6th National Congress of the Communist Party of China Address
From June 18 to July 11, 1928, the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Moscow. This is the only time in the history of the Party that National Congress held abroad . The conference carefully summarized the experiences and lessons learned since the failure of the Great Revolution, corrected the mistakes of "left" blind action, and gave a basically correct answer to the fundamental issues of a series of serious debates related to the survival of the Chinese revolution. In the two years after the Sixth National Congress, the Chinese revolution has moved towards revival and development.
(I)
After the failure of the revolution in in 1927, the whole country was in a dark period of severe white terror. According to incomplete statistics, from March 1927 to the first half of 1928, 310,000 Communist Party members and revolutionary masses were killed, including 26,000 Communist Party members. A large number of outstanding Party cadres sacrificed their lives under the enemy's butcher knife for the Party's cause. All the party organizations were transferred underground, and the number of party members dropped from nearly 60,000 at the climax of the Great Revolution to more than 10,000. The Communist Party of China has withstood the most severe test since its establishment.
11927, in accordance with the instructions of Communist International Executive Committee , the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China implemented a reorganization, and Chen Duxiu left the highest leadership position of the Central Committee, and formed the Central Provisional Standing Committee by Zhang Guotao, Li Weihan, Zhou Enlai, Li Lisan, Zhang Tailei and others. The Central Provisional Standing Committee immediately made three important decisions: to concentrate the troops controlled and influenced by the Party and prepare to launch an armed uprising; to organize the workers and peasants' movement, and to launch a peasant province in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong with a good foundation; to hold an emergency meeting of the Central Committee to discuss and decide on the new policy after the failure of the Great Revolution.
On August 1, 1927, more than 20,000 troops led by Zhou Enlai, He Long, Ye Ting, Zhu De, Liu Bocheng and other troops, held an armed uprising in Nanchang, firing the first shot of armed resistance to the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang. The People's Army led by the Communist Party of China was born, and the Communist Party of China has since embarked on the road of independently leading the revolutionary war, establishing the People's Army and seizing power with armed forces.
On August 7, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an emergency meeting in Hankou , namely 87th meeting . The meeting determined the general policy of agrarian revolution and armed resistance to the Kuomintang reactionaries, and elected the Provisional Politburo of the CPC Central Committee headed by Qu Qiubai. Mao Zedong made a long speech at the meeting, emphasizing that "we must pay great attention to military affairs in the future and we must know that the regime is obtained from the barrel of a gun." This is the correct conclusion drawn by the Chinese Communists after paying the price of bloodshed. From then on, armed struggle became the main way of the Chinese revolution. After the
87 meeting, party organizations in various places launched a series of armed uprisings one after another. Among them, the Autumn Harvest Uprising on the Hunan-Jiangxi border led by Mao Zedong on September 9 of this year, the Guangzhou Uprising led by Zhang Tailei, Ye Ting, Ye Jianying and others on December 11 of the same year, as well as the gang northeastern Jiangxi Uprising led by Fang Zhimin, the Hunan-Hubei Uprising led by Zhou Yiqun and He Long, the Huang An and Macheng Uprising led by the Huangma Special Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Hunan-South Hunan Uprising led by Zhu De and Chen Yi, the Fujian Uprising led by Zhang Dingcheng and Deng Zihui, the Wei (South) Hua (County) Uprising led by Shaanxi local party organizations, and the Pingjiang Uprising led by Peng Dehuai and Teng Daiyuan.
After the 87th meeting, the right-leaning errors that existed within the party were corrected. However, due to the fact that the situation at that time was out of reality, we did not realize that the revolution was at a low tide between two highs and highs. We subjectively believed that the revolutionary trend was in a "constantly rising", and did not see the imbalance of the development of the Chinese revolution, and did not understand that appropriate retreat and preservation was necessary. Instead, we blindly emphasized the attack and even launched an armed uprising without hope of victory in some places where the enemy was tightly controlled. Therefore, shortly after the 87th Session, an acute "left" symptom characterized by blind activism appeared in the party, and hasteness failed, causing the revolution to suffer avoidable losses.
From the spring of 1928, the "left" blind movement error that occurred within the party had basically stopped nationwide.However, there is no unified understanding of some major issues related to the Chinese revolution, such as the nature of Chinese society after the failure of the Great Revolution, the political situation at that time, the revolutionary tasks and struggle strategies. Therefore, it is urgent to hold a national conference to solve the above major theoretical and practical problems, to unify the thoughts of the whole party and promote the arrival of a new revolutionary climax. In this way, the convening of the Sixth National Congress of the Party was put on the agenda.
