Chapter 72 Speech at the Memorial Conference for the Martyrs of the Chinese Revolution

(June 17, 1945) Comrades: Today, representatives of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China and representatives of the people of Yan'an jointly held a memorial meeting here to commemorate those who have been sacrificed by the Chinese revolutionary team on various fronts for decades.These victims included hundreds of thousands of Communists and millions of revolutionary democrats.Among them, there are comrades who are engaged in military work, comrades who are involved in various popular movements, comrades who are engaged in government work, comrades who are engaged in party affairs, and comrades who are engaged in technical work. , fighters, workers, peasants.This is how two groups of people, Communists and revolutionary democrats, unite to fight our enemies.This is how a two-part team started out small, then slowly developed, and is now quite large.The line, principles, policies, and methods at the beginning all have only one direction. As for how to make it better and more correct, it was obtained through long-term struggle, and it was obtained from hundreds of thousands of Communist Party members and millions of revolutionaries. gained at the bloodshed of the people.This time we held the Seventh National Congress, and the Communist Party of China formulated a set of lines, programs, and policies for building an independent, free, democratic, unified, prosperous and strong new China.Where did these things come from? They were not conceived and invented from the minds of a few individuals, but the result of decades of hard work and experience gained by hundreds of millions of Chinese people under the leadership of their vanguard, the Communist Party of China. Only then did the resolutions and documents of our current Seventh National Congress come into being.

China has two great enemies, two great mountains oppressing our 450 million people, one is imperialism, the other is feudalism, foreign oppression and Chinese oppression oppress our 450 million people Not being able to hold our heads up and ruining our productivity.The productive forces of the Chinese people should be developed, and China should develop into a modernized country, a country with ample food and clothing, and a prosperous and strong country.This will liberate productive forces and destroy imperialism and feudalism.It is imperialism and feudalism that fetter the productive forces of the Chinese people. If they are not destroyed, China will not be able to develop and progress, and China will be in danger of extinction.Imperialism began to invade China a hundred years ago.Now we have been fighting the war with Japanese imperialism for eight years. If we count from the September 18th Incident, it has been more than ten years. Japanese imperialism is our first great enemy.The reactionaries in China are actually cooperating with the Japanese aggressors to oppress the Chinese people.These reactionary forces are still very large. They oppress the entire Chinese people, restrain the productive forces of the Chinese people, and prevent them from developing.What is the revolution? It is to break through this pressure, liberate the productive forces of the Chinese people, liberate the Chinese people, and make them free.Therefore, the independence of the country should be sought first, followed by democracy.Without these two things, China cannot be unified and prosperous.If there is no independence, it will still be oppressed by imperialism; if there is no democracy, it will still be oppressed by feudal forces. Then what kind of unity is there? There are democrats and reactionaries in the Kuomintang, and the reactionaries of the Kuomintang are now in power. The unification of China means to make China continue to be a colony and semi-colonial of imperialism and a country ruled by the feudal system, without independence or democracy, so that the productive forces of the Chinese people cannot be liberated.Our present war of resistance has not yet been won, and we still have to work hard, and we must unite the people of the whole country and make great efforts to defeat our enemy.But the first thing that hinders our unity is the Kuomintang reactionaries.

The struggle of the Chinese people against imperialism and feudalism has gone through several stages.Before the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there was the Guangdong Pingying Regiment that opposed the British aggression. After that, there was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution, the Boxer Movement, the 1911 Revolution, and the May 4th Movement. All of these were mass-nationalist and democratic in nature. .The goals of these movements are the same as ours in demanding independence and democracy.There has been no Communist Party in these decades of struggles, which have been led by other groups and parties.Because without the Communist Party, the Chinese people do not have a thorough revolutionary program that can represent their interests, and there is no correct leader who will unwaveringly and consistently lead them in struggle.The Kuomintang has changed. The Kuomintang during the Sun Yat-sen period is different from the Kuomintang during the Chiang Kai-shek period. The former was a Kuomintang that pursued the revolutionary Three People's Principles, while the latter was a regressive and reactionary Kuomintang.The Communist Party of China has never wavered in the revolution, and only the Communist Party can be unwavering and carry on with it thoroughly, not afraid of how many people will die, and not afraid of sacrifice.From the 1841 Pingying Regiment's uprising against British imperialism in Guangdong to 1945 has a history of 104 years. During these 104 years, more Chinese were killed. How many there are, and how many are being imprisoned, it is impossible to count.In the twenty-four years since the founding of the Communist Party in China, hundreds of thousands of Communists alone have died, and millions of revolutionary democrats have died along with us in opposing foreign and Chinese counter-revolutionary forces.In order to destroy the revolutionary forces, the reactionaries resorted to killing people, thinking that the massacre would make the revolutionaries retreat and stop or shrink the revolutionary movement in China.They think so, and they do so.But everything is contrary to their subjective wishes. The fact is that the more they kill people, the bigger the development of the revolutionary ranks.I say this is proportional, a law, an irresistible law.The hope and attempt of the reactionaries is that the more they kill, the smaller the revolutionary ranks will be, but hope and result are two different things.

