Chapter 22 21. The development and significance of propaganda, education and cultural undertakings in the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base areas

The party's propaganda and education work has made important contributions to spreading Marxism and promoting the development of the Chinese revolution.During the course of the Northwest Revolution, the Party organizations at all levels and the main leaders of the Northwest Revolution paid close attention to the propaganda and cultural work.As early as when Liu Zhidan was engaged in the establishment of the revolutionary base in Longdong, Gansu Province, he wrote the libretto "exorbitant taxation, the government forces the people to rebel; everyone rises up and implements communism" to teach the folk artists to propagate the revolution. He traveled all over the Longdong area and did a powerful propaganda and agitation work for the establishment of a revolutionary base later.The Shaanxi-Gansu Border Revolutionary Base Areas in the Shaanxi-Gansu Bianzhaojin Revolutionary Base Area and the Nanliang Revolutionary Base Area have been actively committed to propaganda, education and cultural work in different periods, using the party's propaganda work to educate and guide the masses, disseminating and popularizing Marxism and the party's program , line, principles, and policies have raised the people's ideological awareness and political level, and mobilized the enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people to implement the party's line, principles, and policies. All played an important role, and did important mass mobilization work for the construction of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.

The propaganda work of the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army guerrillas in Zhaojin and other places has made important contributions to raising the awareness of the masses, establishing the party's mass foundation there, and creating mature conditions for opening up Zhaojin base areas. After the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army guerrillas occupied Longjiazhai in 1932, they concentrated in Zhaojin and Xiangshan areas. "At that time, army cadres and soldiers went door to door to the homes of the masses, held heart-to-heart talks, inspired class consciousness, publicized the agrarian revolution and the Soviet movement, organized food distribution struggles, and won the enthusiastic support of the masses... Li Miaozai was originally a guerrilla member of the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army. The political commissar of the brigade has rich work experience and is especially good at mass work. After the Battle of Miaowan, Liu Zhidan sent him to Yuyuan for the long-term goal of establishing a base area to publicize and organize mass work. Li Miaozai lived up to expectations. The work has finally taken root in the taro garden and established the party's mass foundation in the taro garden. In this way, the conditions for opening up the Zhaojin base area are becoming more and more mature." In the process of establishing and consolidating the Zhaojin revolutionary base area, the people and farmers in the Zhaojin area The guerrillas closely cooperated with the main Red Army and made important contributions. "More than 30 outstanding children joined the main Red Army, and more than a hundred passionate men and healthy women joined the local guerrillas. Many of them were defending the base areas. The people of Zhaojin also actively carried out support activities. The men transported food and grass, built fortifications, and built battlements for the troops day and night, and the women worked hard to make military shoes, grind Flour milling, cooking and laundry.” The masses of the people made important contributions to the establishment and consolidation of the Shaanxi-Gansu Bianzhaojin Revolutionary Base Area, among which the party’s propaganda and education work played a significant role.

The Nanliang Revolutionary Base attaches great importance to carrying out propaganda work. Through the party's propaganda work, it educates and guides the masses, inspires their consciousness, and consolidates the revolutionary foundation of the red regime. The Shaanxi-Gansu Border Party organizations and the government regard carrying out publicity and education work among the masses as an important task of organizing the masses. It is proposed in the article: "In the process of profound propaganda and agitation, a federation of victims of disasters must be organized, and the leadership of the proletariat must be guaranteed. ... The comrades of the local party and the masses must conduct profound propaganda and agitation for the women masses, so as to organize laundry teams supporting the Red Army. , condolence team, and sewing team." The attention and investment of the party, government, cadres and the masses in the Shaanxi-Gansu border base area to publicity and education work have promoted the construction and development of the base area.

First of all, the propaganda and education work played an active role in mobilizing the masses to participate in the revolution and cooperate with the military struggle, and created conditions for the construction of the Nanliang Revolutionary Base.Before the establishment of the Nanliang Soviet government, the revolutionary cadres of the Red Army went deep into Daochuan in the Nanliang area to publicize the truth of the revolution and the great situation of the revolution in the southern Soviet area. The class consciousness and revolutionary thinking of the broad masses of peasants.On the basis of farmers demanding to get rid of class oppression and exploitation, they led the villages in Nanliang to organize farmers' federations and form Red Guards to create conditions for the establishment of political power.

The leaders of the base areas personally participated in the propaganda and education work, closely combined the work of publicizing the masses, organizing the masses, and arming the masses, effectively playing the role of propaganda and education work, and promoting the development of revolutionary work.On the basis of military struggles, Xi Zhongxun, Zhang Xiushan, Zhang Ce, etc. went to the Nanliang area to actively carry out party, government, and military work, and even went door-to-door to carry out propaganda and organizational work. and other mass organizations, and on the basis of publicizing, organizing and arming the masses, successively established the Baimamiaochuan, Yuhuangmiaochuan, Xiaohegouchuan, Baozichuan, Erjiangchuan, Baoan Wubaochuan, Yizhengchuan, etc. Establish revolutionary committees at the district and township levels.Later, revolutionary committees at the county level such as Nanqu, Qingyang, and Chunyao, and Soviet governments at the county level such as Huachi were gradually established.All preparations have been made for the establishment of a revolutionary regime in the entire border region.

Using various forms to comprehensively carry out publicity and education work for the broad masses is an important experience in the brilliant achievements of the propaganda work in the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base areas.After the establishment of the Nanliang government, a special cultural committee was established, with Cai Ziwei as the chairman of the cultural committee.Every traditional festival or to celebrate the victory of the battle, the Cultural Committee makes full use of Pingliang tunes, old Longdong tunes, Longdong Daoqing, Allegro and other literary forms to organize military and civilian performances to promote the revolution.In addition, the Soviet government also organized a propaganda team to visit villages and households to publicize the party’s policies in a form that people liked to hear and see, such as teaching and singing revolutionary songs to the people in Liyuanbao, “The poor people have one heart, follow the Red Army to make revolution, beat the local tyrants and divide the land, and the poor Can live a good life, hey hey huh hey, the poor can live a good life", publicize the root cause of the suffering of the poor, raise the ideological awareness of the masses, and mobilize them to participate in the revolution.Doing a good job in women's publicity and education is an important measure for the Nanliang Revolutionary Base to carry out this work in depth.Zhang Jingwen, the first women's chairman of the Nanliang Soviet government, actively participated in the party's propaganda and education work.She personally composed and sang to encourage women's liberation, participated in the revolutionary Xintianyou "Women and women let their feet go, their long hair is cut into short hair caps, men are promoted as Red Army women, and the revolutionary forces are boundless", leading the development of women's work, publicizing the freedom of marriage, and promoting women's freedom. Put your feet up and mobilize women to go out of the house to participate in production and work.Under her influence, many girls, mothers-in-law and aunts went out of their homes to participate in revolutionary work.

The leaders of the Party at all levels and the revolutionary base areas in the Northwest paid close attention to the education work in the army during the revolutionary activities in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Area. The Ganbian District Party Tasks clearly stated: "To expand the army, the army must be consolidated. Apart from strengthening the party's leadership, the most important way to consolidate the army is to step up education and training. In the future, the political personnel of each company will, on the one hand, follow the political In addition, it is necessary to organize Lenin rooms, literacy classes, political research associations, etc. to improve the political level of soldiers. At the same time, the Special Committee instructs the Revolutionary Committee to open military and political schools in the rear to train a large number of military and political cadres. It is most urgent in the process of expanding the army to carry out guerrilla campaigns."

The leaders of the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base area have a deep understanding of the role of military education in expanding and consolidating the army and defending the revolutionary base area, and they have personally participated in military education activities, thus favorably promoting the development of military education in the base area in the harsh war environment . After the establishment of the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army in January 1932, Liu Zhidan opened a training class for military and political cadres in the army. In 1933, he founded the accompanying school, not only learning military knowledge, but also literacy. In March 1934, after the establishment of the Nanliang Soviet Government, the camp school was reorganized in Nanliang as the Red Army Cadre School. During the campaign, it paid close attention to the education work in the army. In July 1934, the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee of the Communist Party of China formulated The Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee on the Current Political Situation and the Party's Tasks in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region clearly pointed out: "To expand the army, the army must be consolidated. In addition to strengthening the party's leadership, the most important way to consolidate the army is to intensify education and training. In the future, the political personnel of each company will be educated according to the political curriculum on the one hand, and must organize Lenin rooms, literacy classes, and political research associations to improve the political level of the soldiers. Training a large number of military and political cadres is the most urgent task in the current process of expanding the army to carry out guerrilla campaigns."

