Abstract
The Seventh Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI), which was held between November 22 and December 16, 1926, principally to consider the Chinese question, met at a crucial period in the history of the Chinese Communist movement. During the previous summer, Chiang Kai-shek had launched his famous Northern Expedition against northern militarists and the legal government in Peking. His Communist allies had participated by arousing peasant discontent behind enemy lines and by infiltration of northern armies. It was now feared that the Communists might soon become the victims of their own success. Chiang had already given evidence of his displeasure of Communist activities. In March he had staged a “coup” against his Russian advisers and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but a reconciliation had been effected. In October Stalin had telegraphed instructions to the CCP directing them to restrain the peasant movement in order to avoid antagonizing the officer corps of the Kuomintang army, which was largely recruited from the landholding class.
1
Trotsky
L. D.
,
The Stalin School of Falsification
(
New York
:
Pioneer Publishers
,
1937
), pp.
165
and
173
. See also
Stalin
J.
,
Marxism and the National and Colonial Question: A Collection of Articles and Speeches
(
4th ed.;
London
:
Lawrence and Wishart
,
1947
), p.
237
.
2“Theses on the Situation in China by the Seventh Extraordinary Plenum of the Executive Committee of The Communist International, November 22–December 16, 1926,” in
North
Robert C.
and
Eudin
Xenia J.
,
M. N. Roy's Mission to China: The Communist-Kuomintang Split of
1927
(
Berkeley
:
Univ. of California Press
,
1963
), p.
132
. All of the documents hereafter cited from this book, except the present one, where translated from
Kitaiskaia revoliutsiia i Kommunisticheskii lnternatsional. Copies of the latter book, published in Moscow in 1929, were only recently discovered in the library of the University of California at Berkeley and the Hoover Library at Stanford University. Although the first section of this paper uses this source, the author assumes sole responsibility for the interpretations placed thereon. As North and Eudin have pointed out, they did not attempt in their introductory chapters (pp. 12–128) to present a complete analysis of the translated documents (pp. 131–376), which contain a wealth of hitherto unavailable material relevant to the study of Communist revolutionary strategy in underdeveloped areas (sec North and Eudin, pp. 4–5).
5
Stalin
, “The Revolution in China and the Tasks of the Comintern: Speech Delivered at the Tenth Sitting, Eighth Plenum of the ECCI, May 24, 1927,”
Works
, II, (
Moscow
:
Foreign Languages Publishing House
,
1952
), pp.
291
–
292
.
6“Theses on the situation in China,” p. 141.
8“Election of the Presidium and the Secretariat of the ECCI,” (Dec. 20, 1926) International Press Correspondence (Inprecor), VI, 93 (1926), 1646.
9“Seventh Meeting of the Enlarged ECCI,” ibid., VI, 83 (1926), 1432. See also
Roy
, “
Discussion of the Report on the Situation in China
,”
Inprecor
,
VI
,
91
(
1926
),
1603
–
1604
.
10North estimates that Roy must have arrived in China in early Feb., 1927. See North and Eudin, P. 45.
11
Wilbur
C. Martin
and
How
Julie Lien-ying
(eds.),
Documents on Communism: Nationalism and Soviet Advisers in China, 1918–1927
.
Papers Seised in the 1927 Peking Raid (
New York
:
Columbia Univ. Press
,
1956
), p.
381
. The left Kuomintang was organized in Dec, 1926.
12“
Resolution on the Chinese Question
,” (VIII Plenum of the ECCI, May 18–30, 1927),
Inprecor
,
VII
,
35
(
1927
),
737
–
741
.
14“
The Questions of the Chinese Revolution: Theses of Comrade Stalin for Propagandists, Approved by the CC of the CPSU
,”
Inprecor
,
VII
,
27
(
1927
),
543
–
545
.
15
Bucharin
N.
, “
The Results of the Plenary Session of the ECCI
,”
Inprecor
,
39
(
1927
),
879
–
884
.
16
Roy
,
My Experiences in China
(
Calcutta
:
Renaissance Publishers
,
1945
), pp.
40
–
41
. It is a littleknown fact that this book first appeared in India in the early 1930's under the title
China in Revolt under the pseudonym of S. K. Vidyarthi. It was published in Bombay by the Vanguard Publishing Co.
