Leon Trotsky’s writings on the Chinese Revolution help provide a historical and theoretical understanding of the rise of Stalinism, the role of the Communist International, and the development of the International Left Opposition founded to fight against the Stalinist-inspired defeat of the Chinese Revolution. Trotsky, co-leader with V. I. Lenin of the Russian Revolution, was a participant in the debates in the Communist International on the role of the Chinese Communist Party, the Communist International’s Chinese section. Much of what Trotsky deduced from this debate can also be found in his book The Third Interational After Lenin: A Criticism of Fundamentals (1928), available here on the Trotsky Internet Archive.
The book titled Leon Trotsky on China, which provided the source for many of the documents presented here, is a valuable collection of Trotsky’s writings published by Pathfinder Press in 1976. It is based in large part on two sources: The Militant newspaper, based in the United States, for which Trotsky often wrote; and Trotsky’s personal correspondence, currently residing in the Trotsky Archives at Harvard University. The printed edition of Leon Trotsky on China also includes major excerpts from both The Third Interational After Lenin and Trotsky’s other major thesis on the Chinese Revolution, Problems of the Chinese Revolution.
This on-line version will include the full versions of both those texts, and thus will be more comprehensive. In addition, the Trotsky Internet Archive will endeavor to find other sources of Trotsky’s writings on China that can then be translated and included on-line.
The yeoman’s task of transcribing almost all the material on this page was accomplished by Heiko Khoo in 1997 for the Chinese Marxism Archive web site. This site is a valuable source not only for Trotsky’s writings on China but also for essays and articles on other aspects of the Trotskyist movement’s participation in the years of war and revolution that consumed China from 1925 through 1951. Additional HTML markup and style sheet modifications for the Trotsky Internet Archive were made by David Walters in 1999.
The Moscow Spirit -- June 15, 1925
PROBLEMS OF OUR POLICY WITH RESPECT TO CHINA AND JAPAN -- March 25, 1926
FIRST LETTER TO RADEK -- August 30, 1926
THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE KUOMINTANGSeptember 27, 1926
SECOND LETTER TO RADEK -- March 4, 1927
A BRIEF NOTE -- March 22, 1927
LETTER TO ALSKY -- March 29, 1927
TO THE POLITBURO OF THE AUCP(B) CENTRAL COMMITTEE -- March 31, 1927
CLASS RELATIONS IN THE CHINESE REVOLUTION April 3, 1927
ON THE SLOGAN OF SOVIETS IN CHINA -- April 16, 1927)
NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE CHINESE REVOLUTION, NEW TASKS, AND NEW MISTAKES -- September 1927
THE CHINESE REVOLUTION AND THE THESES OF COMRADE STALIN -- May 7, 1927
THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE KUOMINTANG -- May 10, 1927
CENTRAL COMMITTEE -- May 18, 1927
IT IS TIME TO UNDERSTAND, TIME TO RECONSIDER, AND TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE -- May 27, 1927
HANKOW AND MOSCOW -- May 28, 1927
PROBLEMS OF THE CHINESE REVOLUTION -- 1927
IS IT NOT TIME TO UNDERSTAND -- May 28, 1927
WHY HAVE WE NOT CALLED FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM THE KUOMINTANG UNTIL NOW? -- June 23, 1927
FOR A SPECIAL SESSION OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE ECCI -- July 1927
NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE CHINESE REVOLUTION, NEW TASKS, AND NEW MISTAKES -- September 1927
SPEECH TO THE PRESIDIUM OF THE ECCI -- September 27, 1927
THE CANTON UPRISING -- December 1927
THE CLASSIC MISTAKES OF OPPORTUNISM -- January 1928
THREE LETTERS TO PREOBRAZHENSKY -- March-April 1928
SUMMARY AND PERSPECTIVES OF THE CHINESE REVOLUTION -- June 1928
DEMOCRATIC SLOGANS IN CHINA -- October 1928
THE CAPITULATION OF RADEK, PREOBRAZHENSKY, AND SMILGA -- July 27, 1929
THE SINO-SOVIET CONFLICT AND THE OPPOSITION -- August 4, 1929
WHAT IS HAPPENNING IN CHINA? -- November 9, 1927
A Reply to the Chinese Oppositionists -- December 22, 1929
SOME RESULTS OF THE SINO-SOVIET CONFLICT -- January 3, 1930
THE SLOGAN OF A NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN CHINA -- April 2, 1930
TWO LETTERS TO CHINA -- August 22 and September 1, 1930
STALIN AND THE CHINESE REVOLUTION -- 1928
A HISTORY OF THE SECOND CHINESE REVOLUTION IS NEEDED -- September 1930
MANIFESTO ON CHINA OF THE INTERNATIONAL LEFT OPPOSITION -- September 1930
A RETREAT IN FULL DISORDER -- November 1930
A LETTER TO MAX SHACHTMAN -- December 10, 1930
TO THE CHINESE LEFT OPPOSITION -- March 1931
DISCUSSIONS WITH HAROLD R. ISAACS -- August 1935
ON THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR -- October 1937
REVOLUTION AND WAR IN CHINA -- January 5, 1938
THE GREAT LESSON OF CHINA -- May 1940
CHINA AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION -- July 1940