen Duxiu, co-founder of the Communist Party of China
Li Dazhao, co-founder of the Communist Party of China
Zheng Chaolin, Chinese Trotskyist
Li Lisan, leading Communist
Yin Kuan, resigned as Provincial Secretary in Anhui
Peng Shuzhi, resigned as Provincial Secretary in Zhili
Wang Zekai, Chinese Trotskyist
Liu Bojian, former Provincial Secretary in Hubei
Ren Xu, Chinese Trotskyist
Xiang Ying, Jiangsu Provincial Secretary following the 6th Party Congress
Cai Zhende, member of Jiangsu Provincial Committee
Zhou Enlai, head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee
Wang Ruofei, sent to work in a factory in Moscow as punishment for Trotskyism before recanting
Qu Qiubai, top leader of Communist Party from the summer of 1927 until the Sixth Congress
Zhang Guotao, leading Communist 

Episode artwork:
Chen Duxiu with Peng Shuzi in 1932

Support the show

Responding to listener queries about the evidence behind this common assertion regarding the KPD’s underestimation of the fascist threat.

Further reading:
Jane Degras, ed., The Communist International, 1919-1943: Documents, vol. 3: 1929-1943
International Press Correspondence
Communist International journal (1933)
Documents from the 13th Plenum of the ECCI

Some names from this episode:
Chen Duxiu, co-founder of the Communist Party of China
Hermann Remmele, leading KPD Reichstag member
Heinrich Brüning, German Chancellor from 1930-1932
Osip Piatnitsky, leading Comintern figure
Wilhelm Pieck, leader of KPD from 1934

Episode artwork:
Autonome Antifa (M) poster from 1991

Support the show

The 1920s that is. The Comintern lets the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee know how the objective conditions in China are ripening for revolution.

Further reading:
Nikolai Bukharin, “On the International Situation and the Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party”
Nicholas Kozlov and Eric Weitz, “Reflections on the Origins of the ‘Third Period’: Bukharin, the Comintern, and the Political Economy of Weimar Germany”
Robin Kelley, Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression
Theodore Rosengarten, All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw
Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-1919
Chen Jian, Zhou Enlai: A Life
Jane Degras, ed., The Communist International, 1919-1943: Documents, vol. 3: 1929-1943
So Wai-chor, The Kuomintang Left in the National Revolution, 1924–1931

Some names from this episode:
Nikolai Bukharin, general secretary of the executive committee of the Comintern (1926-1929)
Rosa Luxemburg, German communist leader murdered in 1919
Karl Liebknecht, German communist leader murdered in 1919
Li Lisan, leading Communist
Stalin, Stalin
Feng Yuxiang, northwestern warlord who turned on Chiang Kai-shek during Sino-Soviet war
Wang Jingwei, the overall leader of the Guomindang Left
Chen Gongbo, main ideologue of the Reorganization Comrades Association
Chen Duxiu, co-founder of the Communist Party
He Long, leader of a soviet in the Hunan-Hubei border region

Episode artwork:
Li Lisan with family

Support the show

How the Chinese Communist Party tried to turn war into revolution in Manchuria in 1929.

Further reading:
Bruce A. Elleman and Stephen Kotkin, eds., Manchurian Railways and the Opening of China
Michael M. Walker, The 1929 Sino-Soviet War
Chong-Sik Lee, Revolutionary Struggle in Manchuria: Chinese Communism and Soviet Interest, 1922-1945
“Japan Moves Town to Reach Coal Vein”

Some names from this episode:
Miles Lampson, British minister to China
Yang Jingyu, Fushun special branch secretary of the CCP
Liu Shaoqi, Communist labor organizer and secretary of the CCP’s Manchurian Committee from June 1929 to March 1930
Ting Chün-yang, veteran communist sent to Manchuria
Meng Yongqian, veteran communist sent to Manchuria

Episode artwork:
Postcard of a Fushun coal mine from the early 1940s

Support the show

The final Soviet offensive, and some details on Chiang Ching-kuo’s activities as a student in Moscow.