17Borodin had been in favor of supporting the Nordiern Expedition not only to avoid a split with the Wuhan Government but also because he supported the view that the revolution could not be defended in the relatively industralized South, where imperialists and Chinese bourgeois forces were strong. He felt that a new center of Communist activity should be established in the northwest provinces. (See North and Eudin, p. 76). It is interesting to note that the Fifth Comintern Congress rejected this “inadmissible … tendency to abandon … the existing base under the pretext of expansion” on the grounds that this relatively well-developed area should not be left to the bourgeoisie. (See “Theses on the Political Situation and the Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party,” translated in North and Eudin, p. 248.)
18Roy, My Experiences in China, pp. 30–33.
19“Resolution on the Continuation of the Northern Campaign: Adopted by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Hankow, April 16, 1927,” as translated in North and Eudin, pp. 176–177.
20Note by Roy appended to the “Resolution on the Continuation of the Northern Campaign,” p. 177.
21“Theses on the Political Situation and the Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party” (Adopted by the Fifth Congress of the CCP, May 9, 1927). as translated in North and Eudin, pp. 243–253.
22The coup d'état occurred on May 21, 1927.
23Roy, My Experiences in China, p. 45.
24Ibid., p. 53. For a translation of the telegram, see North and Eudin, pp. 106–107.
25For Borodin's reaction, see
Brandt
Conrad
,
Stalin's Failure in China 1924–1927
(
Cambridge, Mass.
:
Harvard Univ. Press
,
1958
), p.
135
. For Roy's reaction see Roy,
loc. cit. 26For a discussion of the genesis of the Comintern's attitude toward nationalist movements, see
Haithcox
John P.
, “
The Roy-Lenin Debate on Colonial Policy: A New Interpretation
,”
The Journal of Asian Studies
,
XXIII
,
1
(
1963
),
93
–
101
.
27
Roy
,
Our Task, in India
(
Calcutta
:
Committee for Action for Independence of India
,
1932
), p.
22
.
28Roy, My Experiences in China, p. 49.
29North and Eudin, p. 107.
30For an account of this incident, see
Leang-li
T'ang
,
The Inner History of the Chinese Revolution
(
London
:
G. Routledge & Sons, Ltd.
,
1930
), p.
280
, and also
North
Robert C.
,
Moscow and the Chinese Communists
(
Stanford
:
Stanford Univ. Press
,
1953
), pp.
107
–
108
.
31Roy, My Experiences in China, pp. 49–53.
32North and Eudin, p. 122.
33Ibid., pp. 125–126. Gene D. Overstreet and
Windmiller
Marshall
,
Communism in India
(
Bombay
:
The Perennial Press
,
1960
), p.
98
, report that Roy left China on Aug. 8 and remained in Moscow until Oct. 3, 1927, when he left for Berlin.
34The interests of anti-imperialism and local class-struggle are often dealt with as though belonging exclusively to the sphere of Soviet foreign policy and the Communist International respectively. Such a bifurcation, which obfuscates their interrelationship and suggests a permanent opposition, is highly misleading.
35The nationalist character of the demand of the Malayalam-speaking people for a separate linguistic state of Kerala and the rise to power of the Kerala Communists as champions of this demand is revealed in
Namboodripad
E. M. S.
,
The National Question in Kerala
(
Bombay
:
People's Publishing House
,
1952
), pp.
154
–
156
and
Gopalan
A. K.
,
Kerala—Past and Present
(
London
:
Lawrence and Wishart
,
1959
), pp.
75
–
78
. See also
Harrison
Selig
,
India: The Most Dangerous Decades
(
Princeton
:
Princeton Univ. Press
,
1960
). pp.
193
–
199
.
36
Johnson
Chalmers A.
,
Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power: The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1937–1945
(
Stanford
:
Stanford Univ. Press
,
1962
), p.
13
, maintains that the success of the CCP is not attributable to its post-1935 United Front with the Kuomintang; for (a) the front virtually ceased to exist after the New Fourth Army incident of Jan., 1941 and (b) Communists expanded into Japaneseoccupied territories and not into areas where the facade of United Front was still being maintained, such as in Hankow. “Peasant nationalism” as developed in China in the 1930's and 1940's represented a policy which successfully united these two mutually reinforcing and potentially revolutionary forces. As Johnson has acknowledged (p. 195, n. 9), the concept of “peasant nationalism” was first used by
Taylor
George E.
in
The Struggle for North China
(
New York
:
International Secretariat
, Institute of Pacific Relations,
1940
), pp.