The leaders of the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base area have a deep understanding of the role of military education in expanding and consolidating the army and defending the revolutionary base area, and they have personally participated in military education activities, thus favorably promoting the development of military education in the base area in the harsh war environment . After the establishment of the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army in January 1932, Liu Zhidan opened a training class for military and political cadres in the army. In 1933, he founded the accompanying school, not only learning military knowledge, but also literacy. In March 1934, after the establishment of the Nanliang Soviet Government, the accompanying school was reorganized in Nanliang as the Red Army Cadre School. Later, the school moved to the Wuya Temple in Zhangcha, Baozichuan, and was renamed "Military and Political Cadre School in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region" to become a school A military and political school for training Red Army cadres and local cadres.Liu Zhidan concurrently served as the principal, Xi Zhongxun concurrently served as the political commissar, Wu Daifeng served as the vice-principal in charge of daily work, and Ma Wenrui and Cai Ziwei served as teachers.The school’s “houses are all earth cave dwellings, some of which were dug by the students themselves after the establishment of the cadre school. There are a small number of local cadres. There are no formal classrooms and teaching materials. Each person is given a pencil and a bit of hemp paper. The teacher speaks on the stage or writes on the blackboard, and the students take notes. Life in the cadre school is also very simple. The staple food is yellow rice. There are few vegetables and rice, but mutton is often eaten, and everyone calls it 'yellow rice stick rotten mutton', and life is very happy."The school offers courses in politics, military affairs, Chinese, and regime building.At that time, military courses were taught by Liu Zhidan himself, which effectively improved the students' military literacy and knowledge about guerrilla warfare.Wu Daifeng, Ma Wenrui, and Cai Ziwei taught courses in politics, Chinese, and political power construction respectively.The school has run three phases, the first phase is one month, the second phase is more than 70 days, and the third phase is three months. A total of 322 military and political cadres were trained and assigned to work in the Red Army, guerrillas, Red Guards, and border government. , have become the backbone of the Shaanxi-Gansu Red Army and the Nanliang base areas, effectively strengthening the army and consolidating the political power building in the base areas.

Propaganda and education work in the army has played an important role in further arming the army with Marxist ideology.The troops in the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base areas have incorporated some local armed forces, and it is very important to educate them on Marxist ideology to transform these troops.In order to transform these troops, the leaders and soldiers of the Red Army have done a lot of ideological and political education work, giving them political lessons in a planned way, propagating Marxism-Leninism to them, explaining the principles of revolution and the prospect of victory of the revolution, and talking about the reactionary and traitorous behavior of the Kuomintang. .The propaganda and education work carried out in the army has played an important role in raising the consciousness of these troops and strengthening their positions.

