Chapter 15 Strengthen the unity of the party and inherit the tradition of the party[1]

(August 30, 1956) The preparatory meeting for the Eighth National Congress[2] will be held today.The preparatory meeting will last more than ten days. The main tasks to be done are firstly preparing the documents for the meeting, secondly conducting the pre-selection of the Central Committee, and thirdly preparing speeches for the meeting. Now I would like to make a few comments. The first point concerns the purpose and purpose of the General Assembly.What problems will this congress solve and what goals will it achieve? Generally speaking, it is to sum up the experience since the Seventh National Congress[3], to unite the whole Party, to unite all forces at home and abroad that can be united, and to strive for the building of a great socialist China .

Regarding summing up experience, our experience is very rich, but we cannot list many things, but we must grasp the key points, proceed from reality, and summarize them from the Marxist point of view.Summing it up in this way will give our whole party an impetus to do our work better than in the past. Our party is a great, glorious and correct party, which is recognized all over the world.In the past, some foreign comrades doubted: What are you doing? Many people don't understand our policy towards the national bourgeoisie, and they don't know much about our rectification movement.Now, I see that more people understand it, and it can be said that they generally understand it.Of course, there will be some people who don't understand.In China, and even within the Party, there are still some people who don't understand it, and think that the line since the Seventh National Congress may not be so correct.However, the fact is before us that we have carried out two revolutions: one is the bourgeois democratic revolution to seize national power; the other is the proletarian socialist revolution to carry out socialist transformation and build a socialist country.In the eleven years since the Seventh National Congress, we have made great achievements, which are recognized by the whole country and the whole world, and even the foreign bourgeoisie have to admit it.The two revolutions proved that from the Seventh National Congress to the present, the line of the Party Central Committee is correct.

The October Revolution overthrew the bourgeoisie, which was a novelty in the world.With regard to this revolution, the international bourgeoisie does not care what it is and criticizes it a lot, but it always speaks badly.The Russian bourgeoisie is a counter-revolutionary class. At that time, he quit state capitalism. He sabotaged, sabotaged, and took up guns to fight.The Russian proletariat had no choice but to get rid of him.This angered the bourgeoisie of various countries, and they cursed people.Our treatment of the national bourgeoisie is a little more relaxed, so he feels more comfortable and feels that there are some benefits.Now Eisenhower and Dulles [4] do not allow American journalists to come to China, in fact, they admit that our policy has this advantage.If our place is in a mess, they will let those people come here to write swearing articles.They are just afraid that if the articles they write do not specifically scold people, but also say something nice, it will be difficult to handle that matter.

In the past, China was said to be the "big empire", the "sick man of East Asia", with a backward economy and culture, and it did not pay attention to hygiene. Not so good, foreign moons are always cooler, all in all, there are many bad things.However, after these six years of reform, we have changed the face of China.No one can deny our achievements. At the heart of leading our revolutionary cause is our Party.To sum up the experience of this conference, we must first make the whole party more united.Our Party had 10.73 million members as of June.We must carry out extensive education, persuasion and solidarity work with these tens of millions of Party members so that they can better play a central role among the people.It is not enough to have the party alone. The party is a core, and it must have the masses.Ninety percent of our specific work, including industry, agriculture, commerce, culture and education, etc., is not done by Party members, but by non-Party members.Therefore, we must unite the masses well and unite all those who can be united to work together.In the past, we still had many problems in uniting the whole Party and people outside the Party.We must carry out publicity and education at and after this Congress, and improve our work in this area.