(II)
The earliest proposal to convene the 87th meeting. The "HTM3 Party Organization Resolution " passed by the meeting pointed out that the Party "should prepare to convene the Sixth National Congress within six months." In November of the same year, the enlarged meeting of the Provisional Politburo of the CPC Central Committee discussed the issue of convening the Sixth Congress and passed the "Resolution on the Sixth Congress of the Party", which decided to convene the Sixth Congress from early March to half March 1928. The meeting schedule and location shall be decided by the Central Standing Committee members.
1 In January 1928, the Provisional Politburo of the CPC Central Committee once again discussed the convening of six major issues. The meeting passed discussion and determined that the number of people attending the conference was about 50, and the specific measures were decided by the Central Organization Bureau; the venue of the conference was to be determined. The reason why the six major locations cannot be determined is that the white terror across the country was extremely serious at that time, and the party organizations were in an extremely secret state, so it was difficult to find a safer place in China to hold a national congress. Qu Qiubai proposed that it can be opened in Macau, but most people think it is more appropriate to open in Hong Kong. This issue was not decided in the end, so I decided to discuss it later.
At that time, the white terror was too serious. China was so big that it could not find a suitable meeting place. The Party needed a relatively abundant time and a relatively stable environment to summarize the experiences and lessons learned since the failure of the Great Revolution and study and deploy future work. Just at this moment, Communist International decided to convene the Sixth Congress and the Fifth Congress of the Young Communist International. At that time, the Communist Party of China will send delegations to attend the conference. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to Communist International Executive Committee that the Sixth Congress of the Party was held in Moscow and required the Executive Committee of the Communist International to send delegations to attend, and asked Stalin or Bukharin to attend the conference to directly guide the work of the Communist Party of China. The Executive Committee of the Communist International approved the request of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. On April 2, 1928, the Standing Committee of the Provisional Politburo of the Central Committee held a meeting to study the six issues and decided that Li Weihan and Ren Bishi would stay behind and be responsible for the daily work of the Central Committee. Deng Xiaoping was the Secretary-General of the Central Committee.
In late April and early May, representatives from all over the country who went to Moscow to participate in the Sixth National Congress set off from Shanghai. Most of them went through Dalian and Harbin to smuggle the Manzhouli border and enter the Soviet Union. Some people also took Soviet ships to Vladivostok .
On June 18, 1928, the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was officially held. The meeting site is located in the May Day village of Narofaminsk area in the suburbs of Moscow. This is a three-story building with the ground floor of the dining room, kitchen and other rooms, in which the Secretariat of the Conference is located. There is a living room on the second floor that can accommodate about 70 or 80 people, which serves as a synagogue of six majors. There are also some rooms next to the living room, where some representatives and staff live. The third floor is all represented dormitories.
There were 142 representatives attending the conference, including 84 representatives with the right to vote. At this time, there were no accurate statistics from the party members across the country. In addition, representatives of the Communist International, representatives of the Young Communist International, representatives of the Red Workers, and representatives of the Communist Party of Italy, the Soviet Union and other countries also attended the opening ceremony.
In the majestic " Internationale ", the conference officially began. The host of the conference announced: A three-minute silence was observed to the martyrs who died in the Chinese revolution. Then, the conference passed the list of the Presidium, Deputy Secretary-General, and Representative Qualification Review Committee. Then, Qu Qiubai delivered the opening speech on behalf of the Fifth Central Committee. Representatives of the Communist International, the Communist Party of China, Italy and the Soviet Union, as well as representatives of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, Guan Xiangying, and Su Zhaozheng, representatives of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, respectively, and Qu Qiubai, the presidium of the Congress gave thanks.On the second day of the conference, Bukharin, a representative of the Communist International, delivered a report on "The Tasks of the Chinese Revolution and the Communist Party of China". On the 20th, Qu Qiubai delivered a political report entitled "Chinese Revolution and the Communist Party" on behalf of the Fifth Central Committee. The meeting then discussed the two reports in groups. The discussion was very fierce, mainly focusing on the nature of the Chinese revolution, the tasks, whether to carry out legal struggles, the climax and low tides of the revolution. On June 30 and July 3, Zhou Enlai made organizational issues and military reports respectively. During the conference, Cai Hesen, Wang Ruofei, Zhang Guotao and others made long speeches. The conference also passed more than a dozen resolutions on politics, military, organization, the Soviet regime, farmers, land, etc., and passed the fourth amendment to the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.
