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178-459: Virtually all members of the nomenklatura were members of a communist party. Critics of Stalin , such as Milovan Đilas , critically defined them as a " new class ". Richard Pipes , a Harvard historian, claimed that the nomenklatura system mainly reflected a continuation of the old Tsarist regime , as many former Tsarist officials or " careerists " joined the Bolshevik government during and after

356-614: A Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic . The Georgian Communist Party opposed the idea, resulting in the Georgian affair . In mid-1921, Stalin returned to the South Caucasus , calling on Georgian communists to reject the chauvinistic nationalism which he argued had marginalised the Abkhazian , Ossetian , and Adjarian minorities. In March 1921, Nadezhda gave birth to another of Stalin's sons, Vasily . After

534-507: A wide range of serious social problems . To address these, Hu introduced two main ideological concepts: the " Scientific Outlook on Development " and " Harmonious Society ". Hu resigned from his post as CCP general secretary and Chairman of the CMC at the 18th National Congress held in 2012, and was succeeded in both posts by Xi Jinping. Since taking power, Xi has initiated a wide-reaching anti-corruption campaign , while centralizing powers in

712-710: A "danger from the right", including from within the Communist Party. The first major show trial in the USSR was the Shakhty Trial of 1928, in which middle-class "industrial specialists" were convicted of sabotage. From 1929 to 1930, show trials were held to intimidate opposition; these included the Industrial Party Trial , Menshevik Trial , and Metro-Vickers Trial . Aware that the ethnic Russian majority may have concerns about being ruled by

890-405: A Georgian, he promoted ethnic Russians throughout the state bureaucracy and made Russian compulsory in schools, albeit in tandem with local languages. Nationalist sentiment was suppressed. Conservative social policies were promoted to boost population growth; this included a focus on strong family units, re-criminalisation of homosexuality , restrictions on abortion and divorce, and abolition of

1068-646: A Georgian, would help secure support from the empire's minority ethnicities. In February 1912, Stalin again escaped to Saint Petersburg, where he was tasked with converting the Bolshevik weekly newspaper, Zvezda ("Star") into a daily, Pravda ("Truth"). The new newspaper was launched in April 1912 and Stalin's role as editor was kept secret. In May 1912, he was again arrested and sentenced to three years of exile in Siberia. In July, he arrived in Narym , where he shared

1246-536: A campaign of " de-Stalinisation ". Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Stalin was the subject of a pervasive personality cult within the international Marxist–Leninist movement, which revered him as a champion of socialism and the working class. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Stalin has retained a degree of popularity in post-Soviet states as an economic moderniser and victorious wartime leader who cemented

1424-612: A centralised command economy . Resulting disruptions to food production contributed to a famine in 1932–1933 which killed millions, including in the Holodomor in Ukraine. Between 1936 and 1938, Stalin eradicated his political opponents and those deemed " enemies of the working class " in the Great Purge , after which he had absolute control of the party and government. Under his regime, an estimated 18 million people passed through

1602-566: A city controlled by communist militias. Although the communists welcomed Chiang's arrival, he turned on them, massacring 5,000 with the aid of the Green Gang . Chiang's army then marched on Wuhan but was prevented from taking the city by CCP General Ye Ting and his troops. Chiang's allies also attacked communists; for example, in Beijing, Li Dazhao and 19 other leading communists were executed by Zhang Zuolin . Angered by these events,

1780-513: A daughter, Svetlana , in February 1926. In the wake of Lenin's death, a power struggle emerged to become his successor: alongside Stalin was Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin , Alexei Rykov , and Mikhail Tomsky . Stalin saw Trotsky—whom he personally despised —as the main obstacle to his dominance, and during Lenin's illness had formed an unofficial triumvirate ( troika ) with Kamanev and Zinoviev against him. Although Zinoviev

1958-541: A family friend, where he excelled academically. He faced health problems: an 1884 smallpox infection left him with facial scars, and at age 12 he was seriously injured when he was struck by a phaeton , causing a lifelong disability in his left arm. In 1894, Stalin enrolled as a trainee Russian Orthodox priest at the Tiflis Theological Seminary , enabled by a scholarship. He initially achieved high grades, but lost interest in his studies and

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2136-478: A group dinner in the Kremlin in which Stalin flirted with other women, Nadezhda shot herself in the heart. Publicly, the cause of death was given as appendicitis ; Stalin also concealed the real cause of death from his children. Stalin's friends noted that he underwent a significant change following her suicide, becoming emotionally harder. Within the Soviet Union, civic disgruntlement against Stalin's government

2314-708: A letter penned to the Human Rights Council supporting the policies as an effort to combat terrorism in the region. Celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the CCP's founding , one of the Two Centenaries , took place on 1 July 2021. In the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee in November 2021, CCP adopted a resolution on the Party's history , which for the first time credited Xi as being

2492-621: A limited counteroffensive by the CCP. The objective was clearing "Central China, strengthening North China, and recovering Northeast China." This operation, coupled with military desertions from the KMT, resulted in the KMT losing 2 million of its 3 million troops by the spring of 1948, and saw a significant decline in support for KMT rule. The CCP was consequently able to cut off KMT garrisons in Manchuria and retake several territories. The last stage, lasting from September 1948 to December 1949, saw

2670-533: A massive stroke left Lenin partially paralysed. Residing at his Gorki dacha , his main connection to Sovnarkom was through Stalin. Despite their comradeship, Lenin disliked what he referred to as Stalin's "Asiatic" manner and told his sister Maria that Stalin was "not intelligent". The two men argued on the issue of foreign trade; Lenin believed that the Soviet state should have a monopoly on foreign trade, but Stalin supported Grigori Sokolnikov 's view that doing so

2848-772: A medical examiner ruled Stalin unfit for service due to his crippled arm. Stalin was required to serve four more months of his exile and successfully requested to serve it in Achinsk . Stalin was in the city when the February Revolution took place; the Tsar abdicated and the Empire became a de facto republic. In a celebratory mood, Stalin travelled by train to Petrograd (as Saint Petersburg had been renamed) in March. He assumed control of Pravda alongside Lev Kamenev , and

3026-774: A member of the Central Committee and as an editor of Pravda . On 26 October 1917, Lenin declared himself chairman of the new government, the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom). Stalin supported Lenin's decision not to form a coalition with the Socialist Revolutionary Party , although a coalition was formed with the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries . Stalin became part of an informal leadership group alongside Lenin, Trotsky, and Sverdlov, and his importance within

3204-463: A miracle. Western capitalism has suffered reversals, a financial crisis, a credit crisis, a crisis of confidence, and their self-conviction has wavered. Western countries have begun to reflect, and openly or secretively compare themselves against China's politics, economy and path." — Xi Jinping , on the inevitability of socialism The CCP views the world as organized into two opposing camps; socialist and capitalist. They insist that socialism, on

3382-433: A plan was presented to decentralize the control that personnel management had. The authorities suggested to half the number of cadres from 13,000 to 7,000. The Central Committee , who previously had control over the majority of posts, was drastically reduced in its areas of management. It had previously controlled all high-level appointments and ensured party control over critical positions in government. The aim of this reform

3560-507: A policy of economic liberalization . The official explanation for these reforms was that China was still in the primary stage of socialism , a developmental stage similar to the capitalist mode of production . Since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the CCP has focused on maintaining its relations with the ruling parties of the remaining socialist states and continues to participate in

3738-525: A room with fellow Bolshevik Yakov Sverdlov . After two months, they escaped to Saint Petersburg, where Stalin continued work on Pravda . After the October 1912 Duma elections , Stalin wrote articles calling for reconciliation between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks; Lenin criticised him and he relented. In January 1913, Stalin travelled to Vienna , where he researched the "national question" of how

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3916-531: A series of five-year plans , and eventually split with the Soviet Union . Although Mao attempted to purge the party of capitalist and reactionary elements during the Cultural Revolution , after his death, these policies were only briefly continued by the Gang of Four before a less radical faction seized control. During the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping directed the CCP away from Maoist orthodoxy and towards