41
–
42
.
37For the distinction between mass nationalism and other forms of nationalism, see
Carr
E. H.
,
Nationalism and After
(
London
:
Macmillan & Co.
,
1945
)
and Chalmers Johnson (n. 36), pp. 6 and 20. Mass nationalism is a peculiarly twentieth-century phenomenon.
38Johnson, p. 5, argues that nationalist sentiment did not arise among the peasantry until the Japanese occupation of 1937.
39See Haithcox, loc. cit. pp. 94–95.
40
Lenin
Vladimir I.
, “The Report on the National and Colonial Questions at the Second Congress of the Communist International,”
Selected Worlds
,
X
(
New York
:
International Publishers
,
1938
),
240
–
241
.
41Roy, My Experiences in China, p. 18. This tendency was no doubt augmented by the Stalin-Trotsky feud. Stalin was forced to stand by his policy at all costs in the face of Trotsky's opposition to the alliance.
43Letter from Roy to Dange, Nov., 1922, quoted in Government of India, Home Department, Communism in India, 1924–27 (Calcutta; Government of India Printing Press, 1927), pp. 19–20. This report was prepared by D. Petrie, Director of the Intelligence Bureau.
44“Debate on the National Question-Roy,” (20th Session, July 1, 1924), Inprecor, IV, 50(1924), 518–519. See also Roy, “The Labour Government in Action,” Inprecor, IV. 24(1924), 226.
45Roy, The Future of Indian Politics (London: R. Bishop, 1926).
46Letter from Roy to J. P. Bergerhotta, Feb., 1926, quoted in Government of India, Home Department, p. 54.
47
Roy
, “
Elections in India
,”
Inprecor
,
VI
,
84
(
1926
),
84
–
85
.
48Government of India, Home Department, p. 154.
49Roy, “Assembly Letter,” a letter to Indian communists dated Dec. 30, 1927, intercepted and read into the record of the Indian Legislative Assembly. Meerut Sessions Judgement, pp. 186–189, cited in Overstreet and Windmiller, pp. 104–106.
50
Tagore
Saumyendranath
,
Historical Development of the Communist Movement in India
(
Calcutta
:
Red Front Press
,
1944
), p.
7
.
51Government of India, Home Department, p. 61.
52Meerut, District Court,
Judgement Delivered by R. L. Yorke, Additional Sessions Judge, Meerut. on 16th January, 1933 in the Meerut Conspiracy Case
(
Simla
:
Government of India Press
,
1932
–33), I,
229
.
53
Roy
, “
Imperialism and Indian Nationalism
,”
Inprecor
,
VIII
,
1
(
1928
),
1
–
3
.
54Government of India, Home Department, pp. 47–48.
55
Hunt
R. N. Carew
, “
Willi Muenzenberg
,”.
St. Antony's Papers Number
IX
, pp.
72
–
87
.
56Government of India, Home Department, loc. cit.
57Indian Quarterly Register, I (1927), 207, quoted in
Brecher
Michael
,
Nehru: A Political Biography
(
London
:
Oxford Univ. Press
,
1959
), p.
III
.
58
Nehru
Jawaharlal
,
Soviet Russia
(
Bombay
:
Chetana
,
1929
), p.
6
.
60
Nehru
,
Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru
(
2nd ed.;
Boston
:
Beacon Press
,
1958
). p.
129
.
62
Tendulkar
D. G.
,
Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
(
Bombay
: By the author and V. K. Jhaveri,
1951
–54), II,
402
.
63Nehru, Toward Freedom, pp. 129–130.
64
Menon
V. P.
,
The Transfer of Power in India
(
Princeton
:
Princeton Univ. Press
,
1957
), pp.
35
–
37
.
66In defense of his policy, Stalin argued that the former petty-bourgeois leaders had been discredited in the eyes of the masses. “Is it not clear that only a correct policy can lead to such results?” he argued. “Did anyone ever say that the revolutionary bloc with the Wuhan Government was to last forever? Are there such things as eternal blocs?” (See Inprecor, VII, 45 [1927], 999–1006).
67
Borkenau
Franz
,
World Communism: A History of the Communist International
(
Ann Arbor
:
Univ. of Mich. Press
,
1962
), pp.