Internationally, we must unite all forces that can be united in the world. First of all, unite with the Soviet Union, unite with fraternal parties, countries and peoples, and unite with all peace-loving countries and peoples, and draw on all useful forces.It is a very good thing that representatives of the Communist Parties from more than 50 countries have come to our congress this time.In the past we did not gain national power, did not win two revolutions, and did not achieve achievements in construction, but now it is different.Foreign comrades are more respectful to us. What is the purpose of us uniting all forces that can be united inside and outside the Party and at home and abroad? To build a great socialist country.A country like ours can and should use the words "great".Our party is a great party, our people are great people, our revolution is a great revolution, and our construction is a great construction.With a population of 600 million, there is only one country on earth, and that is us.In the past, people looked down on us for a reason.Because you have not contributed much, steel is only hundreds of thousands of tons a year, and it is still in the hands of the Japanese.During the twenty-two years of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship of the Kuomintang, only tens of thousands of tons were produced a year.We don’t have much now, but we’re starting to make some progress. This year it will be more than 4 million tons, and next year it will exceed 5 million tons. The second five-year plan will exceed 10 million tons, and the third five-year plan will be possible. More than 20 million tons.We will work hard to achieve this goal.Although there are almost one hundred countries in the world, there are only a few countries with more than 20 million tons of steel.Therefore, when our country is built, it will be a great socialist country, which will completely change the situation of being backward, looked down upon by others, and unlucky in the past one hundred years, and will catch up with the world. The most powerful capitalist country is the United States.The United States only has a population of 170 million. Our population is several times larger, our resources are also abundant, and our climate conditions are similar to theirs. It is possible to catch up.Should it catch up? Absolutely.What are you doing with your 600 million people? Are you sleeping? Should you be sleeping or should you be doing work? If you say that you should do work, there are 170 million people with 100 million tons of steel, and your 600 million people can’t do it with 200 million tons. Ton, 30 million tons of steel? If you can't catch up, then you have no reason, then you are not so glorious, and you are not so great.The United States was founded only 180 years ago, and its steel was only 4 million tons 60 years ago. We are 60 years behind it.If we have another fifty or sixty years, we should completely overtake it.This is a responsibility.You have so many people, you have such a big land, you have so many resources, and it is said that you have developed socialism, which is said to be superior, but after 50 or 60 years, you still cannot surpass the United States. What do you look like? ?Then you will be expelled from the earth! Therefore, surpassing the United States is not only possible, but also absolutely necessary and should be done.If this is not the case, then our Chinese nation will be sorry to all nations in the world, and our contribution to mankind will not be great.

The second point is about inheriting the party's tradition.This congress should continue to carry forward the fine traditions of our Party in terms of ideology and style of work, effectively oppose subjectivism and sectarianism, and also oppose bureaucracy.I will not talk about bureaucracy today, only subjectivism and sectarianism.These two things happen again after sweeping, and sweep again after happening. The so-called making mistakes means that subjective mistakes are made, and that thinking is wrong.Many articles that we have seen criticizing Stalin's mistakes just did not mention this issue, or rarely mentioned this issue.Why did Stalin make mistakes? It was because his subjectivity did not match the objective reality on some issues.There are still many such things in our work now.Subjectivism means not proceeding from objective reality, not from realistic possibilities, but from subjective wishes.The documents stipulated and discussed in the documents of our congress should conform to and be as close as possible to China's reality.At the same time, based on our past experience, we must criticize views that do not conform to reality, criticize this subjectivism, and combat this subjectivism.We started to propose this task a few years ago.Now, what we are opposing is subjectivism in the socialist revolution and socialist construction.In the past, during the democratic revolution, we suffered from subjectivism for a long time and were severely punished. We almost lost all our base areas and over 90% of our revolutionary strength. It was only at this time that we began to wake up.After the Yan'an rectification movement[5], we focused on investigation and research, and proceeded from reality to clarify this issue.The universal truth of Marxism must be integrated with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution. If it is not integrated, it will not work.That is to say, theory and practice should be unified.The unity of theory and practice is one of the most basic principles of Marxism.According to dialectical materialism, thinking must reflect objective reality, and must be tested in objective practice and proved to be truth, then it is considered truth, otherwise it is not.Our work in the past few years has achieved results, but the faults of subjectivism are everywhere.Not only now, but also in the future.Subjectivism will always exist, ten thousand years, ten million years, as long as human beings are not destroyed, there will always be.Where there is subjectivism, mistakes are always made.

