People's History of Ideas Podcast · Matthew Rothwell

Chen Duxiu Update (or, the Devil Makes Work for Idle Hands) (1929)

December 11, 2025·31 min

Episode 132 of People's History of Ideas examines Chen Dushu's transformation from Chinese Communist Party co-founder and general secretary (1921-1927) to Trotskyist dissident. The narrative begins with Chen's scapegoating for the 1927 United Front policy disaster, where bourgeois Kuomintang allies murdered peasants while Chen was constrained by Moscow directives. Removed in August 1927, Chen retreated to Shanghai, occupying himself with philological research while the party ignored him. By late 1928, a network of Chen loyalists (Zheng Chaolin, Yin Kuan, Peng Xuzhe, Liu Bojian) were deliberately marginalized or sidelined. When the Jiangsu Provincial Committee rebelled in early 1929, these cadres joined the uprising, seeking action. Though Zhou Enlai quashed the rebellion and secured their release from imprisonment, the episode's turning point came when Yin Kuan smuggled in Trotskyist opposition documents (May-June 1929). According to Zheng Chaolin's eyewitness account, these poorly translated, mimeographed texts—addressing Soviet struggle and CCP errors—immediately 'gripped' the group. The documents included Wang Ruofei's analysis of Central Committee failures. Chen's circle then embraced Trotsky's permanent revolution theory, seeking intellectual foundation for their political opposition.

As heard by us

A careful look at how revolutionary theory and defeat push one Communist leader toward Trotskyism.

The episode follows Chengdu Xu as he breaks with the Comintern's third period line, revisits the defeat of the Chinese revolution, and lands on Trotskyism. It works best when it treats that split as more than doctrine on a page.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the logic behind Chen Duxiu's turn to Trotskyism.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify