Former Site of the Red Army's General Political Department in Zunyi

Former Site of the Red Army's General Political Department in Zunyi

The former site of the Red Army's General Political Department in Zunyi is a cultural tourism attraction and a classic red tourism site.

The former site of the Red Army’s General Political Department is located at No. 28 Yangliu Street in Zunyi’s old town, adjacent to the site of the Zunyi Conference. After the Red Army entered Zunyi, the headquarters of the General Political Department was set up in the Catholic church on Yangliu Street in the old town. This Catholic church was built in the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1867 AD) by French missionary Sabou. Its main structures consisted of the chapel and the schoolhouse, covering a total area of 13,555 square meters, enclosed by walls. The buildings featured ornate architecture and were quite splendid. After the Red Army arrived in Zunyi, the General Political Department of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission (referred to as the Red Army’s General Political Department) housed its organizational, propaganda, demolition, youth, administrative departments, as well as the secretariat, within the church. In order to mobilize the masses, shortly after entering the city, the General Political Department held a mass meeting inside the chapel. Attendees included masons, carpenters, stonemasons, tailors, bamboo weavers, grass-shoe makers, vegetable vendors, shop owners, craftsmen, students, teachers, and about one to two hundred others. Under the leadership of the Red Army’s General Political Department, and through careful discussion by representatives of the people, it was decided to quickly establish various revolutionary political bodies, mass organizations, and armed forces, such as the "Zunyi County Revolutionary Committee," the "Huishan Township Revolutionary Committee," the "Red Labor Union," and the "Political Department Guard Guerrilla Unit." This rapidly ignited widespread revolutionary activities across Zunyi. During the meeting, revolutionary documents and propaganda materials such as the "Outline of the Constitution of the Chinese Soviet Republic," the "Central Committee’s Message to the People," and "Where Is the Way Out?" were distributed to the public. At the same time, Zunyi’s “ganren” (i.e., poor people) also received confiscated wealth from bureaucrats and landlords here.

When the Red Army crossed the Chishui River for the second time and recaptured Zunyi, the General Political Department also held a conference for officers at the battalion and section level or higher inside the chapel. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai [represented by dash per instruction], and Zhang Wentian delivered speeches respectively, analyzing the reasons for the failure of the Red Army’s fifth counter-“encirclement and suppression” campaign and explaining the correct combat principles of the Red Army. Mao Zedong vividly remarked during his speech that, during the fifth counter-“encirclement and suppression” campaign, due to the errors of “Left” adventurism, the Red Army was constantly on the back foot and had no room for independent or flexible action—its situation was like that of a beggar beating a dog: “dodging and running while being bitten at any moment.”

When the Red Army recrossed the Chishui River and returned to Zunyi, the headquarters of the First Red Army Corps also held a conference here to review combat operations over the month following the Zunyi Conference.

At that time, Li Fuchun, acting director of the Red Army’s General Political Department, along with Cai Chang and Liu Qunxian, who worked in the General Political Department, lived here.

In February 1982, the People’s Government of Guizhou Province designated the former site of the Red Army’s General Political Department—the Zunyi Catholic Church—as a provincial-level key cultural relics protection unit, managed by the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall. In December 1983, the National Cultural Relics Bureau agreed to include the former site of the Red Army’s General Political Department as part of the national key cultural relics protection unit, the Zunyi Conference Site. In 1984, the National Cultural Relics Bureau allocated substantial funds to comprehensively renovate the schoolhouse section inside the church and its surrounding environment. The Zunyi City Library was also relocated at the same time. On November 2, 1984, [a name represented by dash per instruction] inscribed the eight characters “Former Site of the Red Army’s General Political Department.” By the end of that year, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Zunyi Conference, the “Former Site of the Red Army’s General Political Department” and the “Zunyi Conference Auxiliary Exhibition Room” were officially opened to the public.