4094-456: Is Xi Jinping , who was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee held on 15 November 2012 and has been reelected twice, on 25 October 2017 by the 19th Central Committee and on 10 October 2022 by the 20th Central Committee . The October Revolution and Marxist theory inspired the founding of the CCP. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao were among the first to publicly support Leninism and world revolution . Both regarded

4272-422: Is a "key instrument of Communist Party control." For China, it is not just the party that nomenklatura has control over but "the government, judicial system, schools, and universities, enterprises, research establishments, religious organizations, museums, libraries, hospitals" are all things that fall under the domain as well. Despite there being "elected" officials, " all positions of real importance full under

4450-409: Is a largely separate group of professionalized military officers, serving under top CCP leadership largely through formal relationships within institutional channels. The CCP ratified Jiang's Three Represents concept for the 2003 revision of the party's constitution, as a "guiding ideology" to encourage the party to represent "advanced productive forces, the progressive course of China's culture, and

4628-415: Is considerable optimism within the CCP that despite the current capitalist dominance of globalization, globalization can be turned into a vehicle supporting socialism. While foreign analysts generally agree that the CCP has rejected orthodox Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (or at least basic thoughts within orthodox thinking), the CCP itself disagrees. Critics of the CCP argue that Jiang Zemin ended

4806-466: Is identified with a distinct extension of the ideology of the party. Historians have studied various periods in the development of the government of the People's Republic of China by reference to these "generations". Marxism–Leninism was the first official ideology of the CCP. According to the CCP, "Marxism–Leninism reveals the universal laws governing the development of history of human society ." To

4984-415: Is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity". Jiang Zemin supported Deng's thinking, and stated in a party gathering that it did not matter if a certain mechanism was capitalist or socialist, because the only thing that mattered was whether it worked. It was at this gathering that Jiang Zemin introduced

5162-580: Is the early or first stage of communism." Some have dismissed the concept of a primary stage of socialism as intellectual cynicism. For example, Robert Lawrence Kuhn , a former foreign adviser to the Chinese government, stated: "When I first heard this rationale, I thought it more comic than clever—a wry caricature of hack propagandists leaked by intellectual cynics. But the 100-year horizon comes from serious political theorists." American political scientist and sinologist David Shambaugh argues that before

5340-401: Is why we talk about a 'socialist market economy' with Chinese characteristics." The attainment of true "communism" is still described as the CCP's and China's "ultimate goal". While the CCP claims that China is in the primary stage of socialism , party theorists argue that the current development stage "looks a lot like capitalism". Alternatively, certain party theorists argue that "capitalism

5518-690: The Aurora , opened fire on the Winter Palace ; the Provisional Government's assembled delegates surrendered and were arrested. Stalin, who had been tasked with briefing the Bolshevik delegates of the Second Congress of Soviets about the situation, had not played a publicly visible role. Trotsky and other later opponents used this as evidence his role had been insignificant, although historians reject this, citing his role as

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5696-562: The Foundations of Leninism , later published in book form. At the 13th Party Congress in May 1924, Lenin's Testament was read only to the leaders of the provincial delegations. Embarrassed by its contents, Stalin offered his resignation as General Secretary; this act of humility saved him, and he was retained in the post. As General Secretary, Stalin had a free hand in making appointments to his own staff, and implanted loyalists throughout

5874-681: The Zhenotdel women's department. Stalin desired a " cultural revolution ", entailing both the creation of a culture for the "masses" and the wider dissemination of previously elite culture. He oversaw a proliferation of schools, newspapers, and libraries, as well as advancement of literacy and numeracy . Socialist realism was promoted throughout the arts, while Stalin wooed prominent writers, namely Maxim Gorky , Mikhail Sholokhov , and Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy . He expressed patronage for scientists whose research fit within his preconceived interpretation of Marxism; for instance, he endorsed

6052-472: The 11th Party Congress in March and April 1922, Lenin nominated Stalin as the party's General Secretary , which was intended as a purely organisational role. Although concerns were expressed that adopting the new position would overstretch his workload and grant him too much power, Stalin was appointed to the post. Stalin is too crude, and this defect which is entirely acceptable in our milieu and in relationships among us as communists, becomes unacceptable in

6230-511: The 16th Central Committee conceived and formulated the ideology of the Scientific Outlook on Development (SOD). It is considered to be Hu Jintao's contribution to the official ideological discourse. The SOD incorporates scientific socialism , sustainable development , social welfare , a humanistic society, increased democracy, and, ultimately, the creation of a Socialist Harmonious Society . According to official statements by

6408-519: The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre . The protests having been crushed and the reformist party general secretary Zhao Ziyang under house arrest, Deng's economic policies resumed and by the early 1990s the concept of a socialist market economy had been introduced. In 1997, Deng's beliefs (officially called " Deng Xiaoping Theory ") were embedded into the CCP's constitution . CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin succeeded Deng as paramount leader in

6586-521: The Battle of Warsaw in early August, which ended in a major defeat for the Red Army. Stalin then returned to Moscow, where Tukhachevsky blamed him for the loss. Humiliated, he demanded demission from the military, which was granted on 1 September. At the 9th Party Congress in late September, Trotsky accused Stalin of "strategic mistakes" and claimed that he had sabotaged the campaign; Lenin joined in

6764-567: The Central People's Government . From this time through the 1980s, top leaders of the CCP (such as Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping) were largely the same military leaders prior to the PRC's founding. As a result, informal personal ties between political and military leaders dominated civil-military relations. Stalin proposed a one-party constitution when Liu Shaoqi visited

6942-658: The Communist International in March 1919; Stalin attended its inaugural ceremony. Although Stalin did not share Lenin's belief that Europe's proletariat were on the verge of revolution, he acknowledged that Soviet Russia remained vulnerable. In February 1920, he was appointed to head the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate (Rabkrin); that same month he was also transferred to the Caucasian Front. The Polish–Soviet War broke out in early 1920, with

7120-690: The Communist Party of China ( CPC ), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong , the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang . In 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China . Since then, the CCP has governed China and has had sole control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Successive leaders of

7298-751: The Decree on Nationality , granting ethnic minorities the right to secession and self-determination. He travelled to Helsingfors to meet with the Finnish Social Democrats , and granted Finland's request for independence from Russia in December. Due to the threats posed by the First World War , in March 1918 the government relocated from Petrograd to the Moscow Kremlin . Stalin supported Lenin's desire to sign an armistice with

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7476-498: The Great Chinese Famine , which resulted in an estimated 15 to 45 million deaths, making it the largest famine in recorded history. During the 1960s and 1970s, the CCP experienced a significant ideological separation from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which was going through a period of " de-Stalinization " under Nikita Khrushchev . By that time, Mao had begun saying that the "continued revolution under

7654-614: The Gulag system of forced labour camps , and more than six million were deported to remote regions of the Soviet Union , which together resulted in millions of deaths. Stalin promoted Marxism–Leninism abroad through the Communist International and supported European anti-fascist movements, including in the Spanish Civil War . In 1939, his government signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany , enabling

7832-661: The International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties each year. The CCP has also established relations with several non-communist parties, including dominant nationalist parties of many developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as social democratic parties in Europe. The Chinese Communist Party is organized based on democratic centralism , a principle that entails open policy discussion on

8010-487: The Jinggang Mountains of Jiangxi . The near destruction of the CCP's urban organizational apparatus led to institutional changes within the party. The party adopted democratic centralism , a way to organize revolutionary parties, and established a politburo to function as the standing committee of the central committee. The result was increased centralization of power within the party. At every level of

8188-483: The North Caucasus , Southern Russia, and Central Asia, reaching their apex in March 1930; these were suppressed by the army. Stalin responded with an article insisting that collectivisation was voluntary and blaming violence on local officials. Although he and Stalin had been close for many years, Bukharin expressed concerns and regarded them as a return to Lenin's old " war communism " policy. By mid-1928, he

