The Prospects of the Revolution in China

Stalin’s speech at the meeting of the Chinese Committee of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on November 30, 1926. It was first published in the 13th issue of the journal of Communist International on December 10, 1926 (71). The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 8 of the Complete Works of Stalin.

In 1926, China’s revolutionary situation developed rapidly, and the struggle against imperialism and feudal warlords was progressed successfully, but at the same time, within the United Front, the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party for the leadership of the Chinese revolution became increasingly acute. The development of the situation had put forward a series of major questions to be discussed and resolved before the Communist Party of China and the Comintern. Therefore, the Communist International held its 7th Enlarged Plenary Session between November 22-December 16 of 1926, to study the questions of the Chinese revolution, and at the meeting, Stalin delivered a speech at the meeting of the China Commission of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in response to the draft theses on China put forward by Petrov and Mif (Pavel) respectively, and the two reports delivered by Tan Pingshan and the observations Rafes on the Chinese question.

On the nature of the Chinese revolution, Stalin pointed out that the Chinese revolution is not a copy or repetition of the Russian Revolution of 1905, in addition to the general characteristics of the 1905 Revolution, the Chinese revolution has its own unique characteristics.

First, the Chinese revolution is a bourgeois-democratic revolution, and it is at the same time a revolution of national liberation spearheaded against the yoke of foreign imperialism in China. Second, the national bourgeoisie in China is extremely weak and unable to lead the revolution. Third, the Soviet Union played a positive role in facilitating the struggle of the Chinese proletariat against imperialism and against medieval and feudal survivals in China.

On the issue of imperialism and imperialist interference in China, Stalin pointed out that imperialist interference is by no means confined to “the incursion of foreign troops into China”, and in the conditions prevailing today, imperialism prefers to intervene in a dependent country by organizing civil war there, by financing counter-revolutionary forces against the revolution, by giving moral and financial support to its Chinese agents against the revolution. Its basic characteristic is an intervention through the hands of others. In China, it shows that the imperialists of all countries have given China counter revolutionary assistance.

On the issue of China’s revolutionary army in China, Stalin pointed out that the outline underestimated the importance of the northward advance of the national revolutionary army, and the northward advance of the Cantonese was not a struggle for supremacy of some generals against others, but the beginning of the Chinese revolution. First, the revolutionary armies in China are a most important factor in the struggle of the Chinese workers and peasants for their liberation. Second, one of the main characteristics and advantages of the Chinese revolution is that “the armed revolution is fighting the armed counter-revolution”. Finally, the Communists in China must devote special attention to work in the army ranks. First, the Communists in China must in every way intensify political work in the army, and ensure that the army becomes a real and exemplary vehicle of the ideas of the Chinese revolution. Second, the Chinese revolutionaries, including the Communists, must undertake a thorough study of the art of war, in order gradually to come to the fore and occupy various leading posts in the revolutionary army, and that is the guarantee that the revolutionary army in China will advance along the right road, straight to its goal.

On the character of the future government of China, Stalin refuted Mif’s view that the future revolutionary government in China will be a government of the revolutionary petty bourgeoisie, under the leadership of the proletariat, and pointed out that there are fundamental differences between China’s future revolutionary regime and that of the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik government because the Socialist-Revolutionary-Menshevik government was an imperialist government, while the future revolutionary government in China cannot but be an anti-imperialist government. The future revolutionary government in China will in general resemble in character the government we used to talk about in Russia in1905, that is, something in the nature of a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry, and it will be first and foremost an anti-imperialist government and a government transitional to a socialist development of China.

On the peasant question in China, Stalin answered three questions of “when to form peasant Soviets in the Chinese countryside”, “whether to launch a revolution in the countryside” and “how to arouse peasants to participate in the revolution”. Firstly, Stalin opposed the “forming peasant Soviets in China’s rural areas immediately”. He believes that the peasant Soviets “could only be organized if China were at the peak period of a peasant movement which was smashing the old order of things and building a new power, on the calculation that the industrial centers of China had already burst the dam and had entered the phase of establishing the power of the Soviets.” Secondly, the question of whether rural revolution should be launched. Stalin thought that we should satisfy the most urgent demands of the peasants, so the more quickly and thoroughly the Chinese peasantry is drawn into the revolution, the stronger and more powerful the anti-imperialist front in China will be. Third, there are three ways to rouse the vast peasant masses of China to revolution: Firstly, the formation of peasant committees and by the Chinese revolutionaries entering these committees in order to influence the peasantry. Secondly, by influencing the peasantry through the apparatus of the new people’s revolutionary government. Thirdly, by influencing the peasantry through the revolutionary army.

On the issue of the proletariat and the hegemony of the proletariat in China, Stalin pointed out that the Chinese Communists should orientate themselves first and foremost on the proletariat, to take advantage of the present favorable situation to assist the workers to improve their material conditions and legal status, in order to heighten the sense of power and dignity among the Chinese proletarians, and to make them capable of leading the revolutionary movement.

On the question of the youth in China, Stalin pointed out that the question of the youth is of the utmost importance in China, and the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese revolutionaries should take the given circumstance fully into account and intensify their work among the youth to the utmost.

At the end of the article, Stalin mentions certain conclusions with regard to the struggle against imperialism in China, and to the peasant question: First, the Chinese Communist Party cannot now confine itself to demanding the abolition of the unequal treaties; second, it is necessary to consider the nationalization of the railways; third, it is necessary to have in mind the nationalizing the most important mills and factories; fourth, it has to be worked for the confiscation of the landlords’ land for the benefit of the peasants.

This article is basically correct in discussing the character of the revolution in China, the character of the future government in China, the hegemony of the proletariat, the peasant question the agrarian-peasant revolution, especially the famous argument that “in China, the armed revolution is fighting the armed counter-revolution”, which has an important enlightening effect on the CPC’s choice of the way to seize power by revolutionary armed forces.