Global Times: 'It is CPC that makes world respect Chinese': says Russian expert with ties to Party 'birthplace'

BEIJING, Oct. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- "Dear friends: How are you all? ...Please extend my warmest greetings to all our friends! Dasha also sends her most sincere regards [through me]! Best wishes, Sasha."

One day, staff at the Memorial of the First National Congress of the CPC received the above email. Its tone was warm and familiar, like a face‑to‑face greeting between longtime friends. Signed "Sasha," the message came from Alexander Pantsov, an internationally known Russian expert on China and CPC studies. "Dasha" refers to Pantsov's daughter, Daria Arincheva, who is also engaged in research on modern and contemporary Chinese history, and the history of the CPC.

"Sasha" and "Dasha" are the affectionate diminutives the father and daughter use with close friends. For these two Sinologists, the Memorial - the founding site of the CPC - is not only a subject of scholarly inquiry, but also an enduring witness to their personal and professional ties with the CPC and with China.

'The CPC led China from semi-colonialism to prosperity'

Pantsov first visited the Memorial in 1987. Already well versed in the history of the early CPC, he was familiar with and impressed by a lot of exhibits on display. In 2009, Pantsov returned to the site with his daughter. "We were particularly interested to see the room where the Party's First Congress took place," he recalled.

Pantsov clearly remembered each of his five visits to the Memorial over the years, as well as the two occasions on which he delivered lectures there, in 2016 and 2019. As his academic exchanges with the Memorial and its staff deepened, his ties with them grew closer.

Pantsov and Arincheva come from a family of Sinologists. Pantsov said his grandfather George Borisovich Ehrenburg, a professor at Moscow State University, was a renowned Soviet sinologist. "He sparked my interest in China at an early age, [when I was] around nine years old," said Pantsov.

Inspired by his grandfather, Pantsov enrolled at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University in 1973, and later became a scholar of China studies. Following in her father's footsteps, Arincheva, also researches the country and its ruling party.

In 2016, Pantsov was invited to join the Memorial's Center for the History of CPC Founding as a contract research fellow, and became a member of the Memorial's editorial board of the academic journal CPC Founding History Studies. Now, 70-year-old Pantsov is a professor of history at Capital University in Ohio, with his research primarily focused on history of the Chinese revolutionary movement.

Having conducted in-depth research on the founding and growth of the CPC, Pantsov said that his most admired early Party member is Mao Zedong. Pantsov has been engaged in research on Mao, as well as the Russian translation and annotation of Mao's poems, being widely recognized as an expert in the field of overseas studies on Mao. His book Mao: The Real Story once sparked widespread attention and discussion among both Chinese and international readers. "Mao impressed me with his organizational dexterities, and literary and journalistic talents," said Pantsov.

"Overall, I am deeply impressed by the efforts of early CPC members," Pantsov told the Global Times. He mentioned a book that he and Arincheva wrote about the lives and fates of the early CPC members, which is a collection of articles and materials dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding.

"According to my and my daughter's estimation, there were only [more than] 50 CPC members in July 1921; yet by 1949, the CPC managed to seize power in a country of 450 million." The rapid growth of CPC membership convincingly demonstrated that, in those difficult years, the CPC had earned widely support from the Chinese people while leading them toward national independence.

Looking back at the history of the CPC, many scholars in China Studies reached by the Global Times said that, from an overseas perspective, the Party's achievements - from securing national independence and driving modernization, to launching programs such as the Belt and Road Initiative that promote win‑win development globally - have commanded wide attention and praise. "The CPC led China from semi‑colonialism to prosperity," Pantsov noted. "It was the CPC that completed the national revolution in China, making the whole world respect Chinese."

Today, delegations from many countries visit the Memorial during their stays in Shanghai, and the Memorial's entrance receives many foreign tourists every day. The Memorial, together with many other "red (patriotic-themed)" sites across China, has become a vivid window, through which people from other countries can gain an authentic, multi‑dimensional understanding of the CPC and China.

A frequent visitor himself, Pantsov affirmed the unique value of these sites for international audiences to know more about the Party. "The significance of these sites is enormous," he told the Global Times. "They make history come alive."

SOURCE Global Times