There is another thing called sectarianism.A place has a local overall situation, a country has a national overall situation, and an earth has a global global situation.Now we don’t talk about it outside the earth, because the transportation route hasn’t been opened up yet.If we find people on Mars or Venus, then we will negotiate about uniting them and building a united front.Now we are talking about the unity of the party, the country and the world.Our principle is that no matter who you are, whether you are a foreign party or a foreign non-party person, as long as it is of some use to the cause of world peace and human progress, we should unite.The first is to unite dozens of Communist parties and unite the Soviet Union.Because the Soviet Union has made some mistakes, it has been talked about and boasted about a lot, as if the mistakes were serious, and this kind of observation is inappropriate.It is impossible for any nation not to make mistakes, not to mention that the Soviet Union was the first socialist country in the world with such a long experience, it is impossible not to make mistakes.What is the location of the mistakes made by the Soviet Union, like Stalin's mistakes? They are partial and temporary in nature.Although I have heard that something has been going on for twenty years, it is always temporary, partial, and correctable.The mainstream, the main aspect, and the majority of the Soviet Union are correct.Russia produced Leninism and became the first socialist country after the October Revolution.It built socialism, defeated fascism, and became a powerful industrial country.It has many things we can learn.Of course, it is necessary to learn advanced experience, not to learn backward experience.The slogan we have always raised is to learn from the advanced experience of the Soviet Union. Who wants you to learn from the backward experience? Some people, no matter what happens, even the farts of the Soviets are delicious, and that is also subjectivism.The Soviets themselves said it stinks! Therefore, we need to analyze it.We have said that we should be open to Stalin.The main thing, a lot of them, is good and useful; some of them are wrong.Some of our things are bad, and we have to throw them away, let alone other countries to learn these bad things.However, bad things are also a kind of experience, and they also have a great effect.We have people like Chen Duxiu, Li Lisan, Wang Ming, Zhang Guotao, Gao Gang and Rao Shushi[6] who are our teachers.In addition, we have other faculty members.Domestically speaking, the best teacher is Chiang Kai-shek.Those who are not convinced by us can be persuaded once Chiang Kai-shek teaches them.What method does Chiang Kai-shek use to teach? He uses machine guns, cannons, and airplanes to teach.There is also the teacher of imperialism, which has educated our 600 million people.For more than a hundred years, several imperialist powers have oppressed us and educated us.Therefore, bad things have an educational function and a reference function.

The fight against sectarianism, which is particularly worth mentioning, is to unite those who have fought against themselves.He fought with you and knocked you to the ground. You suffered a loss and your face was dull, but you were not so bad, but he called you an "official" and called an opportunist.As for fighting rightly, you should fight. You are opportunistic, why shouldn't you fight? I am talking about fighting wrongly, fighting wrongly.If those people change their attitude later and admit that they hit you wrong, and that it is inappropriate to call you the king of an opportunistic kingdom, as long as there is this one thing.If individual people still do not admit it, can they wait? It is also possible to wait.The so-called unity is to unite with those who disagree with themselves, those who look down on themselves, those who do not respect themselves, those who have had trouble with themselves, those who have fought against themselves, and those who have suffered in front of them.As for those who share the same opinion, they are already united, and there will be no question of unity.The problem is that which is not yet united.Those who are not yet united are those who have different opinions or have major shortcomings.For example, in our party now, there are many people who have joined the party organizationally but have not yet joined the party ideologically. It is bound to be inappropriate, have some shortcomings, or do some bad things.For this group of people, we must unite with them, educate them, and help them.I said before that for anyone who has shortcomings or has made mistakes, we should not only see whether he corrects, but also help him correct. One is to observe and the other is to help.If you just watch, stand there and watch how you are doing, that's fine if you do well, and you will suffer if you don't do well.This attitude is a negative one, not a positive one.Marxists should adopt a positive attitude, not only to watch, but also to help.