8366-786: The Okhrana , became aware of Stalin's activities and attempted to arrest him in March 1901, but he went into hiding and began living off donations from friends. He helped plan a demonstration in Tiflis on May Day 1901 at which 3,000 marchers clashed with the authorities. In November 1901, Stalin was elected to the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), a Marxist party founded in 1898. That month, Stalin travelled to Batumi . His militant rhetoric proved divisive among

8544-682: The RSDLP's Fourth Congress in Stockholm , where the party—then led by its Menshevik majority—agreed that it would not raise funds using armed robbery. Lenin and Stalin disagreed with this, and privately discussed continuing the robberies for the Bolshevik cause. Stalin married Kato Svanidze in July 1906, and in March 1907 she gave birth to their son Yakov . Stalin, who by now had established himself as "Georgia's leading Bolshevik", in June 1907 organised

8722-592: The Red Terror , arguing that state violence was an effective tool for capitalist powers. Unlike some Bolsheviks, Stalin never expressed concern about the Cheka's rapid expansion and the Red Terror. Having left his role as Pravda editor, Stalin was appointed the People's Commissar for Nationalities. He took Nadezhda Alliluyeva as his secretary, later marrying her in early 1919. In November 1917, he signed

8900-609: The Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. The nomenklatura formed a de facto elite of public powers in the former Eastern Bloc; one may compare them to the Western establishment holding or controlling both private and public powers (for example, in media, finance, trade, industry, the state and institutions). Individuals with a nomenklatura background have continued to dominate economic and political life in Russia since

9078-526: The Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 to 1952 and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1941 until his death. Initially governing as part of a collective leadership , Stalin consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s. He codified his Leninist interpretation of Marxism as Marxism–Leninism , while

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9256-812: The Soviet invasion of Poland . Germany broke the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941, leading Stalin to join the Allies of World War II . Despite huge losses, the Soviet Red Army repelled the German invasion and captured Berlin in 1945, ending the war in Europe . The Soviet Union, which had annexed the Baltic states and territories from Finland and Romania amid the war, established Soviet-aligned states in Central and Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union and

9434-437: The Stakhanovite movement were introduced. Stalin argued that socialism was being established in the USSR while capitalism was crumbling during the Great Depression . His rhetoric reflected his utopian vision of the " new Soviet person " rising to unparallelled heights of human development. In 1928, Stalin declared that class war between the proletariat and their enemies would intensify as socialism developed. He warned of

9612-441: The dictatorship of the proletariat " stipulated that class enemies continued to exist even though the socialist revolution seemed to be complete, leading to the Cultural Revolution in which millions were persecuted and killed. During the Cultural Revolution, party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping , Peng Dehuai , and He Long were purged or exiled, and the Gang of Four , led by Mao's wife Jiang Qing , emerged to fill in

9790-482: The first five-year plan was launched by Stalin with a main focus on boosting Soviet heavy industry; it was finished a year ahead of schedule, in 1932. The country underwent a massive economic transformation: new mines were opened, new cities like Magnitogorsk constructed, and work on the White Sea–Baltic Canal began. Millions of peasants moved to the cities, and large debts were accrued purchasing foreign-made machinery. Many major construction projects, including

9968-728: The robbery of a bank stagecoach in Tiflis in order to fund the Bolsheviks' activities. His gang ambushed the convoy in Erivansky Square with gunfire and home-made bombs; around 40 people were killed, but all his gang escaped. Stalin settled in Baku with his wife and son, where Mensheviks confronted him about the robbery and voted to expel him from the RSDLP, but he ignored them. Stalin secured Bolshevik domination of Baku's RSDLP branch and edited two Bolshevik newspapers. In November 1907, his wife died of typhus , and he left his son with her family in Tiflis. In Baku he reassembled his gang, which attacked Black Hundreds and raised money through racketeering, counterfeiting, robberies and kidnapping

10146-494: The totalitarian political system he established became known as Stalinism . Born into a poor Georgian family in Gori , Russian Empire , Stalin attended the Tiflis Theological Seminary before joining the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party . He raised funds for Vladimir Lenin 's Bolshevik faction through robberies, kidnappings and protection rackets , and edited the party's newspaper, Pravda . Repeatedly arrested, he underwent internal exiles to Siberia . After

10324-484: The " Practice Is the Sole Criterion for the Truth " campaign, the relationship between ideology and decision making was a deductive one, meaning that policy-making was derived from ideological knowledge. However, under Deng's leadership this relationship was turned upside down, with decision making justifying ideology. Chinese policy-makers have described the Soviet Union's state ideology as "rigid, unimaginative, ossified, and disconnected from reality", believing that this

10502-416: The " Two Whatevers " policy. The new ideology, however, was contested on both sides of the spectrum, by Maoists to the left of the CCP's leadership, as well as by those supporting political liberalization. In 1981, the Party adopted a historical resolution , which assessed the historical legacy of the Mao Zedong era and the future priorities of the CCP. With other social factors, the conflicts culminated in

10680-468: The "main innovator" of Xi Jinping Thought while also declaring Xi's leadership as being "the key to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation ". In comparison with the other historical resolutions, Xi's one did not herald a major change in how the CCP evaluated its history. On 6 July 2021, Xi chaired the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit , which involved representatives from 500 political parties across 160 countries. Xi urged

10858-433: The 1990s and continued most of his policies. In the 1990s, the CCP transformed from a veteran revolutionary leadership that was both leading militarily and politically, to a political elite increasingly renewed according to institutionalized norms in the civil bureaucracy. Leadership was largely selected based on rules and norms on promotion and retirement, educational background, and managerial and technical expertise. There

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11036-475: The 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee , when it was amended to "let market forces play a decisive role in resource allocation ." Despite this, the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee upheld the creed "Maintain the dominance of the public sector and strengthen the economic vitality of the state-owned economy." "...   their theory that capitalism is the ultimate [force] has been shaken, and socialist development has experienced

11214-447: The Bolshevik newspaper offices, smashing machinery and presses; Stalin salvaged some of the equipment. In the early hours of 25 October, Stalin joined Lenin in a Central Committee meeting in Petrograd's Smolny Institute , from where the Bolshevik coup—the October Revolution —was directed. Bolshevik militia seized Petrograd's power station, main post office, state bank, telephone exchange, and several bridges. A Bolshevik-controlled ship,

11392-416: The Bolshevik ranks grew. Stalin's office was near Lenin's in the Smolny Institute, and he and Trotsky had direct access to Lenin without an appointment. Stalin co-signed Lenin's decrees shutting down hostile newspapers, and co-chaired the committee drafting a constitution for the newly-formed Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic . He supported Lenin's formation of the Cheka security service and

11570-407: The Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917, Stalin joined the governing Politburo , and following Lenin's death in 1924 , won the struggle to lead the country . Under Stalin, the doctrine of socialism in one country became central to the party's ideology . His five-year plans , launched in 1928, led to agricultural collectivisation and rapid industrialisation , establishing

11748-426: The Bolsheviks should deal with the Empire's national and ethnic minorities. His article " Marxism and the National Question " was first published in the March, April, and May 1913 issues of the Bolshevik journal Prosveshcheniye under the pseudonym "K. Stalin". The alias, which he had used since 1912, is derived from the Russian for steel ( stal ), and has been translated as "Man of Steel". In February 1913, Stalin

11926-419: The CCP constitution in 2017. Xi's term as general secretary was renewed in 2022. Since 2014, the CCP has led efforts in Xinjiang that involve the detention of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in internment camps , as well as other repressive measures . This has been described as a genocide by some academics and some governments. On the other hand, a greater number of countries signed

12104-403: The CCP criticized the Three Represents as being un-Marxist and a betrayal of basic Marxist values. Supporters viewed it as a further development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Jiang disagreed, and had concluded that attaining the communist mode of production, as formulated by earlier communists, was more complex than had been realized, and that it was useless to try to force a change in

