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This article concerns the origins, development and activities of one of the oldest Chinese democratic parties — the Democratic League of China from its inception to the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. New documents and materials discovered in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, in particular, the Bulletins of the Information Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on foreign policy issues, shed light on little-studied questions about the role and place of this democratic organization in the Chinese revolution. Under patriotic slogans, the Democratic League united in its ranks both non-partisan public figures and political parties and groups with various views, from nationalist to pro-communist. Despite the diverse political composition of small parties and groups, the league turned into a coalition trying to find a "third way" between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the ruling Kuomintang party. The growing authoritarianism of the Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek and the implementation of pro-Japanese policies by the Kuomintang members undermined the foundations of the national anti-Japanese united front and undermined the war of resistance. These circumstances repelled the country's patriotic forces from the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang's suppression of the democratic movement led to a reorientation of the Democratic League's policies. The League publicly announced cooperation with the CCP until the complete collapse of the reactionary Kuomintang government, for democracy, peace and independence of the country. The work of the Democratic League helped to unite the broad groups of the population into the patriotic movement for a new China. After the formation of the People's Republic of China, at the suggestion of Mao Zedong, the league was preserved, its leaders received posts in the government. Currently, members of the Democratic League are mainly engaged in cultural and educational work.

The article is devoted to the influence of the dissolution of the Comintern on the events in China, as well as to the activities of the Department of International Information (DII) formed instead of the Comintern under the Central Committee of the VKP(b).
The self-dissolution of the Comintern was positively received by both political forces in China — the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang. This decision of the ECCI (Executive Committee of the Communist International) allowed Mao Zedong to secure a leading position in the party and isolate the Comintern in the Politburo from the CPC Central Committee.
Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek took advantage of the disappearance of the "International Communist Headquarters" to discredit the CPC as a "foreign product" hostile to China.

However, quite quickly, China found itself on the brink of civil war, threatening the collapse of the anti-Japanese national united front. Only the position of the USSR, the USA and the democratic forces in China did not allow Chiang Kai-shek to start a punitive campaign against the Special Region of China and the Communist Party. For more than two years, relations between the two parties remained extremely tense. G. Dimitrov, the actual head of the DII, had neither the authority nor the opportunity to somehow influence the political events in the neighboring country. The functions of his department were reduced mainly to the collection of information. Moreover, the main role in obtaining information was played by representatives of the Soviet special services located at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the CPC in Yan'an, as well as in Chongqing, the country's temporary capital, where the negotiations between the CPC and the Kuomintang took place. The defeat of Japan and the end of World War II changed the form and the possibilities of relations between the VKP(b) and the CPC.

The article is dedicated to determining the contribution of Russian Sinologists to the practice of introducing historical sources into scientific circulation in the history of the Communist Party of China in 1921-1949. The documents of the CPC and the Comintern are the most important sources for studying the process of the formation and evolution of the party, its transformation process. Formation of the source studies of the history of the party began shortly after the foundation of the CPC and was associated, first of all, with the collecting documents by the country's Sinology centres and the integration of historical sources into scientific practice. Sinology organizations were involved in the publication of source documents and materials on the history of the Chinese Communist Party. Along with the changes in the political situation, the national Sinology was reorganized, as well as the centres for studying the national revolutionary movement in China. Scholars of a number of research centres, especially the team of historians of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Soviet/Russian Academy of Sciences have made a significant contribution to the source studying of the history of the CPC.

The article provides an overview of interactive teaching methods and educational technologies which are used by authors during laboratory work. The possibilities and the practical value of using these methods in higher education are demonstrated.