The third point concerns the election of the Central Committee.Just now Comrade Deng Xiaoping [7] said that the number of members of the Eighth Central Committee is 150 to 170 people.The Seventh Central Committee has seventy-seven members, and this time it will be more than doubled, which may be more appropriate.It may be more beneficial to wait a few years, such as five years, to expand at that time.Now, many useful talents were cultivated during the War of Resistance Against Japan. These are the so-called "March 8th" cadres.They are a very important basis for our current work, and we cannot do without them.But there are a lot of cadres in this part. If arrangements are made, the number of cadres in this session of the Central Committee will increase to hundreds of people.So this time I will not consider the arrangement.Comrades, please consider whether the number of 150 to 170 proposed by the Central Committee is appropriate or not.

It should be affirmed that the previous Central Committee did a good job and lived up to the entrustment of the Seventh Congress.In eleven years, they have correctly led China's democratic revolution, socialist revolution and socialist construction without any serious failure, and have fought against all kinds of opportunism and wrong things. Fighting and overcoming all kinds of factors that are not conducive to revolution and construction.They have achieved results, including some comrades who made mistakes.This is about the Central Committee as a whole.As for individual comrades, they cannot be estimated that way.In particular, Wang Ming, for the sake of coping with the Seventh Congress, wrote a written statement, acknowledging the correct line of the Central Committee, acknowledging the political report of the Seventh Congress, and willing to obey the decision of the Congress.However, when I talked to him later, he turned over again, and he forgot that thing.He went back and thought about it, and said the next day, I wrote something, and I admitted a mistake.I said, you admitted it at that time, if you don't admit it now, you can also withdraw it.He did not withdraw.Later, at the Second Plenary Session[8], we hoped that he would talk about his own mistakes, but he talked about other things, only talking about how good we people are.We said, you don't have to say these things, but you tell Wang Ming what mistakes you made, and he won't do it.He promised to write a reflection after the Second Plenary Session.But later he said that he was sick and couldn't use his brain, and his illness came when he wrote.Maybe he did it on purpose, that's hard to say.He has been ill and cannot attend this meeting.Should he be elected? And should Comrade Li Lisan be elected? More people forgive Li Lisan, but fewer people forgive Wang Ming.As Comrade Xiaoping said, if we elect them, the meaning is the same as electing them at the Seventh National Congress.During the Seventh Congress, many representatives were unwilling to elect them (not only Wang Ming, but quite a few comrades).We said at the time that if we adopted this policy, we would make mistakes.We don't elect people who make mistakes, why is it called making mistakes? Because that's doing things according to their way.Their method is that no matter whether you made a real mistake or a fake mistake, once you declare that you are an opportunist, you don't want to.If we do the same, we will follow their line, that is, Wang Ming's line or Li San's line.Don't do such things, let us follow the Wang Ming line and Li San line, and don't do it.The intra-Party relations they engage in are just that kind of relations. They don't want those who have made mistakes, or those who have fought against them, or scolded them for being opportunistic.They label themselves as 100% Bolsheviks, but later investigation shows that they are 100% opportunists, while those of us whom they label as "opportunists" are somewhat Marxist.

