Chapter 55 Summing up experience, educating cadres [1]

(June 12, 1961) The two Zhengzhou meetings[2] were hastily held.At that time, I didn't know much about how to implement socialism in China.The first time was to move Stalin and talk about "Economic Problems of Socialism in the Soviet Union" written by him.The second time is to hold meetings in three batches, the first batch is one day, and the last batch is one and a half days.How can this solve the problem? At that time, I thought to dismiss the meeting early, because the spring plowing came in March.If you want to figure out the problem, one or two days is not enough.Time is running out, and it can only be persuasion, not persuasion.At that time, many comrades came to talk to me, and I could get through to you, but you couldn't get through.After a day or two, how can we get through? After the Lushan Conference, where did we go wrong? The mistake was that we should not have passed the resolution on Peng, Huang, Zhang, and Zhou [3] down to the county level.It should be conveyed to the county, and below the county level continue to implement the "Zhengzhou Conference Minutes" [4], the eighteen articles of the Shanghai Conference, and continue to oppose "Left".Once anti-rightists create a false impression, it's okay, production is booming, but it's not like that.The problems of Peng, Huang, Zhang, and Zhou can be conveyed within a small area of ​​hundreds of thousands of people, and it will be fine if the army does not get the company and the local area does not get the commune.If it goes on, many "Right opportunists" will emerge.Looking at it now, I made a mistake, labeling good people and honest people as "Right opportunists" or even "counter-revolutionaries."Of course, the Zhengzhou meeting was basically correct, and the eighteen points put forward by the Shanghai meeting were also basically correct, but they were not correct about the issue of canteens and the supply system.[5]In April 1959, I convened in Beijing the Standing Committee of the Central Committee and some comrades attending the National People's Congress in Beijing for a discussion, and I wrote the six articles to the cadres at the sixth level[6].Those six points are tantamount to farting, because many of our cadres at all levels do not understand what socialism is, what is pay according to work, and what is exchange of equal value.In the spring of 1960, it was seen that the "communist wind" was coming again.First, comrades from the central and southern provinces were convened in Guangzhou for a three-hour meeting, and the time was so short.Then in Hangzhou, comrades from provinces in East China and Southwest China were called to hold a meeting for three or four days. The topics were not concentrated, and some issues such as small blast furnaces, technological innovation and technological revolution, mechanization and semi-mechanization were inserted into it. Tune [7] did not become the center.There can only be one center at a time, and one center is fine.A lot of files will be sent at one time, and it is not good without a center.Later, comrades from the provinces of Northeast, Northwest, and North China were called for a meeting in Tianjin, but the problem was not resolved.At that time, several large-scale projects were advocated: large-scale water conservancy, large-scale county communal industry, large-scale pig farms, large-scale transportation, and large-scale culture and education.When these five "big offices" come, it's terrible! Isn't that the "communist style" coming again? At the Beidaihe Conference[8] in July and August last year, 70 to 80 percent of the time was spent on international issues, leaving only Talking about food issues and agricultural issues with one tail did not criticize the egalitarianism of the two.The thorough solution to the problem of the first leveling and the second adjustment began with the issuance of the Twelve Directives[9] in November.During the implementation of the twelve instructions, a mistake occurred, that is, only three types of counties, communes, and teams were established, and the other types of one and two were ignored and left untouched.Henan spent half a year developing the three types of counties, communes, and teams. The first and second types were left untouched. The "communist style", command style, exaggerated style, blind command style, and cadre special style were not generally rectified.When you mention the "five winds", you can rest assured that it is the first or second category. Now, after checking, the "five winds" in those places are very powerful.Therefore, this year's central document [10] stipulates that the first, second, and third types of counties, communes, and teams must generally rectify the "five winds", and those who are robbed will not escape.Now some of the cadres seem to have grasped a little "rule", thinking that it will take about a year to rectify the "five winds", and then the "five winds" will pass and everything will be fine.We can't do that.We have to learn the method that Han Wengong[11] said in "The Essay on Crocodile Sacrifice", "If you can't do it for three days, you can go to five days. If you can't do it for five days, you can go to seven days. If you can't do it for seven days, you will never move." Just hit it and kill it.We also come to three years to five years, five years to seven years, seven years to ten years, ten years to ten years, and if we refuse to change in the end, then we will be dismissed and investigated.

