28 Bolsheviks

The 28 (and a half) Bolsheviks (simplified Chinese: 二十八个半布尔什维克; traditional Chinese: 二十八個半布爾什維克; Russian: Группа 28 большевиков) were a faction in the early Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The faction was formed among Chinese Communists studying at the Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow during the late 1920s and early 1930s. They received their nickname because of their strong support for the orthodox political positions advocated by Joseph Stalin and Pavel Mif. The leaders of the faction included Wang Ming, Bo Gu, Luo Fu, He Zishu, Wang Jiaxiang, and Shen Zemin.^[1] Sun Yat-sen University closed in 1930 and the students made their way back to China.

In January 1931, several members of the 28 Bolsheviks were elevated to the Central Committee of the CCP at its Fourth Plenary session. Later that same year, Wang Ming and then Bo Gu became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Bo would go on to serve in this position for the next four years. They ended Li Lisan's aggressive policy of assaulting the cities and attempted to bring the far-flung Chinese soviets under stricter central control.^[2] This latter policy brought them into conflict with Mao Zedong, especially once the CCP's central leadership was forced to flee to Mao's Jiangxi Soviet in late 1931. Mao eventually won over the majority of the party and removed the 28 Bolsheviks from power at the Zunyi Conference in January 1935.^[1]