Here, the most basic truth is that they are not isolated individuals, but represent a considerable part of the petty bourgeoisie.China is a country with a large petty bourgeoisie.A considerable portion of the petty bourgeoisie is vacillating.For example, the well-to-do middle peasants, as you can see, no matter which revolution they are in, they are always wavering and unsteady, they can go crazy when they are happy, and they can become dejected when they are pessimistic.What their eyes often see is their little property, which is nothing more than one or two livestock, a cart, or more than ten acres of land.They worry about gains and losses, for fear of losing these things.Such people are different from poor peasants.China's poor peasants account for 50 percent in the north and 70 percent in the south.In terms of composition, our party is basically composed of workers and poor peasants, that is, the proletariat and semi-proletariat.The semi-proletariat is also the petty bourgeoisie, but its firmness is much better than that of the middle peasants.Our party has also absorbed some intellectuals. Among the more than 10 million party members, intellectuals of large, medium and small sizes account for about one million.It is difficult to say that these one million intellectuals represent imperialism, the landlord class, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, or the national bourgeoisie. It is more appropriate to classify them as the petty bourgeoisie.Which part of the petty bourgeoisie do they mainly represent? That part of the people in the cities and countryside who have more means of production, such as the well-to-do middle peasants.This part of the party members who are intellectuals is afraid of the dragon and the tiger, often wavering, the most subjectivism, and a lot of sectarianism.What do we mean by electing the two representatives of the Wang Ming line and the Li San line? This means that we treat people who make ideological mistakes the same way we treat counter-revolutionaries and separatists (such as Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao, Gao Gang, Jao Shushi) those people) there is a difference.They engage in subjectivism and sectarianism with open flames, beating gongs and drums, and come up with their own political program to conquer others.Wang Ming had a political program, and Li Lisan also had a political program.Of course, Chen Duxiu also has a political platform, but he engages in Trotskyism, splitting, and anti-Party activities outside the party.Zhang Guotao conspired and split, and went to the Kuomintang.Therefore, the problems of Wang Ming and Li Lisan are not only their personal problems, but also have their social causes.This kind of social reason is reflected in our party, that is, a considerable number of people in the party will be shaken when encountering important junctures.This wavering is opportunism.The so-called opportunism means doing one thing if it is beneficial here, and doing another thing if it is beneficial there. There is no definite principle, no definite charter, no definite direction. He is one way today and another tomorrow.For example, Wang Ming is like this. In the past, he was extremely "left", and later he was extremely right. At the Seventh Congress, we persuaded those comrades and elected Wang Ming and Li Lisan.So, in the past eleven years since the Seventh National Congress, have we lost anything? No loss, and our revolution has not lost victory or been delayed by a few months because of the election of Wang Ming and Li Lisan. Is it because they are elected and those who make mistakes are rewarded? If those who made mistakes become members of the Central Committee, then let us all make mistakes together. There is a chance to be a member of the Central Committee. Will it be like this? Nor will it so.You see, our seventy-odd members of the Central Committee did not deliberately make a few mistakes in order to become members of the Central Committee again.Those who have not become members of the Central Committee, whether it is before the "March 8th Form", whether it is "March 8th Form", or after the "March 8th Form", will they follow the example of Wang Ming and Li Lisan, and also develop two lines and become four line, so as to strive to become a member of the Central Committee? No, no one is like this, but in view of their mistakes, I am more cautious. Also, there used to be a saying that "early revolution is worse than late revolution, and revolution is worse than no revolution". Then, if they are elected, will there be problems in the party such as being right is not as good as wrong, and small mistakes are not as good as big mistakes? Wang Ming , Li Lisan made a wrong line, and if they were to be elected as members of the Central Committee, the result would be to have two positions vacated by those who were correct or those who made minor mistakes, and let them take the stage.Is this arrangement the most unfair in the world? From this point of view, it is very unfair: You see, the person who is right or makes a small mistake should give up his position to the person who made a big mistake. Obviously unfair, there is no justice here.If we compare it this way, we should admit that it is the so-called right that is not as good as wrong, and small mistakes that are not as good as big ones.However, from another point of view, it is not the case.They are famous throughout the country and the world for making mistakes in line, and the reason for electing them is that they are famous.What