The Fifth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held from April 27 to May 9, 1927 in Wuhan . The congress was attended by 80 delegates representing 57,967 members of the CCP.
Content
Political situation on the eve of the Congress
The congress was held in the midst of a coup carried out on April 12, 1927 by the NRA commander Chiang Kai-shek . As a result of the coup, the Kuomintang broke off the cooperation agreement with the CCP and launched a company of mass terror against it. By that time, most of the members of the CPC Central Committee were in Wuhan to help strengthen the National Government, which consisted mainly of left-wing Kuomintang and Communists.
The representative of the Comintern M. Roy played a significant role in the ideological leadership of the congress.
Discussed Issues
The congress decided to develop a CPC strategy in the spirit of the resolution of the 7th expanded plenum of the ECCI (December 1926) on the Chinese question: Chen Duxiu 's right-wing advocates expressed criticism of refusing to lead the revolution in favor of the bourgeoisie, but no practical measures were proposed to correct them were.
The main task at the current stage of the congress was the holding of the agrarian revolution and the creation of rural revolutionary power, and at the same time the resolution adopted on the agrarian question was half-hearted.
In general, the political decisions of the congress reflected the desire of part of the CPC and the Comintern to maintain the unity of the block of the CPC and the Kuomintang, including by abandoning the most radical demands. The adopted Manifesto thus designated the political position of the party:
| We will achieve complete unity of all democratic forces under the banner of the Kuomintang. Strengthening the Kuomintang as a union of revolutionary forces is the main task of the proletariat in this period of the revolution. United revolutionary democracy is the uncontested leadership of our people's revolution |
Amendments and additions were made to the party’s charter, the principle of democratic centralism was included in it.
The congress elected a new Central Committee of the CPC consisting of 29 members and 10 candidates for membership in the CPC Central Committee. The Central Committee elected the Politburo , which included Chen Duxiu, Zhang Gotao , Li Weihan , Cai Hesen , Li Lisan , Qu Quibo and Tan Pingshan . Chen Duxiu became the Secretary General of the CPC Central Committee.
Consequences
The congress mistakenly assessed the current moment as a period of revolutionary upsurge, which was one of the reasons for the CPC's unpreparedness to move to an illegal position. A specific platform for agrarian reform that met the land requirements of the peasants was not adopted.