Chapter 7 〇6. Suiping County, Henan Province: The Beginning of Satellites and Commune

Suiping became China's star land in 1958 due to the birth of the first satellite commune. Suiping County is located in the south of Henan Province, north of Zhumadian.The total area is 1,080 square kilometers, and the total population has been around 500,000 since 2000.However, when examining the evolution of China's rural issues in the past 60 years, this small county will be an inescapable landmark, because in 1958, China's first people's commune, the Chayashan Satellite People's Commune, appeared here.The commune revolutionized the previous rural land ownership system and labor distribution system. On November 13, 1958, Mao Zedong visited Suiping for inspection.The form of communes later swept across China and became a common organizational form for socialist construction in rural China.It was not until the big contract in Xiaogang Village that this form was broken.

The triangular flags are one by one, and under the fluttering flags are crowded crowds.It was still hot and people were wearing shorts and half-sleeved shirts or vests.Some young men held gongs in both hands and rang to each other.Under their feet is the uneven ground.If you don't pay attention to its background, everyone will think that it is a traditional festival celebrated by people in a remote village in China.The smiles on people's faces, the gongs in their hands, the dancing postures and the fluttering flags all showed a joyful and festive atmosphere. No one knew that what they were celebrating would eventually sweep across China and turn into a catastrophe against themselves.They celebrated the establishment of the first commune in the People's Republic of China: Suiping County Satellite People's Commune.

The commune was an unprecedented form of organization.Later, when the famous writer and reporter Ling Zhijun described the commune, he said: "The commune will not only have the ability to control production, but also have administrative power. It will also be a social institution and charity, and it can even become a moral kingdom. It is already the 'rudimentary form of communism'". According to Ling Zhijun's account, the concept and name of "Commune" was born on a southbound train.The train's passengers included some of China's most prominent political figures at the time: President Liu Shaoqi, Premier Zhou Enlai, Minister of Propaganda Lu Dingyi, and Deng Liqun. “The four of us were talking about working and studying, about how popular education was, and about communes, utopia, and the transition to communism,” Liu Shaoqi recalled.

As soon as the train arrived at Zhengzhou Railway Station, Liu Shaoqi went back to test this idea with Wu Zhipu, Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee who had come to meet them at the railway station.Next, the train continues southbound.Their destination was Guangzhou, with the purpose of meeting Mao Zedong. Two weeks later, Mao Zedong described his ideal countryside in this way, which would be composed of communes: "At that time, there will be many communist communes in the countryside of our country. Each commune will have its own agriculture, industry, universities, middle schools, and primary schools. There are hospitals, scientific research institutions, shops, scientific research institutions, shops and service industries, transportation, nurseries and public canteens, clubs, and police officers to maintain law and order, etc. Several communes surround the city, and Become a greater communist commune. The 'utopian' ideas of the predecessors will be realized and will be surpassed".

Kang Sheng, who was an alternate member of the Politburo at the time, "also made up a poem that is easy to read and remember, so that farmers who cannot read the language will never forget it after listening to it once: Communism is heaven, and the people's communes are bridges." Wu Zhipu's experimental site is Suiping, a small county in southern Henan Province.Or it is also possible that Suiping itself has become a testing ground for history. The change in Suiping County is to merge the four townships in the county into one large society, which is not only an economic union, but also an armed and public security organization. It has given itself a name, "Satellite Collective Farm". .

In May, Tan Zhenlin, vice premier of the State Council in charge of rural affairs, came to Henan.Tan Zhenlin also knew that Liu Shaoqi asked Wu Zhipu to conduct experiments in Henan. The purpose of his visit to Henan was to see if Wu Zhipu's experiments had produced some results.As a result, he saw this big society called "Satellite".Ling Zhijun said that Tan Zhenlin "gaily told the peasants that what they were running was a 'communist commune'", similar to the Paris Commune. Explaining the prospect of a communist commune to some bewildered peasants, Tan Zhenlin described to them a bright future:

First, there is good food, not just to fill you up.Every meal includes meat, chicken, duck, fish, eggs, and more exquisite foods such as monkey head, bird's nest, seafood, etc., all of which are provided on demand. Second, in terms of clothing, all requirements can be met.There are garments of various colors and varieties, rather than all black and blue.In the future, ordinary clothes will only be used as work clothes. After get off work, people will change into fur clothes, woolen clothes and woolen uniforms. When the people's communes raise foxes, then the coats will be made of fox fur.

Third, the houses are all up to the standards of modern cities.What is modernization?People's Commune.There is heating equipment in the north wing of the house, and air conditioning equipment in the south wing. People live in high-rise buildings. Needless to say, there are electric lights, telephones, running water, radios, and televisions. Fourth, in addition to runners, passengers and pedestrians have transportation, flights go in all directions, every province has an airport, and the days when every place has an aircraft factory are not far away. Fifth, everyone has received higher education and education has become universal.

In the Zhengzhou Provincial Party Committee meeting room, Tan Zhenlin also told comrades in the Suiping County Party Committee Secretariat who were uneasy about his evaluation but eager to see through it, that satellites were of a higher level than Soviet collective farms.So, as soon as the report to Tan Zhenlin was over, the comrades in the Suiping County Party Committee Secretariat immediately called back and asked the staff in the County Party Committee Office to change the names of all the collective farms in Suiping County to communes that night.Therefore, this big commune called Satellite Collective Farm was renamed Satellite Commune.