12282-446: The CCP emerged triumphant in the communist revolution against the Nationalist government . After the KMT's retreat to Taiwan , the CCP established the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. Mao Zedong continued to be the most influential member of the CCP until his death in 1976 , although he periodically withdrew from public leadership as his health deteriorated. Under Mao, the party completed its land reform program, launched

12460-454: The CCP had tactically withdrawn from the cities, and instead undermined KMT rule there by instigating protests among students and intellectuals. The KMT responded to these demonstrations with heavy-handed repression. In the meantime, the KMT was struggling with factional infighting and Chiang Kai-shek's autocratic control over the party, which weakened its ability to respond to attacks. The third stage, lasting from July 1947 to August 1948, saw

12638-408: The CCP have added their own theories to the party's constitution , which outlines the party's ideology , collectively referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics . As of 2024 , the CCP has more than 99 million members, making it the second largest political party by membership in the world after India 's Bharatiya Janata Party . In 1921, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao led the founding of

12816-686: The CCP with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and Far Eastern Bureau of the Communist International . For the first six years, the CCP aligned itself with the Kuomintang (KMT) as the organized left wing of the larger nationalist movement. However, when the right wing of the KMT, led by Chiang Kai-shek , turned on the CCP and massacred tens of thousands of

12994-401: The CCP would eventually control the KMT and called their opponents "rightists". KMT leader Sun Yat-sen eased the conflict between the communists and their opponents. CCP membership grew tremendously after the 4th congress in 1925, from 900 to 2,428. The CCP still treats Sun Yat-sen as one of the founders of their movement and claim descent from him as he is viewed as a proto-communist and

13172-528: The CCP, Marxism–Leninism provides a "vision of the contradictions in capitalist society and of the inevitability of a future socialist and communist societies". According to the People's Daily , Mao Zedong Thought "is Marxism–Leninism applied and developed in China". Mao Zedong Thought was conceived not only by Mao Zedong, but by leading party officials, according to Xinhua News Agency . Deng Xiaoping Theory

13350-502: The CCP, the concept integrates "Marxism with the reality of contemporary China and with the underlying features of our times, and it fully embodies the Marxist worldview on and methodology for development." Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, commonly known as Xi Jinping Thought, was added to the party constitution in the 19th National Congress in 2017. The theory's main elements are summarized in

13528-577: The CCP. The concept has its origins back to Lenin and the Russian Bolshevik Party. At the level of the central party leadership this means that, for instance, all members of the Politburo Standing Committee are of equal standing (each member having only one vote). A member of the Politburo Standing Committee often represents a sector; during Mao's reign, he controlled the People's Liberation Army, Kang Sheng ,

13706-450: The CCP’s nomenklatura ." The cadres higher up on the political ladder were able to control those under them. One scholar who has done in depth research on China's Nomenklatura is named John Burns. He highlights the different classes inside the party. Level "A" is the highest level of cadres, including heads of party central departments. Level "B" consisted of the lesser ranked officials. In 1983

13884-535: The Central Committee by displaying decisiveness and determination. However, he also disregarded orders and repeatedly threatened to resign when affronted. In November 1919, the government awarded him the Order of the Red Banner for his service. The Bolsheviks won the main phase of the civil war by the end of 1919. By that time, Sovnarkom had turned its attention to spreading proletarian revolution abroad, forming

14062-566: The Central Powers; Stalin thought this necessary because he—unlike Lenin—was unconvinced that Europe was on the verge of proletarian revolution . The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in March 1918, ceding vast territories and angering many in Russia; the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries withdrew from the coalition government. The Bolsheviks were renamed the Russian Communist Party . In May 1918, during

14240-559: The Communist International, Stalin's government exerted a strong influence over Marxist parties elsewhere; he left the running of the organisation to Bukharin before his ousting. At its 6th Congress in July 1928, Stalin informed delegates that the main threat to socialism came from non-Marxist socialists and social democrats , whom he called " social fascists "; Stalin recognised that in many countries, these groups were Marxist–Leninists' main rivals for working-class support. This focus on opposing rival leftists concerned Bukharin, who regarded

14418-486: The Communist System , and he claimed that it was seen by ordinary citizens as a bureaucratic elite that enjoyed special privileges and had supplanted the earlier wealthy capitalist elites. China adopted the nomenklatura system from the Soviet Union in the 1960s and is still using this system of governance to this day. According to scholar Hon Chan, it establishes China's "party and governmental leadership" and

14596-521: The Empire in the Revolution of 1905 . Stalin was in Baku in February when ethnic violence broke out between Armenians and Azeris, and formed Bolshevik "battle squads" which he used to keep the city's warring ethnic factions apart. His armed squads also attacked local police and troops, raided arsenals, and raised funds via protection rackets on large local businesses and mines. In November 1905,

14774-594: The Georgian Bolsheviks elected Stalin as one of their delegates to a Bolshevik conference in Tampere, Finland , where he met Lenin for the first time. Although Stalin held Lenin in deep respect, he vocally disagreed with his view that the Bolsheviks should field candidates for the 1906 election to the State Duma ; Stalin viewed parliamentary process as a waste of time. In April 1906, Stalin attended

14952-506: The Japanese invaders. While the front formally existed until 1945, all collaboration between the two parties had effectively ended by 1940. Despite their formal alliance, the CCP used the opportunity to expand and carve out independent bases of operations to prepare for the coming war with the KMT. In 1939, the KMT began to restrict CCP expansion within China. This led to frequent clashes between CCP and KMT forces which subsided rapidly on

15130-524: The Japanese surrendered) to June 1946 (when the peace talks between the CCP and the KMT ended). By 1945, the KMT had three times more soldiers under its command than the CCP and initially appeared to be prevailing. With the cooperation of the US and Japan, the KMT was able to retake major parts of the country. However, KMT rule over the reconquered territories proved unpopular because of its endemic political corruption . Notwithstanding its numerical superiority,

15308-399: The KMT failed to reconquer the rural territories which made up the CCP's stronghold. Around the same time, the CCP launched an invasion of Manchuria , where they were assisted by the Soviet Union. The second stage, lasting from July 1946 to June 1947, saw the KMT extend its control over major cities such as Yan'an , the CCP headquarters, for much of the war. The KMT's successes were hollow;

15486-408: The KMT led to the reorganization of the Red Army, with power now centralized in the leadership through the creation of CCP political departments charged with supervising the army. The Xi'an Incident of December 1936 paused the conflict between the CCP and the KMT. Under pressure from Marshal Zhang Xueliang and the CCP, Chiang Kai-shek finally agreed to a Second United Front focused on repelling

15664-558: The KMT, while Chen Duxiu hoped that the communists would completely withdraw from the KMT. In April 1927, both Chiang and the CCP were preparing for conflict. Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition to overthrow the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the communists, who by now numbered in the tens of thousands across China. Ignoring the orders of the Wuhan-based KMT government, he marched on Shanghai,

15842-600: The Marxist newspaper Proletariatis Brdzola ("Proletarian Struggle") with Filipp Makharadze . During his exile, the RSDLP had become divided between Vladimir Lenin's " Bolshevik " faction and Julius Martov 's " Mensheviks ". Stalin, who detested many Mensheviks in Georgia, aligned himself with the Bolsheviks. In January 1905, government troops massacred protesters in Saint Petersburg and unrest spread across

16020-585: The Movement had shown that the bourgeois revolution against imperialism and China had developed to a new stage, but that the proletariat would lead the revolution's completion. The May Fourth Movement led to the establishment of radical intellectuals who went on to mobilize peasants and workers into the CCP and gain the organizational strength that would solidify the success of the Chinese Communist Revolution . Chen and Li were among

