Former Residence of Bo Gu

Former Residence of Bo Gu

In January 1935, after the Central Red Army arrived in Zunyi, Qin Bangxian (Bo Gu), the General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee, and Otto Braun (also known as Li De or Hua Fu), the military advisor from the Comintern, along with interpreters Wu Xiuquan and Wang Zhittao, lived here. At the Zunyi Conference held by the Party Central Committee, Qin Bangxian gave a summary report on behalf of the Central Committee regarding the opposition to the enemy’s fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign. The conference criticized his report for attributing the failure of the fifth counter-“encirclement and suppression” and the heavy losses suffered by the Red Army in the early stages of the Long March to objective factors such as the “strength of reactionary forces,” deeming the report largely incorrect. Soon after the conference, during the march from Zunyi to Zhaxi, the Standing Committee decided that Zhang Wentian would replace Qin Bangxian as the Party’s General Secretary. Qin Bangxian remained a member of the Politburo and was appointed Director of the Red Army’s Field Political Department. Li De, a German, was dispatched to China by the Comintern in the spring of 1932 and arrived in the Central Soviet Area in September 1933 to serve as a military advisor to the Central Revolutionary Military Commission. The Zunyi Conference severely criticized the series of erroneous strategies and tactics he implemented during the fifth counter-“encirclement and suppression” campaign. After the conference, he no longer held command responsibilities but continued to accompany the Red Army on the Long March all the way to northern Shaanxi, leaving China for the Soviet Union in 1939.

The Former Residence of Bo Gu was originally the private residence of Hou Zhigui, Deputy Commander of the 25th Army (Guizhou Army) under Zhou Xicheng, covering an area of 541 square meters. For quite a long time, the residences of Qin Bangxian and Li De were not made public or exhibited to visitors for various reasons. In 1999, the Zunyi Municipal Government allocated special funds for restoration. By the end of that year, based on years of research and investigation, the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall restored and displayed the living quarters of Qin Bangxian and Li De, as well as those of interpreters Wu Xiuquan, Wang Zhittao, and guard Huang Yingfu.