Former Site of the Editorial Office of The Bolshevik

Former Site of the Editorial Office of The Bolshevik

The Former Site of the Editorial Office of The Bolshevik is a Shanghai Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a classic red tourism attraction.

Yuyuan Road, nestled in the bustling city yet enjoying its own tranquility, is lined with low-rise garden villas and Shikumen residences that exude understated charm and steadiness. In the 1920s, this was a secluded stretch near Zhonghua Park in western Shanghai. Due to its suitability for concealment, the editorial office of The Bolshevik, the official publication of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee during the Second Revolutionary Civil War period, was founded and published here.

The front entrance of Hengchang Lane is tucked among shops shaded by plane trees along Yuyuan Road, while its back exit leads to Changning Road. The lane consists of five rows of modern-style Shikumen houses, all featuring faux three-story terraced designs with outer corridors. These were residences built in 1925 by the department store giants Sincere and Wing On for their senior staff.

After the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, the central party publication Guide ceased publication. When the Party’s central leadership relocated from Wuhan to Shanghai, it was decided to relaunch the central organ under the new name The Bolshevik. A committee was formed, comprising Qu Qiubai, Luo Yinong, Deng Zhongxia, Wang Ruofei, and Zheng Chaolin, with Qu Qiubai as the head, operating under the supervision and guidance of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee. All members of the Central Committee had the obligation to participate and contribute articles. The editorial office shared the same location as the CCP Central Propaganda Department—at No. 418 Hengchang Lane—and operated jointly.

On October 24, 1927, the inaugural issue of The Bolshevik was officially published in a 16mo book format. Following the August 7th Meeting, Party organizations across the country led hundreds of armed uprisings of workers and peasants in provinces such as Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, and Henan, ushering in a new phase of “revolution by armed force against armed counter-revolution.” The Bolshevik promptly reported on these uprisings, as well as the establishment of revolutionary governments by the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and their efforts in land reform, while also publishing analytical articles on struggle strategies. Regarding the Guangzhou Uprising, The Bolshevik released three consecutive special issues. The publication also specially introduced and praised the struggles in Jinggangshan. During its run, it preserved a wealth of historical documents of the Party from that period and recorded the historical facts of the Party leading the people in real struggles.

As Shanghai was then under the tight control of imperialism and the Kuomintang reactionaries, The Bolshevik had to be published and distributed in secrecy from the very beginning. After February 1928, it often failed to publish on time, with several suspensions, the longest lasting eight months. To avoid detection and searches by spies, starting from the third issue of the second volume in January 1929, the title “Bolshevik” was no longer used. The cover was printed with various titles such as Central Fortnightly, New Era Mandarin Teaching Book, History of Chinese Culture, Research on Ancient Chinese History, Economic Monthly, The Common People, and Rainbow. It was published under the names of entities like the Propaganda Department of the Central Executive Committee, The Commercial Press, The Chinese Economic Society, and Economic Monthly Society. It also listed well-known scholars such as Gu Kangbo and Qian Xuantong as editors. In November 1931, after the establishment of the Chinese Soviet Republic’s Worker-Peasant Democratic Government in Ruijin, Jiangxi, and the relocation of the central organs to the revolutionary base areas, the publication of The Bolshevik in Shanghai gradually came to an end. By July 1932, a total of five volumes had been issued (Volume 1 with 28 issues, Volume 2 with 11, Volume 3 with 6, Volume 4 with 6, and Volume 5 with 1). By the end of that year, the editorial office withdrew from Shanghai.

No. 418 Hengchang Lane is located at the first unit on either end of the fourth row of residences within the lane. Back then, the ground floor of this building served as the residence of Luo Qiyuan, the head of the CCP Central Propaganda Department. The front parlor functioned as a reception room, furnished in a Western style with a sofa, armchairs, and upright chairs. The rear parlor was the dining room, with a sliding door between the two rooms. In the center of the dining room stood a row of imitation rosewood Eight Immortals tables, each set with four lidded tea cups and surrounded by four long-backed wooden chairs. In the corner to the north of the room sat a tea table with a desk fan from the 1920s or 1930s. The south room on the second floor was the residence of Zheng Chaolin, the chief editor of the party publication and secretary of the Propaganda Department. Before coming to the central office from Guangdong, Qu Qiubai often visited the editorial office in his capacity as part-time propaganda minister to guide work. The north room initially served as the bedroom of Huang Wenrong, and later as the final residence of Luo Yinong, a member of the CCP Central Standing Committee and head of the Organization Department, before his sacrifice. The front room on the second floor served as both the office and bedroom of Zheng Chaolin, and was also where CCP leaders such as Qu Qiubai held meetings. The room featured an octagonal mahjong table, which was used as a cover during gatherings. It also contained a large bed, wardrobe, and writing desk. The rear room was the bedroom and office of Huang ?ran, the editorial office secretary at the time—Chen Duxiu and Luo Yinong also stayed here. On the east wall corner of the room stood a private bookshelf belonging to Qu Qiubai, which he had stored at the office. It mostly contained foreign-language books.

No. 418 Hengchang Lane on Yuyuan Road has now been transformed into the Changning District Revolutionary History Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall. On October 24, 1988, the 61st anniversary of the founding of the Bolshevik editorial office, it was officially opened to the public. Today, Yuyuan Road remains peaceful and serene. The trials of history may alter the appearance of buildings, but they also engrave red memories deep in the hearts of generation after generation.

In 1984, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government approved the Changning District Revolutionary Cultural Relics Exhibition Hall as a municipal-level cultural relics protection unit.