From Petrograd to Shanghai: The Party and Mass Democracy in Lenin and Mao

Sep 30, 2022

James, Matthew and Rudy join for a followup on From Paris to Petrograd: State and Revolution in Practice to discuss how the ideas of the party, the masses and democracy changes from Lenin's State and Revolution to the proclamation of the Shanghai Commune during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. We start off talking about Lenin's attitude towards the problem of specialists in the RSFSR, how this was solved by Stalin by strengthening the Party, and how Mao made an immanent critique of Stalin's solution. We then detail the process leading up to the formation of the Shanghai commune, outline the main actors involved and discuss what was unique in Shanghai with respect to other cities in this period. We finish talking about the aftermath of the commune and compare different readings on the GPCR and the Shanghai commune.

References:
N. Hunter - Shanghai Journal: An Eyewitness Account of the Cultural Revolution
E. Perry, L. Xun - Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution
A. Russo - Revolutionary Culture and Cultural Revolution
H. C. Topper - From the commune to the cultural revolution: A discussion of party leadership and democracy in Lenin and Mao
Y. Wu - The Cultural Revolution at the Margins: Chinese Socialism in Crisis