The law mentioned above can also be proved from the history of the Kuomintang.The Qing Dynasty and foreign imperialism once oppressed the Kuomintang. Did the oppression of the Kuomintang become smaller or larger? In the end, the Revolution of 1911 broke out and overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty.The Kuomintang dealt with the Chinese people in the same way that the imperialist and feudal forces used to deal with them, oppressing the Communist Party, workers, peasants, and revolutionary intellectuals.I said they were wrong! The more their teams drove, the smaller they would get themselves and the bigger our team would be.This is a conclusion we have drawn from decades of history.Japanese imperialism killed a lot of people, did it kill more and more? Hitler also killed a lot of people, did he kill more and more? It doesn’t matter whether it is Chinese or foreign reactionaries, as long as they kill more and more more, the less their own power will be, and the greater the power of the revolution will be.

The party we are building is the Communist Party of the East, and the team we are building is the team of the Eastern people's revolution, and we are fighting bravely.It is impossible to use killing and oppression to shrink us and eliminate us.Hundreds of thousands of communists and millions of revolutionary democrats were massacred, but our ranks had hundreds of thousands and millions more rising up and continuing to fight.Let’s take the three periods of the Communist Party of China as an example. In the first period, we grew to more than 50,000 party members and were scattered, leaving very few. In the second period, we developed to 300,000 party members and were dispersed again. There were a lot, and there were very few left; by the time of the War of Resistance Against Japan, we had grown to more than 1.2 million party members.As for the army, comrades all know that there was no Red Army in Chinese history. If there was one, Zhu Hongwu[1] in the Ming Dynasty raised a "Red Army". The flag they flew was the red flag.Some people think that the name "Red Army" must have come from a foreign country, but I don't think so, because you only know things about foreign countries, and you don't know about things about your Chinese ancestors.After 1927, the Kuomintang reactionaries oppressed and massacred the people, and China produced the Red Army.This Red Army was under the leadership of the advanced party and started with a small number.I often tell some comrades: "The beginning of the work is simple, and the end must be great." This is what is said in ancient books [2]. "Zuoshi" means the beginning, "Jian" means few and brief, "Jianbi" means the end, and "Ju" means huge and great.This can be used to explain something that is alive, a country that is alive, people who are alive, and a political party that is alive.Is the Chinese revolutionary force now "giant"? In 1841, the Guangdong Pingying Regiment had tens of thousands of people. Their slogan was to oppose British aggression, but people at that time did not expect their descendants , What will happen to their descendants in the future.Sun Yat-sen launched the Revolution of 1911, but he did not expect the May 4th Movement, nor did he expect the Communist Party to emerge.Our predecessors did not expect that such a major historical event as the October Socialist Revolution would take place in the world, nor did they expect that China would progress to a team led by the Communist Party to carry out the New Democratic Revolution. At the same time, they did not expect the Chinese Revolution It will be so long and there is no victory.At that time, they had only begun to resist the enemy's oppression. As for what happened next, I think they hadn't matured yet.Unlike the Seventh National Congress we are holding now, we have summarized historical experience and have a clear understanding of the current situation and future, so we have solid confidence.Our predecessors did not expect this, and we cannot blame them. They did not have revolutionary social sciences and Marxist armed minds at that time.We are people who arm our minds with scientific socialism and see clearly the future of society. We are more advanced than them, and we want to complete what they have not done.Our public sacrifice today can be traced back to the heroes of the Pingying Regiment in 1841, and we also commemorate them.The anti-British struggle of the Pingying Regiment and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement were all heroic struggles.The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of peasants. They fought for thirteen years. When the city of Nanjing was finally captured by the Qing soldiers, none of them surrendered. They were all set on fire and burned to death.They have failed, but they are unyielding failures, and it is impossible for anyone to submit to them.The Pingyingtuan is gone now, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is gone, and the Boxer Regiment is gone.But after the Pingyingtuan, there was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, there was the Boxer Rebellion, after the Boxer Rebellion, there was the Revolution of 1911, and after the Revolution of 1911, there was the Communist Party, so there was the Northern Expedition, the Agrarian Revolution, and the War of Resistance Against Japan.This or that part of the revolutionary force may be wiped out. If it is not done well, it will be wiped out by the enemy, massacred by the enemy, or even hundreds of thousands of people will be wiped out by them, but then more people will join our ranks .I have seen such families, comrades must have seen many such families, the reactionaries killed the father, his sons, three or four, or even seven or eight, and daughters, all joined the Communist Party, all ran to Yan'an is here.Therefore, the more the reactionaries kill, the larger the revolutionary ranks will be.

