Chapter 13 Twenty-two years of heroic struggle[1]

(July 1, 1943) Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the Communist Party of China and the 6th anniversary of the Anti-Japanese War.Now, all the anti-fascist forces in the whole world and in China, the Communist Party of the world and our Chinese Communist Party have only one task, which is to defeat the common enemy of mankind - the German, Italian and Japanese fascist invaders. China's war of resistance has been going on for six years, which is longer than other countries in terms of time.In the past year, the situation of the world war has fundamentally changed.In the past, countries all over the world were attacked by fascists, and fascists took the initiative to attack all countries in the world, and won battles and oppressed anti-fascist countries in their attacks.That was the situation in the past, that is to say, an unfavorable and difficult situation.The situation now is fundamentally different, a fundamental change has taken place.This change has occurred in the past year.The victory of the Soviet Union's winter offensive, the victory of Britain and the United States in North Africa, the victory of Britain and the United States in the Pacific Ocean, and the persistence of China's war of resistance for six years are the reasons for this fundamental change.Among them, the great victory at Stalingrad [2] played a major decisive role in changing the situation.In the past, the fascist aggressors were very rampant, and the initiative was held in their hands; now, the fascist aggressors have lost the initiative, and the initiative has passed to the Allies[3].The problem for the future is to completely defeat the fascist aggressors.This is divided into two steps, first defeating Germany, and then defeating Japan.The coming year is likely to be the year of the decisive battle in Europe.We said last year that Europe would be ready for a decisive battle in 1942, but later because the second front[4] on the continent of Europe had not been opened up, it did not materialize.The key this year is still this second front on the European continent. The sooner it is established, the sooner victory will come.

In the past, our Communist Party pointed out trends and possibilities in order to make everyone see a bright future amid difficulties.Now the passive state of the Allies has ended and they have turned to the initiative, so what was only a possibility in the past is about to become a reality today.Today Europe has not yet opened up a second front, but it will not be long before this becomes a reality. This is the goal of human efforts all over the world today. As for the Chinese battlefield, if the big boss Hitler is overthrown, then the second boss, Japanese fascism, must also be overthrown.Some people in the rear are not clear about this, and they are not in favor of overthrowing Hitler first, which is wrong.Now the whole world has formed an entire anti-fascist front, and no country is fighting in isolation. Therefore, when deciding on a strategy, we should not only look at the immediate interests of a country, but also look at which fascist country to defeat first. The anti-fascist front is most favorable.Looking at it this way, we can know that after defeating Hitler, the settlement of Japan will be very smooth.

After comparing the past six years of the War of Resistance with the present situation, we can conclude that the bright future we pointed out in the past is now close to being realized. To sum up the 22 years of the Communist Party of China, we can compare the world during the First World War with the world during the Second World War, and compare China 22 years ago with China today.The conclusions drawn from this comparison will strengthen our confidence in a bright new world and a bright new China, and we will know which direction the world will develop, which direction China will develop, and whether the world will soon become Bright world, China will soon become a bright China.

First compare the two world wars.In the past 30 years, two wars of unprecedented scale have broken out in the world, which is the inevitable result of the development of the world economy.The First World War was correctly predicted by Lenin, and it was Stalin who predicted the Second World War. Their correct prediction proved that Marxism-Leninism is the true scientific truth. The First World War was an unjust war and an imperialist war.At that time there was only one Bolshevik party in Russia and a small number of real communists in other countries. At that time, the leaders of the social democratic parties in all countries were in favor of imperialist war, and the vast majority of their party members were not enlightened.This was the situation thirty years ago.

During the Second World War, the face of the world changed completely. Among the anti-fascist allies were socialist countries, capitalist countries, and colonial and semi-colonial countries. The Communist Parties of these countries all participated in this anti-fascist war. This is a just war. It was only in the third year after the outbreak of the First World War that the Bolshevik Party in Russia established the socialist state—the Soviet Union. It took only more than twenty years, and now it has become the protagonist of the human anti-fascist war all over the world.Without the Soviet Red Army, the Soviet people, and the Soviet leader Stalin, without the Battle of Stalingrad, the fate of mankind would still be uncertain.With a Bolshevik party led by Lenin and Stalin, the old Russia became the socialist Soviet Union through revolution.The existence of this piece of territory of a socialist country in the world will affect the whole world, and now it has become the protagonist of the human anti-fascist war all over the world.

As far as the communist movement in the world is concerned, after the victory of the October Revolution in 1917, the Communist International was established in 1919, so in the East, the Communist Party of China was established in 1921, and the Communist Party of Japan in 1921. The Communist Party of India was formed in 1920.Our Chinese Communist Party held its first congress twenty-two years ago, and there were only twelve representatives present, but now it has become such a big political party. In the twenty-two years it has experienced, the Chinese Communist Party has carried out three major revolutionary movements, the third of which is to unite the people of the whole country to organize a united front and concentrate its forces against the Japanese invaders.Now we are by no means just an isolated party, but the people of the whole country and the world join us in opposing fascism, and the Communist Parties of other countries join us in opposing Japanese imperialism.The Japanese bandit leader Tojo [5] likes to talk about "one billion people", but the one billion people are 450 million people in China, 400 million people in India, 100 million people in Southeast Asia, Japan, North Korea, etc. And the 10 million people in Taiwan[6] are actually against Japanese fascism.