We must do a good job in investigation and research, and we must implement the mass line.You must resolutely return the flat property, but don't have a gift point of view.There is another one, everyone who has been wronged must be rehabilitated. The problem now is one of educating cadres.All of you here are gentlemen, because we have educated ourselves.Through the Guangzhou Conference[12] and this Beijing Conference, we have cleared our minds, and we must set an example to educate cadres, educating cadres at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels, and first of all, educating cadres at the three levels.After the education of these three-level cadres is complete, they will go back to educate the cadres at the first level of the commune, the first level of the brigade, and the first level of the small team.

During the period of the democratic revolution, we also educated cadres for a long time.Chen Duxiu[13] did not understand the democratic revolution, and followed a right-leaning opportunist line, which resulted in the failure of the revolution, leaving only a few thousand of the 50,000 party members.He fought guerrilla warfare in the mountains for ten years.In the past ten years, we have made three "Left" mistakes[14], and the Long March has educated us.Then there was the Yan'an Rectification Movement[15], and several books such as "Since the Sixth National Congress" and "Two Lines" were compiled. From 1942 to the first half of 1945, it took three and a half years.It was peaceful and gentle, and the slogan of "learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones, cure diseases and save patients" was put forward. Individuals wrote notes, read documents, and expressed their own thoughts.Before the Seventh National Congress[16] was held, the "Resolution on Certain Historical Issues" was passed.The Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China has become a united congress, realizing the ideological unity of the whole party.From the founding of the Party in 1921 to before the Seventh National Congress in 1945, our Party was not completely unified ideologically in the twenty-four years. First, there was Chen Duxiu's Right opportunism, and then there were three "Left" opportunisms.There are many schools of thought, each doing its own thing.There are two main factions: one is subjectivism, that is, dogmatism, and the other is non-dogmatism.After the Yan'an rectification movement and the Seventh National Congress, our party has a set of unified things in politics, military affairs, economic policy, cultural policy, and party building.Why didn’t mistakes happen in the three-plus years of the Liberation War? Why did people who opposed it in the past also approve of it? For example, in the military, some people used to be afraid of smashing pots and pans, and wanted to keep the enemy out of the country. Hitting people with fists, advocating regular warfare, and opposing guerrilla warfare, and this period is all good at luring the enemy to go deep.This is because the cadres were educated, especially the Yan'an rectification movement educated the cadres.During the period of socialist revolution and socialist construction, we have not carried out such a meticulous rectification.In my opinion, from now on, we must use the sixty articles[17] to educate cadres for a long time, and it will not be impossible to educate cadres well for decades.

No one has practiced socialism, and no one has first learned the specific policies of socialism and then practiced socialism.We have practiced socialism for eleven years, and now we need to sum up our experience.What I'm talking about today is summing up experience, and I'll talk about it next time.We are historicists, and we tell everyone about history. Only by telling history can we convince people. It took twenty-eight years for the democratic revolution from the founding of the party to its victory.Socialism has only been practiced for eleven years. I think it will be okay to add another eleven years to twenty-two years? I said in a pamphlet[18] that we had no experience in the democratic revolution at the beginning. Only through experience can victory be gained in the end; can the time for gaining experience in socialist revolution and socialist construction be shortened a bit?This is an assumption.Now it seems that when we are all enlightened, we can shorten the time.The democratic revolution lasts 28 years. If the socialist revolution and socialist construction take 22 years, it will be 6 years less than the democratic revolution, and it will take 11 years.Can it be shortened? The experience of the Soviet Union is the experience of the Soviet Union. When they hit a snag, they bumped into a snag, and we have to run into it ourselves.It is like a person suffering from a disease. He has immunity to some diseases after suffering from some diseases, but I have no immunity before suffering from the disease.

