The Zunyi Meeting
From January 15 to 17, 1935, the CPC Central Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau in Zunyi, Guizhou Province. Attending the meeting were full members Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian (1900-1976), Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun (1905-1995) and Bo Gu (1907-1946), as well as alternate members Wang Jiaxiang (1906-1974), Liu Shaoqi, Deng Fa (1906-1946) and He Kequan (Kai Feng, 1906-1955), and Liu Bocheng, Li Fuchun (1900-1975), Lin Biao, Nie Rongzhen (1899-1992), Peng Dehuai, Yang Shangkun (1907-1998) and Li Zhuoran (1899-1989), all being persons in charge of the Red Army general offices and army groups. Deng Xiaoping, secretary-general of the Central Committee, also attended the meeting. Otto Braun and his translator Wu Xiuquan (1908-1997) were present at the meeting in their capacity as non-voting members.
The Zunyi Meeting was held to resolve the most critical military and organizational issues of the time. The participants reviewed the causes of the defeat against the enemy's fifth encirclement campaign. After the meeting, based on many speeches and particularly those of Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian drafted a resolution of the Central Committee evaluating the five counter-campaigns against the encirclement and suppression. The document upheld the basic principles advocated by Mao and some others on the Red Army's military operations, and exposed the military errors of Bo Gu and Otto Braun.
In accordance with the opinions and suggestions of most participants, the meeting reshuffled the Central Secretariat and the Central Revolutionary Military Committee, elected Mao Zedong to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, and withdrew Bo Gu and Otto Braun from their posts in the highest military command. Consequently, Zhang Wentian replaced Bo Gu and took charge of Central Committee affairs, and Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai took command of military affairs. Soon afterward, Mao, Zhou and Wang Jiaxiang composed a new three-man team responsible for the army's military operations.
The Zunyi Meeting ended the dominance of Wang Ming's rigid Soviet-inspired dogma in the Party's Central Committee and established Mao's leadership in the Red Army and the Central Committee. It was a meeting organized by the CPC to resolve the problems of its guidelines, principles and policies through applying Marxism-Leninism, and thus saved the Red Army and the Central Committee from an extremely critical situation.
After the meeting, the Red Army took fresh heart and finally completed the Long March. The Zunyi Meeting was a vital turning point in the history of the CPC and the Red Army, which saw the CPC take a long stride toward greater political maturity.
遵义会议
1935年1月15日至17日，中共中央在贵州遵义召开了政治局扩大会议。出席会议的有政治局委员毛泽东、张闻天、周恩来、朱德、陈云、博古，候补委员王稼祥、刘少奇、邓发、何克全（凯丰），红军总部和各军团负责人刘伯承、李富春、林彪、聂荣臻、彭德怀、杨尚昆、李卓然以及中央秘书长邓小平。军事顾问李德和翻译伍修权列席会议。
这次会议集中全力解决当时最紧迫的军事问题和组织问题，对第五次反“围剿”的失败进行了总结。会后，张闻天根据与会多数人特别是毛泽东的发言内容，起草了《中央关于反对敌人五次“围剿”的总结的决议》，决议充分肯定毛泽东等关于红军作战的基本原则，否定了博古、李德等人在军事问题上的一系列错误主张。根据绝大多数同志的意见和要求，改组了中央书记处和中央革命军事委员会，毛泽东被选为政治局常委，取消了博古和李德的最高军事指挥权。推选张闻天代替博古在中央负总责，毛泽东、周恩来负责军事。随后，又成立了由毛泽东、周恩来、王稼祥组成的三人军事指挥小组。
遵义会议结束了王明“左”倾教条主义在中共中央的统治，确立了毛泽东在红军和中共中央的领导地位。遵义会议是中国共产党第一次独立自主地运用马克思列宁主义基本原理解决自己的路线、方针和政策方面问题的会议，使红军和党中央在极其危急的情况下得以保存下来。此后，红军转败为胜，转危为安，胜利完成两万五千里长征。遵义会议是中国共产党和中国工农红军历史上一个伟大的转折点，标志着中国共产党在政治上走向成熟。