279
–83
. (First published in London, 1938, under the title
The Communist International). The work cited is a first edition Ann Arbor Paperback. An alliance was formed in 1924 between the British TUC and the Russian trade-union movement. Following the failure of the general strike in England in 1926, the TUC was eager to disassociate itself from the discredited Communists and in June, 1927, following the rupture of diplomatic relations between England and Russia over China, withdrew from the committee.
68The first meeting of the League occurred on Nov. 3, 1928. See
Mitra
Nripendra Nath
(ed.),
Indian Annual Register, 1928
(
Calcutta
:
The Annual Register Office
,
1929
), II, 6 and
513
.
69“Draft Programme of the Communist International,” (adopted by the Programme Commission of the ECCI, May 25, 1928),
Inprecor
,
VIII
,
30
(
1928
),
540
–
559
. See also
The Communist International Between the Fifth and The Sixth World Congresses
(
London
:
Communist Party of Great Britain
,
1928
), pp.
468
–
469
.
70
Kuusinen
Otto V.
, “
The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies
,”
Inprecor
,
VIII
,
68
(
1928
),
1230
–31
. The son of a Finnish tailor, Kuusinen, at the time of his death on May 17, 1964, at the age of 82, shared with Premier Khrushchev, Mikhail A. Suslov, and Fred R. Kozlov the honor of membership on both the Secretariat and the Presidium of the CPSU. His daughter, Herta, is today a leading figure in the Finnish Communist party (
New York Times, May 18, 1964, p.2).
71“
Theses on the Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies and Semi-Colonies
,” (adopted by the VI World Congress),
Inprecor
,
VIII
,
88
(
1928
),
1665
–70.
73Letter from ECCI dated Dec. 2, 1928, Meerut Case Evidence, Exhibit No. P. 334, cited in Overstreet and Windmiller, pp. 128–129.
74
Roy
, “
The Indian National Congress
,”
Inprecor
,
VIII
,
91
(
1928
),
1732
–33
. Earlier, in August of the same year, Roy had predicted that the “petty-bourgeoisie radical nationalists” would break away from bourgeois leadership (See
Roy
, “
The Indian Constitution
,”
Inprecor
,
VIII
,
54
[
1928
],
954
–
955
)
.
76
Lozovsky
, “
Continuation of the Discussion on the Reports of Comrads Kuusinen and Manuilsky
,”
Inprecor
,
IX
,
48
(
1929
),
1037
–39.
77“
Open Letter of the Y.C.I. to the All-Indian Youth Congress and to All Young Workers and Peasants of India
,”
Inprecor
,
X
,
1
(
1930
),
25
.
78
Roy
,
Our Differences
(
Calcutta
:
Saraswaty Library
,
1938
), p.
38
.
79Roy's manifesto to the CPI, July, 1930, quoted in A. K. Hindi [Tayab Shaikh], M. N. Roy—The Man Who Looked Ahead (Allahabad: The Modern Publishing House, 1938), p. 233.
80Roy, My Defence (Pondicherry: Committee for Indian Independence, 1932), pp. 113–114. This is a statement Roy prepared in his own defense at his trial at Cawnpore, India, Nov. 3, 1931, to Jan. 9, 1932.
81
Basak
V.
, “
The Situation in India
,”
Inprecor
,
XIII
,
41
(
1933
),
896
–
897
.
82
Ming
Wang
, “The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonial Countries,”
Communist International, Seventh Congress Moscow, 1935
(
New York
:
Workers Library Publishers
,
1935
), pp.
40
–
41
.
83“Resolutions, Seventh Congress of the Communist International,” Communist International Seventh Congress, 1935, p. 35.
85
Hoffer
Eric
,
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
(
New York
:
Harper and Row
,
1951
), p.
4
.
87
Talmon
J. L.
,
The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy
(
London
:
Seeker and Warburg
,
1952
), pp.
1
–
3
. Talmon distinguishes between two schools of political thought in reference to their attitude toward politics. These are the liberal, empirical attitude which presupposes politics to be “a matter of trial and error, and regards political systems as pragmatic contrivances of human ingenuity and spontaneity” and the totalitarian, absolutist attitude which posits the existence of “a sole and exclusive truth in politics.”
Wolin
Sheldon S.
in
Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought
(
Boston
:
Little, Brown & Co.
,
1960
), p.
293
, makes a similar distinction.
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