16198-544: The October Revolution in Russia as groundbreaking, believing it to herald a new era for oppressed countries everywhere. Some historical analysis views the May Fourth Movement as the beginning of the revolutionary struggle that led to the founding of the People's Republic of China . Following the movement, trends towards social transformation increased. Writing in 1939, Mao Zedong stated that

16376-658: The Poles invading Ukraine, and in May, Stalin was moved to the Southwest Front. Lenin believed that the Polish proletariat would rise up to support an invasion, but Stalin argued that nationalism would lead them to support their government's war effort. Stalin lost the argument and accepted Lenin's decision. On his front, Stalin became determined to conquer Lvov ; in focusing on this goal, he disobeyed orders to transfer his troops to assist Mikhail Tukhachevsky 's forces at

16554-574: The Politburo approved the "liquidation" of the kulak class, which was exiled to other parts of the country or concentration camps. By July 1930, over 320,000 households had been affected. According to Dmitri Volkogonov , de-kulakisation was "the first mass terror applied by Stalin in his own country." In 1929, the Politburo announced the mass collectivisation of agriculture , establishing both kolkhoz collective farms and sovkhoz state farms. Although officially voluntary, many peasants joined

16732-576: The Red Army, were eager to be rid of the NEP and its market-oriented approach. They had concerns about those who profited from the policy: affluent peasants known as " kulaks " and small business owners, or " NEPmen ". At this point, Stalin turned against the NEP, which put him on a course to the "left" even of Trotsky or Zinoviev. In early 1928, Stalin travelled to Novosibirsk , where he alleged that kulaks were hoarding grain and ordered them be arrested and their grain confiscated, with Stalin bringing much of

16910-594: The Saviour , destroyed in 1931 to make way for the Palace of the Soviets . Religion retained an influence over the population; in the 1937 census , 57% of respondents were willing to admit to being religious. Throughout the 1920s, Stalin placed a priority on foreign policy. He personally met with a range of Western visitors, including George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells , both of whom were impressed with him. Through

17088-741: The Soviet Union as a major world power. Conversely, his regime has been widely condemned for overseeing mass repressions , ethnic cleansing , and famines which caused the deaths of millions . Stalin was born on 18 December [ O.S. 6 December] 1878 in Gori , Georgia , then part of the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire . An ethnic Georgian , his birth name was Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili ( Russified as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili). His parents were Besarion Jughashvili and Ekaterine Geladze ; Stalin

17266-506: The Soviet Union in 1952. The constitution of the PRC in 1954 subsequently abolished the previous coalition government and established the CCP's one-party system. In 1957, the CCP launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign against political dissidents and prominent figures from minor parties, which resulted in the political persecution of at least 550,000 people. The campaign significantly damaged the limited pluralistic nature in

17444-645: The United States emerged as global superpowers , and entered a period of tension known as the Cold War . Stalin presided over post-war reconstruction and the first Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. During these years, the country experienced another famine and a state-sponsored antisemitic campaign culminating in the " doctors' plot ". In 1953, Stalin died after suffering a stroke, and was succeeded as leader by Georgy Malenkov and later by Nikita Khrushchev , who in 1956 denounced Stalin's rule and initiated

17622-450: The Western world is "threatening to divide us" and that "the international culture of the West is strong while we are weak ... Ideological and cultural fields are our main targets". As such, the CCP puts a great deal of effort into the party schools and into crafting its ideological message. Collective leadership, the idea that decisions will be taken through consensus, has been the ideal in

17800-525: The White Sea–Baltic Canal and the Moscow Metro , were constructed largely through forced labour. The last elements of workers' control over industry were removed, with factory managers receiving privileges; Stalin defended wage disparity by pointing to Marx's argument that it was necessary during the lower stages of socialism. To promote intensification of labour, medals and awards as well as

17978-687: The Wuhan KMT government, but on 15 July 1927 the Wuhan government expelled all communists from the KMT. The CCP reacted by founding the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China , better known as the "Red Army", to battle the KMT. A battalion led by General Zhu De was ordered to take the city of Nanchang on 1 August 1927 in what became known as the Nanchang uprising . Initially successful, Zhu and his troops were forced to retreat after five days, marching south to Shantou , and from there being driven into

18156-446: The basis of historical materialism , will eventually triumph over capitalism. In recent years, when the party has been asked to explain the capitalist globalization occurring, the party has returned to the writings of Karl Marx . Despite admitting that globalization developed through the capitalist system, the party's leaders and theorists argue that globalization is not intrinsically capitalist. The reason being that if globalization

18334-575: The beginning of 1921, among them Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong, the CCP organization and authorities grew tremendously. While it was originally held in a house in the Shanghai French Concession , French police interrupted the meeting on 30 July and the congress was moved to a tourist boat on South Lake in Jiaxing , Zhejiang province. A dozen delegates attended the congress, with neither Li nor Chen being able to attend,

18512-439: The changing situation dynamically; to know if a certain policy is obsolete or not, the party had to " seek truth from facts " and follow the slogan "practice is the sole criterion for the truth". At the 14th National Congress, Jiang reiterated Deng's mantra that it was unnecessary to ask if something was socialist or capitalist, since the important factor was whether it worked. The "Three Represents", Jiang Zemin's contribution to

18690-581: The children of wealthy figures for ransom. In March 1908, Stalin was arrested and imprisoned in Baku. He led the imprisoned Bolsheviks, organised discussion groups, and ordered the killing of suspected informants. He was sentenced to two years of exile in Solvychegodsk in northern Russia, arriving there in February 1909. In June, Stalin escaped to Saint Petersburg, but was arrested again in March 1910 and sent back to Solvychegodsk. In June 1911, Stalin

18868-781: The city's Marxists, some of whom suspected that he was an agent provocateur . Stalin began working at the Rothschild refinery storehouse, where he co-organised two workers' strikes. After the strike leaders were arrested, he co-organised a mass demonstration which led to the storming of the prison. Stalin was arrested in April 1902 and sentenced to three years of exile in Siberia , arriving in Novaya Uda in November 1903. After one failed attempt, Stalin escaped from his exile in January 1904 and travelled to Tiflis, where he co-edited

19046-493: The civil war, workers' strikes and peasant uprisings broke out across Russia in opposition to Sovnarkom's food requisitioning project; in response, Lenin introduced market-oriented reforms in the New Economic Policy (NEP). There was also turmoil within the Communist Party, as Trotsky led a faction calling for abolition of trade unions; Lenin opposed this, and Stalin helped rally opposition to Trotsky's position. At

19224-413: The collective leadership". Academics have noted a decline in collective leadership under Xi Jinping. "[Democratic centralism] is centralized on the basis of democracy and democratic under centralized guidance. This is the only system that can give full expression to democracy with full powers vested in the people's congresses at all levels and, at the same time, guarantee centralized administration with

19402-446: The collectives out of fear they would face the fate of the kulaks. By 1932, about 62% of households involved in agriculture were part of collectives, and by 1936 this had risen to 90%. Many collectivised peasants resented the loss of their private farmland, and productivity slumped. Famine broke out in many areas, with the Politburo frequently being forced to dispatch emergency food relief. Armed peasant uprisings broke out in Ukraine,

19580-577: The communists go on the offensive and the collapse of KMT rule in mainland China as a whole. Mao's proclamation of the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949 marked the end of the second phase of the Chinese Civil War (or the Chinese Communist Revolution , as it is called by the CCP). Mao proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) before a massive crowd at Tiananmen Square on 1 October 1949. The CCP headed

19758-669: The condition of unity among party members in upholding the agreed-upon decision. The highest body of the CCP is the National Congress , convened every fifth year. When the National Congress is not in session, the Central Committee is the highest body, but since that body usually only meets once a year, most duties and responsibilities are vested in the Politburo and its Standing Committee . Members of

19936-609: The country, made appointments to positions on the all-union level, and approved nomenklatura appointments on the lower levels of the hierarchy. The head of this department sometimes was a member of the Secretariat and was often a protégé of the general secretary. Every party committee and party organizational department, from the all-union level in Moscow to the district and city levels, prepared two lists according to their needs. The basic list ( osnovnoi spisok ) detailed positions in

