Chapter 6 Conversations with Long March and Aidi[1]

(March 14, 1956) Long March: When will the fourth volume of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" be published? Mao Zedong: It was delayed because I was slow at work.Before publishing, I want to read what I wrote in the past again, but I am too lazy to read it.Few are completely satisfied with what has been published.For example, "On Practice" is relatively satisfactory, while "On Contradiction" is not very satisfactory. When the first draft of "On New Democracy" was written, the view that the first 80 years of China's nearly 100-year history was a stage and the next 20 years was a stage gradually became clear, so it was rewritten and revised after repeated revisions. draft. "On Coalition Government" just arranged the political platform, not much processing, not good.

Zhou Enlai: "On the Coalition Government" had a great mobilization force and effect at that time, even greater than "On New Democracy". Ai Di: After the third volume of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" was published, does Chairman Mao have any plans to revise the first and second volumes? Chairman Mao: I don't have any plans yet, but I just thought that I could add some annotations. Ai: There is an article[2] in "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" that discusses the issue of revolutionary armed struggle. I don't know whether it refers to the characteristics of China, or refers to all countries.

Chairman Mao: That is not only about China's problems, but also foreign countries. Ai: Do you still say that now? Mao: It is still said that way now.Comrade Pollett also mentioned this issue and asked whether it should be revised.We disagree with Comrade Pollett on this question. [3] Whether or not to engage in armed struggle is not something we can decide unilaterally, and we are not the chief of staff of the bourgeoisie.We can and should say that we want to fight for peace and advance to socialism; but it should also be said that even if we do not say it for a while, we must think about it in this way. When the bourgeoisie attacks with armed forces, we will be forced to fight with arms achieve revolutionary victory.Engels once said that under certain conditions, Britain and the United States can also peacefully enter socialism. [4] But in the twentieth century, in the era of imperialism, the United States and Britain both became imperialist countries, and the situation was different.Lenin no longer said that.Naturally, it is also conceivable that in the future, under the condition that the entire balance of power in the world has undergone fundamental changes, a small number of countries may no longer go through internal armed struggles to peacefully win the revolution.The element of strength is important, including armed forces.Now our camp only includes one-third of the countries in the world.When we account for the majority or the overwhelming majority, there will be some countries surrounded by our enormous strength, who will peacefully win revolutionary victories without going through internal armed struggles.In a country where the bourgeoisie controls the state organs and the army, if we only plan to achieve a peaceful victory in the revolution, we will suffer a loss, because we are not the chief of staff of the bourgeoisie. He does not decide whether to let you win a peaceful victory. to your subjective wishes.We now also say that we want to fight for the peaceful liberation of Taiwan, but we are not the chief of staff of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek, and we cannot answer for them.

Ai: Many comrades in Indonesia believe that Chairman Mao's thinking is mature, and writing articles must be completed in one go, and there is no need to revise them. Chairman Mao: Such a statement is unrealistic.Our minds and thoughts reflect objective reality, and it is impossible for anyone to reflect it completely correctly and without error at any time.Objective reality is intricate and constantly evolving.The reflection of our minds and thoughts on objective reality is a process of development and change from incomplete to more complete, not very clear to more clear, not deep to deeper, and at the same time, it must develop and change with the development and change of objective reality.When writing "On New Democracy", many things were not clear at the beginning, but gradually became clear during the writing process, and after repeated revisions, the meaning was expressed more accurately.Many of the articles written in the past are not satisfactory now.Superstition is bad.You listen to our opinions, analyze them, and proceed from the reality of your own country. Our opinions on China’s domestic issues are not all wrong at all, let alone use it to deal with foreign affairs. Some of the stories are not true and are not believable.For example, a newspaper in Hong Kong said that I once went to see a wounded soldier 40 miles away from Yan'an in the middle of the night, because he said that he must see Chairman Mao before he died.Actually there is no such thing.I went to see the wounded soldier, but it was in Yan'an, and during the daytime, I didn't go to see him at the request of a wounded soldier who was dying.There is also a story that said that I did not believe in God when I was eight years old and became an atheist.But at that time I still believed in God, and later I was an idealist and anarchist.What the article said was not true.That is also a kind of superstition, which is not good.

Published based on the transcript of the conversation kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is the main part of the conversation.Long March (1907-1988), was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Labor Party at that time.Aidi (1923-1965), was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Indonesia at that time. [2] Refers to "War and Strategic Issues" (the second volume of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", People's Publishing House, 1991 edition, pp. 541-554).

[3] Pollett (1890-1960), was the general secretary of the Central Committee of the British Communist Party at that time.On March 29, 1954, he sent a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, suggesting that when they were translating the second volume of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", they planned to delete the first two paragraphs of the article "Problems of War and Strategy" from the English translation.In these two paragraphs, Mao Zedong pointed out: "The central task and highest form of the revolution is to seize power by force, and to solve problems by war. This Marxist-Leninist revolutionary principle is universally correct, whether in China or abroad, it is absolutely correct. "But under the same principle, as far as the proletarian party implements this principle under various conditions, it is inconsistent because of the different conditions." On August 23 of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China replied to Pollett , clearly stated: We cannot agree to the proposal to delete the first two paragraphs of "Problems of War and Strategy" in the English translation of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", "because the principles mentioned by Comrade Mao Zedong in this document are the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism. The truth does not need to be revised due to changes in the international situation. Moreover, "Mao Zedong's Selected Works" has been published in Russian and other foreign language editions, and no revisions have been made."

[4] See Engels' Criticism of the Draft Social Democratic Program in 1891.The original text is: "It can be imagined that in a country where the people's representative organ concentrates all power in its own hands and can act as it pleases in accordance with the constitution as long as it obtains the support of the majority of the people, it is possible for the old society to grow into a new society peacefully, such as in Democratic republics like France and America, and monarchies like England". (Volume 4 of Selected Works of Marx and Engels, People's Publishing House, 1995 edition, p. 411)