can you do? They are famous, but your reputation for not making mistakes and making small mistakes is not as great as them.In our country, where there is a vast petty bourgeoisie, they are the banner.After electing them, many people will say this: The Communist Party is still waiting for them, and would rather give them two positions so that they can correct their mistakes.Whether they change it is another question, that question is very small, just the two of them.The problem is that there are so many petty bourgeois in our society, there are so many petty bourgeois vacillators in our party, and there are many such vacillators among the intellectuals. They want to follow this example.When they see that these two flags are still there, they are comfortable, they can sleep well, and they are happy.As soon as you put those two flags down, they panic.Therefore, it is not a question of whether Wang Ming and Li Lisan reform or not. Whether they reform or not has little to do with it. What matters is the millions of elements in the party who are easily shaken and come from the petty bourgeoisie, especially the intellectuals. What is the attitude of Wang Ming and Li Lisan?Just like how we treated the rich peasants during the land reform[9], the middle peasants will feel at ease if we do not touch the rich peasants.If our Eighth National Congress adopts the same attitude towards them as the Seventh National Congress, then our party can gain a benefit, that is, it will be easier to remould the vast petty bourgeoisie in the country.This also has ramifications around the world.Few people in foreign countries adopt our attitude towards those who make mistakes. It can be said that there are none. Counting from today, the preparatory meeting for our congress will only take more than a dozen days, but if it is well arranged, the preparation work can be done well.We believe that this conference can be held successfully, and the level of the delegates can guarantee the success of this conference.But we must work hard and work hard. Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the first meeting of the preparatory meeting of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. [2] The Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in Beijing from September 15 to 27, 1956.This congress analyzed the situation after the socialist transformation of private ownership of the means of production was basically completed, and proposed the task of comprehensively launching socialist construction.Mao Zedong made an opening speech, Liu Shaoqi made a political report, Zhou Enlai made "Report on Proposals for the Second Five-Year Plan for Developing the National Economy", Deng Xiaoping made "Report on Amending the Party's Constitution"; Zhu De, Chen Yun, Dong Biwu and others made speeches Important statement.The Congress passed the "Resolution on the Political Report", the "Constitution of the Communist Party of China" and "Proposals on the Second Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy (1958-1962)", and elected a new of the Central Committee.This congress formulated the correct line and pointed out the direction for the development of the socialist cause and the building of the party. [3] 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 Revising the Party Constitution"; Zhou Enlai made an important speech on the issue of unifying the wool.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. [4] Eisenhower (1890-1969), an American Republican, was the President of the United States at that time.Dulles (1888-1959), an American Republican, served as the US Secretary of State at the time. [5] Yan'an Rectification Movement, see note [13] on page 59 of this volume. [6] Chen Duxiu, see note [3] on page 56 of this volume.Li Lisan, see note [7] on page 75 of this volume.Wang Ming, see note [16] on page 47 of this volume.Zhang Guotao, see note [12] on page 58 of this volume.For Gao Gang and Rao Shushi, see Note [7] on page 45 of this volume. [7] Xiaoping, that is, Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), a native of Guang'an, Sichuan.At that time, he was a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Secretary General of the Central Committee. [8] The Second Plenary Session of the Central Committee refers to the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Xibaipo Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province from March 5 to 13, 1949.Mao Zedong made a report to the plenary session.Based on Mao Zedong's report, the meeting put forward various policies to promote the rapid national victory of the Chinese revolution and organize this victory; it discussed that under the situation of winning the national victory, the center of gravity of the party's work must be shifted from the countryside to the cities, and urban work must be based on production The issue centered on construction; stipulated the basic policies that the party should adopt in the fields of politics, economy, and foreign affairs after the victory of the whole country, especially focused on analyzing the conditions of various components of the Chinese economy at that time and the correct policies that the party must adopt, and pointed out that China The direction of development from an agricultural country to an industrial country, from a new-democratic society to a socialist society; calls on the whole party to maintain a style of humility, prudence, no arrogance, no impetuosity, and hard work in the face of victory. [9] Land reform, see note [2] on page 3 of this volume.