Chapter 6 〇5. Changzhi, Shanxi: the beginning of agricultural cooperation

The agricultural cooperative experiment started in Changzhi in 1951 made this place the first link in the sequential transformation of China's rural areas. Changzhi is located in the Shangdang Basin in the southeast of Shanxi Province. It leans on Taihang in the east and is adjacent to Hebei and Henan provinces;Changzhi is also a famous rice grain producing area in Shanxi.Changzhi is an important landmark in the evolution process of the land system from "land reform and division of land" to "land collective ownership".During previous wars, the Chinese Communist Party has always relied on measures such as distributing land to local tyrants and land to the tiller to win support in the countryside.But after the founding of the People's Republic of China, why did this way of individual farmers owning and cultivating the land change?Concerns about land re-concentration and a growing wealth gap in the countryside are one answer.The agricultural cooperative that appeared in Changzhi is a key part of this change.

In 1951, five years had passed since the completion of land reform in Shanxi Province. As the first piece of land where the Communist Party gained a firm foothold, the Chinese Communist Party quickly completed land reform here.Beginning in 1942, the old areas of Shanxi began to implement the policy of reducing rent and interest; by 1946, the entire Shanxi Province had completed land distribution.Land to the tiller, every time the regime changes in Chinese history, the new risers will use this method to unite the peasants, let them stand on their side, and jointly oppose the old regime. But the scattered land will always be re-centralized.Of course, according to the research of some historians, this kind of land concentration is not too exaggerated. As we think, after land private ownership and free land trading are allowed, land is highly concentrated, forming the extreme poles of big landlords and poor peasants.

The Shanxi Provincial Party Committee in 1951 discovered the same problem. "What the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee understands is that there have been two new phenomena in rural areas in recent years: one is that the rural class has been divided, some people sell land, there are usury loans, and some farmers hope to develop in the direction of rich peasants; the other is the original long-term mutual aid group , especially the high-level mutual aid groups, are now somewhat disorganized and cannot be consolidated,” wrote Mr. Du Runsheng, an economist of the older generation in China, who once worked for the Central Ministry of Agriculture and Industry, in his memoirs.

Lai Ruoyu, secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee at the time, said in a report to the North China Bureau that some mutual aid groups were strengthened because of the establishment of some provident funds and public property.Later, Lai Ruoyu approached Wang Qian, then secretary of the prefectural committee of Changzhi, and told Wang Qian that Changzhi was an old revolutionary base in the Taihang Mountains, and he should find a way to improve the mutual aid and cooperation organization. "After doing research, Wang Qian thought that the long-term cooperative group could be changed into an agricultural cooperative with land as a share. On the one hand, the distribution is based on work, and on the other hand, the land is allowed to participate in dividends. At the same time, some public property should be accumulated, and it is not allowed to take it away when you quit the cooperative. Farmers’ land does not necessarily belong to the cooperative, and they are allowed to keep some of their own land for self-cultivation. Generally, 80% of it belongs to the cooperative. Collective labor can have division of labor, public property and distribution according to work, which can be used to shake private ownership and make rural areas The production and the degree of organization of farmers can be further improved. Another aspect of the Shanxi report is to consider how to limit the rich peasants within the mutual organization, because they are worried that the mutual aid group will become a rich peasant's "estate".Du Runsheng recalled.

Prior to this, Gao Gang, the leader of the Northeast, also found similar problems.Some peasants began to sell their land, while others began to buy land and hire workers to help them cultivate it—some of them included Communist Party members.Gao Gang's countermeasure is to encourage mutual cooperation, and at the same time discriminate against self-employed households in terms of loans, new farm tools, excellent varieties, and selection of model workers.When the Northeast Bureau reported this issue to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Liu Shaoqi commented: "On the basis of today's rural individual economy, the development of rural capitalism to a certain extent is inevitable. It is not a terrible thing for some party members to develop into rich peasants." Liu Shaoqi It still insists that in the stage of New Democracy (according to the division of the Communist Party of China: the stage of New Democratic Revolution, the stage of Socialist Revolution, and the stage of Communism), within the countryside, private ownership of land and the emergence of rich peasants are normal events in this stage.

However, Wang Qian’s reforms in Changzhi eventually triggered a big debate. The result of this big debate was that China’s rural areas began to promote agricultural cooperation on a large scale, and land ownership began to change from private ownership to state ownership and collective ownership; It has also led to changes in the personal fortunes of some CCP leaders. Those leaders who tended to oppose the large-scale promotion of agricultural cooperatives in these debates, from Deng Zihui, Bo Yibo, Peng Dehuai to Liu Shaoqi, finally had no peace. Wang Qian wrote a report on his experience of establishing a pilot cooperative in Changzhi, and handed it to Lai Ruoyu, Secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee who suggested (or ordered) him to find ways to strengthen mutual aid and cooperative organizations in Changzhi.Lai Ruoyu reported to his superior, Bo Yibo, Secretary of the North China Bureau based on Wang Qian's report.Bo Yibo sent a working group to Shanxi and Changzhi for investigation.After the working group came back, they put forward different views on the Changzhi experiment.At the meeting organized by the North China Bureau, the North China Bureau persuaded the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee to revise their opinions. The general spirit of democracy".Representatives from Shanxi, including Wang Qian, the implementer of the Changzhi Experiment, strongly defended the opinions of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee.

