The CCP's young General Secretary who represented the Comintern line and later built the Party's press apparatus
During the Rectification Movement, he confessed: "I caused such great damage to the Party — no matter how hard I work, I can never make up for this loss." He added: "I am the person most responsible for all the disastrous consequences — here there is no 'one of.'"
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (1931–1935), Bo Gu led the Party through the Jiangxi Soviet period and the early Long March. A member of the '28 Bolsheviks' trained at Moscow's Sun Yat-sen University, he represented the Comintern's left line alongside Wang Ming. After being ousted by Mao Zedong at the Zunyi Conference, he served as head of the Organization Department, director of Xinhua News Agency, and editor-in-chief of Liberation Daily, laying the institutional foundations of the CCP's press and propaganda apparatus. He died in a plane crash in 1946 while returning to Yan'an from the Chongqing negotiations.
Career Timeline
- 1925–1926Studied at Shanghai University; joined the May 30th Movement
- 1926–1930Studied at Moscow Sun Yat-sen University; formed the '28 Bolsheviks'
- 1931–1935General Secretary of the CCP
- 1935.1Ousted at Zunyi Conference; retained Politburo seat
- 1937–1938Head of the CCP Organization Department
- 1941–1946Editor-in-chief of Liberation Daily and director of Xinhua News Agency
- 1946CCP delegate to Chongqing Consultative Conference; died en route back to Yan'an