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Historical Research and Documentary Material on the First Revolutionary Civil War

1991; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 24; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2753/csh0009-4633240315

1558-0407

Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

Abstract Before the Cultural Revolution, discussions focused on the causes of Chen Duxiu's Right-opportunism. One view maintained that Chen's fundamental mistake lay in his renunciation of proletarian leadership. In other words, he failed to understand that the proletariat should provide leadership even when engaged in a bourgeois democratic revolution. By relinquishing proletarian leadership, Chen was actually giving up leadership over the peasantry. This view also maintained that the theoretical and ideological basis for Chen Duxiu's mistakes was the "theory of the second revolution," and that this amounted to the same as giving up leadership. Another view held that Chen Duxiu's opportunist mistakes were rooted in his wrong analysis of the peasantry, for he believed that "the peasants have many shortcomings and it is hard for them to join the revolution." A third view was that Chen Duxiu's fundamental mistake lay in his forsaking proletarian leadership, not in his belief in the "theory of the second revolution." Such a theory was merely the theoretical and ideological basis of his mistakes. The two must not be confused because the basic question of revolution is one of leadership (Wen Hui Daily [Wenhui bao], July 21, 1961). With regard to the cause of Chen Duxiu's Right-opportunist mistakes, some people believed it was because he lacked a correct understanding of the peasantry, while others thought he had a wrong understanding of the working class and some held the opinion that it should be attributed to his bourgeois world outlook (Teaching and Research [Jiaoxue yu yanjiu], March 1964). Because of the leftist ideological trend, there was very little study conducted in this field prior to the Cultural Revolution and any debates on such questions were rarely reported in the press.