Bo Yibo and his deputy, Liu Lantao, deputy secretary of the North China Bureau, reported the dispute between the North China Bureau and the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee to Liu Shaoqi.The instructions given by Liu Shaoqi are similar to his reply to the North China Bureau: Rural division is inevitable, and it is not terrible. Proposing to use cooperatives to shake private ownership is "a wrong, dangerous, and utopian idea of ​​agricultural socialism." According to Du Runsheng's recollection, Liu Shaoqi also mentioned that after "three years of preparation and ten years of construction", the issue of socialism can be considered. "Because the idea at that time was to industrialize the country first and then collectivize agriculture."

But Mao Zedong expressed his support for the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee’s Changzhi experiment. “Can’t we organize farmers into cooperatives, rely on division of labor and cooperation, and unified management to increase productivity and shake the foundation of private ownership?” Du Runsheng wrote.Mao Zedong conveyed his opinion to Liu Shaoqi, Bo Yibo and Liu Lantao who opposed the Changzhi experiment.At the same time, he instructed Chen Boda to host the first national mutual aid and cooperation meeting to discuss the debate over the Changzhi experiment and agricultural cooperatives. Mao Zedong did not personally attend the meeting.But Mao Zedong suggested that everyone go to a writer who is familiar with farmers and the countryside and listen to his opinions.The writer I found was Zhao Shuli, the master of "Yam Egg Pie".Zhao Shuli's works "Xiao Erhei's Marriage" and "Li Youcai's Banhua" set in rural areas have become classics of literature under the Communist regime.

At the meeting, peasant writer Zhao Shuli had a dispute with pen writer Chen Boda.According to Zhao Shuli's knowledge, farmers are not willing to join cooperatives, even cooperative groups.Zhao Shuli spoke Shanxi dialect, but Chen Boda from Fujian couldn't understand it.And Zhao Shuli couldn't understand Chen Boda's Hokkien dialect.When Zhao Shuli's opinion was told to Chen Boda in a language that Chen Boda could understand, Chen Boda was furious, "You are purely capitalist thinking!" This debate has not been resolved.At least Du Runsheng’s Central South Bureau still insisted on confining mutual aid and cooperation to the scope of “experimental operations.” “We also believed that after the land reform, farmers obtained land from landlords and made it their own property, so they naturally demanded independent management and development. Poor peasants have many difficulties, but they will not be willing to give up their private land rights because of difficulties," Du Runsheng said.

In January 1953, Du Runsheng and Deng Zihui came out from Mao Zedong, and the two exchanged their views on the Shanxi and Changzhi experiments. Du Runsheng’s point of view was still, “Shanxi’s idea of ​​establishing cooperatives on a trial basis was originally possible, but the goal was to shake up private ownership. The potential danger of inducing 'Left' tendencies, such as the premature and complete elimination of the individual economy, etc.; the polarization is also overestimated. In order to develop production, it is natural for land to be adjusted in some ways between farmers."Of course, he also thinks that Liu Shaoqi's accusation that the cooperative impulse represented by the Changzhi experiment is "utopian socialism" is a bit exaggerated.

Deng Zihui, who apparently agreed with Du Runsheng, suggested that Du Runsheng write a report to Mao Zedong.Du Runsheng did not follow suit.When he mentioned his ideas to Chen Boda, Chen Boda was very unhappy, saying that cooperation was Chairman Mao's great creation of Marxism. In the latter part of 1953, the balance had already begun to tilt towards the experiments of Chen Boda and Changzhi. In June 1953, Mao Zedong proposed a general line for the transition from New Democracy to Socialism at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee.The main task in this transitional period is to realize the industrialization of the country and the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce. Mao Zedong believed that the situation of ownership should be changed and private ownership should be eliminated. "If socialism does not occupy the rural positions, capitalism will inevitably occupy them."And the way to occupy the rural positions is large-scale cooperatives, changing the private ownership of farmers' land to state-owned and collectively owned.CCP leaders who disapproved of cooperatives, who spoke well of the private economy but not of cooperatives, were criticized by Mao Zedong, including Liu Shaoqi, Bo Yibo, Deng Zihui, and Chen Yun. In an investigative report, it was stated that farmers in some areas were forced to join cooperatives. "Village cadres set up two tables on the street, each representing two roads, and let the masses choose, saying: 'Socialism, capitalism, two roads, it depends on which one you take, and if you want to take socialism, sign on the table and join the society." ’, whoever does not join the communes wants to follow the path of landlords, rich peasants, bourgeoisie, and the United States,” Du Runsheng recalled. Under the auspices of Deng Zihui, a group of co-operatives established by force were disbanded, which was criticized by Mao Zedong as "presumptuous retreat". In May 1955, Mao Zedong, who was determined to accelerate cooperativeization, told Deng Zihui, "Don't make the mistake of disbanding cooperatives in large numbers in 1953 again, otherwise there will be a review."At the meeting on July 31, Mao Zedong criticized Deng Zihui and the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry for being "like a woman with small feet". However, when Mao Zedong talked to Deng Zihui a few days later (August 3), hoping to speed up the pace of cooperatives and increase the original 1 million cooperatives to 1.3 million, the two sides had another dispute.Mao Zedong told Deng Xiaoping that Deng Zihui's thoughts "must be bombarded with cannonballs." This kind of "big bombardment" took place at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from October 4 to 11, 1955.Deng Zihui, Peng Dehuai and Du Runsheng all conducted self-criticism. After the meeting, there was a so-called socialist upsurge. In October 1955, the proportion of farmers joining cooperatives was 32.5%. By March 1956, the rate reached 80.3%. One month later, it reached 90.3%. Next, at the end of 1956, the rate reached 96.2%, except in Tibet and a few pastoral areas. In addition, the whole country has realized "cooperativeization". This is the result of the final detonation of the Changzhi experiment.