In mid-May, Li Youjiu, editor of the "Red Flag" magazine, went to Suiping County to investigate.Although Li Youjiu's status was not as prominent as Vice Premier Tan Zhenlin's, with the status of "Red Flag" magazine at that time, its editors stood on a theoretical high ground.The impact of theories at that time on practice is unimaginable to intellectuals and farmers in China today.Li Youjiu suggested to the party secretary of the satellite commune that it is best to include a place name in the name of the commune.What is the most famous place here?Of course, it's time to go to Yashan.But Chaya Mountain is only a small village in the south of Suiping County, and the commune cannot be built there.Li Youjiu said it doesn't matter, the commune can be built in other places, but the name has the place name of Chaya Mountain.Li Youjiu enlightened the party secretary of the commune and said, "Whose commune is this?"

The secretary of the commune replied without thinking: "China belongs to the people, and Chaya Mountain also belongs to the people. The word 'people' should be added before 'commune'." Thus, the first commune of the People's Republic of China had its own official name: Chayashan Satellite People's Commune. The Satellite Commune has lived up to its reputation and released a satellite in the first year of its establishment. During the summer harvest in June, Hanlou Brigade, the experimental site of the deputy secretary of the county party committee, announced that it had achieved a high-yield satellite of 3,821 jin of wheat per mu.This news was amplified by the media eager to prove the advantages of cooperatives and communes, because they knew that Mao Zedong and his political partners who were eager to prove the advantages of cooperatives and communes were eager to get a piece of evidence to prove their own correctness and their opponents' fallacies. On June 18, both "People's Daily" and "Henan Future" reported on the headlines of the Hanlou brigade's high yield of 3,821 jin of wheat per mu. Later, people discovered that the figure of 3,821 jin per mu was calculated by dividing the total yield of 10,210.9 jin of 20 mu of land by 2.9, and adding the yield of 20 mu of land to 2.9 mu. But high-yield satellites have become contagious.No one ever wondered why it was so productive.Or, according to the common sense of the peasants, it is impossible for the cadres and peasants at the grassroots level not to know that Suiping's figure was wrong, it was simply bragging, and he was deceiving the party and Chairman Mao.But the result of the deceit was that both the party and Chairman Mao were in such high spirits.All of a sudden, the instinct of politicians combined with the cunning of peasants turned the summer of 1958 into a communist carnival, or rather a ridiculous hoax. "The false situation was created by modern scientific statistical methods. It first occurred in June 1958, and almost all of it revolved around the output of the land. Suiping, Xiangyang, Weixian, Gucheng, Linzhang, Guanghua, Shangqiu, Huixian, Anguo, Xushui, Xiping, Shantou, Guixi, Minhou, Macheng, Xiaogan, Fanchang, Pixian, Shouzhang, and other small counties are all boasting of their high yields. High yields have become the standard of the entire countryside. Special feature, the record of grain yield per mu is being refreshed every day. On June 8th, the highest record was 1,075 kilograms in the hands of Weixing Commune of Suiping County, Henan Province. Three days later, it was broken by Weixian County, Hebei Province , was 1,197 kilograms. Since then, the record has risen all the way in competitions in various places, 1,332 kilograms on the 16th; 2,206 kilograms on the 18th; 2,344.5 kilograms; on the last day of this month, it was 2,551.5 kilograms. By July, the record was refreshed four times in a row, and the yield per mu was as high as 4,400 kilograms. The record in August increased from 7,500 kilograms to 21,537.5 kilograms. On September 1, the "People's Daily" stated that one mu of wheat in Xushui County, Hebei Province can harvest 60,000 In addition, one mu of yam can harvest 600,000 kilograms. Things have reached such a bizarre level, but they are far from reaching their peak. The highest record was broken by Pi County in Sichuan two weeks later. On the 18th, they said that their rice yield per mu was 412,262.5 kilograms," Ling Zhijun recorded. According to the calculation method of Suiping County, the figure of 3,821 jin per mu is based on the total output of 20 mu of land as the total output of 2.9 mu. Then the highest figure is more than 410,000 kg of rice per mu (note that the unit is kg!), how much total land output is counted as the total output of one mu of land?Finally, the absurd experiment initiated by the Satellite Commune of Suiping County has reached the point of extreme irrationality and absurdity. The question Mao Zedong was worried about at this time was simple: "How can farmers eat so much food?" After reading the news reported in the newspaper, the founder of the People's Republic of China murmured. For many years after that, people could not understand why reason was lost, why common sense was abandoned, and among those who abandoned common sense and lost reason, many people were famous for sticking to common sense and reason. The Satellite Commune started in Suiping reached its climax in Xushui County.Xushui County is located at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain, in the middle of Hebei Province.This is also a county with a long history.The Spring and Autumn Period belonged to the land of ancient Yan, and the Warring States Period was the frontier of the battle between Yan and Zhao.In the early Western Han Dynasty, a county was established.The name Xushui comes from the Xu River in the county seat, which was used to call the county seat in 1913.But Xushui became a landmark in the 60-year history of the People's Republic of China because of its radical position in the upsurge of socialist construction.Its status is just like today's economically developed areas such as Shenzhen and Pudong. On September 1, 1958, the "Ode to the Xushui People's Commune" in "People's Daily" concluded: "The superiority of the people's commune cannot be fully sung, and the brilliant future of the people's commune cannot be fully sung."In the near future, Xushui People's Commune will bring its members to the highest wonderland in human history.