Compared with China during the First World War, China today has also undergone great changes.At that time, there was no Communist Party in China, and the people were not awakened to such a degree that they could not distinguish between good and bad foreigners, and did not know how to divide foreigners into imperialists and kind-hearted workers and peasants.At that time, Marxism had already been born for 70 years, but ordinary people in China didn’t know it. When teachers in schools taught philosophy, economics, and sociology, they often didn’t even know Marx’s name.At that time, China already had the old democratic culture, but not the new democratic culture, new democratic literature and art, and even vernacular Chinese was not recognized at that time.In the First World War, China was also one of the countries participating in the war, but it only helped the imperialists, but its semi-colonial status not only did not change, but deepened.

Today's China is the China of the Anti-Japanese War, and the people are awakened to join the anti-fascist international front to fight against fascism.With the Communist Party, cultural progress has also been made.We often take the many progressive things in front of us as commonplace, but in fact, compared with the past, it is a big change like a change of dynasty. It can be seen from this that not only have fundamental changes occurred in the past six years on the issue of the War of Resistance, but there are also two fundamentally different scenarios for the world and China around thirty years ago, which are earth-shaking and great progress.This kind of progress is created by human beings with their own hands.This anti-fascist war will inevitably create a more progressive world and a more progressive China.Fascism wants to pull the world back, but that won't work.Moving forward, this is our general direction.

With the general direction also need to have a policy.Our policy can be divided into two parts: the whole country, the Shensi-Kansu-Ningxia Border Region and the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy lines.With regard to national policies, in the forthcoming Declaration of the Central Committee of our Party to Commemorate the Sixth Anniversary of the War of Resistance[7], four suggestions are proposed to the government, namely, "strengthen combat operations," "strengthen unity," "reform politics," and "develop production." ".As for what to do after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the "July 7th" Declaration[8] issued by the Central Committee of our party last year has made it very clear that after the war we hope to continue to cooperate with all parties and factions to jointly build the country.

Our country's war of resistance now has two battlefields, the front and the enemy's rear. The struggle in the enemy's rear is very cruel. Our Communist Party has made great efforts there. Over the past few years, we have created many new things, such as anti-"sweeping" and "anti-" Encroachment", streamlining the army and streamlining administration, supporting the government and loving the people, supporting the army, the production movement, rectifying the three winds, and so on.For other areas, when we see any shortcomings, we can only make suggestions, but this is not the case in the border areas and the enemy's rear. We can correct them by ourselves, so we should do our work better.

Our party's policies in the enemy's rear and border areas during the six years of the War of Resistance can be summarized in two periods. a year and a half. In the first period, the party focused on the following issues: how to form the anti-Japanese national united front, how to mobilize the masses, how to resist the Japanese strategic offensive with friendly forces, how to create anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines, and formulate various policies such as land policies, labor policies, "three-three systems" [9] policies, and so on.These were issues that urgently needed to be addressed at that time.In the last year and a half of these four and a half years, I was forced to deal with two major frictions launched by anti-communist elements. In the second period, that is, in the last year and a half, in addition to continuing to carry out the above-mentioned tasks, we also carried out campaigns to rectify the three styles, streamline the army and streamline administration, support the government, love the people, and support the army.The rectification of the Three Styles has ensured the ideological and political unity of the Party and the purity of the Party's organizational components.These tasks must continue unremittingly in order to ensure victory in the War of Resistance.Everything is to defeat the enemy, to overcome the current difficulties, and to welcome the bright future. According to the "Liberation Daily" published on July 3, 1943. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the cadre party commemorating the 22nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 6th anniversary of the Anti-Japanese War held by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. [2] On July 17, 1942, the German aggressor army began to storm Stalingrad (now Volgograd), using a total of more than 1.5 million troops in an attempt to occupy the city.The Soviet army successively fought hard with the masses of the people with the strength of the three front armies, and wiped out a large number of enemies in tenacious defensive battles.On November 19, it turned into a counter-offensive, and on the 23rd it surrounded 330,000 German troops.On February 2, 1943, all the surrounded German troops were wiped out.Since then, the German army was forced to stop its strategic offensive, and the Soviet army turned to a strategic counteroffensive. [3] Allies refer to China, the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and other countries that fought against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II. [4] For the second front in Europe, see note [3] on page 7 of this volume. [5] Tojo, that is, Tojo Hideki, was the Prime Minister of the Japanese Cabinet at that time. [6] Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China's territory since ancient times.On April 17, 1895, Japanese imperialism forced the Qing government to sign the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" and occupied Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.After Japan surrendered in 1945, the then Chinese government held a surrender ceremony in Taipei on October 25 in accordance with the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, announcing that "from today, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands officially re-entered the territory of China". [7] The "Commemorative Declaration of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for the Sixth Anniversary of the Anti-Japanese War" was published in the "Liberation Daily" on July 2, 1943.See pages 36-47 of this volume. [8] Refers to the "Declaration of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Commemoration of the Fifth Anniversary of the War of Resistance Against Japan" on July 7, 1942. [9] "Three-Three System", see note [8] on page 25 of this volume.