Personal Networks, Group Dynamics, and Local Party Politics: Luo Yinong and the Moscow Faction in the CCP, 1920–1927

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on newly available sources, this article explores the ‘Moscow faction’ (or ‘Moscow returnees’) in the Chinese Communist Party of the 1920s by focusing on the professional revolutionary path of one leading returnee, Luo Yinong. It provides a new perspective on the problems faced by the Moscow returnees, such as Luo, who combined party-building with efforts to instil Bolshevik (Leninist) norms into local party organisations, as well as in the minds and political practice of would-be Communist revolutionaries. By tracing the formation of Luo’s networks and their management of CCP work in Shanghai, the article illuminates the dynamic relationship between the Moscow-trained cadres and their local Communist organisations. Contrary to the common perception of events in this period, the new archival evidence shows that the Moscow returnees ultimately failed to transform the CCP into a centralised organisation.