While promulgating political, military, and economic policies and decrees, the party, government, and military organizations in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Soviet Area also issued cultural policies and decrees, clearly stipulating the intellectual policy and cultural and educational policies implemented in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Soviet Area, pointing out that All politically clear intellectuals were trusted and assigned appropriate jobs, and it was clarified that the cultural and educational policies in the border areas were mainly to set up Lenin primary schools and promote the education of rural teenagers. The importance attached by the leaders of the base areas is an important reason for the steady development of general education and mass education in the base areas represented by Lenin Primary School.In fact, as early as the establishment of the Shaanxi-Gansu Frontier Revolutionary Committee in Nanliang, the leaders of the base area focused on the training of the next generation and promoted the work of mass education in order to meet the needs of the revolutionary struggle.Liu Zhidan brilliantly discussed the importance of instructions, summed up the significance of knowledge for social development from the historical development trajectory, and pointed out: "Without knowledge, bigger mistakes will be made. Peasant uprisings always fail in history." become ignorant and narrow-minded."In order to run general education well, the Border Region Government appointed Comrade Cai Ziwei, Chairman of the Cultural Committee, to be responsible for the preparation of the Red School in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Base Area - Lenin Primary School.Liu Zhidan, Xi Zhongxun, Cai Ziwei and other base leaders not only set an example, visited the school to give lectures and reports, spread revolutionary ideas, publicized the struggle situation, but also cared about the specific construction work of the school.At that time, the school was short of teaching supplies such as pens, inks, and paper. Liu Zhidan took out 30 yuan from the funds of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Military Commission and donated it to Lenin Primary School. Xi Zhongxun also took out pens, inks, The paper is sent to the school to solve the needs of school teaching.With the efforts of Huo Jiande, Gao Minzhen, Hu Zhaoyang, Zhang Jingwen and other school leaders and teachers, Lenin Primary School has made great progress with the strong support of the main leaders of the Nanliang Revolutionary Base and the masses. He made blackboards, compiled textbooks, and offered courses in Mandarin, arithmetic, physical education, and singing.The number of students in the school increased from more than 10 in March 1934 to more than 60 in the spring of 1935.During the 15 years from March 1934 to September 1949 before the founding of New China, this junior primary school with glorious revolutionary history and traditions trained more than 210 graduates, who contributed to the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation and the founding of New China. The subsequent construction has cultivated useful talents. As an educational institution in the base area, Lenin Primary School organically combined the teaching of students' knowledge with the propaganda of the revolution, and closely unified the training of students with the awakening of the revolutionary consciousness of the masses.The school taught the students "Who is Marx? He is the leader of the world revolution. He led the revolution of the poor all his life, and also pointed out the methods of the revolution for the poor", "Marx and Engels, the two mentors of the world revolution", "Take Such content as "killing the gentry with swords and shooting the white army with guns" not only imparted knowledge, but also disseminated revolutionary knowledge and cultivated students' revolutionary emotions.Lenin Primary School adapted to the needs of the wartime environment and added military courses to the teaching content in order to cultivate students' military ability to defend the achievements of the revolution.Holding red-tasseled spears and wooden broadswords, the students practiced martial arts and fought, which cultivated their tenacious and brave revolutionary spirit and their ambition to join the Red Army when they grow up.In addition to teaching students culture, the school also led them to participate in labor, went deep into the masses, and publicized revolutionary principles such as "starting a revolution, fighting the country, turning the poor and poor, if you want to cut out the roots of poverty, keep up with the Red Army and go to the front" , Encourage the masses to participate in the revolution, defend and build the Northwest Revolutionary Base.After the establishment of the first Lenin Primary School, other townships and villages in the Shaanxi-Gansu Revolutionary Base Area also successively established Lenin Primary Schools according to their own specific conditions, which promoted the development of general education in the base areas and spread revolutionary ideas and advanced cultural knowledge well.In order to comprehensively improve the cultural level of the people in the Northwest revolutionary base areas, the party and the government of the base areas attach great importance to the development of adult education, and further improve the revolutionary enthusiasm of the people in the base areas through propaganda and education.In order to improve the cultural level of the masses, adult literacy classes have been set up in various places in the base area to carry out activities to eradicate illiteracy.For example, various districts in Huachi County also carried out the "Lenin Cultural Movement" and set up 16 literacy and literacy classes and evening schools in Nanliang, Liuping, Baimamiao, Rouyuan and other places.In terms of teaching content, on the basis of literacy, adult education has successively added content such as dictation, singing, current affairs, and hygiene.These measures enabled farmers and soldiers to master more cultural knowledge to the greatest extent, and vigorously developed revolutionary education. Promoting the party's propaganda work through the publication of red publications not only reflects the importance that the leaders of the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base areas attach to the use of new media to carry out propaganda and education work, but also reflects that the special committee and government of the Shaanxi-Gansu border region can use new media to create a propaganda culture with ease The new situation of the work also shows that the cultural construction work of the base area, and even the entire construction of the base area has entered a new stage of prosperity.In order to publicize the party's principles and policies, unite, educate and motivate the people, the Soviet government of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region founded "Red Northwest" in Liyuanbao, Nanliang Base in 1934. On January 20, 1935, the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Liang founded the party publication "The Life of the Bolsheviks"."Red Northwest", which was edited by Gong Fengchun, director of the Propaganda Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee of the Communist Party of China, was overprinted with black, red, and blue inks.As the official newspaper of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Soviet Government of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region, "Red Northwest" mainly publishes news about politics, economy, military affairs, and cultural development in the revolutionary base areas of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region. Some resolutions and publicity and calling documents of the leading organs of the Shaanxi-Gansu border party, government and army have effectively coordinated and promoted various struggles and constructions in the Shaanxi-Gansu border base areas.For the publication of "Red Northwest", the leaders of the base area devoted their efforts. Liu Zhidan, Xi Zhongxun, Hui Zijun, Cai Ziwei and other leaders of the party, government and army in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region often wrote articles for "Red Northwest". They also sent people to try to get mimeographs and The glossy paper, stencil and ink of better quality ensured the printing quality of the publication, making this publication popular among party and government workers, Red Army commanders and people in the base areas.The attention of the leaders and the achievements of the construction of the base have jointly promoted the development and prosperity of cultural undertakings. The development of cultural publishing in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region has further promoted the party's propaganda.As the purpose of "The Life of Bolshevik" says, "In order to unite the broad masses of Party members with a solid grasp of Marxism-Leninism, to strengthen the Party's fighting strength, ... to raise the political level of each Party member, to convey the Party's experience and lessons, and to exchange the Party's work methods, and to convey all the news of political and mass struggles, so as to arouse the enthusiasm of the party members in their work", "to lead the struggle of millions of toiling masses bravely, and to win the final victory of the Soviet revolution in the Northwest and even in the whole of China", the special committee of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region The original intention of the committee and the government to create revolutionary publications is to use them to promote Marxism and improve the political level and work ability of party members through party publications.These publications have played an important role in better prospering the Party's propaganda cause in the Northwest Revolutionary Base Area.