The Erroneous Line of Right Opportunism of Chen Duxiu

In the later period of the first Civil Revolutionary War, Chen Duxiu, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, was the representative of the right opportunism in the CPC. At that time, Chen Duxiu abandoned his leadership over the peasant masses, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie, especially the armed forces, advocated unity with all sections, denied revolutionary struggle, and adopted a policy of compromise and surrender to the conspiracy activities of the right-wing KMT against the CPC and the people, thus becoming a big landlord and a big bourgeoisie, and as a result, when the KMT Rightists, such as Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei, the representatives of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie, gathered together, betrayed the revolution and attacked the people suddenly, the Communist Party of China and the revolutionary people could not organize effective resistance, which led to the failure of the first Civil Revolutionary War. The main source of Chen Duxiu's Right Opportunism lied in his wrong analysis of the situation of different classes in Chinese society.

In 1923, Chen Duxiu published such articles as “Bourgeois Revolution and Revolutionary Bourgeoisie”, “Chinese National Revolution and Social Classes”, and he advocated that “it is difficult for peasants to concentrate their scattered forces, their low cultural desire to live is simple and conservative, and their vast land is easy to migrate, so it is generally difficult for them to join the revolution.” The proletariat, on the other hand, “because the colonial and semi-colonial industries are not yet developed, even the bourgeoisie is very naive, and the working class is even more naive objectively”, so “the working class is certainly an important element in the national revolution”, but “it is not an independent revolutionary force.” Although the bourgeoisie was “naive as a whole” with workers and peasants, its strength was more concentrated than that of peasants and stronger than that of workers. He said that “if the national movement despises the bourgeoisie, it is a big mistake,” and “it loses the class meaning and social foundation.”

Based on the above analysis, Chen Duxiu came to such a wrong conclusion about the Chinese Revolution: “The bourgeoisie who commands the revolution, the proletariat who unites the revolution, and realizes the bourgeoisie's democratic revolution”, and as a result, “naturally, the bourgeoisie holds power”, and the future of the revolution could only be capitalist. As for the socialist revolution, it could only be carried out after capitalism had fully developed and the ranks of the proletariat had grown. Under the domination of this theoretical viewpoint, Chen Duxiu adopted the policy of compromise and surrender one after another in the face of the attacks by the right-wing KMT.

In 1926, he compromised in the Zhongshan Warship Incident and the reorganization of the Party's affairs, in 1927, he met the requirements of the KMT's rightists against the peasant movement, obstructed and suppressed the peasant movement, and opposed the armed workers and peasants; in June 1927, he also passed the so-called resolution on the cooperation between the KMT and the Communist Party, which stipulated that the workers and peasants and other mass organizations were under the leadership and supervision of the KMT, and subjected the armed forces of workers and peasants should have been to the management and training of the government, so that when Wang Jingwei betrayed the revolution after Chiang Kai-shek, the Communists of China could not organize effective resistance.

Chen Duxiu's Right Opportunism was the subjective reason for the failure of the first Civil Revolutionary War. In the same year, the August 7th Meeting of the Central Committee of the CPC summed up the experience and lessons of the failure of the First Civil Revolutionary War and ended the rule of this mistake in the Central Committee of the CPC.