The Zunyi Meeting

From January 15 to 17, 1935, the CPC Central Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau in Zunyi, Guizhou Province. Attending the meeting were full members Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian (1900-1976), Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun (1905-1995) and Bo Gu (1907-1946), as well as alternate members Wang Jiaxiang (1906-1974), Liu Shaoqi, Deng Fa (1906-1946) and He Kequan (Kai Feng, 1906-1955), and Liu Bocheng, Li Fuchun (1900-1975), Lin Biao, Nie Rongzhen (1899-1992), Peng Dehuai, Yang Shangkun (1907-1998) and Li Zhuoran (1899-1989), all being persons in charge of the Red Army general offices and army groups. Deng Xiaoping, secretary-general of the Central Committee, also attended the meeting. Otto Braun and his translator Wu Xiuquan (1908-1997) were present at the meeting in their capacity as non-voting members.

The Zunyi Meeting was held to resolve the most critical military and organizational issues of the time. The participants reviewed the causes of the defeat against the enemy's fifth encirclement campaign. After the meeting, based on many speeches and particularly those of Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian drafted a resolution of the Central Committee evaluating the five counter-campaigns against the encirclement and suppression. The document upheld the basic principles advocated by Mao and some others on the Red Army's military operations, and exposed the military errors of Bo Gu and Otto Braun.

In accordance with the opinions and suggestions of most participants, the meeting reshuffled the Central Secretariat and the Central Revolutionary Military Committee, elected Mao Zedong to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, and withdrew Bo Gu and Otto Braun from their posts in the highest military command. Consequently, Zhang Wentian replaced Bo Gu and took charge of Central Committee affairs, and Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai took command of military affairs. Soon afterward, Mao, Zhou and Wang Jiaxiang composed a new three-man team responsible for the army's military operations.

The Zunyi Meeting ended the dominance of Wang Ming's rigid Soviet-inspired dogma in the Party's Central Committee and established Mao's leadership in the Red Army and the Central Committee. It was a meeting organized by the CPC to resolve the problems of its guidelines, principles and policies through applying Marxism-Leninism, and thus saved the Red Army and the Central Committee from an extremely critical situation.

After the meeting, the Red Army took fresh heart and finally completed the Long March. The Zunyi Meeting was a vital turning point in the history of the CPC and the Red Army, which saw the CPC take a long stride toward greater political maturity.

遵義會議

1935年1月15日至17日，中共中央在貴州遵義召開了政治局擴大會議。出席會議的有政治局委員毛澤東、張聞天、周恩來、朱德、陳云、博古，候補委員王稼祥、劉少奇、鄧發、何克全（凱豐），紅軍總部和各軍團負責人劉伯承、李富春、林彪、聶榮臻、彭德懷、楊尚昆、李卓然以及中央秘書長鄧小平。軍事顧問李德和翻譯伍修權列席會議。

這次會議集中全力解決當時最緊迫的軍事問題和組織問題，對第五次反“圍剿”的失敗進行了總結。會后，張聞天根據與會多數人特別是毛澤東的發言內容，起草了《中央關于反對敵人五次“圍剿”的總結的決議》，決議充分肯定毛澤東等關于紅軍作戰的基本原則，否定了博古、李德等人在軍事問題上的一系列錯誤主張。根據絕大多數同志的意見和要求，改組了中央書記處和中央革命軍事委員會，毛澤東被選為政治局常委，取消了博古和李德的最高軍事指揮權。推選張聞天代替博古在中央負總責，毛澤東、周恩來負責軍事。隨后，又成立了由毛澤東、周恩來、王稼祥組成的三人軍事指揮小組。

遵義會議結束了王明“左”傾教條主義在中共中央的統治，確立了毛澤東在紅軍和中共中央的領導地位。遵義會議是中國共產黨第一次獨立自主地運用馬克思列寧主義基本原理解決自己的路線、方針和政策方面問題的會議，使紅軍和黨中央在極其危急的情況下得以保存下來。此后，紅軍轉敗為勝，轉危為安，勝利完成兩萬五千里長征。遵義會議是中國共產黨和中國工農紅軍歷史上一個偉大的轉折點，標志著中國共產黨在政治上走向成熟。