Further reading:
Bruce A. Elleman and Stephen Kotkin, eds., Manchurian Railways and the Opening of China
Michael M. Walker, The 1929 Sino-Soviet War
Jay Taylor, The Generalissimo's Son: Chiang Ching-Kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan

Some names from this episode:
Zhang Xueliang, Manchurian warlord
Feng Yuxiang, northwestern warlord who turned on Chiang Kai-shek during Sino-Soviet war
Joseph Stilwell, United States military attaché in China
Mikhail Borodin, Comintern agent and political head of Soviet mission to aid the Guomindang during the first Communist-Guomindang united front
Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek
Zhou Enlai, leading Communist
Vasily Blyukher, commander of the Special Far Eastern Army
Aleksandr Cherepanov, commander of the 39th Rifle Division in the Soviet Far East

Episode artwork: Picture of a young Chiang Ching-kuo

Support the show

Some basic military history of the beginning of the war.

Further reading:
Bruce A. Elleman and Stephen Kotkin, eds., Manchurian Railways and the Opening of China
Michael M. Walker, The 1929 Sino-Soviet War
John Erickson, The Soviet High Command: A Military-Political History, 1918-1941

Some names from this episode:
Vasily Blyukher (née Gurov, aka Galen), commander of the Special Far Eastern Army
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general in Napoleonic wars
Aleksandr Cherepanov, commander of the 39th Rifle Division in the Soviet Far East
Andrei Bubnov, head of the political administration of the Soviet Red Army
Feng Yuxiang, warlord close to both the USA and the Soviet Union
A. I. Traynin, captain of the Soviet warship Sverdlov
Mok Yiuming, captain of the Chinese gunboat Lishui
Fedor Vulahov, lead petty officer of the Sverdlov
R. I. Yuanzem, commander of the Soviet warship Red East
I. I. Nikitin, captain of the Soviet warship Sun Yatsen
I. A. Onufriev, the commander of the 2nd “Amur” Rifle Division

Episode artwork:
Photo of Soviet soldiers with captured Guomindang banners

Support the show

The Guomindang moves to seize Soviet assets in Manchuria. Also, subscribe to the new substack at https://peopleshistoryofideas.substack.com/.

Further reading:
Bruce A. Elleman and Stephen Kotkin, eds., Manchurian Railways and the Opening of China
Michael M. Walker, The 1929 Sino-Soviet War

Some names from this episode:
Li Lisan, Chairman of Central Committee Propaganda Department
Chen Duxiu, Co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party
Li Dazhao, Co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party
Lev Karakhan, Soviet deputy commissioner for foreign affairs in 1919 and acting commissioner in 1929
Zhang Zuolin, Manchurian warlord killed by Japan in 1928
Zhang Xueliang, Manchurian warlord, son of Zhang Zuolin
Martemyan Nikitich Ryutin, Bolshevik leader of Harbin soviet in 1917

Episode artwork: Flag of the Chinese Eastern Railway

Support the show

Mao discusses problems in party organization and how to fix them.

Further reading:
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
“On the Revolutionary “Three-in-One” Combination”

Episode artwork: May 1967 poster “Resolutely Protect the Policy of the Revolutionary Three-in-One Combination”

Support the show

We continue our textual analysis of the Gutian Resolution.

Further reading:
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Mao Zedong, “On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party”
“Bury the Slave Mentality Advocated by China’s Khrushchov” in Peking Review (April 14, 1967)

Some names from this episode:
Liu Shaoqi, top level Communist Party leader attacked as China’s Khrushchev during the Cultural Revolution
Zhou Enlai, head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee
Li Lisan, leading Communist
Qu Qiubai, top leader of Communist Party from the summer of 1927 until the Sixth Congress
Huang Chao, salt merchant who led a rebellion from 875-884
Li Chuang (Li Zicheng), bandit leader who seized Beijing in 1644 and was later defeated by the Manchus
Hong Xiuquan, leader of the Taiping Revolution and claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ
Chen Yi, member of Front Committee of Fourth Red Army

Episode artwork: Gutian village

Support the show

On the importance of the Resolution, and a beginning discussion of the actual text.

Further reading:
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Mao Zedong, “On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party”

Episode artwork: Photo of the Gutian Congress

Support the show