Attention must be paid to the leadership method.As I just said, from the Beidaihe Conference, the first Zhengzhou Conference, the Wuchang Conference[19], the second Zhengzhou Conference, the Shanghai Conference, the letter to the cadres at the sixth level, the Lushan Conference, all the way to the Sixty Articles and this conference, Neither solved the problem.If the problem is not resolved, don’t leave it alone, but talk about it. If it is not resolved, it is not resolved, and it is still not resolved! I doubt whether one-third of Ping Tiao’s property has been refunded.I once asked: Is there half of it? Many comrades said that if there is no half, one-third is fine.Hengzhi is knocking on "beef candy". After knocking out a third, knocking another third, and knocking another third, isn't it comfortable after knocking? Resolutely refunding compensation is to educate our party , educate our cadres.I think it is necessary to use the Sixty Articles and the like, plus Stalin's book "Economic Problems of Socialism in the Soviet Union" as study materials.When was Stalin's book written? He did not write it until 1952, after thirty-five years from 1917.Stalin wrote that book after they had been there for thirty-five years.We have only been doing it for eleven years. If we write a book like that now, I don't believe it can be written well.Aren’t textbooks being edited everywhere now? I don’t think they will be used even if they are compiled, but Stalin’s book will still be used.

After the Guangzhou meeting in March and the Beijing meeting this year, the situation this year is quite different from the past.Now comrades have emancipated their minds, and their understanding of socialism and how to build socialism has greatly deepened.Why this change? An objective reason is that in 1959 and 1960 we hit a snag.Some people say that "the head is bleeding when you touch it", but I don't think everyone's head is bleeding. This is nothing more than a metaphor, and it is enough to suffer. Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives.

-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the Central Work Conference of the Communist Party of China.This meeting was held in Beijing from May 21 to June 12, 1961. [2] Refers to the working conference held in Zhengzhou from November 2 to 10, 1958, attended by some central leaders and some local leaders (i.e. the first Zhengzhou conference) and the February 1959 conference. The enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (the second Zhengzhou meeting) was held in Zhengzhou from March 27th to March 5th.

[3] See note [9] on page 231 of this volume. [4] "Zhengzhou Conference Minutes", see note [6] on page 30 of this volume. [5] In the minutes of the Seventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Shanghai from April 2 to 5, 1959, "Eighteen Issues Concerning the People's Commune", it is still affirmed that the people's commune runs canteens and implements the supply system. way of doing. [6] Refers to the six items mentioned in the letter to the six-level cadres on the agricultural issue on April 29, 1959.See pages 48-50 of this volume.

[7] One level and two tunes, see note [1] on page 33 of this volume. [8] Refers to the working conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Beidaihe from July 5 to August 10, 1960. [9] Refers to the "Emergency Instruction Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Concerning Current Policy Issues Concerning Rural People's Commune" dated November 3, 1960, with a total of twelve articles. [10] Refers to the "Summary of Discussions of the Central Working Conference on Rural Rectification and Cooperatives and Some Policy Issues" dated January 20, 1961.

[11] Han Wengong, that is, Han Yu (768-824), a native of Heyang (now Meng County), Henan, was a writer and philosopher in the Tang Dynasty. [12] Refers to the Working Conference of the CPC Central Committee held in Guangzhou from March 15th to 23rd, 1961. [13] Chen Duxiu, see note [7] on page 206 of this volume. [14] Three "left" errors, see note [9] on page 178 of this volume. [15] Refers to a Marxist-Leninist ideological education campaign launched by the Communist Party of China since 1942 throughout the party, which lasted for more than three years.The main content is: oppose subjectivism to rectify the style of study, oppose sectarianism to rectify the party style, and oppose party stereotypes to rectify the style of writing.Through this rectification, the whole party has further grasped the basic direction of the unity of the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism and the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution.

[16] The Seventh National Congress, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, was held in Yan'an from April 23 to June 11, 1945.At the meeting, Mao Zedong made a political report "On the Coalition Government", Zhu De made a military report "On the Battlefields in Liberated Areas", Liu Shaoqi made a "Report on Amending the Party Constitution"; Zhou Enlai made an important speech on the issue of the united front.The congress decided the party's line - "Let's mobilize the masses, strengthen the people's power, under the leadership of our party, defeat the Japanese aggressors, liberate the people of the whole country, and build a new democratic China", adopted a new party constitution, elected New Central Committee.The new party constitution stipulates that Mao Zedong Thought, the thought of the unity of Marxist-Leninist theory and the practice of the Chinese revolution, should serve as the guideline for all the work of the Chinese Communist Party.This congress is a rally of unity, a rally of victory. [17] Refers to the "Regulations on the Work of Rural People's Commune (Amendment Draft)", a total of sixty articles. [18] Refers to "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People", see pages 204-243 of Volume VII of this book. [19] Refers to the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Wuchang from November 28 to December 10, 1958.The meeting passed the "Resolution on Several Issues Concerning the People's Commune."