We hold a conference today, and we are confident.The martyrs have left us, and their responsibility has been handed over to us, and we must fulfill this responsibility.Comrades, the period when we are fighting against martyrs and martyrs is different now. In two to three years, China will undergo changes, either for the worse or for the better. In short, there will be changes.Japanese imperialism will be overthrown.After Japanese imperialism was overthrown, the Chinese and foreign reactionaries wanted to overthrow us, overthrow the Chinese people, and were determined to wipe out all the democratic and revolutionary forces of the Chinese people.At that time or it was like this, the whole country was dark, and Yan'an was also dark. China seemed to have sunk into the sea, and the sun was not seen every day at night.This is a possibility.Or there is another possibility, another way, that is to suppress the dark forces and suppress the people who kill people with knives.When Chinese and foreign journalists came to Yan'an last year, they asked me some questions, including this issue.We are gentlemen who use our mouths but not our hands, but if someone kills with a knife and wants to kill us, we have a way to deal with it.I once told the liaison staff of the Kuomintang: We have a hundred guns, and you have the ability to hand over ninety-nine of them to us. I admire you because you can fight, but we can't.Ninety-nine of the hundred guns were confiscated by you, and we have one left. With this gun, we will continue to fight.There is only one gun left, you say surrender! We say no, the word "surrender" is not in our dictionary, it may be in your dictionary.

Comrades, the current international and domestic situation is very good.Our people, our friends, true democrats, and us communists need to know more about unity and better understand the Communist Party's line, principles, and policies.Once we understand the party's line, principles, and policies, we will be more united, and others will not be able to break us up.Comrades, please pay attention, they must fight in the future, because they are already prepared.Now, they are actually cooperating with the national enemy, Japanese imperialism, to eliminate the revolutionary forces of the Chinese people, and they want to eliminate all revolutionary forces.But the result will be like what I said in the closing speech of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the revolution must win, and China belongs to the Chinese people, not to the reactionaries.Americans who came to Yan’an asked me this question, and I said I would write you a check, and when you go back to the United States, you will still be these people when you meet again in the future, because China belongs to the people.This is a future.China belongs to the reactionaries, which is another kind of future.The policy currently being implemented by Hurley[3] of the U.S. government is reactionary and supports the Chinese reactionaries.Now that our party has a clear head and correct line, principles and policies, we will surely win.We have such confidence that we must remove the dark China from the earth and build a bright China.This bright China is the long-term goal of the martyrs. Although they died without success, they taught us lessons.Today we hold a memorial meeting to commemorate them, and the revolution has not yet succeeded, but tomorrow we will succeed.We are determined to turn China into the people's China, and we must defeat all foreign and Chinese reactionaries and all foreign and Chinese oppressors, and we will never rest until we defeat them.If our whole Party unites, the tens of millions of people in the Liberated Areas unite, and the revolutionary democrats in the Japanese-occupied areas and other areas unite, this goal will surely be achieved, and we will not stop until the goal is achieved!

Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Zhu Hongwu, that is, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398), was born in Zhongli, Haozhou (now east of Fengyang, Anhui), and the founder of the Ming Dynasty.In 1352, he joined Guo Zixing's uprising army.The uprising army was named after the red scarf Baotou and the red flag, so it was called the Red Scarf Army, also known as the Red Army or the Fragrant Army.In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, established his capital in Nanjing, the country name was Ming, and the reign name was Hongwu.In the same year, he conquered Dadu (now Beijing) and overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty.

[2] See "Zhuangzi Human World". [3] Hurley, then the US ambassador to China.