The last agenda of the Sixth National Congress is to elect the Sixth Central Committee. On the morning of July 10, the conference officially elected 423 Central Committee members and 13 alternate Central Committee members. On July 19, the First Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee elected Su Zhaozheng, Xiang Ying, Zhou Enlai, Xiang Zhongfa, Cai Hesen, Qu Qiubai and Zhang Guotao as members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Guan Xiangying, Li Lisan, Luo Dengxian, Peng Pai, Yang Yin, Lu Futan and Xu Xigen as alternate members of the Political Bureau; Xiang Zhongfa, Zhou Enlai, Su Zhaozheng, Xiang Ying, and Cai Hesen as members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and Li Lisan, Yang Yin and Xu Xigen as alternate members of the Standing Committee. Because the Communist International emphasized the worker component in the leadership of the Party Central Committee at that time, on July 20, the first meeting of the Sixth Central Political Bureau elected Xiang Zhongfa, who was a worker from Wuhan dock, as the chairman of the Central Political Bureau and the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau, and Zhou Enlai was the secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau.
(III)
The Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a meeting of important historical significance. This meeting was held at a critical moment when the Great Revolution had failed and the agrarian revolution led by the Party had just emerged. It carefully summarized the experiences and lessons learned since the failure of the Great Revolution and gave a basically correct answer to a series of important and controversial issues related to the Chinese revolution.
First, it correctly analyzed the nature of Chinese society and the nature of Chinese revolution after the failure of the Great Revolution. The Congress believed that after the failure of the Great Revolution, China's true unification was not completed, China was not liberated from the iron hoof of imperialism, and the state regime was still under the control of the gentry, landlords, compradors, bourgeoisie, supported by imperialism; the land exploitation system of the landlord class was not abolished, and the feudal remnants were not eliminated. Therefore, China is still a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
The nature of Chinese society determines the nature of the Chinese revolution. The "Political Resolution" passed by the Congress clearly states: "The nature of the Chinese revolution at this stage is a bourgeois democratic revolution. It is wrong to think that the Chinese revolution has transformed into a socialist revolution at the present stage. Similarly, it is wrong to think that the current revolution in China is a "continuous revolution." Therefore, the current central task of the Chinese revolution is to expel imperialists and achieve true unity in China; the second is to completely overthrow the private land system of the landlord class and implement the land revolution; the third is to strive to establish the regime of the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Representative Conference (Soviet). This is the best way to introduce the vast number of working people to participate in the management of state affairs, that is, the best way to implement the democratic dictatorship of workers, peasants and peasants.
2 correctly pointed out the political situation at that time and the party’s strategic line. The conference pointed out: "The first revolutionary wave has passed due to previous failures, and a new wave has not yet arrived, and the power of the counter-revolutionary bottom still surpasses the workers and peasants." The current situation is generally not a revolutionary climax of the broad masses, and the speed of development of the Chinese revolutionary movement is unbalanced. This is the characteristic of the current situation. The conference also pointed out that a new climax of the vast revolution is inevitable. Because China's reactionary ruling class did not have the ability to completely eliminate the Chinese revolution, the revolutionary forces were not only preserved, but continued to develop.At the same time, no social contradictions that caused the revolution were resolved. Due to the intensification of imperialism and the Kuomintang reactionary rule, these contradictions continue to deepen and become increasingly sharp, which will surely promote the development of the revolution. Based on such a political situation, the Sixth National Congress determined that the Party’s overall task at this stage was not an offensive, nor a general organization of uprisings, but to win over the masses and welcome the arrival of a new revolutionary climax. The Sixth National Congress of the Party pointed out that efforts must be made to expand rural revolutionary bases, develop Red Army, implement agrarian revolution, and establish a Soviet regime. The rural gentry and landlord class is the main enemy of the revolution, the basic force of the proletariat in the countryside is the poor peasants, and the middle peasants are the consolidation allies. The Congress corrected the erroneous claim of the enlarged meeting of the Provisional Politburo of the Central Committee in November 1927 that "all land should be confiscated" during the land revolution, and pointed out that the land property of the gentry and landlord class should be confiscated immediately without cost, and the confiscated land should be handled by the Peasants' Representative Conference (Soviets) and allocated to farmers without land and with little land; and it is necessary to protect industry and commerce and oppose the tendency to divide the property of petty bourgeoisie. For rich peasants, they should be treated differently according to their different attitudes towards the revolution. As the rich peasants continue to fight against warlords and landlords and gentry, they must fight for it. The party's task at this stage is to make this rich peasant neutral in order to reduce the strength of the enemy.
Third, it summarizes the experience and lessons learned from past struggles and emphasizes opposition to "left" blind activism. The Congress believed that the main reason for the failure of the Great Revolution was the opportunistic policy of the party's organs at that time. This policy of opportunism, in the late period of the Great Revolution, was that the Communist Party could not be maintained in the united front, the class criticism of the revolutionary allies, and the mass forces were not mobilized, and the mass forces were prepared in order to defeat the reactionary attempts of their temporary allies, and sometimes, instead of preventing the development of mass movements, and so on, actually ruining the leadership of the proletariat.
