Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life

640 Pages·2015·9.56 MB·english

by  Alexander V. Pantsov

Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping
A Revolutionary Life
z
ALEXANDER V. PANTSOV
with
STEVEN I. LEVINE
1
3
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© Alexander V. Pantsov with Steven I. Levine 2015
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To the memory of my parents,
Vadim Georgievich Ehrenburg (1924–1979)
and
Nina Stepanovna Pantsova (1929–2011),
I dedicate this book with love
—Alexander V. Pantsov

Contents
Acknowledgments  ix
Cast of Characters  xi
Note on the Spelling of Chinese Words  xix
Introduction  1
PART ONE: The Bolshevik
1. Born in the Year of the Dragon  11
2. From Paris to Moscow: The Lessons of Bolshevism  23
3. From Xi’an to Shanghai  45
4. The Guangxi Experiment  61
PART TWO: The Maoist
5. The Spirit of “Five Fearlessnesses” 85
6. Master of the Taihang Mountains  103
7. At the Forefront of the New Democratic Revolution  121
8. Chief of the Southwest Region  139
9. The Beijing Hippodrome  153
10. “Critique of the Cult of Personality” and Its Consequences  165
11. “A Great Growing Force”  177
viii Contents
12. Being and Consciousness  199
13. “Yellow Cat, Black Cat”  217
14. Number Two Capitalist Roader  233
15. Arrest and Exile  253
PART THREE: The Pragmatist
16. “Soft as Cotton, Sharp as a Needle”  273
17. New Trials  293
18. Practice as the Criterion of Truth  325
19. The Cardinal Principles  345
20. “Let Some People Get Rich First”  359
21. One Country, Two Systems  377
22. Reforms and Democracy  395
23. The Tiananmen Tragedy  407
24. A Retired Patriarch  417
Epilogue  429
Appendix 1: Deng Xiaoping’s Chronology  435
Appendix 2: Deng Xiaoping’s Genealogy  443
Notes  445
Bibliography  537
Illustration Credits  581
Index  583
Acknowledgments
It gives us great pleasure to express our deep appreciation to those
persons without whose attention and friendly assistance this work would
never have seen the light of day. We want to express our thanks to Kirill
Mikhailovich Anderson, Nikolai Sergeevich Arinchev, Daria Aleksandrovna
Arincheva (Spichak), Richard Ashbrook, Peter W. Bernstein, Ekaterina
Borisovna Bogoslovskaia, Denvy Bowman, Christopher Buckley, Chen
Yung-fa, Georgii Iosifovich Cherniavskii, John Garnaut, Tamara Ivanovna
Illarionova, Liubov Spiridonovna Kaliuzhnaia, James DeGrande, Liudmila
Konstantinovna Karlova, Mikhail Vladimirovich Karpov, Elizaveta
Pavlovna Kishkina (Li Sha, a widow of Li Lisan), Liudmila Mikhailovna
Kosheleva, Boris Iosifovich Koval’, Madeline G. Levine, Li Danhui, Inna
Li (the daughter of Li Lisan), Li Yuzhen, Lin Liheng (Doudou, the daugh-
ter of Lin Biao), Lin Yin (Lena Jin), Dimon Liu, Liu Wei (a secretary of
Deng Xiaoping’s daughter Deng Rong [Maomao] and a daughter-in-law
of Deng Xiaoping’s secretary Wang Ruilin), William H. Magginis, David
McBride, Nina Stepanovna Pantsova, Svetlana Markovna Rozental’, John
Sexton, Valintina Nikolaevna Shchetilina, Shen Zhihua, Valerii Nikolaevich
Shepelev, Irina Nikolaevna Sotnikova, Evgeniia Aleksandrovna Tobol’ (a
granddaughter of Igor Vasilievich Yurchenko [Yuzhin]), Yurii Tikhonovich
Tutochkin, Ezra F. Vogel, Wang Fuzeng, Wang Jianjun (a secretary of the
Guang’an Municipal CCP Committee), Wei Jingsheng, Xiao Jing Wang (a
grandson of Wang Zekai), Yu Minling, Zi Zhongyun (one of the interpreters
for Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhou Enlai), Vladislav
Martinovich Zubok, and to many citizens of the People’s Republic of China
who shared their reminiscences of their lives under Deng Xiaoping but who
prefer to remain anonymous.