20114-486: The criticism. Stalin felt disgraced and his antipathy toward Trotsky increased. The Soviet government sought to bring neighbouring states under its domination; in February 1921 it invaded the Menshevik-governed Georgia , and in April 1921, Stalin ordered the Red Army into Turkestan to reassert Soviet control. As People's Commissar for Nationalities, Stalin believed that each ethnic group had

20292-422: The document, suggesting that it was written by Krupskaya; Stalin never publicly voiced concerns about its authenticity. Most historians consider it an accurate reflection of Lenin's views. Upon Lenin's death in January 1924, Stalin took charge of the funeral and was a pallbearer. To bolster his image as a devoted Leninist amid his growing personality cult , Stalin gave nine lectures at Sverdlov University on

20470-474: The early 1920s. The May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement had identified issues of broad concern to Chinese progressives, including anti-imperialism , support for nationalism , support for democracy , promotion of feminism, and rejection of traditional values. Proposed solutions among Chinese progressives differed significantly, however. The CCP was founded on 1 July 1921 with

20648-428: The economic element of Sun's ideology was socialism. Sun stated, "Our Principle of Livelihood is a form of communism". The communists dominated the left wing of the KMT and struggled for power with the party's right-wing factions. When Sun Yat-sen died in March 1925, he was succeeded by a rightist, Chiang Kai-shek , who initiated moves to marginalize the position of the communists. Chiang, Sun's former assistant,

20826-585: The end of the Cold War. According to one 2022 estimate, 60% of elites in the Vladimir Putin regime had nomenklatura backgrounds. The nomenklatura referred to the Communist Party's governance to make appointments to key positions throughout the governmental system, as well as throughout the party's own hierarchy. Specifically, the nomenklatura consisted of two separate lists: one was for key positions, appointments to which were made by authorities within

21004-467: The following criteria into account: reliability, political attitude, qualifications, and administrative ability. Joseph Stalin , who was the first general secretary of the party, was also known as "Comrade File Cabinet" (Tovarishch Kartotekov) for his assiduous attention to the details of the party's appointments. Seeking to make appointments in a more systematic fashion, Stalin built the party's patronage system and used it to distribute his clients throughout

21182-412: The fundamental interests of the people." The theory legitimized the entry of private business owners and bourgeois elements into the party. Hu Jintao , Jiang Zemin's successor as general secretary, took office in 2002. Unlike Mao, Deng and Jiang Zemin, Hu laid emphasis on collective leadership and opposed one-man dominance of the political system. The insistence on focusing on economic growth led to

21360-480: The grain back to Moscow with him in February. At his command, grain procurement squads surfaced across West Siberia and the Urals, with violence breaking out between the squads and the peasantry. Stalin announced that kulaks and the "middle peasants" must be coerced into releasing their harvest. Bukharin and other Central Committee members were angered that they had not been consulted about the measure. In January 1930,

21538-460: The growth of fascism and the far right across Europe as a greater threat. In 1929, Stalin's son Yakov unsuccessfully attempted suicide, shooting himself in the chest and narrowly missing his heart; his failure earned the contempt of Stalin, who is reported to have brushed off the attempt by saying "He can't even shoot straight." His relationship with Nadezhda was strained amid their arguments and her mental health problems. In November 1932, after

21716-443: The help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International , according to the party's official account of its history. However, party documents suggest that the party's actual founding date was 23 July 1921, the first day of the 1st National Congress of the CCP . The founding National Congress of the CCP was held 23–31 July 1921. With only 50 members in

21894-572: The intensifying Russian Civil War , Sovnarkom sent Stalin to Tsaritsyn to take charge of food procurement in Southern Russia. Eager to prove himself as a commander, he took control of regional military operations and befriended Kliment Voroshilov and Semyon Budyonny , who later formed the core of his military support base. Stalin sent large numbers of Red Army troops to battle the region's White armies , resulting in heavy losses and drawing Lenin's concern. In Tsaritsyn, Stalin commanded

22072-508: The latter are seen as the top leadership of the party and the state. Today the party's leader holds the offices of general secretary (responsible for civilian party duties), Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) (responsible for military affairs), and State President (a largely ceremonial position). Because of these posts, the party leader is seen as the country's paramount leader . The current leader

22250-544: The latter sending a personal representative in his stead. The resolutions of the congress called for the establishment of a communist party as a branch of the Communist International (Comintern) and elected Chen as its leader. Chen then served as the first general secretary of the CCP and was referred to as "China's Lenin". The Soviets hoped to foster pro-Soviet forces in East Asia to fight against anti-communist countries, particularly Japan . They attempted to contact

22428-423: The local Cheka branch to execute suspected counter-revolutionaries, often without trial, and purged the military and food collection agencies of middle-class specialists, whom were also executed. His use of state violence was at a greater scale than most Bolshevik leaders approved of, for instance, he ordered several villages torched to ensure compliance with his food procurement program. In December 1918, Stalin

22606-417: The mode of production, as it had to develop naturally, by following the " economic laws of history ." The theory is most notable for allowing capitalists, officially referred to as the "new social strata", to join the party on the grounds that they engaged in "honest labor and work" and through their labour contributed "to build[ing] socialism with Chinese characteristics." In 2003, the 3rd Plenary Session of

22784-666: The most influential promoters of Marxism in China during the May Fourth period. The CCP itself embraces the May Fourth Movement and views itself as part of the movement's legacy. Study circles were, according to Cai Hesen , "the rudiments [of our party]". Several study circles were established during the New Culture Movement , but by 1920 many grew sceptical about their ability to bring about reforms. China's intellectual movements were fragmented in

22962-420: The office of CCP general secretary at the expense of the collective leadership of prior decades. Commentators have described the campaign as a defining part of Xi's leadership as well as "the principal reason why he has been able to consolidate his power so quickly and effectively." Xi's leadership has also overseen an increase in the Party's role in China. Xi has added his ideology , named after himself, into

23140-409: The offices of CCP general secretary, CMC chairman and PRC president . Before Jiang Zemin's tenure as paramount leader, the party core and collective leadership were indistinguishable. In practice, the core was not responsible to the collective leadership. However, by the time of Jiang, the party had begun propagating a responsibility system, referring to it in official pronouncements as the "core of

23318-535: The paper's office and took charge of his safety, moving him between Petrograd safe houses before smuggling him to nearby Razliv . In Lenin's absence, Stalin continued editing Pravda and served as acting leader of the Bolsheviks, overseeing the party's Sixth Congress . Lenin began calling for the Bolsheviks to seize power by toppling the Provisional Government, a plan which was supported by Stalin and fellow senior Bolshevik Leon Trotsky , but opposed by Kamenev, Zinoviev, and other members. On 24 October, police raided

23496-480: The participants to oppose "technology blockades," and "developmental decoupling" in order to work towards "building a community with a shared future for mankind." The core ideology of the party has evolved with each distinct generation of Chinese leadership . As both the CCP and the People's Liberation Army promote their members according to seniority, it is possible to discern distinct generations of Chinese leadership. In official discourse, each group of leadership

23674-608: The party bureaucracy. In 1922, Lenin allied with Leon Trotsky against the party's growing bureaucratisation and the influence of Joseph Stalin . Under Stalin's direction in 1922, the party created departments of the Central Committee and other organs at lower levels that were responsible for the registration and appointment of party officials. Known as uchraspred , these organs supervised appointments to important party posts. According to American Sovietologist Seweryn Bialer , after Leonid Brezhnev 's accession to power in October 1964,

23852-524: The party considerably expanded its appointment authority. However, in the late 1980s, some official statements indicated that the party intended to reduce its appointment authority, particularly in the area of economic management, in line with Mikhail Gorbachev 's reform efforts. At the all-union level, the Party Building and Cadre Work Department supervised party nomenklatura appointments. This department maintained records on party members throughout

