Former Site of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China

Former Site of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China

The Former Site of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China is a cultural tourism attraction and a classic red tourism destination.

The Former Site of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China

It is located at Wangjiawu at the foot of Yueshan Mountain in Xianyuan. The site faces east and is built against the mountain. It is a civil residential structure made of wood and earth, laid out in a concave shape with five halls and ten rooms, covering a total area of 877 square meters.

In April 1932, the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Committee relocated from Xiushui Shangshan to Wanzi Xiaoyuan. To this day, the central wall of the middle hall at the former site still retains the large characters “Office of the General Affairs Department.”

After the provincial committee moved to Xiaoyuan, it actively developed the Party organization, strengthened armed forces, unified the province’s finances, rewarded production, promoted cultural and educational development, and issued a series of policies and guidelines, effectively consolidating the Soviet regime. In September 1932, the Second Provincial Party Congress was held at Shuikou in Xiaoyuan. The congress conveyed the directives of the Central Committee, defined the overall tasks of the provincial Party, and passed 11 documents including the “Congress Declaration” and the “Political Resolution,” electing the Second Provincial Committee Executive Committee with Lin Ruisheng as secretary.

Thereafter, under the leadership of the provincial committee, various undertakings in the Soviet area developed rapidly, and the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi revolutionary base continued to expand. By the second half of 1932, the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Committee governed nearly 30 county and central county committees in the border areas of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, with over 50,000 Party members. The main Red Army forces grew to more than 25,000 by the spring of 1933. Xiaoyuan once became the political, economic, military, and cultural center of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet Area.

During the provincial committee’s stay in Xiaoyuan, due to the interference of “Left” sectarianism, oversimplified and excessive errors were made in the purges. In July 1933, the Central Bureau of the Soviet Area specifically discussed the work of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Provincial Committee and the Provincial Soviet Government. To strengthen the work in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet Area, a work team arrived in Xiaoyuan in December. In January 1934, an expanded meeting of the provincial committee was held in Xiaoyuan, where the directives of the Central Bureau of the Soviet Area regarding the work in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Province were conveyed, the provincial committee was reorganized, and the Provincial Executive Committee with Chen Shouchang as secretary was established. By this time, Kuomintang forces had deployed heavy troops to besiege Xiaoyuan. In late January, the provincial committee decided to evacuate its offices from Xiaoyuan and relocate to Tonggu and Youju areas.