BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET

The Great Chinese Revolution Up To 1949

Publications and Documents which are Now Difficult to Find


      In this section of BannedThought.net we are collecting together many of the pamphlets and documents from and about the long revolutionary struggle in China during the Twentieth Century leading up to Liberation in 1949. Many of the pamphlets and documents here were written by foreigners and/or published in foreign countries.

      This great revolution was called by Mao a New Democratic revolution, meaning that its purpose was to overthrow feudalism and foreign imperialism and to establish a truly independent and democratic Chinese nation—but that it could only accomplish this under the leadership of the Communist Party. The successful establishment of New Democracy and people’s power then set the stage for the further socialist revolution.

      However, this great Chinese revolution itself went through a number of important periods, including the early years of alliance with the Guomindang [Kuomintang], the early Chinese Soviets period, the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1946), and finally the War of Liberation (1946-1949).

      Many of the materials from the earliest period, and also some of them from later on, reflect the line and views of the Soviet Union and the Comintern, or such prominent spokesmen for the Comintern as Wang Ming and Earl Browder. There are, however, some independent documents here from those periods, and also some which more truly reflect the line of the Communist Party of China during those periods. We even have a few early translations of some of Mao’s works here, which it should be noted are not identical to the translations which appear in his Selected Works. We are posting them here so people can see how the writings of Mao and the CCP were presented to the world during this period.

      As is the case with other sections of historical material on China on BannedThought.net, there are materials here by (or which talk favorably about) individuals such as Wang Ming, Liu Shao-chi [Liu Shaoqi], and Teng Hsiao-p’ing [Deng Xiaoping] who themselves became targets of the revolution later on. We are including such materials here—despite the errors (or crimes!) of these individuals—as part of our documentary record of the Chinese revolution and its internal class struggles.

      Some of the documents in this section have been scanned from materials printed almost a century ago, and in some cases they were in very poor condition. Some of the documents have also been taken from other web sites, and show evidence of less than perfect care during in the scanning process. We apologize for these defects, and will replace these documents with better copies if we are able to find or prepare them.

      Some of the documents here have the file extension “.djvu” and require the WinDjView program to read them. This reader can be obtained for free at: http://www.windjview.sourceforge.net   (Linux users have the capability to read .djvu files integrated into their PDF readers of the major desktops: Okular in KDE, Evince in GNOME.)

      For information about Maoist China from 1949 through 1976, see our separate index section on BannedThought.net at https://www.bannedthought.net/China/MaoEra/index.htm and its various sub-sections. For information about present-day capitalist-imperialist China, and current mass struggles there including a developing new Maoist revolutionary movement, see our section on BannedThought.net about contemporary China at https://www.bannedthought.net/China/index.htm

      If you know of other materials which should be posted here, or if you have other comments or suggestions, please contact us at: freespeech@bannedthought.net


General Political Information about the Pre-1949 Period in China:


Non-Political Information about Pre-1949 China:


The Pre-Marxist Era (Up to Around 1920):


The Early Years of the Revolution (1920s-1936):


The War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1946):


The War of Liberation (1946-1949):


People’s War and Military Issues

Magazines from China, Mostly from the Maoist Era

Retrospective Commentary about the Chinese Revolution up until 1949:



Primary Mao Era Index Page

Capitalist-Imperialist China Today Page

BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET Home Page