24030-418: The party this was duplicated, with standing committees now in effective control. After being expelled from the party, Chen Duxiu went on to lead China's Trotskyist movement. Li Lisan was able to assume de facto control of the party organization by 1929–1930. The 1929 Gutian Congress was important in establishing the principle of party control over the military, which continues to be a core principle of

24208-486: The party's formal commitment to Marxism–Leninism with the introduction of the ideological theory, the Three Represents. However, party theorist Leng Rong disagrees, claiming that "President Jiang rid the Party of the ideological obstacles to different kinds of ownership   ... He did not give up Marxism or socialism. He strengthened the Party by providing a modern understanding of Marxism and socialism—which

24386-400: The party's ideology, was adopted by the party at the 16th National Congress . The Three Represents defines the role of the CCP, and stresses that the Party must always represent the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people." Certain segments within

24564-426: The party's ideology. Li's leadership was a failure, leaving the CCP on the brink of destruction. The Comintern became involved, and by late 1930, his powers had been taken away. By 1935, Mao had become a member of Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP and the party's informal military leader, with Zhou Enlai and Zhang Wentian , the formal head of the party, serving as his informal deputies. The conflict with

24742-491: The party's members, the two parties split and began a prolonged civil war. During the next ten years of guerrilla warfare , Mao Zedong rose to become the most influential figure in the CCP, and the party established a strong base among the rural peasantry with its land reform policies . Support for the CCP continued to grow throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War , and after the Japanese surrender in 1945,

24920-487: The party. Favouring new members from proletarian backgrounds to " Old Bolsheviks ", who tended to be middle-class university graduates, he ensured that he had loyalists dispersed across the regions. Stalin had much contact with young party functionaries, and the desire for promotion led many to seek his favour. Stalin also developed close relations with key figures in the secret police: Felix Dzerzhinsky , Genrikh Yagoda , and Vyacheslav Menzhinsky . His wife gave birth to

25098-439: The party; the other was for persons who were potential candidates for appointment to those positions. The Politburo , as part of its nomenklatura authority, maintained a list of ministerial and ambassadorial positions that it had the power to fill, as well as a separate list of potential candidates to occupy those positions. The nomenklatura system arose early in Soviet history. Vladimir Lenin wrote that appointments were to take

25276-473: The peasant movement supported by the CCP became more violent. Ye Dehui , a famous scholar, was killed by communists in Changsha , and in revenge, KMT general He Jian and his troops gunned down hundreds of peasant militiamen. That May, tens of thousands of communists and their sympathizers were killed by KMT troops, with the CCP losing approximately 15,000 of its 25,000 members. The CCP continued supporting

25454-548: The people, elected by representatives of the workers, soldiers and peasants and held accountable to their representatives. Stalin's editorial in Pravda , October 1917 Stalin helped organise the July Days uprising, an armed display of strength by supporters of the Bolsheviks. After the demonstration was suppressed, the Provisional Government initiated a crackdown on the party, raiding Pravda . Stalin smuggled Lenin out of

25632-408: The political, administrative, economic, military, cultural, and educational bureaucracies that the committee and its department had responsibility for filling. The registration list ( uchetnyi spicok ) enumerated the persons suitable for these positions. Yugoslav politician Milovan Đilas , a critic of Stalin, wrote of the nomenklatura as the " new class " in his book The New Class: An Analysis of

25810-432: The position of General Secretary. I therefore propose to comrades that they should devise a means of removing him from this job and should appoint to this job someone else who is distinguished from comrade Stalin in all other respects only by the single superior aspect that he should be more tolerant, more polite and more attentive towards comrades, less capricious, etc. — Lenin's Testament, 4 January 1923 In May 1922,

25988-424: The power vacuum left behind. Following Mao's death in 1976, a power struggle between CCP chairman Hua Guofeng and vice-chairman Deng Xiaoping erupted. Deng won the struggle, and became China's paramount leader in 1978. Deng, alongside Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang , spearheaded the " reform and opening-up " policies, and introduced the ideological concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics, opening China to

26166-505: The process of world revolution . In 1927, there was some argument in the party over Soviet policy regarding China. Stalin had called for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Mao Zedong , to ally itself with Chiang Kai-shek 's Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists, viewing a CCP-KMT alliance as the best bulwark against Japanese imperial expansionism. Instead, the KMT repressed the CCP and a civil war broke out between

26344-519: The realization on both sides that civil war amidst a foreign invasion was not an option. By 1943, the CCP was again actively expanding its territory at the expense of the KMT. Mao Zedong became the Chairman of the CCP in 1945. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the war between the CCP and the KMT began again in earnest. The 1945–1949 period had four stages; the first was from August 1945 (when

26522-478: The research of agrobiologist Trofim Lysenko despite the fact that it was rejected by the majority of Lysenko's scientific peers as pseudo-scientific . The government's anti-religious campaign was re-intensified, with increased funding given to the League of Militant Atheists . Priests , imams , and Buddhist monks faced persecution. Religious buildings were demolished, most notably Moscow's Cathedral of Christ

26700-524: The right to an " autonomous republic " within the Russian state in which it could oversee various regional affairs. In taking this view, some Marxists accused him of bending too much to bourgeois nationalism , while others accused him of remaining too Russo-centric. In his diverse native Caucasus, however, Stalin opposed the idea of separate autonomous republics, arguing that these would oppress ethnic minorities within their territories; instead, he called for

26878-532: The security apparatus, and Zhou Enlai, the State Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . This counts as informal power. Despite this, in a paradoxical relation, members of a body are ranked hierarchically (despite the fact that members are in theory equal to one another). Informally, the collective leadership is headed by a " leadership core "; that is, the paramount leader , the person who holds

27056-639: The socialist republic and solidified the country's status as a de facto one-party state . The Anti-Rightist Campaign led to the catastrophic results of the Second Five Year Plan from 1958 to 1962, known as the Great Leap Forward . In an effort to transform the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized one, the CCP collectivized farmland, formed people's communes, and diverted labour to factories. General mismanagement and exaggerations of harvests by CCP officials led to

27234-439: The ten affirmations, the fourteen commitments, and the thirteen areas of achievements. The party combines elements of both socialist patriotism and Chinese nationalism . Deng did not believe that the fundamental difference between the capitalist mode of production and the socialist mode of production was central planning versus free markets . He said, "A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there

27412-424: The term socialist market economy, which replaced Chen Yun 's "planned socialist market economy". In his report to the 14th National Congress Jiang Zemin told the delegates that the socialist state would "let market forces play a basic role in resource allocation." At the 15th National Congress, the party line was changed to "make market forces further play their role in resource allocation"; this line continued until

27590-692: The two moved into open opposition to Stalin and Bukharin and launched an unsuccessful attack on their faction at the 14th Party Congress in December. Stalin accused Kamenev and Zinoviev of reintroducing factionalism, and thus instability. In mid-1926, Kamenev and Zinoviev joined with Trotsky to form the United Opposition against Stalin; in October the two agreed to stop factional activity under threat of expulsion, and later publicly recanted their views. The factionalist arguments continued, with Stalin threatening to resign in October and December 1926, and again in December 1927. In October 1927, Trotsky

27768-568: The two sides. We have fallen behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years. We must close that gap in ten years. Either we do this or we'll be crushed. This is what our obligations before the workers and peasants of the USSR dictate to us. — Stalin, February 1931 The Soviet Union lagged far behind the industrial and agricultural development of the Western powers. Stalin's government feared attack from capitalist countries, and many communists, including in Komsomol , OGPU , and

27946-571: The warlord Wu Peifu but failed. The Soviets then contacted the Kuomintang (KMT), which was leading the Guangzhou government parallel to the Beiyang government . On 6 October 1923, the Comintern sent Mikhail Borodin to Guangzhou, and the Soviets established friendly relations with the KMT. The Central Committee of the CCP , Soviet leader Joseph Stalin , and the Comintern all hoped that

