People's History of Ideas Podcast · Matthew Rothwell

Revolution in the ‘20s, Go For It: The ‘Third Period’ Comes to China

·27 min

Episode 130 sits after several episodes on the 1929 Sino-Soviet War. It asks how the Comintern and the Chinese Communist leadership understood that war inside a broader revolutionary frame. The central concept is the idea that the global revolutionary movement was entering a renewed phase of revolutionary prospects. That outlook had first been put forward by Nikolai Bukharin at the end of 1926. It later became the general line of the Comintern at its 6th Congress in the summer of 1928. The episode places Chinese Communist leaders inside that shifting international line. It also shows that they were not simply passive recipients of instructions. Some of them were making their own judgments about the objective situation. Soon after the 6th Congress, news came from Moscow that reinforced the expectation of a new revolutionary outbreak. On February 8, 1929, the Executive Committee of the Comintern wrote to the Central Committee of the Chinese Party. The letter argued that the basic contradictions in China were not being resolved by the bourgeoisie or the Kuomintang. Instead, those contradictions were becoming more intense. The ECCI said this would ripen a broader and deeper revolutionary crisis. It insisted that the party prepare itself and the masses, especially the proletarian masses, for the coming fight. The letter urged the party to strengthen its own ranks. It also called for deeper influence over the industrial proletariat. It wanted the organized proletariat to reinforce peasant struggle. Without that work, the party would not be able to use the coming revolutionary situation effectively. The episode also highlights a second message in the letter. The party's greatest weakness, the ECCI said, was that it had not adapted to changing conditions. It had grown up in a period of revolutionary mass offensive and legal work. It was not ready for underground work under conditions of severe terror. The blows of the counter-revolution had disorganized it badly. That disorganization still had not been overcome. The episode uses that diagnosis to show why the Comintern thought the party needed sharpening. It also points out that the party's earlier political style no longer fit the moment. The story is not just about pressure from Moscow. It is also about a revolutionary organization trying to read a dangerous present through a hopeful future. The episode closes by noting that later discussion often overstates the pressure campaign and understates the enthusiasm. The Chinese Communist leadership, in many cases, warmly received Moscow's claim that the situation in China was favorable for revolution. The episode treats that welcome as historically important, not incidental.

As heard by us

A clear look at how Comintern optimism met CCP weakness in 1929.

It presents the 1929 war as part of Comintern thinking about a renewed revolutionary opening, carrying the line from Bukharin's earlier thesis to the ECCI's February 8, 1929 letter to the Chinese Communist Party.

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Want the 1929 Sino-Soviet War explained through one crucial turn in Chinese Communist politics?

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