People's History of Ideas Podcast

Qu Qiubai’s report and proposal are disputed, and the Comintern intervenes to restore order.

Further reading:
Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party
Chang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (2 volumes)
Daniel Kwan, Marxist Intellectuals and the Chinese Labor Movement: A Study of Deng Zhongxia, 1894-1933
Qu Qiubai, “The Past and Future of the Chinese Commun...

Our third (and last) close look at Bukharin’s speech at the 6th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928.

Further reading:
Nikolai Bukharin, “On the International Situation and the Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party”
Lenin, “Speech at the First All-Russia Congress of Working Women”

Some names from this episode:
Nikolai Bukharin, general secretary of the executive ...

Bukharin articulates a vision of the Chinese Revolution at the 6th Party Congress which is highly colored by the non-revolutionary Marxism of the 2nd International.

Further reading:
Nikolai Bukharin, “On the International Situation and the Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party”
Andre Gunder Frank, World Accumulation, 1492–1789
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System, vol. I: Capitalist Agriculture and the ...

Nikolai Bukharin kicks off the party congress with a very long speech.

Further reading:
Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party
Chang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (2 volumes)
E. H. Carr, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 3
Nikolai Bukharin, “On the International Situation and the Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party”
Nicholas Kozlov and Eric ...

The decision to hold the Sixth Party Congress in Moscow, and some of the political debate inside the Communist Party of China leading up to that Congress.

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
Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party
Patricia Stranahan, Underground: The Shan...

Potentially explosive guidance arrives in the Jinggangshan from the 6th Party Congress of the Communist Party, and plans are laid to break out of the enemy encirclement.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
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 Xianz...

The national Guomindang center takes note of the Communists’ resilience, and takes charge of organizing a new suppression campaign, which is preceded by a tight economic blockade. Peng Dehuai makes his way to the Jinggangshan.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of th...

A close reading of a couple portions of Mao’s November 25, 1928 report to the Central Committee.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 2: National Revolution and Social Rev...

Finishing our close reading of the resolution of the Border Area Party Congress of October 4 to 6, 1928. Also, the reorganization and purge of the party following the Communist recovery of the Jinggangshan base area after the August Defeat.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Estab...

A discussion of the concept of opportunism as it developed in the international communist movement, and a close reading of the self-critical portion of the resolution of the Border Area Party Congress of October 4 to 6, 1928.

Further reading:
Lenin, “Opportunism, and the Collapse of the Second International”
Cheng Yen-shih, ed., Lenin’s Fight Against Revisionism and Opportunism
Mao Zedong, “On the Correct Handl...

A close reading of the portion of the resolution of the Border Area Party Congress of October 4 to 6, 1928, which later became a key early text in the Maoist canon.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the Establishment of the Jiangxi Soviets, July 1927-December 1930
Mao Zedong, “Wh...

The Communists fight to regain lost territory, and ethnic tensions explode among the peasants in the base area.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
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-...

The 29th Regiment goes against Mao’s orders and decides to stay in Hunan, with disastrous results for the Communists.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Jurgen Domes, Peng Te-huai: The Man and the Image
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the Jinggangshan to the ...

Mao explains his refusal to comply with orders from the Hunan Provincial Committee.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
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

Some names fro...

A talk that I recently delivered at the University of Hamburg, focused on the development of a new socialist political economy late in the Cultural Revolution and how this influenced the Communist Party of Peru.

Further reading:
Alessandro Russo, Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture
Fabio Lanza, The End of Concern: Maoist China, Activism, and Asian Studies
Antonio Díaz Martínez, China: La revolución ag...

In light of the Ukraine crisis, a historical look at communist thinking on the connection between a third world war and revolution.

Further reading:
Sergei N. Goncharov, John W. Lewis, and Xue Litai, Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War
David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb
Edward Wilson, “Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war”
Mao Zedong, “On the Correct Handling of Contra...

The Hunan Provincial Committee decides that Mao must obey its authority.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Elizabeth Perry, Anyuan: Mining China’s Revolutionary Tradition

Some names from this episode:
Wang Meisheng, Courier between Anyuan and the Jinggangshan
Du Xiujing, Inspector sent to the Jinggangshan by the Hunan Provincial Committee<...

In the wake of their military victories in late Spring 1928, the Communists carried out a major land redistribution and a mass recruitment drive. There were some unforeseen complications.

Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 3: From the J...

Mao Zedong and Zhu De learn warfare through warfare as they face continuing onslaughts from Guomindang forces.

Further reading/watching:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base Area
Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949
China: A Century of Revolution documentary
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), “Experiences of the People’s War
and Some...