After the failure of the Great Revolution, blind activism once brought great harm to the revolution. Party organizations in some places adopted the policy of burning and killing when organizing armed uprisings, and even put forward the slogan of "making proletarians become proletarians and then forcing them to revolutionize", seriously leaving the masses. The organization adopted another punishment. Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong, the leaders of the Nanchang Uprising, and Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong, were both accused of committing "opportunism" mistakes and were subjected to political disciplinary sanctions respectively. The "Political Resolution" passed by the Congress pointed out that in theory, blind activism is to use a few people to attack enemies that obviously have absolute advantage, and constantly implement armed struggles. The masses should not ignore the masses and act blindly. The method is to not educate and persuade the masses, but command and force the masses. Therefore, blind activism and commandism must be effectively corrected. This is a major change in the Party’s work policy.
(IV)
Six major issues have their shortcomings while making a series of correct judgments. First, we lack accurate analysis of the class in Chinese society, deny the existence of the intermediate camp, and regard the national bourgeoisie as the most dangerous enemy. The Political Resolution passed by the Congress believes that: "China's bourgeois democratic revolution that opposes imperialism, completely changes the land system, and bourgeois democratic revolution can only be carried out to the end, because the national bourgeoisie is one of the most dangerous enemies that hinder the victory of the revolution." After the failure of the Great Revolution, although some of the upper class of the national bourgeoisie followed and betrayed the revolution, it does not mean that the entire national bourgeoisie has become the enemy of the revolution. On the contrary, since the nature of China's semi-colonial society has not changed, the national bourgeoisie is still suppressed by imperialism and feudalism. They still have the demands of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, and are the strength and objects of unity that the proletarian revolution should strive for.
Second, it does not understand the long-term nature and complexity of the Chinese revolution, but still puts urban work in the central position, and lacks understanding of the importance of establishing rural revolutionary bases.On the one hand, the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized the need to develop Soviet bases, and on the other hand, it did not recognize the special significance of rural struggle to the Chinese revolution. It still adhered to the urban-centered theory and regarded the rise of the urban workers' movement as the decisive condition for the arrival of a new revolutionary climax. Zhou Enlai later recalled that at that time, Bukharin, who was specifically responsible for guiding the Sixth National Congress, was pessimistic about the Chinese Soviet and Red Army movements. He believes that it can only exist in dispersion. If it is concentrated, it will harm the interests of the people and eat their last old hen, and the people will not be satisfied. At the same time, although the Sixth National Congress admitted that the first climax of the Chinese revolution had passed, the new climax had not yet arrived, and was now at a low tide between the two climaxes, they believed that the climax of the revolution would come soon, and then an armed uprising could be launched to win the first victory of the revolution in one or several provinces, and even overthrow the new warlord rule of the Kuomintang, which to a certain extent led to serious "left" adventure mistakes in the party.
Third, it is a one-sided emphasis on the proletarianization of the party member component and the "workerization of guiding the organs" in the organization. On the one hand, the Sixth National Congress of the Party emphasized: Now, after the failure, the Party has suffered losses and reduced its combat effectiveness. The Party’s main task is to strengthen its own combat effectiveness and the Party’s proletarianization, which is correct. But on the other hand, the Sixth National Congress emphasized the continued introduction of activists who worker comrades to join the Party’s guiding organs, so as to make it more effective for guiding the organs. Under this idea, the sixth National Congress representatives and the central leadership bodies elected by the Sixth National Congress both have one-sided "workerization". Among the 84 representatives with the right to vote, 41 workers accounted for; among the 36 Central Committee members and alternate Central Committee members elected by the Sixth National Congress, 21 workers accounted for.
Although the Sixth National Congress of the Party has some shortcomings and shortcomings, overall, it summarized the experiences and lessons learned since the failure of the Great Revolution, corrected the "left" blind action mistakes, and made basic correct answers on a series of fundamental issues about the Chinese revolution that are seriously debated. It basically unified the thoughts of the whole party, and played a positive role in overcoming the "left" emotions that existed within the party at that time, getting rid of the passive situation, and achieving work transformation, which has played a positive role in the revival and development of the Chinese revolution. By the first half of 1930, more than a dozen rural revolutionary bases had been established across the country, and the Red Army had grown to nearly 100,000 people. In June 1929, the number of party members nationwide increased to nearly 70,000, and by September 1930, it increased to more than 120,000. The workers' movement in the Kuomintang-ruled areas that suffered heavy losses has also achieved certain recovery and development.
[Author’s unit: Central Party School (National School of Administration) Communist Party History Teaching and Research Department]
Source: Learning Times