28124-503: The wilderness of Fujian . Mao Zedong was appointed commander-in-chief of the Red Army, and led four regiments against Changsha in the Autumn Harvest Uprising , hoping to spark peasant uprisings across Hunan. His plan was to attack the KMT-held city from three directions on 9 September, but the Fourth Regiment deserted to the KMT cause, attacking the Third Regiment. Mao's army made it to Changsha but could not take it; by 15 September, he accepted defeat, with 1,000 survivors marching east to

28302-456: The world's markets. In reversing some of Mao's "leftist" policies, Deng argued that a socialist state could use the market economy without itself being capitalist. While asserting the political power of the CCP, the change in policy generated significant economic growth. This was justified on the basis that " Practice is the Sole Criterion for the Truth ", a principle reinforced through a 1978 article that aimed to combat dogmatism and criticized

28480-415: Was added to the party constitution at the 14th National Congress in 1992. The concepts of " socialism with Chinese characteristics " and "the primary stage of socialism" were credited to the theory. Deng Xiaoping Theory can be defined as a belief that state socialism and state planning is not by definition communist, and that market mechanisms are class neutral. In addition, the party needs to react to

28658-445: Was again arrested in Saint Petersburg and sentenced to four years of exile in Turukhansk in Siberia, where he arrived in August. Still concerned over a potential escape, the authorities moved him to Kureika in March 1914. While Stalin was in exile, Russia entered the First World War , and in October 1916 he and other exiled Bolsheviks were conscripted into the Russian Army . They arrived in Krasnoyarsk in February 1917, where

28836-415: Was appointed as a Bolshevik delegate to the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet , an influential workers' council. The existing government of landlords and capitalists must be replaced by a new government, a government of workers and peasants. The existing pseudo-government which was not elected by the people and which is not accountable to the people must be replaced by a government recognised by

29014-548: Was concerned about Stalin's growing power, he rallied behind him at the 13th Congress as a counterweight to Trotsky, who now led a faction known as the Left Opposition . Trotsky's supporters believed that the NEP conceded too much to capitalism, and they called Stalin a "rightist" for his support of the policy. Stalin built up a retinue of his supporters within the Central Committee as the Left Opposition were marginalised. In late 1924, Stalin moved against Kamenev and Zinoviev, removing their supporters from key positions. In 1925,

29192-477: Was given permission to move to Vologda , where he stayed for two months. He then escaped to Saint Petersburg, where he was arrested again in September 1911 and sentenced to a further three years of exile in Vologda. In January 1912, the first Bolshevik Central Committee was elected at the Prague Conference . Lenin and Grigory Zinoviev decided to co-opt Stalin to the committee, which Stalin (still in exile in Vologda) agreed to. Lenin believed that Stalin, as

29370-580: Was impractical. Another disagreement came over the Georgian affair, with Lenin backing the Georgian Central Committee's desire for a Georgian Soviet Republic over Stalin's idea of a Transcaucasian one. They also disagreed on the nature of the Soviet state; Lenin called for establishment of a new federation named the "Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia", while Stalin believed that this would encourage independence sentiment among non-Russians. Lenin accused Stalin of "Great Russian chauvinism", while Stalin accused Lenin of "national liberalism". A compromise

29548-422: Was not actively anti-communist at that time, even though he hated the theory of class struggle and the CCP's seizure of power. The communists proposed removing Chiang's power. When Chiang gradually gained the support of Western countries, the conflict between him and the communists became more and more intense. Chiang asked the Kuomintang to join the Comintern to rule out the secret expansion of communists within

29726-441: Was on the rise as a variety of socialism opposed to the Tsarist authorities . He began attending secret workers' meetings, and left the seminary in April 1899. In October 1899, Stalin began working as a meteorologist at the Tiflis observatory. He attracted a group of socialist supporters, and co-organised a secret workers' meeting at which he convinced many to take strike action on May Day 1900. The empire's secret police,

29904-441: Was one of the reasons for the dissolution of the Soviet Union . Therefore, Shambaugh argues, Chinese policy-makers believe that their party ideology must be dynamic to safeguard the party's rule. British sinologist Kerry Brown argues that the CCP does not have an ideology, and that the party organization is pragmatic and interested only in what works. The party itself argues against this assertion. Hu Jintao stated in 2012 that

30082-436: Was purely capitalist, it would exclude an alternative socialist form of modernity. Globalization, as with the market economy, therefore does not have one specific class character (neither socialist nor capitalist) according to the party. The insistence that globalization is not fixed in nature comes from Deng's insistence that China can pursue socialist modernization by incorporating elements of capitalism. Because of this there

30260-545: Was reached in which the federation would be named the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR), whose formation was ratified in December 1922. Their differences also became personal; Lenin was angered when Stalin was rude to his wife Krupskaya during a telephone conversation. In the final years of his life, Krupskaya provided leading figures with Lenin's Testament , which criticised Stalin's rude manners and excessive power and suggested that he be removed as general secretary. Some historians have questioned whether Lenin wrote

30438-447: Was reflected in naming of locations after him; in June 1924 the Ukrainian city of Yuzovka became Stalino, and in April 1925, Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad. In 1926, Stalin published On Questions of Leninism, in which he argued for the concept of " socialism in one country ", which was presented as an orthodox Leninist perspective despite clashing with established Bolshevik views that socialism could only be achieved globally through

30616-446: Was removed from the Central Committee; he was later exiled to Kazakhstan in 1928 and deported from the country in 1929. Stalin was now the supreme leader of the party and state. He entrusted the position of head of government to Vyacheslav Molotov ; other important supporters on the Politburo were Voroshilov, Lazar Kaganovich , and Sergo Ordzhonikidze , with Stalin ensuring his allies ran state institutions. His growing influence

30794-446: Was repeatedly confined to a cell for rebellious behaviour. After joining a forbidden book club, Stalin was influenced by Nikolay Chernyshevsky 's pro-revolutionary novel What Is To Be Done? Another influential text was Alexander Kazbegi 's The Patricide , with Stalin adopting the nickname "Koba" from its bandit protagonist. After reading his Das Kapital , Stalin devoted himself to Karl Marx 's philosophy of Marxism , which

30972-425: Was sent to Perm to lead an inquiry into how Alexander Kolchak 's White forces had been able to decimate Red troops there. He returned to Moscow between January and March 1919, before being assigned to the Western Front at Petrograd. When the Red Third Regiment defected, he ordered the public execution of captured defectors. In September he returned to the Southern Front. During the war, Stalin proved his worth to

31150-414: Was their third child and the only one to survive past infancy. After Besarion's shoemaking workshop went into decline, the family fell into poverty, and he became an alcoholic who beat his wife and son. Ekaterine and her son left the home by 1883 and began wandering, moving through nine different rented rooms over the next decade. In 1888, Stalin enrolled at the Gori Church School in a position secured by

31328-413: Was to redistribute power to the lower levels and to make personnel management more efficient. Since 1984, the Central Committee's control over appointments has been divided into two lists: Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili ; 18 December [ O.S. 6 December] 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led

31506-433: Was unable to rally sufficient support in the party to oppose the reforms; in November 1929, Stalin removed him from the Politburo. Officially, the Soviet Union had replaced the "irrationality" and "wastefulness" of a market economy with a planned economy organised along a long-term and scientific framework; in reality, Soviet economics were based on ad hoc commandments issued often to make short-term targets. In 1928,

31684-649: Was widespread. Social unrest in urban areas led Stalin to ease some economic policies in 1932. In May 1932, he introduced kolkhoz markets where peasants could trade surplus produce. However, penal sanctions became harsher; a decree in August 1932 made the theft of a handful of grain a capital offence. The second five-year plan reduced production quotas from the first, focusing more on improving living conditions through housing and consumer goods. Emphasis on armament production increased after Adolf Hitler became German chancellor in 1933. Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party ( CCP ), officially

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